AmaruArts for Andean AgriCultural Revival

AmaruArts promotes revitalization of the biodiversity and health of the lands and peoples
of the Tropical Andes. This region is among the world’s centers of origin of cultivated
plants and is the most diverse of all global biodiversity hotspots. This is due not only to
tropical location and topographic variation, but also to the cultures that co-evolved
sophisticated agricultural civilizations over millennia. Despite decimation from five
centuries of colonization since the Conquest, remnants of their vast variety of crops and
associated knowledge still survive. However, today global policies and technologies
imposed in disregard for the sacrality of life on our planet are the greatest menace for them
and for us all. The cultural wisdom of the Andes holds many keys for our world gone astray.

The seeds of inspiration for AmaruArts were planted in my childhood, germinated in my

youth, and began to manifest after my return home to the Andes after a seven-year
absence. I was raised in Quito, born to parents who were educators and first-generation
immigrants from the province of Carchi. My brother, sister, and I grew up in a household
where poetry, music, and theatre were cultivated and commonly shared in extended family
gatherings. My brother and I, with some high school friends, formed an Andean music band
(Pacari), popular in its days. With support of a dear uncle, a rural extension worker beloved
in the indigenous communities of Imbabura, I was able to make extended visits and
conduct my graduation project on the impacts of missionary activities on their culture.

I lived with traditional Kichwa families in both the Andes and the Amazon, becoming
immersed in their cultures and conversant in their language. These experiences opened my
understanding to their world views of humans as deeply interconnected with nature. Earth
and universe are conscious and alive; the sun, moon, mountains, soil, water, plants, and
animals are all living beings akin to extended family. Respect, gratitude, and practices of
ayni (reciprocity) are principles that enrich the lives and well-being of all. I was fascinated
by their holistic vision of time and space, present in oral histories, in daily life, in
community ceremonies and festivities laden with symbolism and linked to natural cycles.
Astronomical observation is related to their architecture and guides their calendar of
agricultural activities and mingas (communal work). Members of all ages participate in the
mingas, including the musicians who play to animate their unified labor.

Upon my return to the city, it was brutally apparent that our society is divorced from the
natural world and the indigenous peoples of our country; and is oblivious to the rapid
destruction of both. Until the 1990s, indigenous languages (such as Kichwa) were not
taught or allowed to be spoken in the schools. Among the younger generations many did
not learn to speak their own language, although some understand from hearing their elders
at home. At the same time, rural youth are attracted to the prospects of modern urban life
and/or are impelled to migrate by the lack of opportunities in their own communities.
Acculturation and urbanization have been ongoing for a long time but since the “Oil Boom”
and the “Green Revolution”, starting in the 1970s, change is accelerating as never before.
Introduction of hybrid seeds dependent on chemical fertilizers and pesticides increased
soil erosion and loss of native seed varieties while harming the health of farmers,
consumers, and entire ecosystems. The invasion and adoption of processed and fast foods
into the diet have been accompanied by a corresponding surge in degenerative diseases
that were previously rare. Even in rural areas, pharmaceutical drugs and clinics have
displaced most of the Jambik wasi (medicine house) where skilled healers use plants and
natural treatments. This heritage is also being lost as such healers die without passing on
their knowledge due to lack of committed successors. This reality awoke in me the need for
teaching children and youth to value and learn the cultural knowledge and wisdom of their
elders.

Motivated by these issues, I began studies in anthropology and languages at universities in

Quito. However, I soon realized that continuing on this path would not lead to practical
solutions I was seeking. My research led me to explore the potential of cinema and
multimedia as tools to support indigenous cultural survival. I applied for and won a
scholarship in the best social communication and cinema program in Latin America, at the
University of Sao Paulo (USP) in Brazil. Studying and living there in one of the world’s
largest cities, with a population exceeding that of my entire country, was a transformative
experience. By my senior year I was working in USP’s multimedia ‘School of the Future’.
After graduating I was hired by a TV station in Florianopolis, one of Brazil’s most desirable
cities. Opportunities opened like none available to me in Ecuador, so I returned home for a
farewell visit before starting a new life in my adopted land.

Soon after returning I was contracted to produce an educational video for a local NGO
(CEIMME). One afternoon while at their office in Quito, a U.S.American (Jeff) arrived in
search of a videographer to film the Fiesta del Coraza in San Rafael and Inti Raymi in
Cayambe.1 This was at the behest of leaders of the Kichwa indigenous federation
ECUARUNARI-Pichincha (PRR) who wanted to document the revitalization of their fiestas.
This was an opportunity to apply my new skills in my old territory and the next day we
were filming in San Rafael.

My task in Cayambe was much more involved. Jeff was working with PRR as the technical
coordinator of the Permacultura Cayambe (PC) project to help address problems of land
degradation and outmigration from their communities. At that time, PC was hosting the All
Species Project (ASP) to prepare a musical play as part of Inti Raymi. Using tall banners and
stilt-walkers in animal costumes (e.g., Andean bears, condors), the three-part play depicted
the region’s ecological history with past harmony, present-day destruction, and vision for a

1
See also: www.slideshare.net/CicayMuseo/fiestas-de-cayambe.

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regenerative future. The cast and crew were a mix of artists and activists from over a dozen
countries together with indigenous participants from both the Andes and Amazon.
Presentation of the ASP play at Inti Raymi was the culmination of two month’s preparation
connected with activities of the PC project. The process began with slide shows and
discussions at local schools; students were invited to the studio to make the props, papier
mache masks, and bamboo frame puppets used in the play. A booklet was written for the
communities and schools about Inti Raymi related to the agriculture of their ancestors. 2
Contrary to the stereotype of “backward”, the Cayambi-Caranquis were master
horticulturists, landscape architects, and watershed managers. Headwater forests,
greenbelts, terraces, swales, canals, and reservoirs were interwoven for soil and water
conservation, irrigation, and microclimate management. Their camellones in the humid
valleys represent the world’s most sustainable agricultural system and were far more
productive than the “modern” monocultures (cattle, flowers) that occupy the land today. 3

Photos: Mount Cayambe and Chitachaka School (PC)

2
Permacultura Cayambe. 1994. Inti Raymi Kayambi: Celebrando nuestras relaciones con la Naturaleza.
Auspicio: Pichincha Runakunapak Rikcharimui, Proyecto Todas las Especies, Municipio de Cayambe.
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Camellones are alternating raised beds and canals that produce favorable environmental effects by reducing
moisture and temperature extremes. When cleaning the canals, sediments rich in algae, phosphates, and
other nutrients were deposited on the beds, thus augmenting soil fertility. This combined with beneficial crop
associations, rotations, and use of compost provided harvests twice, and up to three times, per year.
Polycultures such as maize, beans, squash, quinoa, chocho (lupin) were rotated with root/tuber crops like
potato, melloco, oca, or mashua. Canals were used for aquaculture of fish, frogs, ducks, and aquatic plants.
The biodiversity of the system produces much greater ‘health per acre’ than any monoculture. In the
Prehispanic period, there were over 1200 hectares (3000 acres) of camellones in the Cayambe Valley and
over 500 hectares (1250 acres) in the neighboring Imbacocha Valley. (See: Batchelor, B. 1980. Los camellones
de Cayambe en la Sierra deI Ecuador. América Indígena 40(4): 671-689).

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Permacultura Cayambe (PC) was focused on practical application with the following main
components: 1) nursery and training center; 2) community school; 3) ecotourism project
that helped support the school; 4) courses, workshops, and resident apprenticeship for
local youth and visiting students. The school was built in the region’s most marginalized
community by working in mingas, including planting of windbreaks and live fence with
native species, hand-digging of swales and ponds, and sowing of cover crops. It was difficult
to establish food gardens due to some of the neighbors and their cattle. The project paid the
teacher’s salary until the school was eligible for inclusion in the government’s bilingual
education program. However, it was not possible to find a good bilingual (Kichwa-Spanish)
schoolteacher and this aspiration for the school remained unfulfilled.
For me, the most captivating part of the project was the PC center located in the outskirts of
Cayambe. Here a tiny barren lot (0.12 acre) was transformed into a food forest and
operated as the project headquarters and demonstration site. Components of the design
included: rooftop rainwater harvesting and storage tanks, greenhouse, multistory garden
and tree nursery, herb spiral, miniature aquaculture ponds, solar guinea pig pen, compost
and earthworm systems, and seed bank. Heirloom seeds were collected and exchanged, and
over 70 native tree and shrub species were distributed in participating communities.4 The
site was developed by Jeff and apprentices who lived and worked together. They occupied
the small house of two bedrooms with a loft for visitors, with usually from 4 to 6 people
living there at a time. Far from feeling ‘institutional’, the project had an ambience of family.

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Among the species produced in the PC nursery are Andean alder (aliso), arrayán, avocado (aguacate),
blackberry (mora), blueberry (mortiño), cedro, cedrón, cherimoya, cherry (capulí), cholán, elderberry (sauco),
fig (higo), goldenberry (uvilla), guaba, guayaba, molle, mountain papayas (babaco, chamburo, chigualcán),
naranjilla, passionfruits (granadilla, maracuyá, taxo), pumamaki, quishuar, sweet cucumber (pepino dulce),
tree tomato (tomate de árbol), trinitaria, walnut (nogal), willow (sauce), and yagual.

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 Photos: Permacultura Cayambe Center (PC)

I immediately felt at home here. ‘Workshops’ in the garden/nursery were done in small
mingas using traditional crops, planting calendar, and even music! Participants left well fed
and with useful ideas, plants, and seeds to sow and share in their communities. The lady
who came weekdays to prepare lunch had a wide repertoire of native dishes and medicinal
plant remedies. Daily fare was whole plant-based foods fresh from the garden,
communities, or local markets. Lunch was communal with extra prepared for unexpected
guests. Community visitors often came with their children, who were welcome and given
special attention. As were the elders, who freely shared their stories. On weekends and
evenings it was a gathering place for youth to socialize and play music. In all, much was
reminiscent of my time living with the indigenous families of Imbabura.

Familiarity with the language and culture eased the connections, and soon I had several
invitations to visit the communities, including Chitachaka where the school was located.
Visiting Chitachaka renewed my inspiration to contribute to a movement where children
are respected and empowered, connected with nature and their ancestral culture, and
educated in lifeways that bring well-being and hope for their own future and for life on the
planet. The current system is failing on all three counts. The children are enclosed for long
hours of rote learning under an obsolete pedagogy detached from their human potential
and cultural reality. After departing school most will be obliged to migrate to find work

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since farm livelihoods are too marginal. This is due to the degraded condition of the land,
dependence on expensive external inputs and credit, and low prices paid by intermediaries
that sell their produce. In all their years of school, these issues are never addressed. Most
youth will leave to labor in the greenhouse flower plantations of Cayambe. Their jobs do
not endure long since the intensive use of agrochemicals that poison the soil and water
inevitably does the same to their health.5

Photos: Valen with children and parents in Chitachaka (AmaruArts)

I was invited to lead a series of workshops of my own design with the children. We always
went outside to play and explore, with voice, sound, movement, story-telling, and games.
Together we formed a safe space where all were co-creators and actors who could express
themselves freely without censure or judgement. This process connected with and
supported the gardening activities, and was my first experiment with ‘AmaruArts’.

Photos: Children’s Garden in Imbutzij – Chitachaka (AmaruArts)

Our vision of the future is of an empowered generation making a good living by protecting
and restoring the integrity and diversity of life in the Andes. Evidence from ancient
tradition, current science, and the lived experiences of former apprentices demonstrate
that this is possible. Over centuries, some of the world’s most productive and sustainable
agricultural systems were developed in this region. 6 A recent (2018) study based on data
from 60 farms in Cayambe, comparing 30 agroforestry systems with 30 conventional
5
See: www.motherjones.com/politics/2002/01/deflowering-ecuador;
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91720/greenhouses-of-cayambe-valley.

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agriculture systems, found that the former provides significantly better conditions to
support sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers. 7 For over two decades, at least
two proteges of the PC project have established good livelihoods and raised their families
from their small agroforestry farms in the communities of Chitachaka and Pisambilla.

Photos: Agroforestry-Aquaculture Farm of José Manuel Morales and Olympia Iguago by Chitachaka River (AmaruArts)

Participatory community video is a powerful tool to help realize this vision. Its use can go
from the interior of a community to a global projection through social media. Youth can
produce their own stories based on valuable community life experiences with an original
perspective. They can document ancestral knowledge kept by the elders, farmers, and
others, reflecting on their situations in local and global contexts, and challenging dominant
narratives to propose creative alternatives. Community youth video-makers have the
potential to become dynamic actors for change by documenting and sharing oral
knowledge, facilitating reflection and debate, thus leading toward community
empowerment. The value of who they are, and what they know and have is crucial for the
survival of their lands and life forms, and of their role as stewards of the Andes.

6
Valdez, F. (Ed.). 2006. Agricultura Ancestral, Camellones y Albarradas: Contexto social, usos y retos del pasado
y del presente. Coloquio Agricultura Prehispánica sistemas basados en el drenaje y en la elevación de los suelos
cultivados. Quito: Ediciones Abya-Yala. https://agrobolivia.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/02camellones.pdf.
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Có rdova, R., N. Hogarth, M. Kanninen. 2018. Sustainability of smallholder livelihoods in the Ecuadorian
Highlands: A comparison of agroforestry and conventional agriculture systems in the Indigenous territory of
Kayambi People. Land 7, 45, doi:10.3390/land7020045. “The results indicate that agroforestry systems
contain greater agrobiodiversity; more diversified livelihoods; better land tenure security and household
income; more diversified irrigation sources and less dependency on rainfall than conventional systems”.

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- Valentina Benavides with Jefferson Mecham
Quito, April 2021