CRAFT STORIES | THE AMERICAS | PERU | TEXTILE


The Weavers of Q’ero

 


High up amid the mountains of Peru, the last children of the Incas weave together heritage and meaning, shadow and light. Johana Sarmiento and Antonio Sorrentino capture their uniquely traditional craft processes and ways of life for Cabana Magazine Issue 24.

 

From the day I was entrusted with writing this piece, I felt the immense responsibility it would entail to take the reader on a journey through the magical lands of Q’ero. But not only—truthfully—through its lands but also through its worldview, its traditions, and its artistic expressions; in short, through its culture. Q’ero is an autonomous Indigenous population that has managed to preserve itself even after the Spanish occupation of the 16th century. The last children of the Incas, as they call themselves.

Perhaps the first thing I must do is to describe the setting, to recount how this vast, storybook-like landscape, magnetic in its apparent infinity, is sheltered by towering mountains wrapped in cotton-like clouds. At over 4,700 meters above sea level, the air is thin, the effort constant, and one literally walks among the clouds. 

 

To read the rest of this article, and see Q'ero weaving in action, order Cabana Issue 24.

 

Words by Johana Sarmiento

Images by Antonio Sorrentino

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