Spirituality and storytelling in Afro-Ecuadorian communities
- Text by Huck
- Photography by Johis Alarcón
The term ‘Cimarrona’ refers to what Johis Alarcón calls “the wild female spirit”. In her ongoing visual project (itself titled Cimarrona), the Ecuadorian photographer explores identity in Afro-Ecuadorian communities through this lens.
While Alarcón had long been fascinated with the notion of spirituality, it was a conversation with a close friend – the pan-African activist Sista Karla Viteri Addis Abbeba – that compelled her to begin the series.
When we were speaking, she said, ‘You are very lucky, because you have always been with your mother,’” remembers Alarcón.
“At first I was confused, but afterwards she clarified, “I could never meet my mother, my Mother Africa, I was forced to leave it. My only way of being in connection is [through] my spirituality. In that moment awoke in me a great questioning… How is Africa still alive in Ecuador? How is your spirituality still alive?”
A year and a half later, Cimarrona – which is showing as part of Latin American Foto Festival presented by the Bronx Documentary Center – exists as a detailed portrait of the country’s African diaspora. Part of a wider Afro-Americans project supported by AECID, the project saw Alarcón embedding herself within the communities she photographed, discovering how cultural identity was preserved and passed down through generations via oral histories and storytelling.
“Albita Pavón, one of the first women I photographed, told me about the story titled Secretly They Arrived, which says that when the black people were brought to America, the ships did not come only enslaved bodies, but also came their Orishas – deities of the afro people.”
“These spirits accompanied and guarded their people, giving them the strength and wisdom to find their liberation. It is they, the Orishas, who live to this day in all the Afro Palenques in Ecuador.”
The images that make up the project occupy a space between documentary and fine art, blending the realities of day-to-day life within Afro-Ecuadorian with visual depictions of the spiritual. For Alarcón, it’s about celebrating the perseverance and resolve that make up ‘Cimarrona’, all while introducing it to a wider network of people.
“I believe that photography is a space in which you can meet each other. If you find a common point, one you can identify and recognise in each other, you can open a space for dialogue, and above all for humanity.”
Latin American Foto Festival 2019, presented by the Bronx Documentary Centre, is showing until until 21 July.
See more of Johis Alarcón’s work on her official website.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
“Like skating an amphitheatre”: 50 years of the South Bank skatepark, in photos
Skate 50 — A new exhibition celebrates half a century of British skateboarding’s spiritual centre. Noah Petersons traces the Undercroft’s history and enduring presence as one of the world’s most iconic spots.
Written by: Noah Petersons
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The stripped, DIY experimentalism of SHOOT zine
Zine Scene — Conceived by photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya in the ’00s, the publication’s photos injected vulnerability into gay portraiture, and provided a window into the characters of the Brooklyn arts scene. A new photobook collates work made across its seven issues.
Written by: Miss Rosen
