The Legacy of the Stone: Collective Creation in Yanacancha-Huaquis

For the past two years, our visits to the town of Miraflores, Yauyos, Peru, have been marked by solstices. Alongside my collaborator Diego López Calvín, I have returned every six months, and now the town feels like a place where we can always return. Rita’s cooking and care, which made us feel like her house was our home; Aníbal’s wisdom and humor on our walks; and Dr. Plinio’s strength as he climbed the hill that leads to the ancient town of Huaquis. All these constants on our trips allowed me and Diego to discover the cultural heritage of the Miraflorinos, who opened their doors to share their community's history with us. Together, we learned to observe the landscape and use new tools to tell their stories.

As an audiovisual communicator, I’ve had the privilege of documenting various communities. Sometimes, the work can feel like parachute journalism—you suddenly drop into a place, do your work, and then disappear. In this case, our bond with Miraflores was strengthened thanks to the work of the Instituto de Montaña and World Monuments Fund’s (WMF) Peru team. Our deep engagement with the town made us think about the question of where these images that we were registering would be seen, as in most cases, photographs like these are published in the media and never return to the community they depict. Thanks to the support of the Magnum Foundation, we were able to premiere The Legacy of the Stone in the streets of Miraflores, sparking a series of significant actions.

While the residents of Miraflores are aware and proud of their cultural legacy, they were surprised to see the magnitude of the nature and knowledge surrounding them as presented through someone else’s eyes. As we walked through the streets of the town with members of the community, explaining the images that blended with the adobe walls they were mounted on, one resident stopped and spoke to pay tribute to Rebeca Sánchez, whose image hung on the exterior of the town’s church. She is one of the town elders and has been particularly active in keeping the traditions of the Miraflorinos alive. After viewing these works, many locals expressed gratitude for having a visual collection that can open up dialogue with their families, especially with the younger generations, encouraging them to return to their roots.

Through solarigraphy, a photographic practice based on the observation of the sun’s path and its effect on the landscape, we not only recorded the sun's movement in Miraflores but also strengthened a bond with the community, offering them a new way to see a space that was so familiar to them. Out workshops brought together students, residents, and park rangers and created interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing spaces where the diverse group could gather to understand and observe the territory they inhabit.

The Legacy of the Stone is published online in both Spanish and English in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture. This effort is vital for the community, as they now have access to a dedicated website that shares their story with the world. Additionally, we are honored to be included in WMF and Magnum Foundation’s Heritage in Focus exhibition at Paris Photo fair in Paris, France this November. This exhibition offers a unique perspective on different World Monuments Fund heritage sites through visual storytelling centered around the communities that care for these places.

Heritage in Focus has been a constant learning experience, from collective creation and the use of various audiovisual tools to the dissemination methods that prioritize the community and their wishes regarding the images that adorned the walls of their homes, church, and riverbanks and that will soon embark on a journey starting in Paris to showcase their cultural legacy to the world.