The Women of Candelaria.

• Author: Mujica, Barbara

by Mary Richardson Miller. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 1997.

Of the myriad pictorial essays on Latin America that have been published during the last several years, Mary Richardson Miller's is one of the most appealing. The Women of -- --- a stunningly beautiful photographic tribute to the tough, resilient Indian women of Guatemala's highland villages.

From 1986 to 1993 photographer Miller lived in Guatemala and worked for Programa de Ayuda pare los Vecinos del Altiplano, or PAVA, an organization created to provide relief for victims of the civil war. As liaison between PAVA's Home Educators, who taught health classes to peasant women, and the board of directors in Guatemala City, Miller came to know the women of Candelaria, a village located in the temperate zone of the highlands, in one of the most embattled areas of the war. In this photographic essay, replete with images of daily life and gorgeous works of artisanship, she captures the vitality and creative energy of a people who have endured despite centuries of violence and repression.

Although many of the photographs show entire families, the focus is Candelaria's women. For Miller. these women "are symbols of intuition intimacy, nurturing the humanizers and heart of the community." They work incessantly, rising each day around 5 a.m. to make breakfast for their families In a typical household the husband eats first, then leaves for the fields. The wife then attends to the children feeds the animals, washes dishes, and cleans the house. In the process she makes numerous trips to the well, usually with a baby on her back (and often another in her womb) and a tinaja, or pottery jug, on her head. She searches for fire wood, which she hauls home herself, then washes the laundry m the nearest water source. On her way to the mill. where her corn will be ground into flour, she meets and gossips with other women. Once back home, she makes tortinas about twenty per family member--and prepares the midday meal, which all will sit down to enjoy except for her, since she must serve the food and attend to the children. She will not eat until the others have finished.

In addition to performing these daily activities the women of Candelaria find time to weave magnificent cloth of brilliant colors. Miller sees their weaving as part of a "spiritual chain back to the most ancient fumes of an ancient race." Although they weave with threads colored with synthetic rather than natural dyes, these women...