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The Andes 2005
Don Manuel Quislluya Rodríguez, from the Rapchi community,
hands his staff over to his successor and tells him:
Our grandparents were respectful
Let us go back to those times, and let us not walk back.
It is bringing back respect for what our land demands here and now.
The (FIAC), Initiative Fund for Andean Cultural Affirmation
is a program managed by the Project on Andean Peasant Technologies (PRATEC)
sponsored by the Swiss Foundation Traditions for Tomorrow
and relies on the support of the Geneva Association for Cooperation.
The fund supports microprojects for cultural affirmation initiatives.
in Andean-Amazonian communities.
These microprojects help revalue, rescue, encourage, and invigorate
the Andean-Amazonian culture and agriculture by strengthening
its own organizational character.
In order to facilitate implementation of these community microprojects,
they rely on the support of twelve
Nuclei of Andean Cultural Affirmation (NACAS).
In San Martín, there is Waman Wasi, Choba Choba, and Pradera.
In Cajamarca, there is Nuvicha and Chacras.
In Ancash, there is Urpichallay.
In Huancavelica, there is Percca.
In Ayacucho, there is APU, AWAY, and ABA.
In Apurímac, there is Vida Dulce.
And in Cusco, there is Ceprosi.
A little support is enough to return respect. As we will show you,
only the musical instruments are missing in order to have the music return
to the festival that harmonize the Pacha or local world.
But we also show that in order to recover the Alpaca breeding,
it is not enough to have money to buy them; it is necessary to bring back the
memory of how our grandparents did it, asking for the places´permission,
consulting the tutelary mountains, doing what we are asked by the one who
delivers breeding, delivering animals to the protecting mountain,
to whom they will belong.
Most initiatives show efforts of the Andean-Amazonian communities
to bring back respect. That´s how progress is understood in
these lands.
Apu Tambraico.
Perca accompanied the strengthening of Barayoc authorities in
San Juán de Dios, Huancavelica, from December, 2002 to April, 2003.
Community members celebrated 3 rituals, one of them with the authorities,
two community assemblies or Tincu, four Barayoc workshops,
3 replica workshops on the importance of strengthening the organization.
They manufactured 10 hardwood staves to invest the community authorities.
The change of authorities took place on January 1, 2003.
New authorities have the priest bless the staves so they can work well
and with great responsibility all year.
After mass the new authorities go to the square holding their beautiful staves
decorated with colorful ribbons donated by friends and relatives to show support
and affection for being together.
In Huay Patisay, food is shared among everyone who is present there.
The service people are in charge of bringing the food and beverages.
They make their tuber exhibition.
The Huay Patisan begins. The new authorities wait for their turn
to taste and share the food, always in an organized way.
The governor, a senior charismatic authority, receives his serving.
It's a symbol of affection and respect from lower to higher authorities.
The new authorities taste the shared tubers.
The Mother Sheriffs return to their communities in organized groups.
This group splitting tradition is called "Arakiraki"
The Sheriff and the Mother Sheriff accompanied by friends and relatives,
share the sugar cane at their hall. Their faces express obvious happiness.
This is how the afternoon proceeds on January 1, 2003.
Now we'll visit Cuzco, where Rocío Achawi Quenti, from the Ceprosi nucleus,
tells us about the initiative of recovering the outfit of the
Barayoc and his governors at the Rapchi community.
Rapchi is a very sacred community, because it´s located on the hill
of the temple of God Viracocha, temple of the sun, surrounded by all the Apus,
like the Quimsachata, a volcanic Apu. There is also Apu Ausangate,
the Apu Malimaya, five years old. All these Apus surround the hill.
Everything was beautiful and perfect, but the community lost their authorities
and their outfits. Then we thought this Rapchi place was a very special one,
so why not recovering what our grandparents left for us?
We should start with the clothes, wearing our traditional clothes,
and our authorities should be the first to recover this.
To make an outfit, everybody brought fabric from their grandparents,
some of them with bugs already, and we looked at one another and said,
"Look how thick and old this fabric is! No factory makes this anymore!"
We went to Sicuani and looked for the stores where they might be made
and we went back again to buy fabric and now the chontas are seldom left
unused in a clan, for it's a special, sacred, energy-giving piece of clothing.
That's how you teach the others, keeping your traditions from chontas to chontas.
their chontas. The Apus like to see people in their ponchos, their clothes,
and they recognize you easily.
On March 7, we had a ritual before delivering the outfits.
Everyone offered their quintum and asked for a good life for the Rapchi people.
People forgot about these rituals, especially the Rapchi Pachamama,
to the sacred temple and some began to cry. They were very emotional.
Two despatches were made, one for the Pachamama and one for the Apus.
They were given offerings.
The outfits were given to the authorities.
We went to two communities:
one of them was Sacaca, where leadership is celebrated.
In a Pisaq community, we learned about the organization of their authorities.
After the activity, the recovery of the authorities, the outfit,
conscience has changed a lot in the Rapchi community. Everybody knows
that our Andean culture is the most valuable thing, having the chacra is
the most valuable thing, as well as having friends. You can't buy a friend
you can't buy affection, you acquire it. When you visit, they say, "Here you are,
help yourself to potato, take something with you." That's affection, and that's what's changed here: affection.
In the first year of FIAC in Rapchi, traditional authorities and the outfits
were recovered. After two years, the change of authority was done
respecting the old style and procedure, with the guide and recommendations
of former authorities from old times. "Brother entering the Directing Council,
Mr. Attorney General,watch this people of Rapchi
so they can progress every year, like it used to be.
Our grandparents were respectful,
Let us then go back to those times and let us not walk back.
Brother Attorney General, encourage everybody in your Directing Council
so this town can bloom like roses,
only this is my word, and I hand over this staff, Mr. Attorney General.
Brethren, you have chosen us as your authorities,
in other words, I have been elected as the Role Caller.
We are standing before all of you and laying this chicha,
a little drink, and some coquita, to let us be known as the new authorities
in this act of changing authority.
Only this is my word. Thank you.
2003 and 2004 authorities handed over their outfits to new authorities
as a sign of respect and continuity of the organizational cycle.
In Churubamba, Apurima, we witnessed how the Barayoco authorities handed over
their outfits, which is an important moment in the initiative
"Recovery of Traditional Authorities". In February, 2004, the FIAC project
helped us recover the outfit of the traditional authorities.
Thanks to Vida Dulce,our authorities'
outfits have arrived.
We must receive them happily.
I'm going to bless these clothes so we can go back to our old paths.
I'm going to bless these clothes to to seek Sumaq Kawsay (Living Well)
We must live together as God's children.
We have two hearts now. We have to change.
Now I'm going to bless these clothes,
in the name of the Father, the Son, an the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
In the name of the Father, the Son, an the Holy Spirit. Amen.
-Dear brethren, Cairos Baurista will bless you. -Thank you.
-Take this.
I bless the Authorities' clothes
I bless you, Glory to the Father, the Son, an the Holy Spirit.
Let these clothes last forever.
Let the Lord be with you. Let the Lord bless you.
With water I bless you.
Let us applaud.
From 1600 to 1700, in Andahuaylas and other Andean regions, the Real Estate
took possession of lands of the Inca, and our grandparents for all times.
The Real Estate imposed an agricultural production for the city dwellers,
not paying attention to the cochas, mountains, pastures, and chacras.
A weaker stage came when the learned young men were appointed as authorities
by way of secret suffrage, marginalizing the illiterate community members,
no matter how wise they might be.
Another weak stage of the traditional authorities was after the
mobilization of 30,000 community members to take over lands from the Real Estate.
It started in 1973, and the police took the peasant leaders as prisoners
and confiscated hundreds of whips or lashing cords which were used
by the traditional authorities to impose respect.
There were still some Barayos, though, who were servile to the landowners,
but usually tried to persist in playing their role of traditional authorities.
Some Cocotahuacho and Pucullucpcha community members are visiting today.
Please listen. We've had the staff since August last year. Great accomplishment.
There is a special Chacha staff for the president.
For the rest of my common arms, there are common ñaupa staves.
This people has been making some progress since August.
Because I think that obedience did not exist before.
We are going back to the ñaupa (ancient) times.
All of my members are already here.
The staves and the clothes have already been blessed.
Don Emiterio Huamán Makita Churanqa will impose his hand with a ritual whip.
With this whip, we will make this community progress a great deal.
You will keep the people in orderly,
without rush, very calmly and patiently,
but not too calmly either, OK?
Papay Mr. Lieutenant Governor,
have us walk well from now on.
Mr. municipal agent,
papay, have the members of the Directing Council listen to one another.
Mr. Vice president, Señor Eusebio,
we did not walk well last year.
Let this whip be a blessing so that we can do what's right from now on.
We have been appointed to achieve kasunakuy (obedience),
and we are supposed to act, not stay home and sit back.
Although you drink, you must be on time if you've been commissioned for a task.
If we do not obey one another, what will become of us? Only one father.
In Ayacucho, the ABA Nucleus helped recover the appearance
of the Guamanis ways and Jochas in Guchui.
according to the community families, the protecting hills and lagoons
had lost authority concerning the hailstorm phenomenon,
the frost,
the wind, the plagues.
It is said that due to loss of harmony ,
they no longer protect the community or one another.
Thus, the hail track has been altered,
de la helada.
Likewise, the Atos Ñan (regional paths) lost their appearance and brilliance.
You don't feel like walking now, as walkers used to take their good walks.
It's been fading with time. Many people just want to go by car.
Manufacturing, carrying, and raising crosses in a pilgrimage,
and building chapels are very ceremonial activities
that allow us to remember how they were celebrated on former occasions.
speaking about why they have decided to recover these ceremonies
after many years, the answer was lack of care brings about lack of harmony
and these times demand that we should protect one another.
That's why we try again to understand the sacred hills, who are reminded of
their authoritative role. To express our re-acceptance, we raise the crosses and
make the offerings and rituals again.
As well as humans, deities change their roles and
perform diverse functions. Thus, Raggi Orjo protects the crops
and males. Machocruz protects travellers, animals, and crops;
Acchi Machay protects animals, and Pocamojo protects women.
Let's discuss recovering a Holy Trinity festival in Chuqui Guarcaya, Ayacucho.
The Pacha harmony is based on respect, affection, conversation,and the
close relations among humans, deities, and nature, condensed by moments,
festivals and rituals.
God, the saints, and the Christian cross are part of the Andean deities
and are found in communities because they are field workers.
There is a lot of wisdom and breeding secrets
behind their celebrations.
The Apus, the Pacha breeders, our eldest brothers,
guarantee our good relationship with the Pacha, with all we see here,
and together with the Apus, and the crops that we breed and are bred by.
Many Andean festivals have been designed by the Christians and their instinct of
destroying personal relationships of Andean people with deities and nature.
That's why the crosses are worshipped on the summits of the Apus
uniting thus these two sacred respects that we carry in our hearts.
Now the hill and the cross are the same person.
They are both watching over our chacra.
These crosses are dressed and decorated with crops and breeding fruits
from the environments they live in.
Cancho Family.
As important people, they must come to the towns annually to listen to
the mass and be blessed by the priest, which provides them with their strength.
This is how the cross festival exists, celebrations of gratitude and petition
that harmonizes our community life. It's a very important festival here.
Ayllu Nuñez. Come down from Santa Cruz de San Mateo.
The Nuñez family is passing by now, and after them, the Loaces family will.
Now they are coming from San Mateo Hill, singing and playing their music.
As a result of our slow deharmonization process, many Andean
festivals and rituals are no longer celebrated. Most were lost in the times
of social violence endured by Andean communities, so we've lost a lot of our
grandparents´wisdom and secrets, or they are just
in the memory of the elderly people.
That's why it's so important to regenerate and reweave linen cloths.
In this process, after many talks and reflections,
we recovered the cross festival in Guaccayo. This video shows the procedure
we have followed in this party since the first year of its recovery,
barely with a vague idea, until the last one, when we all celebrated with
a profound ritual character.
First year 2001
In the first year, 2001, we made some crosses for some Apus and chacras,
but because Taita Priest had to bless them, we had to take them to the
Mamacha Carmen festival of Quisquiliá. We were not lucky because priest
was no longer there, but they were blessed by the church cantor anyway.
Second year 2002
In the second year, 2002, we continued talking, remaking and putting
the crosses back in the Apus Guamanis like it used to be.
To achieve this, we had talks with elders and children from the community
and the school, because they don't know these traditions.
During these talks, we agreed that we needed to recover the Holy Guardian,
which was stolen in the violent times, since it symbolizes the presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Third year 2003
The FIAC project supported us in 2003 with the Holy Guardian and the scripts.
The community and the Ayllus continued to celebrate, with stronger will power,
our cross festival, whose meaning is being recovered.
Our community was already protected from frosts, hailstorms, etc.
The crosses were already in the main Apus Guamanis.
Also our Lord Jesus Christ was already present in our community.
Fourth year 2004
But we still had to build the chapels and put our saints in the main paths,
where our grandparents used to speak with their deities and
nature, their museums.
Each time they left the community, they asked permission, protection, and help.
Without chapels, crosses, and saints, we walk yutampi, that is,
with no fixed direction, losing respect.
Again, the FIAC helped us rebuild the chapels,
which were in very critical conditions. Now, we have our crosses
inside them again, we are recovering the respect for our God
and the Apus.
This is how, step by step, we are recovering our respect.
Let us listen now to our brothers from the ayllus of Chuqui and Guarcaiya.
Ladies and gentlemen present, audience in general, my greetings to all of you.
We are now in the chapel in the neighborhood of Santa Clara.
Now we have here The Holiest Holy Crosses of all the Ayllus.
The first Holy Cross here is the Ayllu Oré.
We have dressed her with all kinds of crops (kausay),
Why? Because it's the creation of God and His will to make any crop grow,
that's why we take it to church and have the priest bless it.
Then we have these,
for example, the corn here is like the mother of all corns.
Then this is Misa Sara.
Likewise, this potato here represents all the potatoes.
The same thing holds for other crops such as Mashua, Olluco, and Oca.
There is also the Tiumbescito (Tumbo), because it's a fruit, isn't it?
We have the pumpkin and the Qawinca.
The corn here is also representing silver, like the haba.
Then, after having forgotten,
we are bringing the Holiest Holy Cross back to life again,
exactly like our grandparents used to do it.
Of the 12 ayllus, the cross is exactly the same, but dressed in different ways,
according to the region where it is.
Dear brethren, today we are carrying the cross from
"San Ramón" hill. We still have chacras of the ayllu
behind San Ramón. That's where we produce these seeds.
For example, we have this pink and yellow olluquito here.
I sowed them together and they fell in love,
so we have other species now.
This is how we are sowing in the chacra of ayllu. We are sowing potato,
tarwi, olluquito, mashuita, habita; and corn is sowed in low places.
When we sow in ayllu chacra, we all share
many kinds of seeds to resow them in our own chacras
so as to increase diversity.
This is how we are working. Yes or no, ayllu Huamaní?
The staff means the the child is sweet, it's the greatest thing of the Holiest Cross,
he has "punishment", he makes us respect and whatever it takes, he punishes.
That's why he's now accompanying the Holiest Cross in His day.
First, our greetings from the ayllu Capillapata,
we are the last to arrive now.
We are the farthest ayllu.
We come from faraway because we are in the last, this is our situation,
we live in the puna with no possessions, put we raise animals, pastures,
watching the frost, the snow, and the hailstorm.
With this wool we represent our life, we live with this in the puna.
These little flowers come from those heights.
They are called Qoriwaylla. One is found only in the puna, where it grows.
Our father Holy Cross raises cattle. He takes care of the animals,
that's why he's come with animal wool.
There's another class, cows are not healthy due to insufficient pasture,
that's why we are a little sad. We apologize.
But we only have this wool, we don't have our cheese yet.
Festivals are celebrated in special and crucial times for the Pachamama,
and every crop, when the plants are wáwa, they need protection.
The crosses assume their role of protecting the chacras.
On January 2, 2005, we celebrate the cross festival
in the Labrada community, and different communities from
the basin of the Putimanca participate.
The crosses are deities that protect our crops and animals
to keep them from the hailstorm, the frost, and all the damages.
We decorate the crosses with diverse flowers to take them to the church,
where they're blessed by a priest, and then we take them to the highest hills.
One month later, when the crops fully bloom and the souls of the plants
and those of the humans must converse so they grow strong,
the carnivals are celebrated. There, we manifest our love and respect
for our crops, animals, and people, too.
Doña Gabina, from Wito community, is passing now. She tells us how she breeds
and shows her love and respect for her corn. Let's see.
You're going to produce beauty.
That's why I'm celebrating in your honor in this carnival, Mama Corn.
You shall scare away the frost and the hailstorm.
In this carnival, I celebrate pretty in your honor.
I'm going to celebrate beauty for you, Mama Corn, so you produce well.
Now that you produce beauty, I'll keep you in the Taq´e of my house.
In Labraco heights, we have the alpacas' party,
which are ritually called Chuslumama.
Love here is very strong, because we dress with them, with their wool.
We use their dung for the crops, we eat their meat in the festivals,
and we use their fat, which is crucial in the rituals of our path.
With your permission, papay,
this ch'ulla we'll do in this carnival
first to the Holy Table ch'ullare,
Big Papa.
Apu Labrallani, Apu Ausangate, Apu Aukaray
Apu Acobamba you shall guard us in beauty.
I honor you from deep in my heart and you shall watch this deed,
With everybody's permission, I´m going to do ch'ulla,
Thank you!
In this ritual, we hugged and we desired the breath "Samaiku"
I wish you are a good leader,
by working more, will get more alpacas,
this is how I want to see you, my pretty papa.
I want to see how you experience our old traditions, my pretty papa.
sitting in a gold chair,
at a silver table.
I want to see you with your wife
like doves, who never separate.
This is how I want to see you, pretty cousin Gavino, in this place Santa Elena
and before the table of muyucancha, thank you.
Thank you, papa. I also want to see you, pretty papa, very young,
always young, like blooming flowers, that's how I want to see you,
in this Muyucancha, before the eye
of our chuslumama (ritual name of the alpacas)
pretty papa, thank you.
Also corn is present in this party, in the form of piri,
ritual food in the alpaca breeding.
After taking away the alpacas, we are all going to eat the piri, like condors
so we can have an abundant breeding.
Ayacucho
The Lambras community, in the province of Huanta,
Ayacucho community was severely stricken
by social violence.
90% of the current inhabitants are young people who have come back from
cities, where they escaped in difficult times.
The have not experienced community life, the ayni, minca or life sharing.
The 20 families of this community asked for the FIAC's support
as they saw progress, impact, and achievements in neighboring communities,
such as Chaca and Págeri Mill, in agrobiodiversity breeding.
They mainly liked the recovery of people's respect for their pacha.
In this activity, the work of aynis and mincas is recovered. Together,
they participate as "Chulia sunkos ojucurola naginaya" which means:
"With only one heart or as only one man"
They also prioritized recovering and strengthening community organization.
This is vital in strengthening wisdom, rituals, and community spaces
where love and respect of the Lambras pacha community can be condensed.
The chacras in this community are in patches of land on steep slopes
where the soil erosion is quite high.
Patapatas, paths, tree and bush plantations,
and the formation of diverse climates have been neglected for over 20 years.
Most of these old constructions have been recovered
in ayni, with a lot of joy and accompanied by jokes.
As part of the recovery of relations between communities, which also
achieved expansion of large families, allowing rich exchange of experiences
in all the activities, which contributes to the development of the communities.
Pájare Mill community was visited. They took part in the Haitay,
which is the ritual fallow, attended also by neighboring communities.
The ladies from the two communities kept competing in the Harawi
to gladden the men's hearts, as well of those of the pachamama and the deities.
The sacralization of their diverse zones of life is considered vital by the
Lambras community. For this reason, they rebuilt the chapels, which remain
in very meaningful sacred places.
The Lambras families have seen that in neighboring communities the recovery of
the cross festivals has increased seed types and remarkably improved
the chacras, as well as the family and community frames.
There are secrets to rebuild chapels.
They recreated the taquina, which are wastes from thatching pichus.
This serves to cover the pores,
which prevents leaking when it rains.
The taquina preparation is a very careful ritual process
that should be done by and adult.
Despite the little budget, three chapels could be rebuilt,
two in the cemetery and one for the Holiest Holy Cross.
Each of them plays the following roles.
The Children's Chapel is intended for souls of the deceased children to rest.
It is also used to say goodbye to their bodies for the last time.
In the chapel, there is the Holiest Holy Cross as a sign of respect.
The Adults' Chapel is intended for the souls of grownups to rest,
and it's a farewell place with their loved ones who enter another life.
This one shows more respect to the Holiest Holy Cross, where all the souls
pray for forgiveness.
The Chapel of the Holiest Holy Cross was rebuilt in a place called Ayamoj.
In this chapel, on the roof, a small cross was placed in order to cast
the evil spirits away. This cross is made of a bush
called Lambras, a life-regenerating plant in the community.
The cross is covered with carnations that help blooming in pacha breeding.
After 25 years, the Festival of the Crosses was recovered.
The young people organized themselves and took part as chunchos.
They borrowed and rented these amazing outfits.
They made their antaras and watched the crosses together at night.
On the next day, the chunchos took the crosses back to their respective chapels
always accompanied by musicians.
Let's go back to Ayacucho to meet the Apu Keroray.
Osvaldo Bautista Cabezas.
Brothers and sisters, we, the San Lorenzo community members,
will tell you of our experiences.
In these last years, we haven't been paying much attention
to our chacras and Apus (sacred hills)
That's why we've built our chapel on the Apu,
we have recovered the celebration of the Party of the Cross during the carnivals,
thus bringing back these habits.
We celebrate not only to feel happy,
or simply to get drunk,
for this Lord (Apu) has His day.
He has been watching this celebration ever since He was a child.
We used to celebrate for him as we celebrated our birthdays.
That's why we're again celebrating
this party for Him, the Lord.
This party has existed for a very long time.
That day, they used to climb up the Apu to the summit,
that's why we celebrated this party during the carnivals
and went up to gladden our Apus.
Apu Morochuco Keroray
Mama Puka Orgo
Apu Hatun Punku
Apu Raszuwillka
That's how we live with the Apus in the chacra, with our animals,
our crops, and ourselves.
They, the Apus, also live,
that's why we believe in them and celebrate for them.
When we sow, the Apu is happy.
For when we climb up the Apu on His day
we take him our crops and the Apu feels happy.
We confidently enter all the chacras
that day, and nobody can keep this from happening.
Now, all of them must collect two or three crops,
be them fruits, choclos, or any other crops.
That's how we collect the crops
to take them to the Apu so that he feels happy.
We carry the crops in our blankets.
Any day other than the Apu's day
you enter someone else's chacra
and the owner tells you:
"Who has allowed you to take my crops?"
It is allowed only on that day.
Even those coming from other places can take some crops with them.
This is where this feeling of ours comes from,
it's not that we started doing recently.
This is a very old habit.
All this had already been forgotten.
We are considering this again and have decided to
rebuild the Apu's chapel,
feeling that He exists and is present.
Lord Morón's cross has always
been in this chapel,
we'd have Huamanga come down during carnivals to take him to mass,
and later we would return him to our community of San Lorenzo.
We do this because it is in this time of the year
that we usually have the frosts and the hailstorms,
and it's He who protects us from them.
The other day, when we fixed the path to the chapel,
it hadn't rained for a while (it was rain season)
While we were working, one of our brothers said:
"We are bringing the rain"
and it truly started raining little by little, so we returned
in the afternoon, with the rain,
and it kept on raining the whole night.
That's why we believe in this Lord Apu,
for thanks to Him we have food, He always brings the rain for us,
for our animals, our crops, and for everybody,
so we can have a good community life.
CCCPAM accompanied reconstruction of paths and walls, and reforestation
of endemic trees in the Ajtapa community, Ayacucho
In Suni y Quechua, the paths made hundreds of years ago
are part of the vast landscape.
This main source of agricultural diversity and food
for the Ajtapa community members were rebuilt and improved by themselves.
The limiting walls on the community meadows, the family chacras,
favor the increase of natural pasture,
and protect the crops and the cattle
from harsh weather conditions.
These limiting walls have also been rebuilt.
The endemic trees, such as the Geron Genwuan and the Asabrán,
ease the cold weather. The community members use the wood
for the roofs of their houses and to make their tools.
2000 of these trees are again found on the landscape of Ajtapa.
We have two types of community authorities here;
on one hand, there's the official, who's part of the State's Administration;
on the other hand, we have traditional authorities, "Envarados (staff people)"
Also, the charismatic authorities originate in festivals
and community and family rituals. The Staff People and the charismatics
are in charge of keeping the pacha balance,
harmony among people, nature, and deities.
Strengthening the community organization implies that the runas authorities
and deities should establish a sacred conversational relationship
and share protection and affection.
The rituals are the means to this mutual feeling.
The reconstruction of paths and limiting walls,as well as reforestation,
was organized at both family and community level and was done
as a form of cooperative community work. Ipan provided the budget and the tools
that the community members were not able to get.
Also the sweet foods or snacks, which are sacred elements for rituals
as payment to to the Apus Guamanis and the Pachamama.
People achieve tuning with nature and their deities or souls
using coca leaves as offerings, together with cigars and drinks.
They ease fatigue resulting from long, hard work and mediate in conversation
between people and their deities.
The payment or offering is done with respect, affection,
a lot of will, and with your heart.
With these offerings, the heavy rocks break easily,
as peacocks, or appear in number.
The work that had been planned for seven days was finished in three.
This year, the authority in charge of payment was accompanied by a
child Sheriff who learned the secrets of the elder.
Thus, the knowledge will not die, but will continue to be handed down
from generation to generation.
I can say that the Center for Andean Studies in Vida Dulce de Andahuaylas,
Apurimac Department, accompanies Jota Huacho Alta communities, in Huayjon.
They are both around the Sondor Ceremony Center.
This is an important ritual place, where ancient Peruvians came and still come,
on key days of the agricultural calendar to see the celestial bodies
but related with their corn-centric culture.
The Sondor walls are aligned with the sunrise and the sunset.
The moon, the achacata, the amaru; that is, the scorpion and suchu.
In andahuaylas, the sucho is called Hayahuairmas.
Vida Dulce affirms what the community members have always known how to do,
building champa fences in places where rocks are rarely found,
or stone limiting walls as foundations and the champa is used,
to avoid cattle damage in small corn, potato, and cultivable chacras,
which community members recently call "chacramontes."
Also, some stone terraces have been rebuilt,
according to the conditions of the hill.
It's important to do it like a party, as if playing, in mutual help,
playing with boys and girls, grandparents, women, everybody.
Sharing a delicious chacra meal with seasonal food provided by
the chacra owner. Vida Dulce accompanies with coca, a drink for a good mood,
some pork skin. They start by sharpening the peaks or rebuilding the broken ones.
We support the community blacksmiths on this.
Vida Dulce also accompanies providing sachaculi sticks or cola alborea,
pine plants, onion leaves or endemic onion.
what community member Salvador Soca tells us is very important.
Don Salvador says his cultivable land with vegetables, endemic fruits
mixed with corn and peas of a cheerful, vigorous green color,
is able to put shoes on his hens so they don't uproot and damage the plants.
He also tells us that menstruating women should not enter cultivated land,
and neither should mice or certain goats.
He fills the cultivated land with types of grass like muña, huacatay, salvia,
toharuay. He plants everything on this land: albumenous vegetables for soup,
corn seeds, porotos, hawincas.
But Don Salvador has more sachaculis or bush tail with onion leaves.
He has everything on his land, just like his grandfather.
PERCA organization, in Huancavelica, tells us how they promoted and
encouraged the Yupanacu, a competitive community activity.
Yupanacu is a massive ayni activity where groups of four people participate.
They must master chaquitaqui; they are the so-called jollaneros,
2 people who hit the earth with a fence and 2 more who help with their hands.
These people are invited from nearby communities to participate in this event
so people from the communities they visit return the ayni to them
when they make it.
Considering respect to the Pachamama, we recall Mother earth who generates
life and provides a place for it, starting with ritual offering and habits
of the jollaneros, before the event. The process is as follows:
We start by marking the land, dividing it into similar squares to see
how dexterous young chacra members are with chaquitaqui, be those from the
community or guests. At night, an authority invites community jollaneros
and the public in general to attend the next day´s Yupanacu celebrations.
They say,"Tomorrow is our Yupanacu, ladies and gentlemen"
"We all have to be there, ladies and gents." This is repeated over and over.
After the mass invitation made by an authority, accompanied by a large drum,
the authorities from the community, staff fields, and officials get ready
for a ritual offering to the pachamama. It's all a conversational sequence
with the sacred. In the sase of this community of Chuantacancha
it is now done with cards. They say they used to do it with corn.
Then the jollaneros start getting ready. They ask for permission
to the pachamama and her Apus so that the Yupanacu goes well and helps to win
the event. With this offering Umparaje Apuncam
in this case hichujasa, the ritual night ends.
The next day, authorities and officials get to the place where the Yupanacu
will take place. All of them carry their colorful crosses,
which identifies someone as an authority who is there for the pacha all the time.
They go to the upper field to be worked on, where they place crosses.
This is as far as all the guests get. They salute the crosses.
They salute the pachamama, authorities, and other people who are there.
Then they give the field instructions to begin the Yupanacu,
as well as the explanations on how they should participate in the event.
First, all the participants of the Yupanacu pinch the coquita.
That's why the sit in a row.
The Yupanacu begins. Authorities give jollaneros their positions on the field,
at similar distances, leaving a square in between to avoid
misunderstanding or cheating. The people in charche of the field control
the marks on it. We hear the music from the large drum and the whistle;
the words are sometimes:
"Unique mother of diverse outfits, pure earth, cover me with your clothes
tuck me with your blanket" The words are repeated.
They work on the land a the music plays. The people and the pachamama are happy.
The authorities control the progress and the quality of the jollaneros' work.
Lunch time. The wives of the people in charge of the field and the official
authorities bring root vegetables that are typical in the region, especially
with the awards, the Huaypajui. These are hens
and cuyis.
They invite the chuantacancha organizing authorities to finish the work
of ayni, the participants sit in a row, and thank with these words:
"Thank you,friends, for accompanying us, please help yourselves with our things,
give us your Huaypajui".
Jollaneros are given awards and root vegetables prepared for the occasion
are shared among everybody
without any distinction.
That's why we say in the communities, "when we find someone eating,
we help them eat; if we find them working, we help them work;
if we find them playing, we join them. We don't distinguish among visitors
and community members here." These words are from
Don Faustino de la Cruz, President of Chuantacancha Community.
Again the coquita is delivered, and the drink and the final thanksgiving,
with no shortcomings, no accidents. This is how the Yupanacu ends.
In The Labraco community, we carry out the recovery of the cultivable land
and their limiting walls. They serve to protect crops against winds
and protect the animals, too.
there are rocky areas, but with every one's help in the ayni, we could clean
and rebuild the paths and limiting walls.
This work in ayni was pleasant for all of us and gave us strength.
The agricultural campaign was very good and now we are sharing the crops.
Barley is a principal crop in ceremonies of charge handover,
marriages, mincas, and festivals. Chicha, which is always present,
is made from it.
In the barley dinner, chacra authorities such as the Corianas and Cañaris
are present.
The Caruit families decided to do the haiche like it used to be done,
after a reflection workshop we had, where they realized
they had lost respect for the crops.
Watching the video, where affection and respect to the just harvested crops
was shown, was a great incentive.
The potato is dressed like a kid there.
The Nucleus for the Invigoration of the Andean Chacra wants to share
reflections on the initiatives of FIAC.
Our ancestors' traditions were recovered with their beliefs, to ask the deities
to make the waters rise and to make the people and the water happy again
with the clarion, the flute, and the box while cleaning the harvested crops.
And they say, "Water is life"
That's why we went to celebrate the Water Festival on May 28,
in the Cayasipampa community.
This celebration is part of conversation among the water, seeds, food,
and the community. Without this conversation, we'd have no seeds,
food, or life.
In order to have water in the community, we have to give offerings to
the water like we used to do.
We give then a sweet offering with pastries, fruit, wine, coca,
white sugar, black sugar, cigarettes, and water from the Apus and hills,
who are strong and have plenty of water.
This present is put at the foot of the string, near the water.
We accompany it doing chacha with coquita,having drinks, and singing
worshiping songs. Listen. We're going to start the little worshiping song now.
Good morning, Mother and Son of the Divine Father. I pray to you, Son
and may the Holiest be worshiped.
With this chant, we ask the water to be abundant in our lives and we cheerfully
clean the crops together to the beat of the clarion, the box, and the flute.
From the deepest of the Andean culture.
From the Apu Uhiyayo we get the water in the Huito community.
This yaku mama we take and honor with great love
to have it get to our chacras.
Fathers and Mothers,
we will take this Yaku Mama (Water Mother) beautiful.
The Aguai Organization, from Ayacucho supported Cedro Community
in the recovery of traditional music.
Don Leonardo Palomino tells us about it.
We haven't had our Yarca Aspi festival in more than ten years.
We used to have three communities come together. The carnivals party was huge.
We would take down the cross from the Orko so that it could listen to music.
When we returned, we'd tie it to the Orko with lots of crops from the chacra.
We would cheerfully take it back, singing and dancing for our orko.
Our grandparent said it protected the community
from hailstorms and other problems.
The community members with the ability to play musical instruments
to enhance festivals have disappeared.
In this initiative, two masters from the neighboring community were brought,
so that they could teach the community members who were interested,
children or elderly people, how to play the violin and the harp.
We used four violins to teach thirty students
and four harps to teach twenty students.
Before starting the lessons, the instruments were baptized
in a ceremony where they were appointed to perform the task.
The first party is going to be recovered in July.
The Urpichaday Association, on the alley of Huaylas, has worked on the recovery
of ritual music of the peasant chacra, like the chiska, where young people from
peasant communities, like Cruz de Mayo, Tupayupamqui and Vicos took part.
Chiska music is ancient in these Andean places
and it's still played in some ritual festivals,
and is very closely related to chacra breeding.
We play music not only to dance and sing, but also to sow,
to harvest, and to perform important rituals to the pachamama.
That's why we're recovering and recreating this cultural expression
with the support of two great teachers who know about chiska music.
Tito la Rosa, a teacher from Carowas province,
and Mr. Narciso Cantaro Joyas, from the District of San Miguel.
That's how they end.
Tito is in charge of presenting the the oldest musical instruments
from the region and the Alley of Huaylas,
which were unknown to many young people.
He has brought back the music of his grandparents, and his parents,
and his community.
-Nice! -Yes, a beautiful sound, and intense.
This is an ancient priest.
Clay whistles.
The bone Quenas, the llama used to be sacrificed in ceremony.
The llama was sacrificed and the meat was separated, kept,
and eaten, but the best part of the bone was chosen
and prepared to make a Quena.
The llama would give them its bones,
in order to make a quena. The animal continued living in its sound
even after death.
While our workshop lasted, we reflected deeply on our music
and what it means as compared to foreign musics, as compared to
our reality. Foreign musics only invite us to drink liquor and create illusions
for young people.
Narsciso Cántaro Collas showed our young participants the practical part
of our workshop, for he possessed the knowledge and secrets of chiska music
ever since he was a child.
You do everything with blades. I thought you did it with files.
No, no.
We did these holes here because
they're very useful for the player. In plastic, however, they're no use.
You put the little lid on and it comes out, which doesn´t happen with bones.
Once we learn the secret of playing the chiska, which is about becoming familiar
with the instrument, we travel to the Chavin ritual center to make
an offering and call the spirit of music so it doesn't get away from us and
harmonize us again with the chacras, seeds, and us, the nunas.
Now we feel that we're musicians, we feel like playing in ritual festivals,
that's why we've decided, with love and respect,
to accompany the Party of the Seeds with chiska music in the District of
Marcará. St. Isidro chacarero, he also has his chacra and sows
as well as we do. He has a great diversity of seeds
which he breeds with love and respect.
Likewise, we were able to accompany the ritual party of Jude in Vicos community,
Wiyach sector. Jude is another chacarero (peasant farmer), who is a wise person,
he has a lot of riches in the chacra.
Huancavelíca
In order to promote traditional music, the members and authorities
from the communities of Querahepampa and Anterraja
come to us to request these instruments, which we formerly used at their massive
ayni work, at home, to work the land. Now they say
they are losing that kind of music, it's being put aside little by little
because modern music is very much prevalent
by means of loudspeakers and so on, which generally encourages people
to consume beer and also bring about disorder in the communities.
For example, at the Santa Cruz Party in the Quilpa Cahuana community,
they have brought back these habits of being able to carry the pisurumi,
play the champaticray, because it was no longer done, it had been forgotten.
The pisurumi yapa consists in carrying a big, round rock.If you´re aware
of what it's like and well prepared, you can carry it for long distances,
a little farther. These are challenges of young people from different Ayllus
so everybody can see they're strong enough to do it.
The champaticray, however, is more related to the chacra activities
ad they play elbow here, many people who attend the party
play the champaticray. They say when someone falls down and turns over
on the ground, they're in same condition as when they turn over on the land,
and fall when they are taken by the chaquitacri.
On this occasion, many ayllus have met again at this party of the
San Juan de Dios community. Other groups have emerged from other communities.
Their young people have cheerfully approached music from the bandurria.
They have played, sung in a choir, and told
how beautiful this music is, as well as to see how these young people
are trying to regenerate it.
In order to invigorate traditional music we needed to have a teacher who
can play these instruments. On one occasion, we came across
Fortunato Serrano Cristin, a young man selling his bandurrias on the streets of
Huancapi and asked if he could accompany us in these workshops
that we were organizing in the community.
It is he who teaches how to play these instruments in the community,
the bandurria and the rondum.
They said that in order to learn how to play the bandurria,
There's only one finger, the first one, that you have to move
moving upwards, rather than using all of them, like the guitar.
It's with only one finger.
You use just this finger to grab it.
Just as you make the sign of the cross.
Just like that, put one finger on the other.
Now we've handed these instruments to the Perja Pampa community members,
they have been able to make their accompaniment.
They took part in wood cutting and the rationing to be able to use
these logs in their massive activities, like cleaning trails,
or community work of potato planting or harvesting,etc.
On this occasion, accompaniment was made on trail cleaning, which was useful
to repair the large drums, titus, and some other instruments.
Many friends, who used to be able to play, are teaching the young people
and it is they who have accompanied us now
in this work of trail cleaning.
In Cajamarca, the UBICHA Association, accompanied the Paccha community
in the process of revaluing the party in honor of the green crops of May,
where corn is the charismatic deity. This is part of the initiative
"Regeneration of seed rituality in the patronage festivals."
In this party, celebrated on May 15, the main character
is Saint Isidro Chacarero, to whom the new seeds are offered.
Zapayos, chiclayos, caywas, beans, ollucos, potatoes,
cocas, quimbas, uchugues and corn are some of these seeds.
Pedro Carmnona, from Paccha, told us that 30 or 40 years ago
they used to sow and breed in the name of Saint Isidro Chacarero.
The crops were abundant, and we had enough food
to dress the saint.
The seeds felt they were loved, and they would return to the chacras every year,
thus granting abundance.
This is celebrated with a great party where the special dances
in charge of the chunchos are practiced,
as well as traditional music played with clarin and box to gladden the party.
But after a while, factors conspiring against balance appeared, which
interrupted the agricultural-celebratory cycle of the community, such as
people leaving the chacra, modern culture, new agricultural techniques
based on contaminating agrochemical products,
the invasion of new religious sects, the introduction
of genetically modified seeds, among others.
As a result, we lost cultural values, soils have worn, contaminated,
and eroded, and a new degradation cycle started,
which brought about, little by little, the loss of the ritual sense
of the chacra life.
This year, we, as a community, have remembered details of these festivals
in a number of meetings held prior to the festivals.
The Paccha community members met with elders, adults, and children
in order to transmit all this knowledge.
Boys learned how to play the clarin, the box, and other traditional instruments.
The girls learned how to dance from older girls, and together,
they organized the feast, which is to be celebrated over and over
from now on in order to recover the chacra's health.
The seeds are feeling loved again.
Río Huallaga Chazuta
Apu Huaytanayo
The chacra women tell us how they recovered their clay jars,
flower pots, and casserole dishes, accompanied by the NACAS Praderas.
Our life is linked to
nature breeding,
in the chacra, fishing
doing craftwork.
In order to get the white earth,
the yellow earth,
and the clay itself,
you can't take it in just any phase of the moon:
it must be on new moon.
If we take it on any moon phase
that is not the right one,
our flowerpots,
our mocahuas,
break and the pieces won't glue together again.
We carefully manufacture
making use of the yachay
that we've always had in our hands,
feet, and our whole bodies.
This here is a pot, this is the belly, this is the neck,
and this is the mouth.
What is happening,
which worries us,
is that plastic objects are invading us
and they spoil the taste
of foods and drinks
such as our mazato
in patronage festivals.
We, the chacra women from San Pedro neighborhood and the surrounding areas,
have started working to recover our customs.
We sometimes get all dirty teaching our children,
both in the countryside and in the neighborhood, to recover the love
for what is ours, the natural things.
Ceramics is always present in ritual ceremonies,
community meetings, and trades.
These used to be the ways of ceramics and seeds.
The Cañocota community has had lots of potters since ancient times,
who stopped making ceramics as the market found its way into the community.
Then ceramics were replaced by plastic utensils.
With our initiative, we were able to remember how ceramics are elaborated.
A special workshop was built, oven and modern tools included.
There were also old items used by family fathers and children to make utensils,
such as the salamancas, plates, the posillitos and tumines for the chicha.
Don Vicente Walpas is sharing here some of the secrets
to work with clay.
To prepare clay, you must not use water with salt,
or water with detergent or onion, or water from boiled fish.
To make a casserole, you only need clean water
that hasn't had contact with anything.
The potters from Cañocota commented that the food prepared
with clay utensils is more tasty and healthier.
The Cayasipampa and Tomacucho communities got to know their soils
so well that they found clay and used it in the appropriate way,
recovering thus their ancestors' customs and wisdom. They manufactured
their own tiles, casseroles, buckets, plates, and spoons
in order to to continue eating and feeling the spirit of the same pachamama
and being accompanied by nature itself.
These Quechualama things are here to be enjoyed.
In our community, we´ve always worked like ants,
that is, all together: women, children, youngsters, and our grandparents.
Speaking a bit about ceramics, the panicunas cheerfully take out their
clay, always conversing with the moon so as to get long-lasting jars,
casseroles, and pots. They energetically step on the clay
for yutacut, for their festivals, for their labor, always using
what is ours. When we eat in plastic things, it's not the same.
Not everything you eat has its original taste, nor is it pure.
About black soap, these days we all bathe ugly,
using soap and shampoo and looking down on our native soap,
which not only bathes us, but also cures our itches and bug bites.
Our Tambo is also made and thatched on a good moon so that it lasts for a long,
long time. We always bring our tasty chicha little by little.
We all cheerfully thatch our Tambo, nobody is looking at us,
everybody participates in construction, lifting the leave, bending it,
and we always shout very happily when the thatching ends:
That's how people shout.
Mr. Hildefonso Sangama Sangama:
Mr. Hildefonso Sangama Sangama: ...the leave turned into moth,
thatching is not done at any time.
You must think carefully in order to thatch.
take it out on a good moon, for when we do it on green moon,
it's no use, because you get the wood all full of moth.
The rope also has to be taken on a good moon
conversing with the whole family.
The old people used to say that when you break the mocava,
you do it to make the tabano last. That's how it's done in any labor,
but we didn't use to do the mocavas
that hadn't been broken, but now we do break the mocavas,
we are recovering already.
Ms. Petronila Tapullima Sinaruhua. Only having the money
we can buy the soap at the store now
people no longer want to use what is ours,
everything is soap from the market,
people only buy there now.
Now we are going to learn how to cook.
Ms Rosa Cachique Salas This soap that we are cooking
to wash our hen
and is useful to treat all kinds of diseases
when our children are sick
we wash them pretty with this soap
and it's good for the carachas, too.
That's what our grandmothers used to tell us...
go heal your children with that,
it's very good when you have that disease,
that's what they would tell us and we never forget it.
Now people have realized how useful our black soap is
and the diverse ways in which our grandmothers have always
used them. So we, panacas and auquis, are starting to use our
black soap again, and we shall preserve it forever.
Our next visit is to Huaráz, the Urpichallay Nucleus, which helped
in the recovery of the llama breeding in the community families
de Vicos.
In Perú, since ancient times, the auquénidos have been
the most important brothers of men. They provide us with
our daily food. Llamas are used for carrying loads, give us wool to make
our clothes, we eat their meat, drink their milk. Their blood and foetuses
are used for ritual sacrifices.
Thanks to the breeding of them in the community, there is even
another means of trade.
In Vicos, there have been no llamas lately,
that's why thought of recovering the llama breeding.
The first step was to make a ritual offering in Llamapampa,
Quebrada Honda, we can find an ancient drawing of a llama on a rock there
This is the sacred place for rituals.
The second step was to find communities where llamas were bred,
travel there, and select some animals to be bred in Vicos.
12 llamas were bought. In order to separate them from their herds,
we had to make sure that each of them had their spirit with them.
That why we also take their manure and some earth
from the places where they sleep.
Once in the community, these llamas arose great expectation among
the community members. We decided at chance among various families
to see who would be in charge of the llamas, and of course, we had a workshop
with a professor from the University of Huamanga to help
all the breeders enhance their knowledge.
It is important to have a good breeding process between animals
of good wool, of the desired color to make sure
that the herd will grow.
The pregnant females have to be taken care of and fed with good
pastures practically for one year.
The breeder must learn how to read signs from wild plants or high altitude birds,
or in sacred waters, which can guide them to plan the rationing
of pastures.
Breeders also have to know how to talk with the diseases
that the animals may have in critical moments.
Mange, parasites, and fever.The health and growing of the herd
are a result of our harmony with nature achieved by our constant
dialog with deities by means of prayers and offerings to the
pachamama, heart to heart, for every activity,
every animal breeding and feeding process, and every trip.
In Vicos, there is the memory of the ancestral tradition of
the llama breeding.
Therefore, there is also the tradition of knitting.
Now that we're breeding llamas, we can also bring back that tradition.
The Vicos inhabitants want to make native clothes, with natural dyings,
their blankets and cleaning cloths, and they want to recover the
strength of their traditional technology for their children's sake
and for the sake of their harmony as inhabitants of this pacha.
I'm going to see my alpacas.
Pajo is a group pasture inside the community.
The little bunches of pajo are plants that breed together.
They're similar to the alpacas, which, as well as pajos, breed together.
In order to breed alpacas, the friends of Patacancha first
had to ask the Apu if they could breed these alpacas or not.
That's why they have made a ritual offering and asked
the Huamani, which is the Apu, where they're going to take the alpacas from,
where they will be able to breed them, and whether these animals
are going to be handed to the Huamani of the territory.
That's why they've made ritual offering and these alpacas have been bred
in accordance with this. It was not an easy process.
We've started with the foundations of the house to keep them in the
territory of Yuruyajiaco.
This is where the community members have started to build the house to
keep them in the barn for the alpacas.
This was done my means of aynis, by ayllus, and in groups of
people. Thus, having finished the whole construction,
the thatching of the safacasa was done. In the safacasa, in the carrying of
vichy, music has been present by way of the whistle and the drum.
Some people prepared the poles, the thresholds for the the roof.
The women have been cheerfully knitting the
ropes that are used to make the icho, so that they are strong enough to hold
this icho that has been ordered for the roof of the house.
Later, we went to the Jarapas community to buy the alpacas
This place is located in the district of Huancabamba, of the Taipe family.
Likewise, once the alpacas have been bought,
it is not a transaction like buying some object, but
it is like buying people, and the community members were saying
that we're doing it now as if we were bringing our daughter-in-laws.
The alpacas are not seen as animals, but as their daughter-in-laws,
by the Patacancha community members.
that's why they took food, chicha, and even the women went with them
to carry these animals.
Once the alpacas have been bought, the owner of these animals suggests
that people do the following:
Take care of them as you take care of yourselves and ourselves.
No matter how it is, tomorrow, later, it will be useful.
Even you will remember.
Thank you, but as if they were yours, do not make them suffer.
Do not make them suffer anymore.
With love, take care of their wool and their diseases.
Protect them from lice and any other things.
You must cut their wool at the right time.
Likewise, to be able to follow the animals toward Patacancha,
Don Narciso's son accompanied us up to a certain place
and he recommended that the alpacas shouldn't be taken through the big trail
but they should be lead through other trails so that they don't remember
their way and cannot return.
This is how we've gone with these animals for a certain distance.
They looked tired, and though we thought we could make it in one day,
it took us two days. As we made our way, the night came.
On the next morning, we arrived in Patacancha, very early.
After Patacancha, we followed the trail till arriving in Ruyiarriaco,
where the house and the barn to keep them is.
This is where our friends bring the alpacas. To achieve this,
the animals from the Jarapas community were taken together with their manure.
This manure that has been taken is to be buried like a secret
so that these animals can adapt to the new house where they are going to live.
When we arrived, the authorities decided to make a cleaning and
a ritual offering so that the place could welcome them quietly.
After this, we took the alpacas inside.
After the activity, the authorities had the erranza on schedule.
The erranza is a process as well.
On erranza eve, the authorities have gathered fruit
and some ritual things to make an offering to the Apu
who is going to protect the animals:
the Apu Saccsalla.
Well,
don't be angry. You will have two quipis (packages).
It is not for us.
It's done to make us shepherd them, for we are not going to shepherd.
You are simply their shepherd.
I am simply their shepherd.
Even if it doesn't give me anything,
I shall collect their manure while I shepherd.
I shall respond to him.
It's OK, brother, that's how it's done.
That's how it's done.
Shall there be anything of mine? That's up to him.
Empaquétalo bien.
When we return, we will light candles to make chacche.
Now I'm going to visit our boss to see what he has to say today.
His coquita, his cigar, and his drink must be given to him.
You shall carry it with good will for our father.
Lord Saccsalla,
my patron saints.
Now I'm coming to converse with you.
The animals that are in Tastahuaqta
Place
Saccsalla
you shall shepherd
you shall guard.
In your hands they shall be.
You, as well as us,
shall breed and guard,
the animals
that we have brought.
In your hands we are.
Lord Saccsalla.
To you I give all these animals,
my alpacas.
Of all the community members of Patacancha and their animals,
to you I give, to you I deliver in your hands.
And I let you know my will
By taking this.
You are hungry, you are hungry, papá.
This is my act of obedience.
With these candles you shall light us,
our animals, our alpacas.
and all my brothers and their animals, too, Lord Saccsalla.
Lord Saccsalla, this sign of obedience from me you shall receive,
and you shall as well give me permission.
In your hands we are from this day until next year.
The following day, during erranza, two authorities were appointed, mainly one,
who has to be married: the Prosecutor. He and his wife are in charge of
the erranza, the ritual table is prepared,
then the offerings are placed,
then the ritual offering is performed, that day, the animals' sacralization
is made using the cocaquinto, the yampu, and the jora chicha.
It's as if we had summoned the deities of the place
so that they guard these animals and keep them calm,
showing no adverse reactions to what people may do.
Peasant breeding is more related to the love and affection
that we feel for these animals.
This is the end of a form of alpaca breeding that is so different from
the way technique encourages to do it.
20 years of mining made a void in the knitting tradition
in San Juan de Dios, Huarcay, Huancavelica.
With some tools and wool, some community members rediscovered
their passion for knitting the complex tissues they are dressed with.
Strengthening of local wisdom in the diversification of tissues
and outfits manufacturing. Antaccacca community.
The Antaccacca have had good knitters since ancient times.
Their colorful tissue are a symbol of the expression of their local
landscape. Mainly the traditional outfits of the Barayocs
ancient authorities.
The thick wool tissues made from alpaca and sheep are called
Huejas, which makes them different from the other communities,
that's why these community members are called Perjahuejas, the way people from
San Juan de Dios or Perja community are called,
because they make these things and wear them on their clothes.
The fact that mining enterprises, for instance,
have hired peasant labor force, like people from here, for a very long time,
made them forget a lot of their wisdom, mainly that
relate to knitting, thus giving them occupations in different places doing
what they already knew what to do. This was a negative impact on the
peasants, which can be seen today mainly when the enterprise, after
more a than half a century of exploitation, limited the labor force
by continuously closing the mines.
Mr. Sergio Choccelahua Huacho:
We're working. We´ve just started this work.
In the past, when I was a restless boy, I was always knitting
with my mom and dad. Later, when I became an adult,
I went to work in the mine, leaving thus my tools.
These things no longer exist, I said to myself in the mine.
These fabrics, these things that are bought with money
are not easy to find on men and women.
In the mine, we wear these pants, these city dwellers' things.
We no longer wear these traditional pants in the mine.
Because in the long run, mine works end,
and fathers and mothers also end.
When we have these needs, we come back.
Then we don't find these tools that we had left.
Then we think to ourselves, "What are we going to do for a living?"
Then, the NGO Percca gave us these knitting workshops
and we're starting to work on these things again.
These alpaca wools for a saddle were knitted by my wife.
Then I do this, and these have been knitted by her.
These colored wools are for the drawings.
This is also a separate thing, pure wool, which I´m knitting now.
I started doing my training quite recently.
But these synthetic things don't keep us warm, the cold goes through them.
But these things do keep us warm.
We want to learn how to make them again.
That's why we are saying that we have to make these things again in Antaga.
These are the ones we made before,
these cloth pants (traditional fabric), look at these pants,
these bands were also knitted by my wife, these caps, these maquitos.
This little poncho, too. We're able to do anything with our money.
We can't make this yet. We got all these things very recently.
This was the time to resort to the elderly and the people who never
depended on these enterprises, for they still
have some potential wisdom, which can we still rescue
to be practised by the young generations.
having this background concerning tissues
and seeing that it is possible to create at least a neighborhood,
Perccas Association is accompanying in the recovering and diversification
of the traditional clothes in Antagaga, an annex of San Juan de Dios.
With this objective, they've been given 10 knitting machines and 10 cáyuas,
essential tools for tissue recreation by people who like the job
and are doing it today,
while others are relearning what their ancestors mastered
with perfection. Women are also diversifying tissues
with their bare hands, manufacturing caps, chalinas, and bands.
Among the things we have done, there is the acquisition of alpaca wool,
wool fabric,
synthetic colored wool,
the purchase of knitting machines,
cáyuas, that is, hand made knitting machines,
the manufacturing of blankets, cloths, pullos, double blankets.
The manufacturing of diverse traditional clothes.
This we are knitting here
is a pullo for women to wear as raincoats.
But these things take patience,
and the drawings have to be done calmly, without getting bored.
because if you get bored, you don't get it well done.
Sometimes, people get bored and say, Who is going to do it now?
That's why it takes patience and time.
You have to use strong colors, not any at random,
and you have to make them coincide,
not just put them there, otherwise you won't get it well done.
In Pampaguas, however, they are excellent knitters.
People design this based on their own life experiences.
This community requested to learn other ways of knitting, for example,
using sticks,
using other tools to knitt larger cloths,
chalinas, chuspas.
These knitting styles help us manufacture our own clothes,
especially those of our authorities,
which must be ornamented with flowers from the region
using a sewing machine.
According to the Antagaga authorities and community members,
there used to be just one person who did this job,
and when he passed away, no one else could knit,
or at least put these beautiful metal decorations on the clothes
and on these leather tissues, and they had to travel long distances
to find other people who could do it when an authority
was to become a stickman, because these are key things
in the ceremony.
That's why the community has brought back this job
and has recreated the others.
First, you get the cow or goat leather, preferably, so they say,
black, because white is not as hard,
nor does it have the same texture of black.
You let them rot for 15 days, wrapping them
with big, plastic blankets. Then you take them out and dry them
and then you stretch them with nails so it's even at the end of the process,
as if they were big sheets of paper. Then you cut them.
The cutting process, says Don Demetrio, takes a very accurate pulse,
to cut them from one extreme to the other.
Also, Don Demetrio says that it takes
a lot of will power to cut.
Here we can see our friends from the Antagaga community,
those who are learning how to
cut leather evenly.
For knitting process the leather must be stretched and you must do it strongly.
Different threads and thin bands will be useful in the knitting process;
it could be 8, 12, 16, or up to 24 threads.
They say this only takes skill,
and a lot of will power to learn.
This one here has everything on it but the metal ornaments.
We'll see another teacher who knows about metal melting and extending.
Don Felix Chogelawa here, who is an amateur in the
San Juan community, though he belongs to neighboring Quirpacawana.
He told his friends from Antagaga about his
metal melting and extension experiences.
Don Félix says the appropriate metals are the 9 cent coins.
and with those of soles.
They heat and melt sometimes, so you can
extend them and put them in such a way that they can be placed evenly here.
We don't use oxygen or any of those things, just a little fuel
like kerosene, and you blow the coin with your mouth till it's very hot
so that it can be extended with a hammer blow.
Only a little anvil is needed to mark it and cut it
so that it can be evenly extended.
When you extend metals, Don Felix explains that the edge
must be well fined until it's even. This is done only on stone
and using some water.
Each of Don Felix's steps tells our friends who are taking part
of this workshop even about how to cut metals, with the scissors.
After the plates are ready, a ring is made using a trunk,
shaping it as a cylinder
so they can be placed here.
Don Felix says it's not so difficult. It's simple, and done in the community.
In Naca Choba Choba 36 peasants from Lamas, Moyobamba, and Rioja were
accompanied in an exchange agro- biodiversity visit to the communities
of San Isidro, Maynoy San Juan de Tacta in Chachapoya, February 11 to 14, 2003.
Don Viviano Ruíz, age 6, tells us, "These lands give you a great variety.
The earth loves the seeds very much. You take down a plant, it grows again,
you start hating ailpa beans, the ahuisho, or ailpa chiclayo.
Your crops are strong, healthy, they'll be good no matter where you sow.
It's about understanding seeds and them understanding you. They're like us,
they like to travel and meet their family again"
This coming and going of seeds is known among peasants as "mugeo,"
walking and concentrating in orchards, gardens, yards, or chacras.
Have the others love you first and then stay like that permanently.
For different reasons, the peasants from Lamas, Moyobamba, and Rioja no longer
take these trips often, their productive stability, feeding safety,
and health preservation are weakening.
That's why Choba Choba organized a passing,
so that peasants can visit places where mugeo occurs with a lot of strength.
The peasants, men and women, exchanged seeds
and experiences of how to refresh and widen the diversity of crops
like beans, adilias, verjas, payarto, martillo , alberjon, corn, and fruit.
Emerita Apeguaman, age 29, says "I'm taking seeds, among which there's,
beans, sachapapa, ajicito, forest wheat and many others.
I'm going to plant them taking into account the phases of the moon.
For example, corn is planted on crescent moon or the fifth,
that´s how the moon is observed for sowing. Otherwise, it won´t be good."
The seed exchange was valued with ritual to the pachamama.
Thus, they recovered ways of talking with the earth.
Don Isidro Haraoco made a payment to the earth.
From our mountains, our trees, everything around us, the spirits
of our deities of the mountains, hills, and cochas
from our surrounding hills, calzada, guamanwasi, I want to make a payment
to the pachamama, so that you'll keep feeding us with blessed lands, your food
health, pachamama.
On the way to the Mainos road, the Chachapollas, the passing group,
passed by the peasant community of Llerbabuena, where men, women,
and children were working together in the chacra.
Motivated by the spirit of solidarity, the group stopped to help them,
attracted by the music. Everybody fraternized in the chacra breeding.
The FIAC projects in Andahuaylas came from regional community members
of Naca Vida Dulce had to, step by step, get to know the outfit
and role of the Andean authorities in other communities, where the authorities
still exist as such. We've made a passing by the department of Ayacucho
specifically in the Quispiyaspa community.
By the time of carnival 2005, we visited the Yanapata community, in Ampuno.
The Andahuaylas community members were impressed by the love
shown to the seeds. For example, the ornament
the potato plants so that the seeds don't go away.
They place diverse seeds on the blanket together with their flowers.
They do challa to their seeds.
They give them the muho-muchay, which is the kiss to the seeds.
Don Agustín Huaracas, from Anharaya, also kissed the seeds.
Back in Andahuay, we showed the videos to the community members
who didn't go to Puno. We did it in our reflection meetings,
which encouraged people to recover their authorities and customs.
The authorities were give their outfit and staves
in Cotahuacho and Yanacuyu, Caquiabamba, Yupacucu and Santa Elena,
getting the Andean authorities to act in ritual festivities such as
the Party of the Trinity, with a visit to the Apu Wacucuri,
Ritual to the Apus, communal Mincas such as that of Arjaspi, Ñanarchai,
ritual leash, extending this motivation to neighboring communities
such as Macheibambas, Tojtupata, San Juan Pampa, etc.
In Yanacuyu, Caquiabamba, Belén de Anta Wayabamba and Cayapayo,
traditional authorities related to orchards have been recreated
and they are called Hiucancha Camayo,
which means the one in charge of peasants' orchards.
With this new procedure, more than 250 orchards have been recovered
in the whole region of Andahuaylas.
So far, the traditional authority in Andahuaylas does not appear in pair,
like in Quispiyanta and Yanapata.
Neither does the child authority, like in the community of Huichuiri, Ayacucho.
In the future, we want to recover these positions, which would complete
the organization of the traditional authorities.
The recovery of traditional authorities caused great emotion in the communities,
which encourages us to continue with the Cultural Affirmation.
Medicine plants were felt again in the communities of Sochaja,
Cachapampa, Cayasipampa, and Capripampa.
They faithfully used them in treatments and that of their animals and chacras.
We're sure that plants, people, animals, and earth are able to cure one another.
We are very grateful to all the Andean Amazonian communities
We congratulate all the NACAS on their accompaniment
and fine documentation of initiatives. Cusco-Ceprosi: R. Achahui, Elena Pardo.
Apurimac-Vida Dulce: N. Campos and A. Mendoza. Ayacucho-Apu: Pelayo Carrillo, Primitivo Jaulis and Marcelo Núñez.
Ayacucho-Away: Oswaldo Bautista, Demetrio López, Dionisia Oré, Yure Conislla, Senobio Tabeada, Julie Valladolid, and José L Chocos.
Ayacucho-ABA: Magdalena Machaca, Marcela Machaca, Victoria Machaca, and Esteban Galindo.
Huancavelica-Percca: Balvino Zevallos, Raúl Huincho, and Fausto Zevallos.
Ancash-Urpichallay: Beatriz Rojas, J. Chacón, V. Mendoza, G. Matías, Luis Armas, and Luis Loli.
Cajamarca-Nuvicha: The Uncle, José Vasquez, J. Valera, Teoladio Angulo. San Martín-Choba Choba: Elsa Mesias, Kerensky Dias, and Rider Panduro.
San Martín-Pradera: Mario Arévalo. San Martín-Waman Wasi: L. Tapullima, and L. Romero.
Many thanks to: Rodrígo Otero, Jorge Ishizawa, Grimaldo Rengifo, Julio Valladolid, Nilda Arnillas, Gladys Faiffer, Carlos Hurtado, Maruja Salas, Daniel Tillmann, Carlos Otero, Ruth Escudero, Justina Panaifo, Alejandro Quispe, Lucrecia Zaferson, Maya Ishizawa.