MOY
VOLCOVICH
LOTERÍA
DE LA CONDESA
Mexico City
1994–1995
Between 1994 and 1995, I invited people from my neighborhood into my studio to create a series of portraits of the community that shaped my childhood and everyday life.
Some had been part of my life for as long as I could remember. Others arrived later. Together they became an unexpected portrait of a neighborhood and the people who gave it its character.
Without realizing it, I wasn't only documenting La Condesa. I was preserving a chapter of my own life.
EL BARRENDERO
Don Félix López
"The old folks' advice doesn't work anymore. That was their life. That was their time."
El Gasero
Barrendero
Susana Alexander
LA ACTRIZ
Susana Alexander
"I feel this neighborhood has a human scale and a deeply personal character."
Susana Alexander
EL GASERO
Jesús Vidales
Gasero
Cerrajero
EL CERRAJERO
Antonio Figueroa
Cerrajero
Borracho
EL BORRACHO
Pedro Anguiano
"We never run out of alcohol. Sometimes we ask for it, sometimes people give it to us, sometimes we work for it... and sometimes we steal it."
Borracho
Doña Leo
DOÑA LEO
Leo
"What haven't I done in my life? I never learned how to charge.
I was never cut out to be a prostitute—but other than that, I've tried just about everything."
Doña Leo
Organilleros
LOS ORGANILLEROS
Alfredo Escobedo · Ignacio Cuevas
"Only thirty-seven organ grinders remain in Mexico. We're disappearing."
Organilleros
EL PEDIATRA
Moisés Novigrot
"One of my greatest joys is sharing my practice with my son, who is also a physician."
Lechero
EL LECHERO
Marcial Vera Díaz
“I'd leave the pulquería and run into la Banda. That's how I became one of them. To this day, we're still together... or maybe they're still with me.”
Lechero
Pifas
EL PIFAS
Epifanio Hernández Valencia
"I don't know my blood type," he said. "But I know I'm good blood."
Pifas
Cavalatti
CAVALATTI, EL MARQUERO
Ángel Cavalatti
"I was an accountant, but one day I felt empty.
I knew nothing about framing, yet somehow I found my place."
Cavalatti
Roxi
HELADOS ROXI
Alfonso Gallardo Rubio
Roxi
RUTH LECHUGA
RUTH LECHUGA
Ruth Lechuga
Ruth Lechuga
"Every mask has its own story. I don't collect antiques. Folk art is a living art."
EL PINTOR
Moisés Zabludowsky
"There are very few neighborhoods in this city where a tire repair shop can stand next to a great restaurant... and they don't get in each other's way."