Wisdom Basket: Earth Beings + Kusi Smiles

In this text, Marisol de la Cadena takes a multi-year journey with one of the lineage-holders from the Paqo healer tradition in the mountains above Cusco, Peru.

This book was a beautiful pilgrimage as she learns from Mariano and Nazario Turpo, not my own Paqo teachers (who are from the Apaza family line) but a trusted wisdom-keepers in their own right, carrying the Andean cosmology to a wider (if still small and niche) world who want to learn from the elders, not from an outsider’s vision of their lifeways.

In this narrative, we are reminded that all that is sacred in our more-than-human community are “earth beings” and elders themselves.

Marisol de la Cadena is honorable in her approach of centering the storytellers of the Andes — human and beyond.

While this is technically something that could feel a bit academic, it flows more easily.

It flows like Indigenous storytelling more than much scholarship is able to do.

My friend and colleague, Ayleen, and I will be curating an Andean Wisdom Circle later this winter/spring, where we will explore Andean wisdom teachings, beginning with Earth Beings.

I will update when we get closer to solidifying those plans, but in the meantime, I highly recommend de la Cadena’s work. She approaches it with integrity and community partnership in a way that is critical for any work that speaks out of Indigenous community contexts.

She is currently working on a project with Colombian cattle ranchers, which has my geeky heart pitter-pattering in anticipation. What can I say, it is right in my happy place!

I first learned about Kusi Smiles during Indigenous NY Fashion Week (curated by the amazing team at Relative Arts in NYC). My amazing friend and colleague, Delmar Uqualla, was one of the models for this inaugural week of amazing showcasing American Indigenous fashion (from Canada to South America). She told me about one of her fellow models, Sisa Quispe, who was premiering her new film over Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

This poetic short film follows her first work last year, Urpi: Her Last Wish, which can be viewed in full on Focus Feature’s Youtube Channel. Kusi Smiles is described (IMDB) as follows:

Unable to sing, a Quechua teenager returns to her Andean community, where sisterhood, music, and the land that raised her guide her through grief toward healing.

It is still moving through the film festival circuit, but I will be keeping my eye out for its availability. In the meantime, I recommend seeing Urpi: Her Last Wish.

And if you are in NYC I recommend visiting Relative Arts - an Indigenous women run business supporting Indigenous artists from across the Americas in their shop, in their programming/events, and in their historic feat, creating the first Indigenous NY Fashion Week this past Fall 2025.

I will always link to anyone mentioned in any of my posts, because we are interdependent, not just for survival, but for our collective thriving.

I came upon this piece in my Instagram feed this week and discovered the amazing collection of art works by Soni López-Chávez. She creates beautiful pieces, each one a statement of empowerment, resilience, liberation and storytelling grounded in the sacred feminine, Indigenous strength and layered with powerful expressions of the Mexican-Indigenous experience. Check out her shop and support her work. It is no sacrifice. I could fill my walls with her pieces.

And in closing, a little bit of joy!

I created this playlist on Spotify as part of a final project/paper on Mama Coca, this Rebel Hoja, for the end of the fall semester.

I wanted to create an immersive experience and journey with and through her, featuring many Latin artists, many Andean, but not all.

One person I want to highlight is the amazing Renata Flores, who sings in Quechua and Spanish.

You can check out her own version of a Tiny Desk Concert - a personal favorite - on YouTube here.

Feel free to explore the playlist….maybe while you spend time with your own earth neighbors or while building your own relationship with your inner Rebel Hoja.