Marcelino

Jon: Essentially the first interview we conducted in the Cordillera region of Peru was a farmer in the little village of 'Copa Grande', about 15 Km. up from the valley floor. The dirt road to this little community is heavily rutted and rock strewn, and yet it is the basic life-line of this little 'barrio'.

Claes had met this young farmer Marcelino Cruz Leyva on his trip last year, but Cruz hadn't figured prominently in much of his coverage then. This time, we wanted to capture the reality of Marcelino's life, which is at once brave and back-breaking on one hand, and in peril on the other.

We were scheduled to meet Marcelino at about 2:00 pm in Copa Grande, but ran into him on the road at the base of the mountain, where he was hiking the 15 Km. back home, carrying a 100 Lb. bag of fertilizer on his back up the mountain. We quickly threw his bag of fertilizer in the van being driven by our beloved driver Hugo, and were able to save Marcelino that back-breaking effort.

What you see here is a long-form version of our interview with Marcelino; I'm asking questions off camera, and Claes is recording the audio. We'll use excerpts of this interview in our longer stories. (Many thanks to Luis Fuentes for editing!)