Give Back Where You Go

There has been a longstanding debate over the proposed photo ban in Southern Oaxaca, Mexico after locals were outraged by an article that named their surf spot outright and referred to the locals as “delusional”. Locals reacted with a media ban in the region. Now there are some new terms on the table. The idea of photographers purchasing photo permits has been brought to the table and the money from the permits will be used to benefit the greater community. The idea is being received with criticism from both sides of the argument, claiming publicity helps the tourism in the region. An interesting idea none-the-less, time will tell to see how this model is accepted…

Cesar Ramirez, Salina Cruz’s first surfer, weighs in on the issue in an interview featured on Surfline. The following is an excerpt…

Explain the email you sent last September.
I started with the last part of the article saying we were the delusional guys trying to protect Salina Cruz. Since 2004, we’ve been working with the magazines. The pros get paid more if they get a good shot, they put it in the magazine, the magazine makes money from advertisers and we don’t ask them for anything. We do our work; they pay us. We don’t bother them or ask for a board or say ‘give me this, give me that.’

But after that article, everyone got mad and said, ‘no more photographers’ because they are taking advantage of this place. So we decided to form an association. And at first we said no cameras at all. But some of the camps work with the pros a lot so they insisted. And we had meetings and we said, ‘OK, if they want to come here, they have to pay to shoot in Salina Cruz.’

So where will the money go?
The money is not for us. We’re going to use it to fix the roads around the surf breaks where the villages are. When it rains, those villages flood, so the people don’t have access to the highway. Sometimes even the highway breaks and they get stuck in their villages for weeks. Also, the kids in the schools; sometimes they don’t have money to buy uniforms and school supplies. We’ll go to the schools and help them. And we’ve been training with the Navy to get a lifeguard certificate and we’re going to have a tower on every surf break where there are local tourists, because the government doesn’t provide lifeguard services. And with that money we’re going to give a salary to the ones that want to stay on the tower. So that’s where we’re going to put the money that we ask the media to pay if they want to shoot here. Otherwise, if they don’t want to, they can go somewhere else.

To read the full interview click HERE

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