Rayo purita o el futuro es aquello que llevamos en la espalda

“Possible poncho for a State chaman”, composed of the fringes of the poncho made of fabric from Tarabuco, alludes to a phenomenon that was established in recent years in Bolivia: the infallible presence of a yatiri or chaman in political events and rituals of the Evo Morales government and thus, indirectly, to the process of mythification-indigenization of the Bolivian State. It also refers to Pujllay, a ritual festival held in Tarabuco, where the confrontation between Indians and Spaniards during the war of independence (and the victory of the people from Tarabuco over the peninsular) is commemorated.

“Guamán VI: Poet and astronomer” is part of a series of limbs (hands, feet and accessories) of the illustrations of the Inca chronicler Guamán Poma de Ayala, the one “who knows the movement of the sun and the moon and of eclipses and stars and comets” and keeps the memory of his people in the quipus. Recently, the bride of the former vice president of Bolivia wore a stylized version of the costumes of Guamán Poma de Ayala’s illustrations at her wedding in Tiwanaku.

“Amaru_7”: The seven serpents in a circle represent a stage of renewal from a new energy. They therefore represent the ray and its purifying energy that opens a path of light and wisdom. The nylon stockings with coca leaves, shells and snails refer to the rites and their ceremonial use in the indigenous world.

“Quesintuu”: A fabric from Tarabuco tied on a frame suggests the shape of a mermaid’s tail adorned with two seahorses and a shell from Lima. These “decorations” recall the silver fetishes sewn into the fabrics that cover the hoods of the cars that are taken to the town of Copacabana for the ch’alla (blessing) that takes place on Shrove Tuesday. In this town on the edge of Lake Titicaca, the Virgin of Copacabana is worshiped and also perhaps in a more subtle way Kopakawana, the pre-Hispanic deity of water and fertility also associated with the fish women Quesintuu and Umantuu with whom Tunupa-San “sinned”. Bartholomew.

Texts by Valeria Paz