Special Program: Sacred Andean Celebrations as Acts of Resistance
IN PERSON
Join us for a special gathering that celebrates Andean ancestral knowledge and invites reflective dialogue in conjunction with the exhibition Taming the Desert: Resilience, Religion, and Ancestors in Ancient Peru. Led by Professor Luz María De la Torre and CMRS Center for Early Global Studies (CMRS-CEGS) Postdoctoral Fellow Solsiré Cusicanqui, this program marks the conclusion of UCLA’s tenth annual celebration of Andean festivals and ceremonies.
This event honors Andean cultural traditions, uplifts the voices of “Runa” women, and amplifies ongoing movements for Indigenous resistance and visibility. The program will begin inside the exhibition gallery and continue in the museum’s courtyard, where guests are invited to engage in oral storytelling and collective reflection.
Presented as part of Sacred Andean Celebrations as Acts of Resistance, co-organized by the UCLA Department of Spanish & Portuguese, the UCLA Latin American Institute, and the UCLA Andean Working Group. Register for the full event here.
Luz María De la Torre Amaguana is a Kichwa (Quechua) scholar from Ecuador and a Continuing Lecturer at UCLA in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the Latin American Institute. Her work focuses on Andean Indigenous worldviews, bilingual education, gender, and political movements.
Solsiré Cusicanqui is a Peruvian archaeologist and CMRS-CEGS Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. Her research, part of the project Race in the Global Past through Native Lenses, examines memory and territorial transformation during the Spanish conquest of the Andes.
Image credit: Unidentified artists; Unku (tunnic), 200 B.C.E.-650 C.E.; Nasca Style, Peru; Thread; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by the Costume Council in honor of the museum’s 40th anniversary, M.2005.113. Photo courtesy of Museum Associates/LACMA.
