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Truth is beauty, The Q’ero
There seems to be a worldwide misunderstanding concerning certain rites of passage connected with the Q’ero Indians of Peru. It is very sad for me to watch so many people being blindly accepting of these rites. They are an illusion, exploitation and deception of a simple and practical people.
Don Manuel Quispe, the most well-known and respected Q’ero elder passed along the only true Q’ero rites before his death in 2004. These new rites have been ‘suddenly found’ after his death and have nothing to do with the ancient Andean sacred traditions.
I must admit that I was also caught by the magical stories of the Q’ero. In my first introduction to these traditions of the Andes I was told the Q’ero live on Mt. Ausangate. Not true. They live many mountains away on Huamanleaper. I was told whoever climbed Ausangate without a problem could go to Colloriti, the Snowstar on Ausangate, and collect the most sacred stones for the group. Although a few of us were successful in completing the climb, we were not allowed to go to Colloriti because of the danger involved. It is amazing how Colloriti is actual also five mountains away on Sinakari. I also want to add here that my first teacher has never been to Colloriti or the Q’ero villages. Now, commercial trips are being led to have ceremony on Colloriti. The truth of Colloriti is that you do not pay to go and you do not ask to go. A real Paq’o, or Andean medicine person, as an honor to his work and the level he has achieved, asks you to participate with them in ceremony on this mountain. It is a magical gift from your teacher. You never ask to go and it cannot be bought.
The traditions of the Andes have been manipulated and exploited and a false fairy tale-like existence of the Q’ero nation has been reported for the personal financial benefit of certain people. These people who have gained financially have never given back one penny to the Q’ero nation.
The many books that have been written about these simple and practical people have been written by those who have interviewed the Q’ero in the low elevations of the Sacred Valley of the Inca, approximately 8,000 feet in elevation. The Q’ero nation exists at 14,000 - 19,000 feet in elevation. There can be no understanding of the Q’ero nation unless you have lived with them and been a part of their community.
It is difficult for me to watch this world-wide phenomenon of “intelligent and developed” Westerners being so desperate that they accept rites of passage of an ancient tradition being sold for a weekend and for an outrageous price. The rites of the people of the Andes are transmitted through sacred stones and tools, through a lineage and through specific training with specific personal experience. Without these sacred tools, no one can receive any more than maybe a pleasant feeling.
Where has our self-respect and rational behavior gone? If it is this easy, it cannot be real. What is happening in our world? Have we become so desperate for healing or financial gain that we are blinded by these false teachers?
The Q’ero people until recently have kept their traditions separate and pure from any organized religion. When, where and how did all these other traditions enter the ancient traditions of the Andes? The Q’ero, until recently, have never heard of any form of the angelic realm. These people do not know who Quetzalcoatl is. He is not from the traditions of the Inca. The Q’ero of the Andes did not know Christ or Buddha. The Q'ero people have also been called ‘the direct descendants of Inca blood.’ They people are not direct descendants of the Inca. They are a pure ancient people who have lived in the mountains of Peru since before Inca times and have existed and survived long after the Inca disappeared. They have a beautiful spiritual practice in connection with the universe. They are simple farmers and incredibly fine weavers.
I am the founder and president of Vanishing Cultures Foundation, Inc., a foundation I started, with my husband in 1995. This organization is a registered non-profit Massachusetts-based organization. We have been the only organization which has consistently assisted the Q’ero nation annually until 2005. We have never had any assistance or donations from any of the people who now take credit for our work there. We are also referred to as ‘friends’ of other societies. We are not. Others continually and mistakenly take credit for our work.
I personally have been to the Q’ero nation thirteen times, averaging two weeks each trip. My family and I along with Chino, Henry and others from my community sat with Don Manuel and cared for him in my home. We sat with him all night long in the emergency room when he was ill in the United States. Jim from Alberta, Canada also offered to come and help Don Manuel. Many took credit for healing him. But the truth is that they just wanted to put him on a plane and force him to continue his last US Tour in 2002. Don Manuel cried. All he wanted to do was return home. He was forced to go to the West Coast to make money for others. Never once did any of these other people who have had great success from exploiting him ever come and sit with him when he was sick. Never once did any of these so-called teachers offer assistance or visit him in the Q’ero’s in the last years of his life. Don Manuel asked me often where the others were, the ones he thought of as family. The ones who have forgotten him.
I was with Don Manuel when he left his final conscious state. Don Manuel left one of his sons and me his final life rites as well as a request to please tell his students worldwide to stop accepting the mistruths of his tradition and to please get the misinformation out of his tradition.
When Don Manuel Quispe could not make money for these “teachers,” he was discarded like trash and literally thrown on to the streets of Cuzco with a mattress, a TV and the clothes he was wearing. His usefulness was done. He was forced to sign a legal document, containing outrageous terms, which he could not read and signed with his thumb print, because he never learned how to read or write. It was in Spanish, Don Manuel knew very little Spanish.
There are only two medicine people living and working in the Q’ero nation for the last many years. These so-called elders who are teaching are very young. Until very recently few Q’ero even spoke Spanish. They are being told what to say by these famous “teachers” of the west. The Q'ero people do not know what is being taught in the United States. These new rites given away during workshop are another illusion and exploitation of a very beautiful, simple and practical people. This is being done purely for money and personal gain. How can a simple workshop teach you what takes a native person a lifetime to learn and understand? These rites are not real. The tools used to give the rites are not real. This is all an illusion which is making an abundance of money for a certain few people. None of this money is returned in any way to the people of the Q’ero nation. Most of the Q’ero elders now teaching these “rites” do not live in the Q’ero villages any more. None of them do sacred ceremony of any sort for their community. They only perform for groups for the money.
Many years ago I was asked by the man who introduced me to my true teacher Don Manuel Quispe to assist in a program sharing the traditions of the Andes to a Native American meeting in western Massachusetts. We arrived in a bit of a hostel environment because the Native Americans could not understand how we could sell our spiritual practices for money. At the time I did not feel that was the case. I felt this man was truly sharing something beautiful that could help heal people and the world. At the end of the weekend, I was able to spend some time with the Grandmother of the Native Americans along with some of her sons from Alberta, Canada. We spoke of many things concerning the Native American people as well as the traditions of the Andes. I understand now what they were telling me. They told me not to stay quiet when untruths were said concerning this tradition. They told me to not get caught in the shadow side that was coming. The Grandmother told me she had watched many of her people get caught in the world and that is why so much was being lost in her culture. She warned me to walk carefully and I listened. These Native American people could see where the Andean tradition was going… money, exploitation, power, greed, the shadow side… all for personal gain.
So why have I decided to speak now?
I see our world becoming desperate which makes us gullible to anyone with an easy answer. Always remember there is no easy answer. Nothing is free, healing takes time and hard work. Being a healer can be a difficult path. Being a person with integrity is also a difficult path but it is the only path we should be embracing.
I would like you to ask these teachers and elders the following questions:
When were you ever in the Q’ero villages and who were you with?
Where are the photos to validate your stories?
What have you done to assist the Q’ero Nation?
Why, after all the first books published, has no one noticed that Don Manuel Quispe (the major teacher of Andean medicine) disappeared and suddenly the real teachers have become the Laika, a tribe from the jungle who are shadow workers? Has anyone noticed this dramatic change?
Also…
Find someone outside the circle. Find someone who can interpret Quechua and ask these elders who have just come down with new information if they know what they are teaching?
Do they know what an archangel is or even an angel? Ask them to describe an angel.
Who taught them to say what they are doing?
Ask them when the last time was that they have done any ceremony in the Q’ero nation?
Where exactly do they live? How long have they lived there?
Many people have asked me to write a book about the Q’ero truths. I have just finished my book. It will be available in the early fall. The name: Truth is beauty, The Q’ero. It is about the truths, the simplicity and the lives of the people of the Q’ero nation. I am a scientist by training. I have professionally documented, recorded and photographed every one of my thirteen visits to the Q’ero Nation. My book has over 75 photos which ultimately show the Q’ero people in their simplicity and purity. Some of my stories may sound familiar. It is because, after sharing them with a friend, they were published in his book as his own. This book is not to cause conflict. It is to do as I was asked by Don Manuel Quispe just before his death in December of 2004. It is to tell his students worldwide to stop accepting the mistruths of his tradition. It is to get the misinformation out of his tradition.
Check out our website (www.vanishingcultures.org) to see the truth of who has really helped the native people of Peru. Then ask your teachers some important questions!
Munay,
Denise Kinch
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