Showing posts with label Latin; South; America; Ecuador; Guayas; coastal; lowlands; hacienda; cattle; ranch; dairy farm; cowgirl; mestiza; Montubio; girl; portrait; zebu; cow; culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latin; South; America; Ecuador; Guayas; coastal; lowlands; hacienda; cattle; ranch; dairy farm; cowgirl; mestiza; Montubio; girl; portrait; zebu; cow; culture. Show all posts

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Ecuador: Paula, A Girl’s Favorite Cow


Twelve-year-old Birgit asked me to photograph her with Paula, her favorite cow. She works as a cowgirl on her family’s vast hacienda, or cattle ranch, in the coastal lowlands of Ecuador’s Guayas Province. She’s the same I showed on my yesterday’s post, riding a horse with a sheep across her lap.

I spent several days photographing her and her 14-year-old sister Belén at work. First, during the dry season, when they spend much of their time on horseback. Later, during the rainy season, when their family’s land sinks under  Andean torrents, and moving is now done mostly by canoe.

By then the family’s men and their cowboys had moved most of the hacienda’s 400 zebus,  nearly100 sheep, and many horses to higher ground for several months. They had left behind only two or three cows to keep the women with milk.

I’m planning a children’s ebook of the girls’ lives. I’ll title it

Young Cowgirls in Ecuador: A Time for Horses, A Time for Canoes.

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