Mango Season | POY Latam

Alfred Flores, 5, holds a bunch of quenettes in Patanemo, Venezuela, on July 17, 2020. “He’s a demon”, everyone says. This just means that he’s a restless kid, not that he’s possessed by the devil or something. His family lives from the land, since they don’t earn enough to buy food in a supermarket. They trade what they hunt and grow with other people from the area. When he was born, life was different.

Bees swarm over a smashed mango on the pavement of a street of Caracas, Venezuela, on August 8, 2020. People eat from the mango trees on the streets in high income neighborhoods of the capital during the season. Many say it has saved them from starvation.

An emaciated dog sleeps on a plastic cover in Patanemo, Venezuela, on July 16, 2020. The image of a skinny dog is repeated throughout the Latin American region. They survive from the of the neighbors’ leftovers and if the dog looks hungry is possibly because the people are too.

Javier González, 16, poses for a portrait at Playa Grande, Choroní, Venezuela, on January 28, 2021. He was part of one of the few families on the beach that day since travel restrictions were active during Covid-19 lockdown. Only food providers could travel during the beginning and middle of the pandemic.

The installations of the old electricity plant Agua Fuerte are used as a classroom in Choroní, Venezuela, on January 31, 2021. After the hydroelectric plant stopped working, a priest educated the children of the area in the arts.

Freingi Flores, 7, lies on wild flowers in a cocoa farm in Patanemo, Venezuela, on July 16, 2020. Her family lives from the land, since they don’t earn enough to buy food in a supermarket. They trade what they hunt and grow with other people from the area. When she was born, life was different

The sun sets over a cocoa farm in Patanemo, Venezuela, on July 16, 2020. The land is worked by the Flores family. They live from it, since they don’t earn enough to buy food in a supermarket. They trade what they hunt and grow with other people from the area.

Luis Alfredo Flores, 11, poses for a portrait in a cocoa farm in Patanemo, Venezuela, on July 16, 2020. This land is worked by his family. They live from it, since they don’t earn enough to buy food in a supermarket. They trade what they hunt and grow with other people from the area.

A working horse bites its tail during a break from carrying cocoa beans in a farm in Patanemo, Venezuela, on July 16, 2020. It is owned by the Flores family. They live from the land, since they don’t earn enough to buy food in a supermarket. They trade what they hunt and grow with other people from the area.

A girl fixes her sister’s unicorn hat in Galipan, Venezuela, on October 4, 2020. They live in a locality that grows flowers and vegetables to sell in the capital Caracas.

A virgin is embedded on the wall decorated with fake flowers in Caracas, Venezuela, on August 8, 2020. Caracas’s main venerated virgin is Nuestra Señora de Coromoto, according to local legends, she appeared for the first time in Guanare city 350 years ago.

Alejandro Dumont poses for a portrait on the sand at Playa Grande in Choroni, Venezuela on January 30, 2021. He was part of one of the few people on the beach that day since travel restrictions were active during Covid-19 lockdown. Only food providers could travel during the beginning and middle of the pandemic.

Bougainvillea flowers and electric cables interact in La Guaira, Venezuela, on October 31, 2021. La Guaira state has been affected by power outages like many other cities of the country. In this sense, the capital Caracas, is privileged.

Salt spots on a fisherman’s back in Chuspa, Venezuela, on March 23, 2021. Inhabitants of Caribbean localities turned mainly to fishing and cultivating after many years of relying on imported products. During lockdown, small towns like Chuspa were greatly affected by food and medicine shortages.

A statue in front of the art school of Agua Fuerte in Choroní, Venezuela, on January 31, 2021. After the hydroelectric plant stopped working, a priest educated the children of the area in the arts.

Detail of a gardener’s Catholic cross in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 25, 2020. The Catholic faith stays strong in the country, especially during the economic crisis. More than two thirds of Venezuelans are part of the Church.

Elianny Toro, 10, poses for a portrait in front of her father’s fruit stand in Caracas, Venezuela on July 4, 2020. After the international sanctions that targeted Venezuelan oil, food distribution took a hit because transportation became extremely difficult. Elianny’s dad bought fruits and vegetables at the Coche market to resell them near the center of Caracas.

Luis Calzadilla, 55, holds his machete after working on his vegetable patch at the San Isidro area of Caracas, Venezuela, on November 10, 2021. “Without the vegetable patch, life would be even more difficult because this year I have only worked five months and the rest of the time I’ve been here working the land. This is a lesson for everyone. Everything’s not lost. We should take advantage of the things we have. A while ago we didn’t even notice what we had.” he says.

Mango peels on the street in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 12, 2020. Many survive on mangoes that they find in trees all over the city. During food scarcity periods people roam mango tree lined streets to search for some fruit.

Joseph Chacón, 12, eats a mango in front of his mother’s home at the San Isidro area of Petare in Caracas, Venezuela, on November 10, 2021. He dreams of becoming a football player.

We call it Mango Season. It happens every year in the dry season after trees bloom and the fruit starts falling from the trees, abundant and generous to those who are hungry. In Venezuela, its arrival has been particularly heralded the past years, as the pandemic, dollarization and hyperinflation has deepened the wealth gap and made food prices soar.

Work opportunities do exist, but barely. Minimum wage is 5.2 USD. Dollars are the king currency, and very few people earn them. The country is divided into two, as it has been for a while. But this time it is not the usual sort of political polarization, but economical. While a very small percentage of Venezuelans enjoy luxury mainly in the capital Caracas, most of the population still wanders the streets lined with mango trees in search of something sweet that calms down hunger. What everyone can count on is nature – and Mango Season among the gifts nature provides.

This essay explores the relationship between people and the land, with all its contradictions and dichotomies. It shows how we look at ourselves: the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the bad, the new and the old. Mango Season is an analogue documentation of everything between all types of polarizations that coexist in tension and harmony in Venezuela within the whole color spectrum that the human eye can see.