Ric Francis Photography: Documentary photography in East Central Africa and Norway

Bolivian Coca Farmer

Coca farmer Juana Vasquez, 71, has picked coca leaves since her childhood. She's from Tocana, a tiny community made up mostly of Afro-Bolivians in the lush Yungas Valley; it's a semitropical region about three hours north of the capital La Paz. 

  • A 71-year old Afro-Bolivian woman, wearing a bowler hat, is framed in the center of a field of coca leaves, which she is picking.
  • It is a tight shot showing the hands of a 71-year old Afro-Bolivian woman, with a white sack tied around her waist, picking coca leaves.
  • A 71-year old Afro-Bolivian woman is bent over slightly as she picks coca leaves; she's wearing a bowler hat and clothing normally associated with the indigenous.
  • It is a head and shoulders photograph of a 71-year old Afro-Bolivian woman wearing a bowler hat, against the backdrop of a blue sky.
  • An older Afro-Bolivian woman, holding her bowler hat and with a white sack of coca leaves tied around her shoulders, walks through a lush field on a hill.
  • Coca leaf farmer Ms. Vasquez.
  • The Yungas Valley - home to Afro-Bolivians.
  • Coca leaf farmer Ms. Vasquez in the lush Yungas Valley.
  • Ms. Vasquez spreads her freshly picked coca leaves out to dry.
  • Coca leaves dry in the sun.
  • Exhausted from working in the field Ms. Vasquez talks with her grandson.
  • Ms. Vasquez relaxes outside her home after spending all day in the field.
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