Only One Oaxaca
Oaxaca, Mexico 2020
We are in full COVID time. It has left me with no job, closed borders, sick and frightened students. One of the hardest moments of my life!
Brief exchange of phone calls with my Eleguà: Francesco Pavia who lives in Turin. He tells me that he wants to come to Oaxaca, that he is pissed off having been inside the house for so long.
As I have always done, I agree to give the workshop even with only one student: Just One will be the name of the workshop. I tell it to Pietro who without thinking much tells me that he will accompany me to Oaxaca for not to letting me drive alone. My angel offers me this kind gesture that comes directly from Heaven: a sort of order to which he responds with all the love of a son towards his father. The next morning with Pietro at the wheel of our Honda CV, we embark on the path that, after more than six hours of driving through winding and panoramic roads, leads us to Huautla in the now legendary Santa Julia hotel.
We meet Francesco in the usual hotel in Oaxaca on October 25th, 2020: joy reigns supreme! It’s nice to see each other again after a long time.
The days pass and while Francesco and I wander among the villages around Huautla always looking for fleeting moments full of poetry and spirituality, Pietro, after having breakfast together, studies medicine in his room. We meet again every night when we all go to dinner.
One day we come across a funeral. We observe the small column moving forward without taking pictures. Almost by magic, a young man approaches me and simply tells me that if we want we can photograph the funeral of his brother who died young and by chance falling from a truck he was unloading.
Francesco and I look each other in the eyes and start with a lot of grace and respect to do our job. At the end of the workshop when I have also developed and printed my rolls I realize that some very beautiful and quiet photos have come out of both Francesco and me.
On the last day of the workshop we go down to the valley by car. We have lunch together in a village whose name I don’t remember and after a long hug with Francesco, Pietro and I resume the journey home while he will take a bus to Oaxaca. Back home happily, I deeply thank Heaven for this double gift. I hug tightly Pietro who smiles at me beautifully. EB
