Gina Santi Photography: Images of the Month – March 2016

IMAGES OF THE MONTH – MARCH, 2016

This month’s images are dedicated to Señora Marcela, a 65-old Aymara woman who doesn’t know how to read or write and who lives in the village of Challapampa, Island of the Sun, Lake Titicaca, on the border between Peru and Bolivia. Every day she gets up very early, feeds her cuys, dons her aguayo, and walks two miles to her parcel by the lake shore. There, she uncovers the chuño –which has been protected with hay to avoid overnight frosts- peels it by exercising friction on it with her bare feet, and selects a few to use in the day’s meals. In the meantime, her husband goes to the main city of Copacabana to take care of other affairs. He knows how to read and write.

March 8 is International Women’s Day. It celebrates women’s achievements throughout the world. I lived three days with Señora Marcela. Her life, albeit valuable as a productive member of her community, makes my soul yearn for a world different from our male-dominated society where women in all places are allowed to achieve their maximum potential.