| Subject | Collection | ||||
| The Children of the Sun | The Earth. Bolivia | ||||
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| Surviving in the puna, the high Andean plateau some 4,000 metres above sea level, is not an easy task. During the day, the puna is horribly hot because it is very close to the sky, but at night, the cold seeps into your bones. Intimately identified with the Earth through centuries of labour, the Qhiswa and Aymara worship the pachamama, or Mother Earth. The farming cycle establishes the ritual and festive calendar in these peasant communities. |
| In the high lands and Andean valleys of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, some 15 million Qhiswa and Aymara Indians live. Heirs of the upper Andean civilizations that once inhabited South America, for more than five centuries the Qhiswa and Aymara have survived a campaign of border subjugation in a massacre legitimized by the racist ideology of the dominating culture. Despite the social destructuring and acculturation processes they have suffered, these people have not lost their identity or their awareness. The victory of Aymara Evo Morales in the elections held in Bolivia in 2006 made him the first indigenous President of an Andean country since colonial times. His purely pro-indigenous political platform is harshly protested by the elite, of white or mestizo origin, that has historically governed the country. |