We caught Mang Jun, 33, parked under a tree on Jose Abad Santos Street in a leafy subdivision off Quezon Avenue called Heroes Hill. He was with his nine-year-old daughter and they were listening to a transistor radio play the oh-so-sad Freddie Aguilar song “Magdalena”. It was almost noon, and he still had a cluster of coconuts from Quezon province to sell. He sells an average of 30 pieces a day, most of them during the morning. We asked for a coconut with more juice than flesh (PHP25) and in less than ten seconds he whacked one open for us. He says he works hard pushing this heavy cart under the sun because he wants to provide a good education to his daughter. “Life in Manila is hard, you can’t just sleep under a tree. You have to keep on working day and night if you want to live,” he said in Tagalog.
Souls of Manila is a new Coconuts series of street portrait photography inspired by Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York. Every human has a story to tell, and we intend to share some from the millions of souls who call Metro Manila home.
MORE SOULS OF MANILA:
– Nhorie Cortes, barbeque vendor in Las Piñas
– Mercy Takasa at New City Grocery
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