Heritage in Focus: The Legacy of the Stone (Yanacancha-Huaquis, Peru)
Photographers Victor Zea and Diego López Calvín document the Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape, where ancestral technology is being revived to meet the climate crises of today.
By World Monuments Fund
Victor Zea
Heritage in Focus is a collaboration between World Monuments Fund (WMF) and Magnum Foundation to aid local emerging photographers in capturing historic places and their stewards. Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape, Peru, was listed on the World Monuments Watch in 2022.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
In recent years, Miraflores, a town in the Nor Yauyos-Cochas Landscape Reserve of Peru, has seen its population shrink as young people move to the city. Its inhabitants remember the abandonment of Huaquis, their former home built in pre-Hispanic times, due to the lack of water.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
The current climate crisis has struck Miraflores, impacting the quantity and quality of water as glaciers shrink and rainfall becomes scarcer, affecting the wetlands, puna pastures, and agricultural and livestock production.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
The Ancient Town of Huaquis
But the people of Miraflores are reluctant to abandon their land, seeing themselves as the heirs of the incalculably valuable material, natural, and intangible cultural heritage of their previous settlement.
Portrait of Mr. Nelson Vílchez with his son Moisés in his grandparents’ house in the Ancient Town of Huaquis. by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Portrait of Mr. Nelson Vílchez with his son Moisés in his grandparents' house in the Ancient Town of Huaquis. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
The descendants of the Ancient Town of Huaquis—which was designated as Cultural Heritage of the Nation in 1999—seek to raise awareness of their ancestral heritage and foster sustainable tourism.
“I admire Huaquis for the buildings. Since I was a child I have liked this place. I always take my walk here. I work with stone; because of that, I have learned to put up walls. I would like to see it improved and admired by visitors.”
Aníbal Santiago
Portrait of Mrs. Cindy Gallardo in the Ancient Town of Huaquis by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Portrait of Ms. Cindy Gallardo in the Ancient Town of Huaquis. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
“Huaquis has always been very important to me because I was born there, I grew up with my parents there until I was seven years old. It is a beautiful memory.”
Rita Castillo
Portrait of Mrs. Rita Castillo in the Patihuisinca Reservoir. She is one of the last people to be born in the Ancient Town of Huaquis. by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Portrait of Ms. Rita Castillo in the Patihuisinca reservoir. She is one of the last people to be born in the Ancient Town of Huaquis. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
Solarigraph of the sunrise at the Patihuisinca Reservoir. Exposure time: six months by Victor Zea and Diego López CalvínWorld Monuments Fund
Solarigraph of the sunrise in the Patihuisinca Reservoir. Miraflores, Yauyos.
Exposure time: six months.
The dams and lagoons of Yanacancha
Local knowledge is invaluable for resilience and sustainability. Over the past decade, the Miraflores Peasant Community and the Instituto de Montaña have collaborated to mitigate climate change's effects by conserving water and managing the landscape.
Mr. Robegildo Taípe, president of the community, observes the wetlands that regulate water, store carbon, and control soil erosion by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Mr. Robegildo Taípe, president of the community, observes the wetlands that regulate water, store carbon, and control soil erosion thanks to the Yanacancha dams. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
The old Yanacancha water system, created by the ancestors of local people, supplies water to the current town and allows it to survive and face water scarcity.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Totora, an aquatic plant that grows in the Yanacancha lagoons, helps filter the water and remove heavy metals.
Messrs. Plinio Reyes, Elías Pio, Sergio Romero, and Gerardo Segura stand on the blocks of stone that have fallen from the mountains around the Yanacancha lagoons by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Messrs. Plinio Reyes, Elías Pio, Sergio Romero, and Gerardo Segura stand on the blocks of stone that have fallen from the mountains around the Yanacancha lagoons. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
Percy Quiñones and his dog rest on a stone around the Yanacancha lagoons. by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Mr. Percy Quiñones and his dog rest on a stone near the Yanacancha lagoons. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Perú.
Rosa Rojas Espíritu at the dams of the Yanacancha lagoons by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Ms. Rosa Rojas Espíritu at the Yanacancha lagoon dams. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
“Yanacancha is a mystery. It’s also the beginning of my career. I've studied its components because the population consumes its water. My ancestors did this by looking into the future. They knew the water would diminish, and that was why they built the dams.”
Mirtha Alberto
“The pools spring from the subsoil containing minerals such as cadmium, zinc, and iron. The engineering of the Yauyos culture used waterfalls from one lagoon to another, filtering out the metals using totora.”
Mirtha Alberto
Mrs. Mirtha Alberto and her daughter Maia Sánchez touch an ice sheet formed by frost in the Yanacancha lagoon. by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Ms. Mirtha Alberto and her daughter Maia Sánchez touch an ice sheet formed by frost at the Yanacancha lagoon. Miraflores, Yauyos, Lima, Peru.
Facing the Cañete River, to the northwest of Huaquis, lies El Gran Maizal, a succession of irregular and curved pre-Hispanic terraces that covers between 40 and 50 hectares.
The community continues using part of El Gran Maizal for planting corn, fava beans, and alfalfa. The water that irrigates the platforms comes from the Patihuisinca Spring.
“We're worried about the climate crisis, the droughts. Fortunately, our ancestors thought of their grandchildren. We're going to improve the canal that brings water to the Maizal and find a way to direct the water to other fields where the grass is being lost.”
Lucio Rodríguez
The Water Festival
The annual Water Festival is one of the most important events in the community. San Pedro, the patron saint of the spring, is worshiped, and offerings are buried. The residents walk from Miraflores to Huaquis before continuing to Patihuisinca Spring and Canal.
A small section of the canal is symbolically cleaned, accompanied by traditional song and dance. Next to the spring, they prepare a pachamanca and offer attendees a shactada, an activity that reinforces the social cohesion and reciprocal relationships of the community.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Solarigraphy: United by the sun
Solarigraphs are images that show us something that we cannot see with the naked eye: the trajectories of the sun across the sky as the Earth turns on its axis. These photos are mostly made with pinhole cameras and very long exposure times.
We used 40 solarigraphy cameras to capture periods of time ranging from one day to one week to six months, collecting information about the evolution of the path of the sun over Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape in the Miraflores sky.
Untitled by Victor ZeaWorld Monuments Fund
Acknowledgments
WMF, Magnum Foundation, Victor Zea, and Diego López Calvín gratefully acknowledge the following individuals for their support in the entire project and this exhibition.
Instituto de Montaña
Doris Chávez
Rafael Schmitt
Paloma Rodríguez
Mirella Gallardo
Florencia Zapata
World Monuments Fund
Elías Mujica
Renata Távara
Karol Hermoza
Erica X Eisen
Judith Walker
Magnum Foundation
Jessica Murray
Emma Raynes
Kristen Lubben
Comunidad Campesina de Miraflores
Robegildo Taipe (president)
Rita Castillo
Mirtha Alberto
Aníbal Santiago
The whole community
Credits
Photography: Victor Zea Diaz and Diego López Calvín
Coordination: Doris Chávez
Web Development: Erica X Eisen
Design and Storytelling Revision: Rafael Schmitt
Text Editing: Rafael Schmitt
Since 2023, WMF and Instituto de Montaña have collaborated to maintain the Ancient Town of Huaquis and the dams of Yanacancha, as well as to develop sustainable tourism that would benenefit the local community.
Heritage in Focus is a collaboration between WMF and Magnum Foundation to aid local emerging photographers in capturing historic places and their stewards. The eleven photographers were tasked with documenting the sites of the 2022 World Monuments Watch. They are Fransisca Angela (Sumba Island, Indonesia), Adrien Bitibaly (La Maison du Peuple, Burkina Faso), Soumya Sankar Bose (Tiretta Bazaar, India), Eric Gyamfi (Asante Traditional Buildings, Ghana), Elsie Haddad (Heritage Buildings of Beirut, Lebanon), Yael Martínez (Teotihuacán, Mexico), Tahila Moss (Garcia Pasture, USA), Morena Pérez Joachin (Lamanai, Belize), Tace Stevens (Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home, Australia), Prasiit Sthapit (Hitis of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal)
, and Victor Zea (Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape, Peru).
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