In my oficina I have a thick ring binder that has my complete photographic output since I began in 1958 with a Pentacon-SLR in Austin, Texas. I have removed those special (I hate using this word) iconic images of Rosemary, etc, which I have placed in family folders by date.

The binder ends a bit after we arrived in Vancouver in 1975 from Mexico City.

Because today is a lazy (when you are retired every day seems to be a Sunday) coldish Monday I looked at the negatives in the binder with a portable light box and my Agfa Loup.

When I saw the negative of the man clearing a construction rubble I noticed that the frames on either side were of people (children) in rubble.

I think that the Spanish word for rubble is more interesting – escombro.

Su etimología proviene del latín vulgar excomborare (desembarazar de obstáculos), que a su vez deriva de una palabra celta (combŏros).

That from my RAE (Real Academia Española) translates to remove obstacles. The Latin is excomborare and that word from Celtic, combŏros.

For reasons that escape me I used a very fast film (about 1300 ISO) Agfa Isopan Record. 

The more I look at these old negatives, and I may have thousands of Mexico City and Mexico street photographs, the more I realize I must visit Mexico soon to relieve my Vancouver photographic doldrums.