If there’s one truth about the world which is perceptible to us on a daily basis, it’s that the living planet, and our human experience of it, is full of differences and perpetual change. For inexplicable reasons, many languages developed over history instead of just one; peoples evolved genetically and socially, coalescing into self-identifying groups with named villages, city-states, nations.

And sprung from this mysterious primordial ether of homo sapiens sapiens, new customs, and ritualized traditions long-developed into the thousands of idiosyncratic cultures across the modern world. This evolved paradox of human separateness is what constitutes the humanness that ties the many together into one: our differences create our sameness and unite us.

These 40 photos were taken over the last seven years of around 40 blocks square blocks in Ajijic, Mexico, a mountain pueblo united by its long-standing and ever-evolving set of traditions, customs, fiestas, parades, and celebrations of all kinds.

As an American who’s lived in this village for the past ten years, I still find myself bewildered by the varied and always unpredictable ways that a single people –- a single pueblo -– can collectively express itself through something as intangible and unifying as shared tradition and culture. Mexico itself is a country with dozens of ethnic groups. Its unique traditions probably number into the several thousand. Though each custom celebrated here is still uniquely Mexican, each of our cultural quirks shows that together we toil in the same moments which forge the human condition: laughter, love, tears, aspiration, and dignity. This living connection with the past which many cultures are still clinging to is one of the truths which leads people to a better understanding of themselves, their neighbors and how they fit into the world around them.

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A man oversees the lighting of one of the parts of a large fireworks castle.
Mexican Fireworks Castle
El Cohetero fine art photography print
600 terracotta skulls are lit up by candles, each representing a deceased town or family member.
A large streetside altar for friends and family on the Day of the Dead, with fresh fruit, beer and tequila, plates of cooked meat, marigolds and other offerings
A woman's portrait is illuminated by candlelight on November 1, 2015, in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
Two kids as catrines in the cemetery in Ajijic, Mexico.
Día de los Angelitos
The dress of a Mexican ballet folklórico dancer blurs together during a performance in Jalisco, Mexico. Mexico has dozens of regional folk dances which have survived since their pre-Hispanic origin and today they're performed by dedicated dancers who are conscious of preserving the traditions which are in danger of being lost to modernity. The dress in this photo is a style typical from the region of Jalisco.
Boat and reflection on Lake Chapala, Mexico
Landscapes
The Mexican Cowboys
Queen of the Association of Charros Ajijic 2016
A woman holds a spring of rosemary before the Palm Sunday procession passes during Easter week in Ajijic.
Carnaval in Mexico
The sayacas gather in the packed bullring with their town behind them in the stands.
The Masked Zayacas of Ajijic
Zayacos
Ismael Sánchez kisses the brim of his hat while saying a prayer after getting home, Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
Ismael Sánchez holds a molcajete in his kitchen in Ajijic, Jalisco
Kids pretend to be living marionettes while riding on the back of a moving float during the wacky 2015 New Year's Day Parade in Ajijic, Mexico. The New Year's Day parade is a newer addition to the town's many annual fiestas and religious processions. This one is a bit different as it's often a hodgepodge of various contemporary and traditional themes from Mexico and abroad.
A man wearing a Mexican lucha libre mask sits on the tailgate of a truck as musicians play along to pre-recorded hip hop music during the 2015 New Year's Day Parade in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico
Xui Ocelot Gomez Hernandez performs El Niño Dormido (the Dance of the Sleeping Child with his daughter, Maya, in Jalisco, Mexico. The dance is a traditional Mexican ballet folklórico from the state of Chiapas which starts off with the female dancer trying to wake up her dance partner from a siesta.
Kids dance in the street dresses as little Mexican revolutionaries on Revolution Day in Ajijic.
Aztec dancers welcome the return of the image of Saint Sebastian to the old Ajijic church. The saint is the local patron saint of the barrio of San Sebastián, which celebrates its patrón every January 20.
A brother and sister improvise and play in a puddle with boats they made out of fallen leaves after a brief afternoon thunderstorm hit the plaza in Ajijic, Mexico. One of the qualities that separates many kids who live in a place like the United States from, say, a place like Mexico is the ability, and at times the necessity, of creating games out of practical everyday items or found objects, such as pesos, rocks or these leaf boats, as shown in the photo.
An Aztec dancer during the Fiesta of Our Lady of the Rosary in Ajijic, Mexico
Aztec dancers during the Fiesta for Our Lady of the Rosary in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
An Aztec dancer wears a large copili headdress made from peacock and turkey feathers during the Fiesta of the Virgin of the Rosary. The Virgin of the Rosary is the town's patroness and has the month of October devoted to her with fireworks, more firework, even more fireworks, and a final procession through bearing an image of the virgin through the town on October 31.
Aztecas Abtractas
Aztecas Abtractas
Events at the bullring during the Día del Charro include the game of "chicken." Two cowboys on horses start off standing still, both clutching a baton dressed up as a chicken.
A cowboy demonstrates his roping skills on the Day of the Cowboy in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico.
Mexican Cowboy Silhouettes
Soldaderas in the Mexican Revolution