The photography project, called The Essence of Mexico, was conducted from 1990 through 2001 and resulted in more than 75,000 color images of the traditional rites and ceremonies of more than 60 different indigenous cultural groups.

In around 1910, at the start of the Mexican Revolution, Villareal moved his family from Lampazos de Naranjo in Nuevo León to the border city of Laredo, Texas, where Jackson grew up.

In the 1970s Jackson frequently traveled in search of rare palms and cycads to the jungles of southern Mexico where he came in contact with indigenous communities, their traditional customs and festivals, and in 1977 he took up photography.

In addition, some 8,800 of the 76,124 images are of landscapes, architecture, flora, fauna, and people Jackson encountered on his way to and from frequently remote and isolated festival locations during the decade he was living in Mexico.

[12] Roberto Tejada, now distinguished professor of art history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, wrote about the photographs in the Essence of Mexico Collection: “These seasonal celebrations are cultural patterns that point back to the uncertainty of the years that followed the near-total destruction of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.