Juanito has died. His little body lies stretched out as if he were just asleep, listening to a lullaby, perhaps dreaming like children his age (five years) do, but he is not; Juanito, in fact, died in agony for the last hours of his life. Before burying him, his family organized a funeral as humble as his way of life: prayers, wind music and a little of rum during the last night of his physical body between them.
In Colombia, there are around half a million children under the age of five who suffer from chronic malnutrition and around fifteen thousand with acute malnutrition, according to the latest National Survey of the Nutritional Situation of Colombia. In indigenous communities, such as Nabusimake, thirty out of every hundred minors present this pathology.
Nabusimake is the capital of the Ika or Arhuaca culture, one of the oldest and most forgotten indigenous communities in Colombia and Latin America; They are direct descendants of the Tayronas, one of the most important pre-Columbian cultures in the South of the continent. Located in a small valley surrounded by the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, this small natural paradise protects a way of life and worldview very different from the rest of the country, where the trace of Spanish colonialism dominates most of the social strata.
To reach the so-called “capital of the Arhuaco people”, the people who inhabit the deep mountains have to travel for hours through winding paths to seek help in a medicine that not many of them believe in, but has become the last of their hopes when traditional medicine and spiritual practices are not enough to cure any disease.
In the midst of these two opposing worldviews, people like Juanito often struggle between life and death. For Yesi, a “mamo” from the area, who was the last to inspect Juanito when he was already dying, this difference in beliefs and knowledge is a long debate that possibly has neither end nor exit in the logic of both positions.
For the family that raised Juanito, his spirit was doomed from the time he was born; this bad omen was the sentence that marked his life: he was almost always ill and with little energy to live. For those in charge of the small clinic in Nabusimake, and for some neighbors, Juanito’s death is the result of a chain of chronic and systemic problems that, year after year, girls and boys from this and other communities in Colombia face: corruption, poverty, hunger, diseases summed up in one word: malnutrition.
Lullaby is a photographic work that documents not only the death or the mortuary ritual of a minor in Ika-Arhuaco territory, but it is also a window to the way one of the least known people’s lives and that has best preserved its traditions and beliefs in America.
Juanito has died. His small body lies as if he were just asleep, listening to a lullaby, perhaps dreaming like children his age (five years) do.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 A woman belonging to the Ika (or Arhuaco) people covers her face while taking a break after a long walk through the mountains and valleys of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 14th, 2018 Juanito is lying dying inside his hut: struggling between life and death.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 15th, 2018 The Ika-Arhuacos live on the sidewalks of the southeast and southwest of the Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta at altitudes between 1000 and 4000 meters. The figures for the population of the entire Sierra Nevada are evaluated between 18,000 and 30,000 inhabitants.
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, September 15th, 2018 In Colombia, there are around half a million children under the age of five who suffer from chronic malnutrition and around fifteen thousand with acute malnutrition, according to the latest National Survey of the Nutritional Situation of Colombia.
Sierra Nevada, Colombia, September 14th, 2018 Yezir is a “mamo” who belongs to the Ika-Arhuaco people. A mamo (or mamu) is considered a guide within his community. His preparation begins at a young age and lasts for several years; learning from him could be considered an arduous path, but it represents a real way of commitment and responsibility towards his people. Based on a different philosophy from the Western world, a mamo is a spiritual guide, a priest, a doctor, a political advisor and, above all, a protector of Mother Earth.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 A father with two of his daughters is at the door of his house. This family lives in a precarious and isolated situation; they live an hour’s walk from Nabusimake, the closest town to his community.
Sierra Nevada, Santa Marta, Colombia, September 14th, 2018 Outside the huts, on an old table, the community has left the body of the recently dead boy: around him, other children from the community come closely and curiously, along with some starving dogs that roam around.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 The only image that the family has of Juanito in life is this impression with his image on it. The woman who raised him has laid it at the feet of his corpse.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 Her little brother has died and she doesn’t understand why it happened; While the body of her brother Juanito is being prepared for burial, she rests near the hut where he died.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 17th, 2018 According to the belief of this Arhuaca community, the fire element works to drive away evil spirits, the evil eye and other ailments caused by non-physical entities. In the image, Yesir uses fire to drive away bad energy from his son.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 Everything is ready for the “eiza” (funeral in Arhuaco) to begin. The body hangs seated, which is how children should be accommodated. In the background, his brothers and an accordion: that’s how they will spend the night. The next day, his body will be taken to the mountain and will be buried so that his body returns to the land where “we all belong.”
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 Most of the houses around Nabusimake do not have electricity; Nabusimake does not have other elementary public services either. To illuminate Juanito’s corpse at night, candles have been lit around his body.
Nabusimake, September 16th, 2018 After drinking rum much of the night, the man in the photograph watches the sunrise from the window of his little hut.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 15th, 2018 Juanito’s body is hanging next to the door of what was his home: his body is waiting to be taken to a place among the mountains to be buried according to Arhuaca belief. Nabusimake, Colombia, September 27th, 2018 At night, during the funeral, Juanito’s mother and the woman who took care of him in his last hours of life hope that the night passes and his spirit travels to another place; around them, the brothers and sisters of the little dead keep them company. Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 Héctor plays his father’s old accordion, the instrument that will be heard for much of the night at the funeral. Vallenato is the most popular music in the region and, perhaps, in all of Colombia. The rhythm was born in the 19th century somewhere in the Caribbean region; old people say that this song, with the soul of a minstrel and the rhythm of the heart, has the seed buried between the Caesar rhythm and the Guajira. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta has witnessed the flourishing of this rhythm that, since 2015, was declared intangible heritage by UNESCO.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 15th, 2018 Suddenly, a man appears riding into the village; the rumor of the death of little Juan has spread through the village and people begin to arrive at the house for the start of the funeral.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 16th, 2018 Yesir walks among the valleys of the mountains where he was born and raised; he belongs to the Arhuaca culture. His community was evangelized by Capuchin missionaries before the monks were expelled in 1982; for this reason, Yesir, unlike other Arhuacos, does not wear traditional indigenous clothing; but, to say of him, that does not make him less Arhuaco.
Sierra Nevada Santa Marta, Colombia, September 15th, 2018 Nidia is pregnant: it will be her first child. Despite the few employment opportunities in the region for her and her husband, she is looking forward to the arrival and she is hopeful that the situation will improve over time. Meanwhile, she sings lullabies to her belly, sure that those melodies are a form of communication between her and her baby.
Nabusimake, Colombia, September 14th, 2018 A herd of horses and mares ride at dawn over the Nabusimake Valley, capital of the Arhuaco people.
César, Colombia, September 2018 In indigenous communities like Nabusimake, thirty out of every hundred minors have malnutrition problems. Few employment opportunities and the abandonment by the State end up condemning hundreds of families to live in a state of continuous precariousness.
Sierra Nevada, Colombia, September 14th, 2018
