Montaña Roja
César Rodríguez
Montaña Roja (Red Mountain) by César Rodríguez is a portrait through both photography and poetry of The Mountain region of Guerrero, Oaxaca. For decades The Mountain has been a hub for illegal poppy cultivation. Many of The Mountain's communities are indigenous and have depended on poppy as their bread and butter - “they ask for their children to be able to go to university with the poppy’s help, to end the cycle of violence and poverty in which they have grown,” writes Rodríguez in the prologue. This book emerges after a span of 15 years that Rodríguez spent with The Mountain's communities.
Accompanying the photographs is a section entirely of poetry by Guerrero poet Hubert Matiúwàa and translated from Mè’phàà. Montaña Roja - or Red Mountain - evokes both a region that has experienced decades of violence, as well as a mountain painted bright red by fields of poppy.
Accompanying the photographs is a section entirely of poetry by Guerrero poet Hubert Matiúwàa and translated from Mè’phàà. Montaña Roja - or Red Mountain - evokes both a region that has experienced decades of violence, as well as a mountain painted bright red by fields of poppy.
