The Big Issue

April 2002

By Nathan David Kelly

In Mexico, Nathan Kelly says, the Corona tastes different. While here the Mexican beer is marketed as an up market brew, in its home country "Corona is a widely drunk beer – but it only costs about 50 cents a bottle and tastes completely different to the Corona we drink here."

Kelly spent about 10 months over a three-year period traveling from the top of Mexico all the way down, documenting what he saw on the way. "What I like about Mexico is that you interact with the city and the culture, but you will never truly be a part of it," he says.

He got an outsider's perspective on Mexican life: a mariachi band warming up in the fishing village of Zihuatenejo, about three hours from Acapulco; religious shrines in the street; armed police in front of roller doors emblazoned with the word 'romance'.

Kelly says roadside shrines are a common sight. "This icon is a shrine to Mary of Guadalupe, which is where she appeared to a Mexican in this city in the 16th century – this man is also about to be made a saint in the catholic Church this year, and this is obviously Mexico's favourite version of Mary mother of god."

And that casual looking bloke toting a shotgun outside the roller doors? "This is not actually a garage but rather a clothing store," Kelly explains. It was very early in the morning in Acapulco and the man holding the gun is actually a policeman, but he is just wearing jeans and a police shirt and cap.

When I saw this it fitted in so well with the irony of romance in cowboy flicks – it felt like it was the wild west. And it is a common sight!

"In Mexico it seems that anyone who has any money is super rich and then you have people that just struggle to get through day by day – there seems to be no middle class whatsoever."

Kelly's Mexico pictures form part of a larger series that he hopes to have made into a book. "I have had so many great moments," he says. "The places I have been – at last count 68 countries – have provided a huge amount of images, but also memories of the people that I met along the way…. Some of these people were so friendly, but didn’t even speak a word of English!"

Ben Butler

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