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In present-day Mexico, socio-political instability is slowly causing society to lose touch with its roots, territory and heritage. Especially in Veracruz, one of the most violent states in the country, citizens are confronted daily with injustice and powerlessness.

Mara Sánchez-Renero poetically photographed the nature and people of the Zongolica mountain range in Veracruz. The original inhabitants are the Nahuas. This indigenous group of agricultural labourers is increasingly becoming a migrant community due to the precarious economic situation in Mexico. Through her images, we witness the dissolution of their existing identity by isolating the men and women from their daily context. Instead, these people are depicted within the space of their own imagination, the space of their mythical existence, whereby she confronts the uncertainties of human nature. ‘Iluikak’, which means ‘close to heaven’ in Nahuatl, is at once a description and a metaphor, encompassing the lives of the people of the mountain.

dedicated to the mountain people of Zongolica and to Daniel Hernandez Zopiyactle

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