Nomadic Narrative

Today I returned to a mall I visited a few months ago in the Zapote area of San José, Costa Rica. I’ve been wanting to go back not because of a particular store, but because I can’t forget the quick breath I took in without knowing when to exhale the first time I drove by the contemporary steel-and-glass entrance into a huge parking lot facing slum houses literally sliding down a hill. I wanted to capture and share these images.

Standing in the busy parking lot, I looked at the Tommy Hilfiger sign decorating the mall’s red-brick wall and then turned my eyes to the rusty-tin shacks so irregular in construction that you think you are viewing them through a Tim Burton lens. I took out my camera and began to take photos when no less than thirty seconds later a security guard rode up on his bike and asked me why I was taking pictures.

“You can’t take pictures here without a permit from the mall,” he explained. I agreed and continued toward the glass entrance encasing the escalators. On my way up the escalator, I decided to take another shot when I was stopped by another security guard telling me that I was not allowed to take pictures of the area. This is the first time I’ve encountered such tight security in Costa Rica. I was still able to snap a few shots:

When people talk about crime in Costa Rica, they nostalgically refer to a time when there was a lot more equality. Today, as in many parts of the world, we are seeing shocking differences between the rich and poor. (Read my previous post about development in Bocas del Toro, Panama here.) We must seek and support ways to alleviate poverty around the world — our health, safety and well-being depend on it.