A photo of Ixtapaluca is being featured in a photo exhibition. The exhibition, which is now travelling the world, is put on by Instituto Cervantes (a Spanish institution with locations worldwide).
It’s called Resilencia (resiliance). Representative Oscar Pujol explains:
When we speak of Latin America, we think of stereotypes like folklore images, local customs and breathtaking landscapes. This exhibition seeks to distance itself from the cliches and common places in Latin America. The photographs are a commentary on certain contemporary realities in central America. [These photos] celebrate the resilience of the people and the land to withstand disasters, rise from the ashes and adapt continually to change.
You can read more about the exhibition, which is now in Delhi, India, in the article Images of Latin American sufferings in Delhi. The article says this about the Ixtapaluca photo: "Two Million Houses in Mexico" by Livia Corona is a visual report of the state of budget housing in Ixtapaluca, one of the fastest growing cities in eastern Mexico, marked by rows of single-storied low-cost concrete houses.
Hey, we live in one of those houses! 🙂
I tried to find a copy of the photo for you – I think this is it here, and here. This is part of a series by the Mexican photographer, which can be seen here.
The photo has been featured in other exhibitions and has also been published in a book about climate change by Al Gore.
By the way, here’s a video by the same photographer. This must be recent video of a housing development around Mexico City (on closer examination, I think this is San Buenaventura, Ixtapaluca, a nearby housing development – which I think is the same place you see in the photo). It looks kind of like where we live, except it seems a little too neat and a lot too quiet!
However, it will give you an idea what it’s lke around here. It features a man driving around selling bread (using a loudspeaker on his car). I don’t know if he sold any, but imagine how much he would make in a day doing this even if he sold some (a few dollars on a good day?).
It’s a long video, but if you want to stick it out watch for common things like speed bumps, a police car (parked), a man with a soccer ball, little stores, other noises (although, again, it’s pretty quiet here!), mountains, graffiti, a school zone, and a playground.
Once in a while I share links related to Mexico in my Google Reader shared items. A couple of other articles you might be interested in: Mexico: safer than Canada and Mexico celebrates its unique street sounds this week.
