Global Press Journal Connections: The World in Photos

Humacao, Puerto Rico

Beachgoers stroll along the pier on the beach in the Humacao municipality of Puerto Rico. Behind them is a good view of Cayo Santiago, popularly known as Isla de los Monos, or Monkey Island.

Photo by Iris González Román

Mexico City, Mexico

Jairo Nol Vásquez replaces old water valves in northern Mexico City. The valve-changing work started in September 2018, a year after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Mexico City caused serious damage to the underground valves.

Photo by Mar García

Sololá, Guatemala

Andrés Iboy, 43, addresses a crowd to campaign for a third term as mayor and muster support for his party, Comité Cívico Sololatecos Unidos para el Desarrollo (SUD), in his municipality of Sololá, Guatemala. The country held general elections on June 16 and Iboy was not reelected, ending his eight-year mayoral term.

Photo by Brenda Leticia Saloj Chiyal

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Lora Elmise prepares peanuts to be processed into peanut butter in a winnowing basket, or laye in Haitian Creole, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Photo by Anne Myriam Bolivar

Mexico City, Mexico

Lucio Rodríguez, left, repairs a metal curtain with his son, Julio Antonio Rodríguez, at their shop in Mexico City, Mexico. Their business is located in the city’s Centro Histórico. Many small shops in the area use metal curtains at their entrances, so work is never scarce for the pair.

Photo by Mayela Sánchez

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Ricardo Victor, in all white, leads the Association des Majorettes during a parade through Carrefour, a commune in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Victor has been president of the majorettes’ association for 3 years. “My troupes are always invited to take part in parades just to get people in a festive mood. I’m passionate about using my baton to get my troupe to move and seeing the audience applaud during the performance,” Victor says.

Photo by Anne Myriam Bolivar

Mexico City, Mexico

Merol, 33, performs a free show for people who pass by Kiosko Morisco, a gazebo in Mexico City, Mexico. The participants get a balloon after tossing a cloth ring in the air for Merol to catch. Merol, who prefers his stage name, seeks to spark the interest of people walking past. “We want to tell children to have fun — to grow up well and happy,” Merol says.

Photo by Mar García

Loíza, Puerto Rico

Painter, sculptor and screen print artist Samuel Lind Hernández, 66, works in his art studio in Loíza, Puerto Rico. He stands behind his sculpture of Osain, a deity of wild plants, medicine and healing, according to the Yoruba religion. Lind Hernández’s sculpture represents the culture and tradition of the loiceños, as residents of Loíza are known.

Photo by Iris González Román

Mexico City, Mexico

Francisco Tecoatl, 40, performs a ritual cleansing with smoke and herbs in Mexico City’s Plazuela del Marqués. Tecoatl is a member of Calpulli Ze Mazatl, a civil society organization that preserves and promotes Aztec cultural traditions. Every Thursday to Sunday for the last 20 years, they have performed indigenous Aztec dances and rituals in alternating locations. After the dance ends, they offer cleansings to people passing by.

Photo by Mar García

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Benito Ruiz Alvarez, a traditional doctor, or “i´lol” in the Tsotstil language, performs a healing for Josefa López Santis in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a city in Mexico’s Chiapas state. Ruiz Alvarez uses prayers, plants, candles, stones, incense and a traditional drink called posh as part of the ceremony. The facility is owned by the Organización de Médicos Indígenas del Estado de Chiapas, an organization of doctors and midwives with Tsotsil ancestry who preserve medicinal traditions, including midwifery, botany and bone setting.

Photo by Adriana Alcázar González

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Yanine Santana, 20, works on a tattoo for Andrea Osorio, 25, at the second Expo Tatuaje Internacional, which took place from May 18-19 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas state, Mexico. Santana is known for using sustainable materials in her work as a tattoo artist. She was one of over 100 tattoo artists from all over the world who participated in the exposition.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

José Luis Flores Velasco, a physiotherapist, gives a massage to Mariana Cameras at an alternative medicine fair in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. Fair participants came to promote alternative therapies, like reiki, therapeutic massages, biomagnetism and magnets, and consuming natural products.

Photo by Adriana Alcázar González

Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala

Ericka Galizio, 36, shows off her juggling skills in the central park in Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala. Galizio, who is originally from Italy, travels around Guatemala and performs her juggling show on request, hoping to share her art and creative expression with women in the area.

Photo by Brenda Leticia Saloj Chiyal

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

Margarita Santiz, 23, makes a cushion cover at her home in Aldama, a municipality in Chiapas, Mexico. Due to an ongoing conflict between Aldama and the nearby Chenalhó municipality, Santiz’s family can no longer harvest coffee, their original livelihood. Now, Santiz, her mother, and her 11 siblings each make two cushion covers a week and sell them for 160 Mexican pesos ($8.48) a piece.

Photo by Mexican Family Makes Cushion Covers for Sale

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Members of the folk dance group, Mixcoacalli, perform at the annual Feria de la Primavera y de la Paz, or Spring and Peace Fair, at the Plaza 31 de Marzo, a park in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. Dancers in the group range from 13 to 18 years old.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Rie Watanabe (left), a Japanese violinist based in San Cristóbal de las Casas and Arabella Siles, a sound artist and therapist who uses gongs, bowls, drums and other instruments, perform their piece “Destejer El Silencio” at the Iglesia del Carmen, a church in San Cristóbal de las Casas. Siles read her own poetry while Watanabe played the violin. The performance took place during La Feria de la Primavera y de la Paz, or Spring and Peace Fair.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

Fermathe, Haiti

Carine Emile, a traditional healer in Fermathe, Haiti, treats Maxo Paulain, a mechanic, for stomach discomfort that he says occurred while he was lifting metal car parts. She prepares a combination of palma christi oil, laundry soap and a traditional Haitian rum called Clairin to rub onto Paulain’s body while saying prayers. Emile has been practicing as a traditional healer since she was 20 years old.

Photo by Marie Michelle Felicien

Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico

María Santiago González Pérez, 63, a midwife and healer, sits with her altar of the Virgin of Guadalupe, San Sebastián Mártir, in Zinacantán, a town in Mexico’s Chiapas state. It is popularly believed that González Pérez, who has been a dedicated midwife for 12 years, gained knowledge of the trade through dreams. She is also an artisan weaver and sells her handicrafts at home and in the esplanade of a church called the Iglesia de San Lorenzo.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Sarah Phinaely, 19, (left) applies makeup for Marie Léda Pétion, 15, before a dance performance in Carrefour, a commune of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Aside from dancing, Phinaely aspires to become a model and a professional makeup artist.

Photo by Anne Myriam Bolivar

Mexico City, Mexico

Actor and student Alejandro Garza, 22, rehearses his role in “Construyendo la Carne,” a play performed at the Centro Universitario de Teatro in Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. The play questions social constructs of gender and how they can be separated from the body. Garza plays the role of a drag artist and a transgender woman, among other characters.

Photo by Mayela Sánchez

Mexico City, Mexico

Antonio Álvarez, 16, portrays Jesus of Nazareth in a play performed by the group Víacrucis Santiago Iztacalco at Kiosco San Matías in Mexico City’s Iztacalco district. For the past 10 years, the group has put on almost 40 performances during Holy Week in public plazas all over the district. “It takes a lot of sacrifice, but it’s very nice,” Álvarez says of his role. “I wanted the role but didn’t think they’d give it to me. I was very scared. I even cried when I got it.”

Photo by Mar García

Mexico City, Mexico

Uriel Montiel, 12, helps his parents operate rental mechanical rides called “flying chairs” from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday at a religious fair at the Plaza de San Matías in Iztacalco, an administrative subdivision of Mexico City. People participating in the Catholic tradition of visiting seven churches during this time come to the plaza for food, pastries, games and rides. “I like to come because they let me get on the other games for free, but I don’t like the lack of sleep,” Uriel says.

Photo by Mar García

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Julio El Ahmed, 80, repairs a pot, a service offered by his family business which has existed in the same place in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina for 110 years. “I was born in this house. My father taught me the trade; I grew up with it as a child. I haven’t thought of retiring. I have a lot of love for this; I like the work—what I do,” El Ahmed says. With no one poised to take over the business as of now, El Ahmed says that its future is in the hands of fate.

Photo by Lucila Pellettieri

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

Roberto Santiz, 12, (left) and Carlos Pérez, 8, light fireworks during the celebration of Señor de Tila held in Aldama, a municipality in Mexico’s Chiapas state. The celebration usually involves a procession where a statue of the religious figure Virgen María Magdalena is taken to meet with other statues of saints around the area. The procession ends with fireworks as the statue is returned to its altar.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

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Humacao, Puerto Rico

Mexico City, Mexico

Sololá, Guatemala

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Mexico City, Mexico

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Mexico City, Mexico

Loíza, Puerto Rico

Mexico City, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Nebaj, Quiché, Guatemala

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Fermathe, Haiti

Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico