El pueblo que vive del futuro
In 2009 I was commissioned by PeruEtico and Minka Fair Trade to shoot some pictures in Peru, in the spare time I took the chance to visit the small town of Huasao.
Huasao, also known as ''La tierra de los curanderos'' (The land of the healers) is an old mystical Andean pueblo in Peru 3,400 metres above sea level. It's a ghost rural town, apparently deserted, where Andean Shamans live within the community, they're called "Curanderos" (healers).
Curanderos are very respected among the community as they're able to communicate with the all powerful "Apus", the mountain gods. Inside makeshift houses lit by a bulb swinging from the ceiling and walls covered by sacred images, shamans make a living reading Coca leaves, predicting the future and healing people from physical or spiritual diseases. In the overdetermined spirituality of Andean people, pains and bad happenings are direct consequences of gods will.
The Andean spirituality, which insists on the power of Mother Earth, has been mixed, by the time, with catholic religion generating a mystical and magical ritual system.
