Guchachi’ Reza (Split Iguana) is a project born from my own gut, from my reality, from my desire to use photography to show what happens to us, those who give birth by cesarean section.
In this visual and documentary essay, I explore identity, historical memory, and the cultural resistance of our Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The title is a metaphor for survival that comes from an ancestral practice of Zapotec hunters: they would extract the eggs from the live iguana, stitch it back up, and release it so as not to halt its reproduction. I use this raw and powerful image as an analogy of how we, in the indigenous peoples of the Isthmus, heal our historical, political, and social wounds to guarantee the continuity of our culture and existence.
Through my camera, I document our memory and identity, focusing on the everyday life of our Zapotec communities, constructing a gaze that exists outside common folkloric stereotypes. I capture our social complexities, community bonds, and contemporary territorial challenges honestly. Primarily, my intention is to portray the fundamental role of indigenous women in the preservation of memory and the transmission of collective knowledge.
The narrative and aesthetic development of this project has led me to win the 2025 FOCCO Prize and to carry out an Editorial Laboratory Residency for the production of photobooks in Coquimbo, Chile.
Below, I present fragments of the visual record of this project.
