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WARMI
Ancestral Feminism in the Altiplano
We Can Do It!
By mimicking the iconic “We Can Do It” gesture, a universal symbol for feminism, Patricia reaffirms her commitment on women’s rights. Patricia is an indigenous community leader and mother of four. She’s a domestic violence survivor who successfully managed to rebuild her life. After struggling for more than a decade with an alcoholic partner – and overcoming cancer in the process – Patricia reborn from the ashes, landed a great job and now thrives as a touristic entrepreneur. Her resilience contributes to inspire several other women in her community; in 2021, she was eventually elected leader of La Huerta, where she lives with her new supportive partner Martin, and her four children, Camila, Facundo, Emanuel and Nahuel.
The Matriarch
Rosita is a quiet but firm quechua matriarch, mother of six girls and financial mastermind of a large family. She was born in the Puna but now lives in Huacalera, in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, where she manages her farm. Rosita is a respected community member and, to her extended family, the strategic bridge enabling primary goods and vegetables trade between the two valleys. Besides taking care of her children, Rosita also manages a big herd of llamas representing one of her family’s main sources of income. Every week, she travels to Quebraleña to visit her sister Natividad and take care of the animals, while her husband Alfredo works as a miner in the South of the country.
The Dreamer
Nayelí is a four years old dreamer who sees the world through a kaleidoscopic mind. She lives in Huacalera with her single mother Gilda and her brother Lucas, but she prefers to spend her days in the Puna, playing with animals and with her aunt Natividad. Nayelí loves puppies more than anything else; she dreams of creating a sort of rural breeding center to provide her community with hundreds of shepherd dogs, so as to protect goats from pumas. For that purpose, she’s currently training her first puppy to look after the goats, method consists in having the dog playing and sleeping with kids in the same pen, until the animals get to familiarize.
Taty
Taty lives in Palpalà, where she works as a hairdresser. After fleeing her hometown, away from discrimination and domestic violence, she settled in the outskirt of San Salvador de Jujuy, where she now lives and advocates for LGBTQ rights. As a member of “Damas de Hierro”, a local ngo that works to foster transgender workers’ rights, Taty provides free workshops to aspiring hairdressers and she volunteers in a protection program designed to help other transgender people. As a child, she used to wait for carnival to come, so that she could dress as a woman without being bullied. Today, she’s a proud ambassador of the LGBTQ community for which she regularly parades in glittering corso costumes, during festivals.
Over the past decade in Argentina, the core values of feminism have been increasingly appropriated for political gain, leading to a divisive discourse on gender equality
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In contrast, the Indigenous societies of the Altiplano offer an inclusive narrative, rooted in Cosmovision and centered around a matriarchal system that has evolved since the pre-Columbian era.
The Shaman
Dominga poses for a portrait holding a dried llama fetus, minutes before starting a Pachamama ritual offering. She lives in Quebraleña, where she’s a leading community member and the driving force behind any important decision to be made within her community. Besides being an experienced wool farmer, Dominga inherited from her mother extensive knowledge in traditional medicine and serves as a healer, leading most celebrations and rituals. Before starting ceremonies, she typically puts two coca leaves underneath her eyes to demand Pachamama’s blessing and guidance. Traditional healers in the Altiplano are typically women like Dominga, and play a central role in Andean society.
Eyén
Eyén is Rosita’s and Alfredo’s 16 years old daughter. She was raised between Quebraleña and Huacalera, and now lives and studies with her older sister Liliana, in the outskirt of San Salvador de Jujuy. Compared to her teenage peers from the Altiplano, Eyén lives a privileged situation of which her parents are very proud. Having your kids living and studying in the city is a big accomplishment for a rural family from the Puna. Eyén is making her way into life, struggling a bit between tradition and modernity. She envisions her future working as a tour operator and wants to go back to the Altiplano once her studies are completed. Eyén will be the first of her family to speak English.
Sexy Bitch
Dayra is afraid of having just two years of life ahead. Despite being full of energies and good health, she’s now 34 – and life expectancy for transgender people in Argentina is estimated around 36. Dayra’s best friend, Lourdes Ibarra, passed away precisely at that age. Together, they created Damas de Hierro (Iron Ladies), a LGBT organization based in Jujuy that provides support to hundreds of transgenders fleeing from violence and discrimination. Since the departure of Lourdes, Dayra is focusing most of her time on a law bill aimed to protect the rights of transgender workers, hopefully to be approved by the National Chamber of Congress.
The Historian
Lorena poses for a portrait during a gaucho festival. As a proud ambassador of her cultural heritage, she defines herself as a progressive-conservative historian who likes to rethink traditional values into a fresher perspective. Lorena works at the Mountain Infantry Regiment School where she teaches history. In pursuing her vocation as an educator, she focuses on replacing the established macho narrative by revealing the untold role of women through South American history. She’s a member of La Gauchita, a cultural organization that fosters gaucho culture through the region, created exclusively by and for women.
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#GenderEquality
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WARMI tells the inspiring stories of Indigenous matriarchs, community leaders, teachers, LGBTQ+ activists, mothers and violence survivors...
The Violinist
Camila poses with her violin after completing her daily rehearsal routine. Like her mom Patricia Lamas, she’s resilient and not at all afraid of new challenges. Besides being an excellent student, in just two years she learned to play violin so well that she was invited to join the local Orchestra. As she continues to perfect her technique, Camila is also studying other instruments and will soon apply to enter the Conservatoire. Although she loves her life in La Huerta, she has greater plans for her future and wants to study music abroad. Her long-term goal is to join world-renowned Teatro Colón’s Orchestra, in Buenos Aires.
Felicia
Felicia is a bright 84 years old matriarch who now lives in almost complete isolation in the Puna. Her adobe house, the only one in the range of several miles, is located at 10.000 feet on the edge of a mountain, in the heart of a remote valley. The place is called La Finca Grande, and Felicia has lived there since her 20s, when she started her family. Her husband died when her children were still small, and since then she has raised them alone. Today, Felicia takes great pride in still caring for a big herd of 200 goats and making cheese. Her family — who nicknamed her The Queen of Goats — pay a visit every week, supplying her with all she needs from town.
Pachamama
Natividad poses for a portrait with her three months old baby, Nahir, by the mountains of Quebraleña. She’s Rosita Lamas’ half-sister, a skilled llamas farmer and resilient single mother of three. After Nahir was born, the father of the child abandoned both. Since then, Natividad lives in isolation, in the middle of a desert plateau by the edges of a salt flat (Salinas Grandes). She spends most of her days looking after her baby and working with the animals, while her two other children Claudio and Leonardo, whose fathers also abandoned, live nearby in Quebraleña. Being a single mother in the Altiplano is rather common; like many other women in the region, Natividad is raising her children alone.
The Football Player
Eliana is a 19 years old teenager who loves animals, clothes and playing football. She started to play in Huacalera’s female team when she was 13, her mum Rosita being her biggest supporter. Differently than her sister Eyén, Eliana doesn’t plan on studying in the city: she prefers sports and life in the fields, where she occasionally helps her family. She takes great pride in her long, black hair that she regularly washes with natural ashes, as per the ancestral practice. According to local beauty standards and etiquette, a young woman’s hair in good conditions is key to find a partner. Eliana and her generation however, seem to be a lot more interested in exploring life rather than rushing to start a family.
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...through the voices of women who embody the genuine essence of feminism beyond any political rhetoric
Aristogaucha
Sara Canchi poses for a portrait during a rural festival organized by “La Gauchita”, one of the first gaucho institutions created in the country, exclusively by and for women. Sara belongs to Jujuy’s gaucho élite and knows exactly how to make her way into a social environment traditionally reserved to men. Not afraid to speak her mind, she’s confident in her approach, both with her institutional role and with her extended family — for which she runs a real-estate business. Besides being a bold ambassador and tough negotiator, Sara is respected to be particularly skilled with horses. Like most of her girl-friends, she rides confidently since the early days of her childhood, when she was first initiated as a gaucha by her parents.
Sarita
Sarita Correa is a transgender activist who lives in San Pedro, where she runs MILES, an NGO she co-founded more than a decade ago. Through the organization, she provides continued counseling and shelter for transgender people and sex workers who have been victims of violence. Besides offering housing and legal support, Sarita organizes several cultural activities in San Pedro, fostering interaction and mutual acceptance between the transgender community and the rest of society. She’s an active and often controversial political activist, and she often organizes public demonstrations and marches to claim LGBTQ rights. She’s been in the frontlines of the LGBTQ movement for more than 20 years, and she’s widely respected for her achievements.
The Pageant
Valeria is a 21 y.o. from Humahuaca – the main town of the homonymous Quebrada – and Julia Lamas’s pupil. She’s currently preparing to become a Paisana (Rural Pageant), so she made sure to learn from the best. She asked Julia to teach her everything about cattle farming, horse riding and folkloric dancing. In the Altiplano, to be chosen as a Paisana is a major social achievement for many women. To earn the title, girls are expected to excel in farming practices and rural etiquette and to be of service and inspiration to their community. Valeria regularly volunteers in cultural festivals, helping with the organization, and she is acknowledged as an ambassador for the chacarera, a traditional dance.
Julia Lamas
Julia is an empowered gaucho matriarch. Mother of five, she lives with her husband Rufino in Huacalera, where she leads the family business. Julia runs a butchery store, manages the livestock, a few lands and owns the town’s only cultural center of which she is director. In 2019 she gained momentum becoming the first woman to be named ambassador of the gaucho culture, an example for the younger generations and the entire rural society. Julia leads a strong family network, and played a key-role in supporting Patricia Lamas at the time she was struggling with domestic violence. Her legacy, leadership and spirit inspire hundreds of women in the entire Quebrada.
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WARMI • Ancestral & Contemporary Feminism
WARMI is an editorial campaign designed to investigate the link between ancestral and contemporary feminism, in Argentina’s Andean Altiplano. In a time where gender equality is without a doubt a defining topic, there is much our societies may learn from indigenous knowledge and values.
Over the past decade in Argentina, the core values of feminism have been increasingly appropriated for political gain, leading to a distorted understanding of gender equality and a divisive discourse on the topic. In contrast, the Andean societies of the Altiplano present a different narrative, shaped by a matriarchal system that has evolved since the pre-Columbian era.
By advocating the sacred link connecting humans to the cosmos, worldview intrinsically fosters gender equality. Its spiritual world revolves around Pachamama, supreme goddess, Warmi (woman, in quechua) and Earth Mother. For this reason, Cosmovision embeds a set of woman-centered values that celebrate femininity through everyday’s life.
WARMI explores the rich symbolism of Cosmovision, weaving together the inspiring stories of Indigenous matriarchs, community leaders, educators, LGBTQ+ activists, mothers, and violence survivors — women who, through their personal stories, embody the true essence of feminism.
Editorial Campaign
WARMI #AhicitoNomas · Editorial Campaign · Concept Design & Development · Production · Photography · Communication Strategy · Distribution
Topics
Feminism, Cosmovision, Worldview, Women's Rights, Women Empowerment, Gender Equality, Social Development, Indigenous Culture
Media
GEO France, El PAIS Semanal, SETTE Corriere della Sera, Zeronine Magazine, The Eye of Photography
Partners
Damas de Hierro · La Gauchita · Los Alegres • Nikon