A novella by Nicholas Gill and Alejandro Cartagena. 

A collection of 151 “expired photographs” that were thrown out, collected from a tianguis outside of Mexico City by photographer and archivist Alejandro Cartagena and then pieced together and reimagined by writer Nicholas Gill. The 151-page novella tells the tale of the fictional town of Santa María de las Rocas, located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

The story traces this coastal community from its humble origins at the turn of the century to the 1980s, as it corresponds to real events in the history of this corner of Mexico. As years pass, the landscape changes and the community grows and develops. There’s corruption and violence, magic and hope. Characters fall in love and fall apart. Their voices are heard. Their songs are sung.

The existence of this project is designed to question the very nature of storytelling and its possibilities in the digital age. As such, it’s done as a CO0, for free public use.

Santa Maria de las Rocas

At first there was nothing but water and rocks. The never-ending thump of the waves crashing against the shore. Mother nature’s eternal heartbeat. The land was too rocky for the sea turtles that arrived en masse further north. Life was more fleeting here. The occasional jaguarundi stealthily wandered out from the jungle in the dark of night, scouring the tide pools for fish that were tossed there from the ocean. As did coyotes and tlacuaches and birds like reddish egrets and peregrine falcons. They’d move on. Then return. Their offspring and their offspring’s offspring. Wind. Rain. Sun. More wind. More rain. More sun. On and on, again and again, over and over, until one day when the universe came together in such a way, one thing leading to another, and someone appeared.

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