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The Reality Check

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STRANGE SOUPS AND BRASS BANDS Photographs of Zacatecas by David Bacon A maze of constricted alleys spreads out at the bottom an old stone staircase that doubles back on itself, so convoluted that Zacatecanos call this place "El Labarinto", or "The Labyrinth." Here Primitivo Romo sits in front of a wall of herbs packed into tiny bags, in a botanica stall he inherited from his mother when she died a few years ago. He inherited her knowledge as well, and now his nephew runs another stall down a nearby alleyway with the knowledge passed on in the Romo family. The stalls are half hidden in the lowest level of the Mercado del Arroyo de la Plata, or the Silver Canyon Market. Two more levels are above. Stalls on one sell Zacatecan mole, either picoso or dulce, hot or sweet, from big plastic buckets in front of the candy display. On another workers and women shopping for their families sit on plain stools at the comedores economicos, or affordable eateries, where cooks spoon the famous g

The Reality Check Wednesday, July 15, 2026 photos from the edge 36 - THE RAID IN THE DATE PALMS photos from the edge 36 - THE RAID IN THE DATE PALMS By David Bacon Barn Raiser, 7/16/26 https://barnraisingmedia.com/the-most-dangerous-job-in-coachella-valley/ In 2017 Jose Cruz Frias, a palmero, worked in a grove of date palms, walking on the fronds themselves. Cruz had been doing this work for 15 years. He originally came to the Coachella Valley from Irapuato, Guanajuato in Mexico. Cruz was using the same method, with ladders, that palmeros have used since the beginning of date cultivation more

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