On October 12, 2018 I photographed the paw of a hunted wild cat that lives in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico. I stole it from a family member some years ago - I believe it belongs to a Leopardus Wiedii, or commonly called "tigrillo", but I can't tell for sure. One day later, on Saturday, I was on my way back from Mexico City to the same region, also known as the Huasteca Poblana, as I had to be there on Monday for my new job as a clinical-community psychologist; the place where my paternal roots lie in; a dream job for me.

   During the following months, dead native fauna kept crossing my path as I continuously met people who hunted them, had pieces of their bodies as souvenirs, or by picking them up when I found them agonizing on the road after they were run over by careless drivers. Even though they don't belong to me, I thought that by preserving them as an image I was paying homage to them; their beauty was too much and I didn't want it to be forgotten, lost. Those nights when I placed them on a black background and portrayed them for over an hour somehow felt like the sessions I had with my patients; close, intimate encounters where they could express themselves, regain a sense of dignity often weakened, and then move on.

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   Still, more signs of death emerged but in different ways now; through familiar and not so familiar faces as I witnessed the life stories of indigenous, autochthonous elders, both wise and beautiful but vulnerable and abandoned alike; undoubtedly endangered, almost hunted down by their own descendants in a raw, ever-changing world that gives no truce to those who don't adapt quickly enough or whose virtues are no longer perceived as such. The tiredness in their eyes, sometimes briefly masked behind a gentle smile couldn't hide a sense of inevitable learned helplessness; although my life has been a much more different one, I couldn't help but identify myself with them: will I reach the last stage of life, if so, under what circumstances?

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This series, suddenly interrupted after an organized crime wave where people from the village were tortured and murdered, became the basis for a new series On the verb "to disappear".

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This series was shortlisted in the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards - Latin America Professional Award (2020).

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A selection of this series is part of the Sony World Photography Awards 2020 Virtual Exhibition.

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This series took part during an on screen exhibition organized by the Latin America Professional Awards in conjuction with the World Photography Organisation and Sony Latin America (2020).

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This series was featured by Cuartoscuro magazine (Mexico, 2020).