On the Tuesday of May 26, 2019 the WGC group visited members of the Shipibo tribe who had emigrated from the Amazon region to Lima. For a few years Sister Katty Huanuco, the Director of the Incarnate Word Sisters Oficina de Justicia, Paz y Tierra has encouraged the community. When we arrived, Sister Katty sat us down on plastic lawn chairs arranged in a circle. We then went around the circle introducing ourselves. About thirty women, men, and children welcomed us.

As we were talking, we learned that their main source of income was selling their ancestral crafts on the streets of Lima. Their designs were passed on from generation to generation with each person having their own unique designs within the general style.

Even though they have moved to Lima, they have retained their native language, the Shipibo, and have kept practicing their own herbal medicine on minor illnesses.

Most of their crafts were fabrics with intricate, maze-like designs stitched on. Other times the tapestries had paintings on them that depicted the daily life in their culture like carrying water back to the village or smoking San Pedro cactus to see across space and time.

Contributed by Paul Chaiken, 5/26/2019

Biology & Chemistry Graduate Studies, UIW