About Washwa (English)

My name is Washwa, or Wachi for some, which means "Patito Andino" (Andean Duck) and "Pato Salvaje" (Wild Duck).

I was born on January 1, 1991, in Huamanga, Ayacucho, into a humble family of Kichwa indigenous people, with roots in the Wariinka and Inca cultures. My community is called Ingawasi.

Huamanga means "sacred hawk," and my mother and grandmother have the surnames Huamán and Huamani. My granddads have the surname Llamocca, associated with a sacred Andean animal. My great-grandmother and grandparents were healers, and my grandmother, my mother's mother, was an ancestral healer and midwife.

My parents moved to the city so we could attend a Spanish-speaking school and I learned Spanish (Castellano). My connection with nature and the mountains has always been strong. At seven years old, I began working and studying, learning to make textiles with ancestral traditions. By nine, I was already teaching Inca textiles.

At eleven, I visited Cusco for the first time and felt a deep connection with the Sacred Valley, especially with Pisaq, where I realized my heritage was a blend of pre-Incan indigenous, Kichwa, and Quechua Inca cultures. I returned to Ayacucho, finished school and high school, and at fifteen, moved to Cusco to study my culture.

I lived in Cusco and various parts of the Sacred Valley but felt most at home in Pisaq. There, I established an Inca textile school and workshop. I quickly integrated with the local people thanks to my knowledge of Kichwa and the ancestral wisdom I shared.

I found an adoptive mother in the Ampay community in Pisaq, who shares the same name and surname as my biological mother. I am happily living between both languages, Kichwa and Quechua, and am delighted with my roots. In a few days, after 18 years, my biological parents will visit me in Pisaq, while my adoptive mother from Ampay remains a part of my life.