Charcoal seller on an ox, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, circa 1910

About this postcard

A man in a wide-brimmed hat sits atop a loaded ox carrying sacks of charcoal along a sandy street, with a small boy and a man in a vest and tie standing near a wooden building at right and a figure walking in the background. The Spanish caption names the scene "Vendedor de Carbón" (charcoal seller) in Puerto Plata, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Ox-drawn transport and street vending of charcoal were common in early twentieth-century Caribbean towns before motor vehicles took over local hauling.