In this 2022 photograph by Yael Martínez, taken during the Day of the Dead celebration in Metlatonoc, Guerrero Puente, Mexico, a cloud of smoke—stained red by fireworks—drifts across the night sky. Tiny bursts of light scatter like stars through the haze, a constellation suspended in motion. A taut wire slices the frame, grounding the celestial display in the earthly reality below. The moon glows in the corner, cool and distant, casting a spectral contrast to the fiery cloud that dominates the scene.

Part of Montaña Estrella – Flor del tiempo, this image captures Martínez’s poetic investigation into the spiritual and material consequences of violence in his native Guerrero. The fireworks and smoke become both offering and omen—ritual spectacle and metaphor for a community shaped by resistance and memory. Here, the red-streaked sky alludes to the blood and poppies that tie this region to both survival and suffering, while the scattering light suggests resilience: a sacred gesture of transformation, rising from the land like breath or prayer.