The Bad Plus, Made Possible

Sometimes when I'm working and I look across the window I like to think of where my life is today. I definitely can't complain. I have lived in wonderful places, I'm lucky to be a mexican because no matter how long I stay in a place, whenever I come back it's like rediscovering things you give for granted. 

There's an essay by Gullermo Bonfil Battalla about Imaginary Mexico and Deep Mexico, and back when I read it (around 1994) I was worried about Deep Mexico, I wanted to help the people I worked with, in Chocholá de los Venados, Yucatán. These people worked with dyed sisal they extracted from the henequén plant to make embroidered handcrafts. I took pictures of the process and wanted to create postcards the Artisans House could then sell and give them their part.

Back to rediscovering things, I found these images and a small booklet may well be the outlet for these. The woman in the picture is Paolita Collí, one day I went back to Chocholá to take more pictures and I showed up at her place, in a Deep Mexico wisdom voice she told me: "I knew you were coming, the fire told us, was I right Socorro?" The other woman nodded and smiled.