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These photographs are from my time spent in the remote mountains of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, in the summer of 2011. With the support of Growers First, an organization working to empower remote, small-plot coffee growers, I spent four weeks traveling in the mountains north of Tehuantepec, meeting and photographing members of the UPCTIZ coffee co-op.
Oaxaca is home to 16 officially recognized indigenous groups. I had the privilege of traveling amongst two – the Zapotecย and the Mixeย – who trace their lineage back to before the Aztec conquest. I witnessed families and villages balancing ancient customs and beliefs with Western influences and the influx of American goods, with their lives and livelihoods all too often at the mercy of the natural world and global market forces far outside their control.