Book review

Passing on the adventures of a lifetime

Dona Eva Soto of Talina, Bolivia. Photo by Ethan Hubbard

Grandfather’s Gift — A Journey to the Heart of the World; photographs and essays by Ethan Hubbard; published by Heron Dance Press and Art Studio in Williston in 2007; soft cover; $19.95.

Reviewed by Jennifer Hersey Cleveland

If there are still Vermonters who are unfamiliar with the photography of Ethan Hubbard of Chelsea (and formerly of Craftsbury), now is the time to become acquainted.  His new book, Grandfather’s Gift, is a gift to all who love people, photography, travel, and the exploration of cultures other than their own.

The book is also a gift to his granddaughters Ella and Grace, and he begins the book with a letter to them.

He writes, “I am an old man now and my hair has turned white, but I feel like a child inside in part because of the joy of having met so many wonderful people and having lived within so many inspiring landscapes.”

Mr. Hubbard has spent the past 40 years traveling to distant locales, visiting with the people who live there.  His book includes photos of the people with whom he has spent time and the places where they live and work and vignettes of their shared experiences.

In his travels to 42 countries Mr. Hubbard encountered Kate Effie MacCormick “at the farthest reaches of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides,” who goes about her work “like a dancer” at age 60, and Ricardo Hernandez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, a coffee grower who makes 12 cents an hour who was shocked that a cup of coffee could cost as much as $3 in the U.S.

Mr. Hubbard usually stayed with families, helped them with their work, and shared meals with them before moving on.  His essays are based on encounters as short as a single moment or as long as several months.

He rode on horseback to meet Inca descendant Dona Eva Soto in Talina, Bolivia.  Ms. Soto was an old woman whose words were revered as ancestral wisdom by her fellow townspeople.

In Chihuahua State, Mexico, Mr. Hubbard encountered the Raramuri, a group of long-distance runners.  He relates one story about Mexico City’s 1920 track and field events in which two Raramuri girls were sent to race.  “They understood that the race was to be just twenty-six miles,” he writes.

Along the way he meets Francis Johnson (or Priasas Shonston in Gaelic) of South Uist, Scotland, who has a “feisty and stubborn streak,” and “The Dude,” otherwise known as Soccoro Gonzales, a farmer living in Arizpe, Mexico.

Mr. Hubbard is frequently invited to observe, or even participate in, rituals such as the dance of the eagles in Cuzco, Peru, or a Lakota special prayer day for a family grieving the loss of two children.

When in Nunavut, Canada, in 1984, he met an Inuit group.  “An Inuit man across the aisle reached out and tugged at my pant leg.  ‘Whale Cove,’ he said and then he did a funny pantomine, fake shivering with his arms crossed around his waist as if to say ‘You’re gonna freeze your ass off.’  Everyone laughed,” he writes.

During his visit to Gros Jean, Haiti, in 1999, Mr. Hubbard laments that white people are not trusted there by Haitians who were subjected to slavery at the hands of white people. He writes, “I felt honored to be among such a proud people.”

He made a lasting impression on a family during a trip to Antigua and Barbuda.  He stayed with a family and became friendly with the children. Twenty years afterward, he received a call from one of the children, now an adult living in Toronto, who wanted to reminisce.

One of the most uplifting moments takes place in Sri Lanka.  Mr. Hubbard shares an innate camaraderie with a woman in which a chance meeting gives both of them great joy.

“Near sunset one evening I spied the figure of a lone woman on the other side of the valley.  She was waving at me.  I waved back.  Slowly she moved higher along the path toward the forest.  We waved at shorter intervals as she climbed.  The higher she climbed, the smaller she became, and we each became more excited with every wave.  When the inevitable last wave was about to happen and she was about to enter the forest, we both jumped up and down wildly and waved with both arms back and forth.  Then she was gone.”

Grandfather’s Gift is an enchanting worldwide adventure.  Mr. Hubbard’s black and white photography captures both the frailty and strength of human existence, and his essays lend an understanding of people without sentimentality.

Mr. Hubbard writes in the preface, “Groundedness, humility, wisdom, and authenticity — these are what I travel to learn.”