Yelapa: A Mexican
Coastal Village
in the 1970s

When I arrived in Yelapa in 1970, the small village had dirt paths and no electricity. People lived in palm-thatched houses and fished, farmed, and gathered coquitos for a living. Their social life attracted me, and I began taking photographs with my Topcon 35mm camera.

"Celeste, you must come now as they will bury Don Domingo at noon, and the family wants a photo of him in his casket." Or, "My mother wants you to come to the house and photograph the new baby. He has blue eyes!"

After I returned to the U.S. in 1983, I studied visual anthropology with John Collier, Jr., who believed that photos teach us how to understand our subjects. In that spirit, I offer you the images of what I saw in those years in a village that was living a selfsustaining and noble existence.

--Celeste Greco