My mother, in her long association with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, attended WCTU world conventions in several countries, including Sweden, South Korea, and Mexico, as one of the Canadian delegates. She took this group of photographs during her visit to Mexico in July and August 1962. This set of photographs was taken in and around Taxco, a town just south and west of Mexico City. As the photographs show, Taxco was, and possibly still is, a sleepy hill town famed for its "colonial" character and presence of silver mills. Even in 1962, Taxco was apparently a resident stop on the thin tourist trail, affording its guests photo opportunities of burros lugging silver ingots, little girls posing with armadillos, and dim fabric-filled markets. Despite the posed nature of many of the photos, I find their innocence and simplicity compelling; Taxco's status as a tourist destination has not changed in the intervening 43 years, but the trade's intensity has likely risen tenfold. The most striking photo for me is one my mother took at the entrance of a market. We see a solitary young woman in a fashionable dress carrying an oversized bag. The position of her right foot and the scowl on her face clearly gives away her impatience. She waits for someone who, in my mother's photo, never arrives. No doubt the appointment, missed or not, has long faded from the young woman's mind today, and likely the young woman too has faded in the minds of those who knew her, who were raised by her, and who were loved by her. We are but helpless voyeurs: all we can do is savour the chance moment the photo enshrines and the wonderful person who captured it. Craig Leonard. Tokyo, 2005
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