Don Benito Qori-Huaman

Don Benito Qori Huaman is the story of a Quechua healer who disappeared into a lake high in the Andes. In Quechua cosmology, healers are guardians who maintain a dialogue with the spirits of nature. They watch over the conservation of the environment with rituals and songs. But they are disappearing, in silence, leaving the forests, streams and mountains, in solitude.

Those who remember Don Benito say that in his dreams he would hear waves like an endless song. That one day when he woke up he went to the mountain in search of a lake that appears with the rain. And when he finally found it, Qori Huaman slowly descended into it. 

At sunset, he disappeared with all his secrets, everything became silent, there was no more waves. They say that he did not die, that his spirit lives in the lake.

The story of Qori Huaman became a myth and is also a starting point to talk about the close relationship that Quechua healers and guardians have with nature. Many disappear and are never looked for, as if there was no place for them in this world.

This project is a tribute to the protectors of the environment who in their mission, disappeared in strange circumstances.