Pre-Lenten Phantoms

This photograph is a flash from a beloved, community-led pre-Lent celebration – practiced for generations through a mix of Catholic and indigenous traditions. This candid moment captures a tradition's contemporaries inside Oaxaca's community of Zaachila from late February to early March. This unique time of each year illuminates the buoyant fellowship and revere of impassioned faith, mostly missing, has been lost, or never existed north of the border. From sunrise to sunset, the most unique, color- filled acts of devotion, and/or rebellion blissfully overtakes the community – stoking their emphasis for each generation to come.