For millennia, people have integrated agriculture into their way of life. The communities of the altiplano have a special connection with the land because it provides them with food. For this reason, Aymara culture is strongly linked to rituals such as the challa,[1] at carnivals and in August, which is the month of Pachamama. [1] Ritual with food and drink to thank the Pacha for a blessing.
The connection with the land is internalized in daily actions, in how people relate to food, such as cow’s milk, potatoes and chuño,[1] which are symbols of Aymara’s cultural identity. This relationship is often manifested in expressions such as when an Aymara woman warns you: “Be careful not to spill the milk when boiling it, because if it does, the cow’s teat will crack,” meaning the cow will no longer provide milk for her calves or her caretakers. If you are digging potatoes and you accidentally split the potato in two with the chuntilla,[2] rather than getting upset with you, they will say: “Take the potato in your hands, apologize, and kiss the potato.” Just as they show their connection with the land, women are intimately related to the food elements, from a communitarian and integrative point of view. [1] Freeze-dried potato from the altiplano. [2] Hoe for farming.
They carry a basket, the chuntilla,[1] an ahuayo[2] with a snack or apthapi,[3] several yutes and lots of energy on their backs, ready for the harvest season (February to May). Migrant Aymara communities who live in La Paz and in El Alto move to their communities of origin to harvest what has been sown and the hopes that the frost has not affected their crops, mostly potatoes, the most prized of all. [1] Tool used to weed the soil, open furrows, hoeing, and harvesting. [2] Colorful wool fabric used by women to carry children or carry things. [3] Many different foods to share.
Urban gardens are born as an act of resilience and an act of recognition of our capacity to produce our own food in a sustainable way and thus guarantee food security for our families.
After the growth of concrete and buildings in metropolitan cities, which inhabit them more than trees, plants, or natural recreational spaces, a resistance movement has emerged. Migrants who grew up in the cities of La Paz and El Alto are seeking spaces for intimate encounters with food and the earth. Urban gardens are born as an act of resilience and an act of recognition of our capacity to produce our own food in a sustainable way and thus guarantee food security for our families. Moreover, urban gardens are the engine of collective productivity where wisdom and knowledge are rescued in favor of space and against individualism.
In the Pampahasi region of La Paz, which in Aymara means fragile meadow, there is a garden led by awichas and achilas,[1] which emerges from the idea of replicating leisure gardens. In 2019, after a trip to Spain, Petrona Mamani, one of the founders of the orchard, learned about these leisure gardens, where several people gather to cultivate in a sustainable way. Thus began the transformation of a space inhabited by garbage, to become a space that generates productivity. [1] Grandmothers and grandfathers.
They begin their day in the garden, where the harmonious smell is energyzing, while they greet the plants, recognizing them as living beings, open the tent, check the crops, weed and water them, before moving on to the “relaxation room.” This is a space where they akullika,[1] talk, dialogue, nothing leaves those four walls because it is a community, the seats are arranged in a circle, inviting everyone to see each other and to be connected and be part of the community, in this case, the grandmothers and grandfathers. In addition, you can feel how their energies and the essence of an intergenerational community meet, where the elderly teach knowledge, wisdom, and their mother tongue, Aymara. [1] The act of chewing coca leaves.
More than an orchard, this is a community of resistance where the sweet kisas,[1] with their wrinkles and gray hair, are the Awichas community, a community fabric with the objective of making communion with their ancestral knowledge and with Mother Earth/Pachamama. They are a seed of sustainable hope, knowledge, experience, and good energy that allows them to produce healthy, wholesome, and ecological food. At the same time, it is an opportunity to share regenerative moments with the awichas and achilas. Each moment is a time for learning, dedication, and attention to the garden beds. [1] Elderly person.
And this space has been expanding. The community is now made up of 25 Aymara elders who have migrated from their original rural communities. The garden has two community houses, an alpaca wool spinning and weaving workshop, and community kitchens that provide nutritional support to its members. Coexistence is based on reciprocity, self-management and complementarity, where the collective takes precedence over the individual. The community grows potatoes, fava beans, peas, onions, turnips, radishes, tomatoes, and cucumbers for self-consumption.
Turning the soil, sowing, helping plants germinate, caring for the plots and irrigation is arduous and constant work, but above all, is communal work, where energies make synergy and move together to see the daughters of the Pacha grow and be born, which the Pachamama gives us as an offering in gratitude for taking care of her.
- Ritual with food and drink to thank the Pacha for a blessing. ↩︎
- Freeze-dried potato from the altiplano. ↩︎
- Tool used to weed the soil, open furrows, hoeing, and harvesting. ↩︎
- Colorful wool fabric used by women to carry children or carry things. ↩︎
- Many different foods people bring to share. ↩︎
- Grandmothers and grandfathers. ↩︎
- The act of chewing coca leaves. ↩︎
- The elders. ↩︎
