“…surrounded by the smell of tobacco and sorcerers’ smoke.”

By Edge of Humanity Magazine, October 27, 2020

Photographer Dolores Medel is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘THE BOTTOM OF THE SHADOW ’. To see Dolores’s body of work, click on any image.

The stories I was told by my parents when I was a child have always fascinated me and as the years go by, they have transformed and they have assumed a different version according to each minstrel. I am also attracted by the place where they take place for it is where I come from: Los Tuxtlas in Veracruz. This is a magical area, full of mysticism, surrounded by the smell of tobacco and sorcerers’ smoke. This is a part of my family’s story: contradictions, dysfunctionality, not at all typical.

I am confronted with something that in a way maybe I shouldn’t do or in any case see. It allows me to reflect on human roots that never disappear although they may try to hide, or we may carry them along with us for many years or our entire lives. We continue being wild, basic, fighting for our survival.