Taquileño Whirlwind Tour in New Mexico and Colorado

--Part 1, Albuquerque

IAF Conference in Albuquerque, November 16 - 20, 2010

The 5 groups hosted by the Inter American Foundation--from Peru, Panama, Mexico and Bolivia--toured museums and native cultural centers in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.Here Juan and Luz speak on the Taquile solution.

The conference featured panels on such subjects as how to enhance income from tourism while maintaining the community's cultural integrity.

The final evening featured a whirling dances from our Taquileño group.Loey Cohen Kirk hosted a dinner in her home for all the Taquileños. A delightful evening of food, music and dance.

The Taquileños brought 100 SuperBright (and super efficient) LED light strips back home to Taquile Island. They use small solar panels to supply power, so efficiency is important.
See earlier blogs (April, 2010 Solar Panel Trade, and Feb 2010, Background) for more stories about solar electricity on Taquile.

Taquileño Whirlwind Tour--Part 2, Arvada and Aspen

After the conference in Albuquerque, Sam and Tara brought three of the Taquileños, Silvano Huatta Yucra, Juan Quispe Huatta, and Luz Medy Flores Machaca for a grand adventure in Colorado.

Our first stop was Boulder for a traditional Thanksgiving with Tara's sister, Judy Hill Lovins and her son and his wife, Miles Hill and Nastassia Urlapava-Hill. Before dinner we attended a beautiful Thanksgiving service at Unity Church in Boulder.

Sam, Silvano, Juan and Luz at Unity Church

Sam and I were scheduled to sell our pottery in Arvada, Colorado at the Holiday Craft Fair at the beautiful Arvada Center over Thanksgiving Weekend, so we happily were able to secure a space for the three Taquile visitors. The fair director's daughter-in law, Olga Pense, helped sell and translate. She was a great help and we all fell in love with each other.

Pictured are Olga Pense, Silvano Huatta and Luz Medy Flores in their booth at Arvada.

Luz demonstrated her detailed weaving techniques with a display of wrist ties nearby.

Here Silvano is helping Luz to find thread colors as Juan looks on.

Luz, Silvano and Juan prepare to dance through the fair in traditional Sicuris costumes.

Next stop, Aspen, hosted by Judy Hill and Amory Lovins.

We enjoyed dinner and a tour of the Rocky Mountain Institute, "The Banana Farm." Learn more at http://www.rmi.orgPictured are Silvano Huatta, Amory Lovins, Sam Brown, Judy Hill, Juan Quispe and Luz Medy Flores

Thanks to The Aspen Skiing Company which gave us complimentary tickets to ride to the top of Aspen Mountain. Silvano had spent his life looking at the snow-capped peaks across Lake Titicaca, dreaming of someday being IN the middle of the snow. This was a dream come true.

Juan, Luz and Silvano, preparing to ride the gondola

Judy and Silvano in the Gondola, with the town of Aspen below

Luz Medy Flores, on top of the world!

Silvano Huatta Yucra , celebrating his dream of being in the middle of snowy mountains!

On November 29, we gave a public presentation at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies which included a slide show, dancing, textile demonstration and a talk from Juan about the Andean World View and how it relates an experience of nature as expressed in the complex symbols within the textiles of Taquile Culture. The presentation was repeated in Paonia the following week.

Taquileño Whirlwind Tour--Part 3, Paonia

Finally we arrived at our own home in Paonia. Many of our local friends got a chance to meet our Peruvian friends after hearing about them all of these years. We were interviewed on our local community radio station, KVNF. You can listen to the interview on the KVNF archives at http://www.kvnf.org/music/talkin-music-nativos-de-tequile

In the bamboo room recording the interview at KVNF

We entered the door of the Christmas party at the Schweiderman household dancing and playing the pan pipes.

Pictured here at the party: Silvano, Katya, Leanne, Luz, Neil and Juan

Larry Garret of Aero Tow Unlimited gave each of us an airplane ride around Lamborn Mountain in his little two seater. What a thrill!!!

Luz in the airplane. She loved it.

We sold both pottery and textiles at the Blue Sage Holiday Art Fair. With our two booths we took over the whole stage with a colorful display.

Juan, Tara, Luz and Sam with textiles and pottery

Sue Pritchett came all the way from Lake Tahoe to be with our Taquile Family. She was a big help at the Craft Fair.

Luz and Sue

On Monday, December 6, We gave a presentation at the Blue Sage in Paonia. The show included textile demonstrations and sales, a slide show, a talk from Juan about the Andean World View as expressed in the symbols of the Taquile traditional textiles, music and dance.

Luz twirls with Michael Soule

Dancing on the Stage at the Blue Sage Center for the Arts

Daniel translated for Juan

After our presentations we made an excursion to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, on the North side out of Montrose. That same day we did some shopping and soaked in Ouray Hot Springs.

Silvano, Luz, Sam and Juan at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Juan at the Black Canyon

Conclusion: A once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us. Our relationships deepened, we were able to share our Peruvian friends with our New Mexico and Colorado friends.

Taquileño Dancers to visit New Mexico and Colorado

Sam and I are excited to host a trio of textile artists from Taquile Island this coming November and December. Our guests include our "son," Silvano Huatta Yucra, Juan Quispe Huatta, and Luz Medy Flores Machaca. They are being brought to this country as part of a dance troupe to help celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the InterAmerican Foundation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With their airline tickets and US visas acquired, we are bringing them to Colorado for an extended stay. Taquile is known for its detailed figured weavings and knitted goods. It was recently declared by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for its Textile Art.

collected textiles, showing knitted as well as woven work

We will help them sell their textiles at two shows: in Arvada at the Arvada Center's Holiday Art Show on November 26-27, and at the Paonia Holiday Art Show on December 3-4 at the Blue Sage Center. They will demonstrate weaving, knitting and spinning techniques at the shows.

detail of figured weaving

Two public presentations will include a slide show, dancing, textile demonstration and a talk from Juan about the Andean World View and how it relates an experience of nature as expressed in the complex symbols within the textiles of Taquile Culture. The first will be in Aspen at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies at 6:00pm on November 29.

The second in Paonia at the Blue Sage Center on December 6. Doors open with demonstrations and conversation at 6:00, Show begins at 7:00. They will also perform a very short program at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival in Paonia on December 4.

This visit is a long time dream to bring our Taquile family to visit our own region and home. Those wishing to participate in helping make it happen are welcome to contact us.
970-527-6570

Ruperta and Silvano demonstrating weaving and knitting on Taquile

Going-away party

Sam dances with Elizabeth at our a fabulous going away party our last Sunday on Taquile: Started with volley-ball and watermelon at 3 in the afternoon, followed by a coca-leaf ceremony, dinner, and live music (pan-pipes and drums, guitars and mandolins) with dancing until midnight. WOW!!!

Solar panel trade

Grandpa Esteban and Grandma Rosa have never had lights in their house. During our last visit, 2 years ago, we agreed to bring a photovoltaic panel and accessories to trade for their textiles. Part of the trade includes blessing the panel:

We brought many Western guests for this trade: Madrinas Sue and Nancy visiting from the US and two anthropologists studying the effects of tourism in the area, Jakob from Denmark and Sophie from Holland. Jakob and Sophie had another appointment and tried to escape before lunch, but Esteban insisted and then brought Rosa to convince them, apologizing that it was late since their daughter had been sining in the Easter sing until after 2:00am the night before. Sophie said, "I can't refuse." They stayed for lunch, cooked in the old smoky kitchen:

Rosa will have a new LED efficent light in her new kitchen (the chimney is already installed above a beautiful wood cooking area with outside air intake!)

After lunch the Western guests left, and the locals started preparing for the installation, twisting wire and laughing:

We even had another coca leaf ceremony with beer and coca cola:

In the end everyone was happy. We traded a 40 watt PV panel, regulator, battery, 1 florescent tube and 2 excellent LED lights for a black woman's poncho and manta, alpaca and wool, plus a big potato sack and a coca purse--everything handspun and hand woven.

Think: getting your very first light, and the second and third. It doesn't compare to getting your 10th or 50th--it changes your life, makes it easier. No candle flame knocked out by a moth while you cook.

Coca Leaf Ceremonies

The most basic ceremony is simple to share coca leaves: a curi curi we say, open our coca purses called chuspas, pull out a small handful and place them in our friend's chuspa. They usually return the favor. You should never take the coca in your bare hands, but offer your hat, or the tail of your blouse or your chuco. If you MUST take them in your hands, at least blow on your hands to make them sacred before accepting the leaves.

Next level of coca leaf ceremony is to choose within your own chuspa 3 well shaped leaves, called a k'intu, imbue them with your prayers and then bury or burn them. When doing this with a group, you put your leaves together and one person takes them to bury or burn them. More complex would be to open an estalia, or coca-carrying cloth, which would be prepared previously full of leaves. Each person in the group comes forth, makes a cross or 4 direction gesture with their hands over the leaves and chooses their own k'intus, often more than one set of three leaves. Men remove their hats as for a prayer when they choose the leaves.

We did a ceremony like this this afternoon, May 4, on our last day in Lima, with Celbia and Kusi, using a bandana for our estalia. We started with an intention for the ceremony, but each made his/her own prayers: for prosperity for all, for Sam & Tara's safe travels, for solutions of the land border disputes, for health and love. Here in the city, we did our ceremony on a little picnic table under a peach-colored bouganvilla outside a tienda, where we bought a soda pop and offered some to Patchamama as well. At the end of the ceremony, Sam placed the leaves on top of my chuspa and I buried them a couple of inches below a rock in a sweet little flower garden nearby.

On Easter morning, the ceremony is a step more complicated from the simple estalia. Traditionally, every family on Taquile makes a despacho, a paper-wrapped dispach of prayers. Each person's offering is placed on an open piece of paper augmented with flower petals or herbs. Sometimes symbols are offered, such as paper money or a model or drawing of a house. When everyone in the family has chosen leaves, the despacho is finalized with sweets, wine, alcohol and wrapped up to take to the big ceremony on the highest hill on Taquile to give to the Pacos to burn.

You see, Easter is the date for the biggest coca leaf ceremony on Taquile for the whole year, a ceremony to pay the Patcha Mama for the year. We got all dressed up in our finest Taquile clothes and hiked the length of the island to the high point on the north end of Taquile. The rock-fenced enclosure has another interior rock-fenced enclosure where the pacos collected the individual family offerings. We weren't allowed in that inner sanctum, but we were welcome to participate in the group ceremonies. This year we were a bit late after eating our watia, just in time for the after-ceremony drinking party, but Sam and I attended two years ago when we saw more of the ceremonies.

All of the island's officers, or authorities, were gathered at a stone table dressed in full regalia: black trousers, white shirt, black and white vest, red cumberbund, plus multicolored knitted earflap hat under a black felt sombrero and a black short jacket. Many also carried a short staff. Their wives were seated on the ground facing the men. Taquile has two women authorities now, a recent change in the traditional male-only office holders, and they sat with the men in the row behind the table. The table had several rounds of large estalias full of coca leaves. Sometimes the people attending were invited to come up and choose leaves, sometimes only the authorities chose leaves. Sometimes people would go around and generously pass the leaves out among the attendees and then we would pick our own k'intus which would soon be gathered up to add to the offering. Beer was offered all around by the authorities and individuals would offer their alcohol, serving from the bottle cap.

New Age Tourism: A guide in Puno claims to have been called by PachaMama for spiritual tourism. We happened to connect with her group in time to be invited to a ceremony she had planned with a class she and her partner were teaching. The students were tour guides and artists and restaurant/hospedaje owners from all around Lake Titicaca. Her ceremony reminded me of our Colorado Winter Solstice fire ceremony combined with a lake limpia. They kept saying this was a very ancient ceremony, but it seemed strange to me to write one's intentions on paper to put in the fire instead of using coca leaves. Silvano attended a second ceremony from this group a few weeks later and reported that they used coca leaves in a shorter ceremony, which sounded like an improvement. This group participated in a second ceremony in the afternoon, a strong traditional coca leaf ceremony led by a aged Taquile Paco (shaman).

The Paco had two assistants: One would pick out kintus of three coca leaves and hand them to the Paco, who dipped each in wine, called mountain or locale by name one at a time, blew on the kintu and placed it on the pile on top of a large piece of paper. The second assistant would place flowers and a pinch of herbs on top of the leaves. After a while other people called out suggestions of places to include in the naming. I thought of our Colorado mountains and included them in my own offering, but didn't call them aloud. By the time he finished, the coca leaves were a few inches deep! It took an additional large piece of paper to wrap up the pile to complete the despachio.

The paco and his assistants made a couple more despachos, including one bought ready to go from the market, full of candy and paper money, and then built a fire made entirely of dried cow dung, started using alcohol. When it was burning well, they submitted the despachos to burn, also lots of incense. The circle of people gathered around were invited to toss in some powdered incense, which not only smelled great, but made a delightful flare of fire.

Afterward we shared some alcohol and danced to sampoña (pan-pipe flute) music and walked up to the restaurant and house where the visitors were staying. Beer was shared all around and some speeches given. Our friend from many years, Juan Quispe Huatta, became the defacto master of ceremonies, and he invited me to speak. I emphasized that although I love Lake Titicaca and certainly aknowlege the sacredness of this place, we need to remember that Patcha Mama is everywhere, that the whole globe is sacred and deserving of our protection and respect. AND that if they are going to promote Spiritual Tourism, they need to include all of Taquile (and other places around the lake), not just this one restaurant.

Watia, earth-roasted

Watia, the Quechua word for roasting potatoes, oca, and other vegetables in an earth oven

Natalia said, "¿Why don't we make watia?" an Easter tradition. So we did.

First you make a dome of dirt clods, usually in the field where you JUST harvested root crops--potatoes or oca. A strong stone door is useful.

Then you build a fire and feed it until the dirt clods start to glow red hot. Next you rake out most of the ashes and coals and throw in a handful of potatoes. Knock in the dirtclods at the top of the dome and break them up. The soil is very sandy, so easy to break.

Add more potatoes, break up more clods, then begin adding oca. At the last are the haba beans in their pods. Cover the whole pile with dirt to insulate.

The kids made their own small watia and added fresh corn in the husk when it was ready.
After an hour or so, come back and dig it all up. Some potatoes are a bit burned or crispy like potato chips, but mostly the food is perfectly cooked and wonderful. Brush off the sand (Hey! it's sterile!), wrap it in an uncuña (handwoven food-carrying cloth) and gather the family around. We dipped ours in avocado-onion-tomato, fresh piquante salsa, and the traditional salty green clay. Sometimes they make lakeweed (like seaweed) cooked in milk.

When we roast the same vegetables in the solar oven, using no fuel at all, people always say, "Oh, it's just like watia!"

More Family Time

These two good friends are cousins, Natalia age 13 and Juana Luz age 14. Both are our goddaughters, growing up and beautiful.

We brought Cusi a gift, a set of artisan projects, from her godparents Luke and Ellen from Gunnison. In this picture she is concentrating on an arrangement of beads for a bracelet for herself. The candle making kit suggested using a hair dryer to warm and soften the pressed wax so it could be rolled around a wick, but we figured out that body heat would do the trick! We've had fun working together with the projects.

Cusi's little sister, Sarita. On our 2006 trip Sam made a very special relationship with her just as she was learning to walk! Now they are fast friends.

Sam has remade a magic relationship with sweet, shy Cecilia. I did something to make her laugh and slightly cover her face just as I snapped the picture. He admits that these little girls easily steal his heart.

Laundry drying at the rough dock just below our house.My good friend, Nancy Schweiger, eats watermelon here with Eufrasia. Nancy and Sue Pritchett are godmothers to Ivan, Silvano and Ruperta's oldest son. This is their first visit since cutting his hair in the godparent ceremony 7 years ago.