Portraits of Chile Farmers

I wanted to share some of these photos with you. These portraits are of survey participants, with each I have included their first name, age, acreage farmed and crops that they grow. I normally feel that pointing a camera in someone's face is very intrusive, but after talking with each participant on how they manage their crop, and of their concerns for their livelihoods, I asked for their photo to pair with their survey data. I'm thrilled with the results as I think each photo makes the data less abstract, giving it a very real, human connection. I think this subset of participants is fairly reflective of the entire group. Mostly men 50 and over planting small acreages to beans, maize and chile. A few plant cash crops, which in this region is garlic or tomatoes.

Santiago, 58
4 hectares of maize, beans and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Alberto, 66
9 hectares of maize, beans, garlic and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Baltazar, 54
4.5 hectares of maize, beans, garlic and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Gelacio, 53
7 hectares of maiz, frijol and chile
Pasilla chiles

Ismael, 57
5 hectares of maize, beans and chile
Guajillo and Pasilla chiles

Israel, 36
25 hectares of garlic and chile
Pasilla chiles

Hot Peppers on the Presidential Campaign Trail

Although this news is a few days old, and I am favoring her opponent for the Democratic Presidential nominee, this is blog worthy.

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to the power of the pepper. She swears by them, telling Katie Couric on CBS that eating peppers is the key to maintaining stamina on the campaign trail. So is this the secret to her fountain of youth, or is it just meaningless pander for key Hispanic voters in TX and OH? hmmm...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/hillarys-health-plan-hot-peppers/