Copala is a small village along the Costa Chica (Spanish for ‘small coast’), an area along the south coast of the state of Guerrero, extending from just south of Acapulco to the Oaxaca border. Geographically it consists of part of the Sierra Madre del Sur, a strip of rolling hills that lowers to the coastal plains to the Pacific Ocean. Various rivers here form large estuaries and lagoons that separate the mountains from the sea.

This area is demographically paired with the Costa Chica of the southern border state of Oaxaca, as together they have some of the highest populations of Afro-Mexicans who settled the area as escaped slaves. The majority of Mexico’s 1.2% African decent population lives in this area. All of the Costa Chica is characterized by socioeconomic hardships. The region is one of the poorest in México, with an economy based on subsistance agriculture and fishing. Only 16% of households have running water, and only those that live along the connecting highway have access to electricity.

Cristobal Céspedes Lorenzo…

is a coconut harvester who lives alone with his dogs on the completely undeveloped Playa Ventura, about a 20 minute horse-back ride from the town of Copala. His rustic home that is nestled between a rugged beach and lagoon has no running water, gas or electricity. He keeps a fire burning day and night to cook his meals. Receiving solar lanterns a few years ago has brought light to his home at night for the first time.

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