Fifth abandoned photo: Huichol woman carrying bags

Huichol woman carrying bags, released on the streets: 11/11/2011.

Size: 24 x 30 cm

Frame: 30 x 40 cm

Another photo about the huichol culture! In this case itsn't a photo about the tesgüino ceremony; it's a photo I took when I visited the mountains in which the huichol villages are. I was there because a friend invited me to see a deer hunting ceremony. The deer is a god for the huichols and they hunt it  for a special ceremony. After  the huichols hunt a deer, they eat it to get blessings. The hunting happens at the valleys at mountains, the huichols camp on a valley and they walk around to look for the deer. If the animal doesn't appear soon, the searching will take several days. And if after days a deer doesn't appear, the camping will move to other valley and the deer search will continue. I tell that because I took the fifth abandoned photo while we moved a camping. I was impressed by the excellent organization to move the camping and because of the equality on tasks for women, men and children. Everybody took something to move and the camping was got up in less than 10 minutes. When I saw everybody helped to carry something, I thought I could help too. I took with me a sack of corn and my backpack, sleeping bag and tent. So, I started to walk but a few minutes later I was really tired, the sack was very heavy and it was very difficult to walk with it on me, moreover, we were walking on a rough land and it was hard to walk on it. When I was almost falling a woman of the group  helped me, she took the sack with her and put it on her head. Then she smiled to me and walked. I was impressed by her strength! After taking a breath I took her a photo. And here the photo is!

In addition to the story, I like this photo because, for me, it shows some particular elements. It talks about moving of course, moving of people, but also moving of things. Pay attention on the plastic bag in the photo, the bag the woman holds with her left hand. It's a bag comming from a multinational store. How did it arrive to the woman hand? Because, although the store is a multinational company, it doesn´t exist in México. Probably the bag went from the USA to México. Huichol people sometimes go to the USA to look for a job and live there. In the USA, they buy stuff to send to México, so, possibly that bag went from the USA to México with  things for a huichol family and it arrived at huichol lands. Well, that's my hypothesis! It's seems a logical argument for me. We live in a global world! What do you think? 

Now the Woman carrying bags photo is on the street! I'm hoping someone finds it!