The issue dedicated to the municipality of Hecelchkan, features the collections of Mr. Jorge Euán Tay and Mr, Yanuario Guzmán Ortíz who contributed with more than 300 family pictures along with other information. Other pictures featured here included photos of the first generation of teachers graduated from the Escuela Normal de Hecelchakan.
| Click on all images to see a larger view. | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Photogrphs of Dr. Yanuario Guzmán Ortiz. 2005 |
|
In the issue devoted to the municipality of Tenabo, the collection of Mr. Carlos Marentes Sosa stands out, with over 200 photos. Other collection featured was the one belonging to Professor Brunilda López Valle, 92, who clearly remembered everyone depicted in her 250-photograph collection.
The Palizada, Candelaria and El Carmen municipalities have one thing in common: The Usumacinta river, the boats and ferries of those towns were the vehicle of every social, political, economic and cultural event in the region.
The issue devoted to Palizada featured the collection of the Del Rivero family, who arrived to the region in the 19th Century as merchants. They installed the first electricity power plant, and built everything from dance halls to cinema theaters, ventured in the sugar cane and cattle businesses, and also the production of bricks and ice among many other activities, all included in their photo-albums, which amounted to over 400 pictures.
Jonuta is a town only 15 kilometers away from Palizada, that belongs to the State of Tabasco, due to its closeness, we decided to look for any photo collections that would depict the history of the region. We found there the collection of Mr. Omar Huerta Escalante, a self-appointed promoter of pre-Hispanic culture, founder of an archeological museum and a great collector of ancient photos. Mr. Huerta gave us excellent images of Candelaria, Palizada and Ciudad del Carmen, taken by his father in the 1920’s, unpublished pictures depicting the region’s economic development such as images of the San Rafael chewing gum plantation, property of the Mexican Gulf Land and Lumber Company. |
Don Omar Huerta Escalante, resident of Jonuta, Tabasco, who provided us with images of Candelaria, Palizada and Ciudad del Carmen. 2005. |
Juan B. Caldera and family. Ciudad del Carmen. Late 19th Century . |
Candelaria got its municipality status until 1997, before that it was largely occupied by the rainforest. In 1963 a colonization program was established, and we have featured the pictures of the odyssey of the more that 500 families that moved from Coahuila to Campeche to colonize the region.
The first photographer of Candelaria. 2005 |
In the case of the municipality of Clakamul, research was also quite an ordeal, since it only was created in 1996; therefore its communities are very new. Apart from the photos of the archeological sites of Becán, Calkmul and Chicaná, we did not find enough material to be published, since there were no communities established before the late 1960’s.
An exception is the community of Zoh Laguna, an old chewing gum collection camp in the middle of the forest that dates back to the 1930’s, which later became a prosperous sawmill that had every service available for its workers. This sawmill belonged to the renowned company Caobas Mexicanas, which also operated in Yucatan and Quintana Roo.
One of its founding workers was an amateur photographer that took pictures of the community since its very beginning. He photographed the construction of the houses and the production processes of the mahogany wood, the opening of roads for its transportation and the everyday activities of the community. After the sawmill went out of business, this man moved to Chetumal in Quintana Roo and then to Guatemala.
However, his wife stayed in Chetumal and we sought her with little hope, but we were happily surprised to find her and she gave us the most amazing 500-photo album.
These are only a few examples of what we have experienced in our quest for images all over the State. Now we only have to refer to our general method to edit the magazine and some curious anecdotes that occurred.