A multimedia team examined how Latin America's Indigenous people responded to COVID-19.
In the Andes, communities responded by reviving their ancient herbal pharmacopeias, their food sovereignty, and their connection with the land. The news coming from the major cities was grim: people dying unattended in the streets or in their homes; hospitals unequipped and overwhelmed; thousands without work, food or health care access.
Life in the nearby traditional communities, or ayllus, contrasted sharply; the death toll was markedly lower, and in many cases nonexistent. Ayni, or reciprocity, is practiced there, among each other and with the Pachamama and their apus, the guardian spirits of their sacred mountains.
As a nonprofit journalism organization, we depend on your support to fund more than 170 reporting projects every year on critical global and local issues. Donate any amount today to become a Pulitzer Center Champion and receive exclusive benefits!
From the Kallawaya and the Qhara Qhara of Bolivia to the Q’ero of Peru and the Salasaka of Ecuador, the principles of sumak kawsay, good living, meant turning back to ancestral ways and taking care of each other in the hard times. The following video, a trailer for Legacy of the Andes, is part of the series Legacy of the Andes, part two of The Esperanza Project’s transmedia Cosmology & Pandemic series.
Produced by Alan Zambrana, Carlos A. Idrobo, Manuel Martínez Calvo, Koka Tv, Solange Castro Molina, Omar Alarcón, Juan Antonio Correa Calfín, Nicolás Orión, Kayla Vandervort, Dr. Raymy Chiliquinga, Kumiko Hayashi, José Huamán, Delia Ackerman, Carlo Brescia, Esteven Guio, Fredy Conde Huallpa
