Maria Fernanda Vivanco, PhD. (“Mara”)
Country Director at Resonance Global
Dr. Maria Fernanda Vivanco (Mara) is a Peruvian rural sociologist and feminist. She holds a doctoral degree in Rural Sociology with a dual title in International Agriculture and Development from Penn State University. Mara advocates for food justice and the protection of Andean forms of knowledge. She is a lecturer at the Nutrition Department at Cayetano University and works as a Gender and Agriculture Specialist for Resonance Global. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, writing poetry, and creating content about local food.
Taki Unquy (a poem by Mara)
History arrived at the Colonies as repetitive commandments
One God, one history, one tribute
Education was never meant to set Indios free
Indians were forced to sit in fear and desperation
to learn
to save their souls
to erase their world
What is history if not a classical narrative of a glorious past
of people (men) that tried to make sense of the cosmos.
Of conquests of wild territories
Of maps with sea routes and monsters of trade, with tentacles of spices, silk, and gold.
what people once knew is re-named
the name of sacred things, foods, and animals are replaced
Castellan became the new language of the gods and their totems
Centuries of discoveries, maritime voyages, and botanical diaries
Local words were not enough
Prussian and Latin names ruled the vast diversity
Until there were no more spirits of nature,
no more kuntur,
nor Koca kintucha.
History has become a race with no finish line, unbeatable
A race for labeling everything and everyone
until there are no more species left to be baptized,
rediscover, to exploit.
Once the sacred species are named, they turn into a promising future
The rest remain forgotten, lost in a chronicle,
Unpatented
not blessed by God
And yet everything returns
Viracocha will sing again.
Pachamama will dance and shake with violence
feverish
frosting and burning fields.
Old ideas will be reborn and ancient hopes will germinate
And the once dormant roots will breathe again.
Conversation References & Related Work
Price volatility and quinoa consumption among smallholder producers in the Andes
Connect with Mara
The Proven Sustainable™ Conversation Series is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Any funding directed towards the Conversation Series will go towards production efforts to ensure the the recorded discussions are diligently captured and meaningfully distributed. This Conversation Series and website are not-for-profit and created with the intent of channeling support directly to the Peoples represented.