Reflections of an Andean Woman on the Potentials and Limits of Conviviality and Accompaniment Solidarity Paradigms

A reflection by Global Spains Fellow ICHMAWARMI - Migrant and brown woman, antiracist decolonial artivist

I write this a Brown woman whose grandmothers were Quechua-speakers of the Andes and who migrated from the mountains to the capital city Lima, Perú. This is the reason why I grew up speaking Spanish and not Quechua. Later, different circumstances and travels lead me to migrate to Madrid, Spain, where I have been living for seven years, of which three I have been with a residence permit. Previously, I was undocumented, “sin papeles,” and it is under these conditions that I experience the embodied pain of being “the other,” “the non-human,” “the panchita,” the “sudaca,” ––Spanish slurs for Andean and South American migrants.

Having lived in different places in Europe such as France, Italy, and Spain, I realize that colonization is still something to boast about, they remember their empires with nostalgia for kings and colonial conquest, one of which is the one that I am a product of. One only needs to see how Spain celebrates October 12, its national day, celebrating the day they “discovered us,” a date of national identity and patriotic sentiment rooted in the domination of other territories and cultures. This is reinforced in the allegiance to Spain that applicants need to perform to acquire citizenship, where migrants, as a final step, need to pledge loyalty to the king, even if this is 2024!

Since before migrating, I have joined other Peruvians in the stewardship of 6 Wakas (sanctuaries and sacred sites) of the pre-Inca culture Ichma belonging to the Armatambo archeological complex, in Chorrillos, Lima. These wakas are part of the Inca Qápac Ñam way, and they are close to my family’s home. Being part of the Ichmaytampu collective, thanks to Julio C. Castagnola’s organizing, made me reevaluate and honor the existence of our ancestors, who they were, why they did what they did. It is then that my perspective starts to allign with that of the first peoples. With this disposition of respect towards those who have been and still are the guardians of Mother Earth’s balance and preservation, I met the assembly Plaza de los pueblos in Madrid ––a network of artistic individuals and collectives and racialized migrant artivists who take actions for decolonization and in support of indigenous groups. This group is also the founder of the movement “October 12, nothing to celebrate,” lead by the migrant diaspora, brown folks, and afro-descendants that have been active in consciousness-raising regarding Spanish colonial genocide in Abya Yala (Mesoamerica and South America).

As a member of this collective, I direct the memorial act for the victims of colonization through rituals that follow the Andean cosmologies of my ancestors, as well as those of other peoples and nations including the Aymara, Mapuche, Mexica, Africa and Palestine.

THE COLONIAL WOUND AND ITS REPARATION AS A METHOD TO HEAL MOTHER EARTH

Why do I propose the reparation of the colonial wound as a way of healing Pachamama? Because the contemporary system of life has demonstrated that healthy life on this planet has an expiration date, with droughts, disproportionate misuse of water by companies and technologies like CocaCola, Microsoft, AI, etc. It is outrageous that the stewards of forests, the stewards of rivers, of the Amazon, mountains, and seas are being murdered, each year there is an increase in crimes against environmental activists, their deaths often related to mining companies from the Global North under the direction of the descendants of European colonists. This leads me to the premise that, since 1492 until 2024, colonization has not ceased to exist but has been legalized under new forms, contracts, treaties, pacts, etc. We are seeing it clearly in Palestine, a first nation being exfoliated and colonized by the Israeli entity: as I write the genocide there is ongoing.

Reparation needs strong political will, but it is necessary because those territories that were once colonies are now impoverished. At the same time, they have resources that the Global North uses for its ecological transition, such as lithium in South America or cobalt in the Republic of Congo. Reparations towards healing the colonial wound are much more than mere economic compensation or return of the stolen. It is about the recognition of the autonomy and sovereignty of first peoples, it is knowing that rivers, land, mountains, water, seas, are subjects of rights, it is to respect these cosmovisions, epistemologies, and ways of life, it is leaving an excessive consumerism that alters life-cycles behind, it means respecting seasons and their fruits, forgiving external debts, returning museum elements that fulfilled an energetic and spiritual function for so-called pre-Columbian first peoples. Capitalism is bringing humanity to its downfall and the planet to ecocide, but Andean philosophies like Sumaq Kawsay could help us rethink an alternative of life that is respectful of Mother Earth. This is what repairing to heal means, it is still not too late.

SPAIN = S-PAIN (from Colectivo Ayllu)

When I learned about Global Spains, I was drawn to the notions of conviviality and accompaniment given that the program offered an opportunity for US students and migrants in Spain to share and exchange. Learning about other perspectives and visions was very rewarding, especially the similarities I saw between those who are also from the South but living in other parts of the North. We recognized each other in our ancestries and roots, and in the urgent need to create a world where many worlds fit, as the EZLN in Mexico has claimed. There is only one Earth and all elements in her are essential for her balance, as Arawak and Kogui elders say: “when petroleum is exhausted, the planet will stop moving because it will lack the oil that lubricates it.” In the program, I also got the chance to reconnect with compañeres who are also in the antiracist struggle. For example, just to mention an example, one presenter was a member of Colectivo Ayllu, with whom I lead an educational program and with whom I have built a network of intersections that denounce the coloniality of being, knowing, gender, power, and more.

I would recommend the program to question the kinds of knowledges that do not make it to the university or academia, such as oral knowledges, writings, songs, narratives, paintings, textiles, etc. These are ancestral techniques that have their own science and expertise, but we lose them when our elders pass away and take this knowledge with them. I suggest rehearsing a practice towards the deconstruction of anthropocentric and Eurocentric knowledge, decolonizing knowledge through the provision of space for voices that are seldomly heard with the same level of respect a Greek philosopher would receive.

If we want to avoid epistemic or cultural extractivism, it is precisely starting with this decolonial process, inviting speakers from first nations, or who are racialized and/or migrant, or who have a long trajectory of activism, it is about acknowledging their knowledge. When using a text or idea, always citing, asking if they agree with publication, trying not to be paternalistic but implementing a horizontal approach that is respectful given that, for the most part, first or mestizxs peoples are those who carry the memory of that lineage. And this is not found in books, precisely because the academy is predominantly a white-occupied space.

WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ACCOMPANIMENT AND CONVIVIALITY?

In our migrant community in Madrid, we practice accompaniment and conviviality through a practice of Ayni (reciprocity), minka (community work), Allin Ruray (good practice), Allin Yachay (good learning), Allin munay (good sensing), together with communal participation practices such as consensus, active listening, etc. These are practices that already exist in buen vivir but that today are appropriated in a different language and from New Age angles. Our praxis is articulated around care, around placing life at the forefront, both human and non-human. Our struggle sometimes wears us out, but we try to share our pain as well as our joy through self-organization and using our own resources because of the autonomy it gives us.

As an Ichma guardian and as a student of Sumaq Kawsay and buen vivir, I turn this knowledge into practice through the recuperation of Andean ritualistic knowledges, creating ceremonies for Mother Earth, practicing solstices, equinoxes, Inti Raymi, etc. My spirituality is not incompatible with social struggle, that is why I also practice activism to defend the first peoples from the South who are affected by European policies that legitimized extractive practices. I accompany and organize actions in the streets, campaigns, demonstrations, rallies, etc. to fight for the rights of migrants, and my ceremonial practice is present to provide strength, as my ancestors did. This is why I lead the ceremonial act for the memory of our ancestors on October 11, in Madrid’s Plaza Colón. It is an act of resistance and living memory for our people, our own way of practicing accompaniment and conviviality in a circular move where Mother Earth is our center.