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  • Dozens gather to commemorate the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Rio Negro Massacre at Pak'oxom Peak. On March 13, 1982, the Guatemalan army and civil patrolmen from neighboring Xococ rounded up residents of Rio Negro, marched them uphill to Pak'oxom, and brutally raped and massacred 177 women and children. Nearly 400 community members of Rio Negro were killed in four separate massacres in the early 1980's due to the community's resistance to give up their lands and make way for the Chixoy hydroelectric project. Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. March, 2009.

  • Local anti-mining activists and sympathizers prepare for celebratory events related to the inauguration of Delfino Tema Bautista as Municipal Mayor of Sipacapa. Tema's Sipakapa Civic Committee, formed and integrated by Sipakapan Mayans who oppose the operation of Goldcorp's Marlin gold mine in their territory, won a historic election on September 2007.

  • Boy carries beanstalks using a traditional mecapal. After the global coffee crisis in the early 2000's, dozens of landowners, mostly of European descent, abandoned their coffee landholdings in the Polochic River valley. In San Miguel Tucurú, several local Q'eqchi' and Pocomchí Mayan communities, often considered slave labor and part of the property's goods, took over the abandoned landholdings and began a process of legalization while attempting to continue coffee production and surviving on sustainable agriculture methods.

  • A girl brushes her doll's hair from a balcony. Zacatecas, Mexico.

  • Protesters who form The March for Remembrance head for the central park in an attempt to block the military parade from passing through. Human rights groups claim the annual military parade adds insult to injury for victims of the State-induced terror campaign during the 36-year war. Guatemala City, 2007.

  • Maria folds her feet as she narrates the damaging effects on her crops due to a devastating drought. Chitomax, Cubulco, Baja Verapaz, 2009.

  • A street butcher in Harar, Ethiopia, cuts up a camel and several oxes while a man chewing chat watches.

  • Nicolas Chen, a survivor from Rio Negro, visits the museum where a number of his murdered relatives' photographs are on display. Here, Mr. Chen caresses the photograph of his daughter, Marta Julia Chen Osorio, where the caption reads: "She was murdered when her gestation period was about to be completed. The soldiers, acting as medics, induced a forced cesarean with machetes. The assailants, who wanted to see how a child grows inside a mother's womb, accomplished their feat." Nicolas Chen is the father of Carlos Chen, principal negotiator for the Coordinating Committee of the Communities Affected by the Chixoy Dam (COCAICH) and wartime victim who lost his wife and children during the Pak'oxom massacre. Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. July, 2007.

  • A young man walks his bicycle as the sun rises behind the Cuchumatanes Mountain range.

  • Explosions from the nearby Marlin gold mine have damaged over 100 homes. Irma Leticia Mendez states: "the company claims the fissures are due to the corn grinder I have. But the explosions have caused them." Additionally, local wells have dried up due to the excessive use of water by the industrial process and numerous violent land conflicts among neighbors have flared. Agel, San Miguel Ixtahuacán, San Marcos, 2008.

  • One of the region's most unique and perplexing expressions of Mayan-Catholic syncretism involves the worship of Maximón or Saint Simon. Every October 28th, catholic feast day for Saint Simon, thousands of pilgrims from all over Guatemala and neighboring countries flock to San Andres Itzapa, Chimaltenango, to worship the effigy lovingly known as Monchito. Mariachi Los Aventureros, from Jutiapa, Guatemala, make the pilgrimage each year to thank and worship San Simón.

  • Homes in the community of Barrio La Revolucion are burned and destroyed. On January 8th and 9th, 2007, the Guatemalan Nickel Company, local subsidiary of Canadian Skye Resources, ordered the forced eviction of five Q'eqchi' Mayan communities around Lake Izabal in El Estor, Guatemala. Over 800 State security forces carried out the forced eviction destroying and even burning several huts in the indigenous communities who claim the territory as ancestral land.

  • Tegucigalpa, Honduras. July 5th, 2009. State forces clash with protesters at Toncontin Airport. Thousands of people marched towards the airport hoping to welcome deposed President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya back from Nicaragua after being forcibly removed from power by a Coup d'Etat on June 28th, 2009.

  • South Sudanese residing in Kenya vote during the secession referendum at Nairobi's Railway Club polling station.

  • Favela Pavao, Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, 2006.

  • Francisco Tiul Tut mourns the burning and destruction of his home in Barrio La Revolucion. On January 8th and 9th, 2007, the Guatemalan Nickel Company, local subsidiary of Canadian Skye Resources, ordered the forced eviction of five Q'eqchi' Mayan communities around Lake Izabal in El Estor, Guatemala. Over 800 State security forces carried out the forced eviction destroying and even burning several huts in the indigenous communities who claim the territory as ancestral land.

  • The night before the sowing of corn, beans, and other crops, community members from Peniel gather to ask Mother Earth forgiveness for they are about to tear her skin open. After the global coffee crisis in the early 2000's, dozens of landowners, mostly of European descent, abandoned their coffee landholdings in the Polochic River valley. In San Miguel Tucurú, several local Q'eqchi' and Pocomchí Mayan communities, often considered slave labor and part of the property's goods, took over the abandoned landholdings and began a process of legalization while attempting to continue coffee production and surviving on sustainable agriculture methods.

  • As Catholic traditions prevail in Guatemala, each town carries out its largest annual festival on its patron saint day. The municipality of Todos Santos (Spanish for all saints) celebrates its yearly fair on November 1st, All-Saints Day. It is customary in Guatemala to commemorate the deceased on that date by visiting cemeteries and placing offerings to those who have passed on. Here in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, a unique horse race is also carried out as part of the celebrations.

  • Onion harvest. Zunil, Quetzaltenango, 2008.

  • Members of Transitions, an organization that strives to empower Guatemalans with disabilities, play their customary Friday afternoon basketball game. Most of the young men have been victims of violent crime. Antigua, Sacatepéquez, 2010.

  • Doña Elena gazes out of her gated porch. High levels of violent crime and minimal percentages of judicial investigations have driven Salvadorians to lock themselves up in homes wrapped in gates and barbed wire.

  • Mass grave number 16 inside Coban's former Military Garrison reveals dozens of bound, tied and blindfolded human remains. The exhumation, ongoing since February 27, 2012, has been requested by The Association of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared of Guatemala (FAMDEGUA) and carried out by the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropological Foundation (FAFG). After three months of work, forensic experts have recovered the remains of nearly 100 wartime victims, many believed to originate from the Rabinal area - particularly related to the 1982 Los Encuentros Massacre. Cobán, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. May 29, 2012.

  • Two US Marines stand on top of car number 1, driven by Dickie Vander Meulen, before the 11th annual Orange Crush Demolition Derby at the 2011 Orange County Fair. The car, adorned with a head of Osama Bin Laden and fake cannons, won people's choice for best presentation. Costa Mesa, California, USA. August 10, 2011.