Photo Essays

Ten examples of the best original photography NACLA published in 2021, both online and in our quarterly magazine, the NACLA Report.

A visual essay of the historic 1928 Banana Workers strike in Colombia and the massacre that followed, 90 years later

Bocas del Toro, Panama, is a renowned vacation and retirement paradise for thousands of tourists and expats seeking fun and

Mayan King, the largest banana producer in Belize, abruptly ceased operations in October when the Irish fruit company Fyffes stopped

Cubans see their urban agriculture movement as a possible solution as the world begins to grapple with increasing prices and demand for food and fuel. Many other countries have begun to use the Cuban experience as a model as locally grown, organic produce becomes more popular worldwide.

On November 28 Haitians went to the polls to vote for a new president. However, while the Organization of American States and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) validated the elections, other observers have documented that the voting process was rift with irregularities. The following photos question the election's legitimacy, especially with so much at stake in a country in desperate need of reconstruction after the January 12 earthquake.

Voters in El Salvador took the first step on March 15 toward turning the tide against 130 years of conservative rule over the country by electing Mauricio Funes of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party as president. The FMLN's resilience and persistence has finally paid off. But after nearly three decades of struggle – on the battlefield, in the streets, and at the ballot box – the political forces that make up the FMLN now face perhaps their greatest challenge: governing.

The third Americas Social Forum (ASF) took place in Guatemala City from October 7 to 12, 2008. Thousands of people and organizations, from every corner of the American hemisphere, gathered in the campus of the University of San Carlos, Guatemala, to participate, debate, exhibit, network, and develop progressive alternatives. As usual for any World Social Forum event, the ASF process in Guatemala was not without internal debates.

On May 2, the day after nationwide marches clamoring for immigrant rights, federal authorities detained 64 workers from taquerias across the San Francisco Bay Area. In response, hundreds of activists have poured into Bay Area streets to protest the raids.

After more than 20 years of waiting, communities in the highlands of Guatemala are finally able to bury their loved ones—victims of some of the most brutal violence of the country's 36-year civil war. After an arduous process of gathering testimonies, finding the mass graves, and exhuming the bodies, villagers hope the dead will finally be able to rest in peace.

Portraits taken during the inhumation process described in "The Martyrs are Home." The people pictured reside in the communities of Juá, Chel and Xaxmoxan, in the municipality of Chajul. The region is predominantly inhabited by the Ixil Mayan ethnic group.