Zacualpa Ecatepec, Mexico

Dulce Santiz, 19, harvests mushrooms at her family home in Zacualpa Ecatepec, Mexico. Santiz typically waters them two times a day, depending on the weather, and her family sells them as a source of income.

Mexico City, Mexico

Abraham Mujica Barrera, a musician, volunteers to cut wood during construction of a public composter at an apartment complex in Mexico City. The project was developed by a community cultural collective that seeks to promote ecological awareness and enhance public spaces. “I believe it’s necessary to begin concerning ourselves more with these issues that involve us all,” Mujica Barrera says. “And the sooner we start to do it the better.”

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Elías Darinel Vázquez Ballinas reaches for a sunflower at a park in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico. Vázquez is a member of Plan Bioma, an organization that works with children and teenagers to plant gardens and grow food in the neighborhood.

Guerrero, Mexico

Luis Ángel Sánchez molds dough at a bakery in Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Guerrero, Mexico. Like many bakers in the region, Sánchez and his colleagues make bread by hand.

San Francisco, Mexico

Olga Maldonado performs aerial dance under a bridge in San Francisco, Nayarit, Mexico. Maldonado, who is from Venezuela, says she found refuge in the area during the coronavirus pandemic because local residents support the arts.

Mexico City, Mexico

Deia Vargas performs in “Our Lady of the Clouds,” a play presented by Colectivo Lado F Teatro at the Helénico Cultural Center in Mexico City. In the story, migrant women flee gender-based violence in their home countries and travel by train from the southern border of Mexico to the United States.

Chihuahua, Mexico

Sylvia Alonso Espinosa, an orthodontist, checks Lizeth Alejandra Hernández Enríquez’s teeth in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. Alonso says her workload decreased by 30% at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and several patients abandoned their treatments. “Now, because of vaccinations, we’ve started to see a more normal flow similar to what we had before the pandemic,” Alonso says.

San Francisco, Mexico

Uriel Rodríguez builds a palapa, a traditional palm-thatched shelter, in San Francisco, Nayarit, Mexico. Rodríguez says he and his neighbors learned the skills by helping each other build their homes.

Guerrero, Mexico

Delfina Álvarez Moreno, center, a delegate from the Reforma neighborhood in Tlapa de Comonfort participates in a pre-Hispanic ritual in San Miguel el Progreso, Malinaltepec, Guerrero, Mexico. Community leaders surround Álvarez at the event, titled “Women Community Leaders in the Exercising of Our Rights.”

Mexico City, Mexico

Personnel from the Ministry of National Defense raise the flag at Constitution Plaza in Mexico City. The ceremony has taken place every day since 1979, and more than 10 people must carry the flag, which weighs more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds).

Chilpancingo, Mexico

Mario Abel García Flores concentrates while drawing a portrait with pencil in the center of Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Mexico. Before the coronavirus pandemic, García also offered his services at festivals in other municipalities.

Mexico City, Mexico

Furby waits by the door of a cafe attached to an animal shelter in Mexico City. Ghislaine García, who owns the shelter and cafe, says, “The pandemic impacted us in both positive and negative ways. Some events where we receive food and support were canceled, but when we opened the cat cafe in the middle of the pandemic, people really showed solidarity with us. They’ve ordered food to go, and thanks to them we’ve been able to survive.”

San Francisco, Mexico

Karla Mora sells nitro coffee from her tricycle in San Francisco, Mexico. Mora, who avoids paying rent for her business, says, “There should be more independent projects because they don’t generate as much trash and you don’t spend on electricity. In the end, it’s sustainable – and it’s fun to be on the street.”

Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico

José Hernández varnishes a tin frame at his father’s shop in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico. The Hernández family uses traditional tools and innovative techniques to create objects from tin sheets. “Sometimes, we have to use our creativity to make our tools,” Hernández says.

Puebla, Mexico

Axin Mazatl, left, and Cozca Kuahutli sprinkle seeds into censers filled with burned copal tree resin at a ceremony at the Tepalcayotl pyramid in Puebla, Mexico. This traditional offering to Mother Earth is based on pre-Hispanic ancestral knowledge and is part of a movement to preserve cultural heritage.

Guerrero, Mexico

Nicole Andrea Hernández López, 15, right, paints the nails of María José López, 9, in Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Guerrero, Mexico. As part of her cognitive therapy, Nicole, who has Down syndrome, offers free manicures to develop motor skills and gain independence.

Puebla, Mexico

A cicada exoskeleton remains on a tree branch in San Gabriel Chilac, Puebla, Mexico. Depending on the species, cicadas can live from two to 17 years underground before emerging as adults.

Chihuahua, Mexico

From left, Uzziel Márquez, Rodrigo Cárdenas, Cristian Rodríguez and Roberto Rivero pull a fiber optic telecommunications cable in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. “This is the first day we’ve started to work since last year. I had to close my business,” Márquez says. “There was no work, and everything was suspended.”

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Elina Chauvet’s art installation, “Zapatos Rojos,” or “Red Shoes,” memorializes murdered women in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico. Chauvet started the project to increase awareness about violence against women.

Nayarit, Mexico

Ignacio de la Cruz adheres beads to wood shaped like a jaguar’s head in Sayulita, Nayarit, Mexico. Only around 5% of tourists pay a fair price without haggling for his products, de la Cruz says.

Nezahualcóyotl Mexico

Urban artist Alina Kiliwa writes on a wall as part of the national graffiti conference “Mujer Mexican Power” in Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico. “I like that the street is like an open-air museum, and that it’s not necessary to go inside of some separate place to see something,” Kiliwa says. “In your daily life, you can find art on the streets.”

Chihuahua, Mexico

Noel Romero Sierra, who has been a blacksmith for half of his life, welds a door in Chihuahua, Mexico. Romero says the coronavirus pandemic has not affected his work: “Those of us who’ve kept our jobs are on top of the world.”

Concepción Aguilar, a ceramic artist, paints a decorative piece in Ocotlán de Morelos, Mexico. Aguilar, unlike other clay artisans in the region, uses a large color palette instead of two or three colors.

Constitución Cintalapa, Mexico

Marcos Esteban Morales Santiago, 6, sifts bags of sand between playing games to help his father renovate their kitchen stove in Constitución, a town in Cintalapa, Mexico.