Nomad Spirit

Seasonal laborer María “Chena” Benítez works on coffee plantations, in fish farming, and as a woodworker. She does hard physical work, such as carrying dozens of pounds of coffee beans up hills on her shoulders, or dragging around extremely heavy nets full of fish.

The harvest periods are getting shorter due to climate change, so she has to travel more often and farther from home to earn enough money. To make matters even worse, she suffers a knee injury. But quitting is out of the question, because the bills need to be paid. Her nomadic existence means María, a single mother, has to leave her young son with her parents for weeks on end—while she lives from job to job and bill to bill, sleeping in wooden barracks.

Can María keep up this life, or will she end up like her father, a middle-aged man whose body is already completely worn out? She records her thoughts in her diary. Extracts from her writing that appear on-screen reveal the rich inner life hidden beneath the hard labor.