Meet Selva. She is the mother of one, grandmother of two and caretaker of ten.
Every morning after shuffling kids through a bare doorframe and stowing away mattresses from the night before, she prays among her piglets for yet another quiet and peaceful day. And then, the 64-year-old brushes herself off and gets to work.
To Selva, happiness doesn’t come from the few sales of honey each week that provide a much needed income boost. It doesn’t come in the form of rainwater she manages to collect that is the envy of many neighbors. Nor is it promises from government that conditions will soon improve in the small indigenous town of Ibiato where she lives.
“Happiness is living peacefully with your spouse and children. It is having everything under one roof and not living divided.”
And that is exactly what she has. Seven people live in her single room shack, which also doubles as a soda, a snack shop, where she sells cold Coca Cola and sugar cane sweets. And while it may be due to the fact her community is split between those speaking Spanish and those that preserve their native language Sirionó, or the fact that she lived years away from her family while they tried their hand at life in a larger city, Selva is determined to keep unity in the household.
“To be even happier I need a bigger house to keep them here as they grow!” she laughs.
Just twenty more jars of honey to sell and her tacuara (bamboo) house renovation will be underway.
I love reading these stories.
You have great insight.
Thanks, John! Glad to hear it!
I really like this idea. So often we admire portraits from the developing world without understanding the back story. Fascinating to dig deeper and thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Dave! My idea for this project was partially inspired by the fact that even though a portrait can say a lot about a person, we all have different interpretations of what we see. Sometimes our perceptions can be misleading and cause unfair judgements when we don’t have the full story. Thanks for reading!
I’d buy a jar of honey from this woman. Then return for another after it was emptied. 🙂
It was pretty tasty honey if I do say so myself!
felicidades! me encanta tu trabajo, muy profesional!
Muchísimas gracias Pablo!