Tinku, in the Inca language of Quechua, is a ‘meeting’, an ‘encounter.’ It refers to a confrontation of complementary opposites. The Andean Cutures know the value of experiencing such tensions, probably because such encounters are distinctive of the landscape we inhabit.

The Andes, from the Quechua Anti [West], are the materialization of the ongoing collision between two enormous geological forces. The Oceanic Nazca Plate is pushing under the southern shores of Abya Yala [America], moulding mountains above six thousand metres high. The frequent earthquakes that we feel in our bodies remind us of the vibrations shaping our landscape. Anti’s geology manifests its strength in Atacama. There, where the salty slopes unveil themselves naked as a desert, our cultures and territory have worn the Tinku since their origins.

The Atacama desert is where Pacha [Mother Earth], has reached the sky with her highest crowns; where the Incas encountered the ‘end of the world’, Chilli; where the Spaniards’ mission baptised Chile; where the last surviving wilderness confronts minings’ extractivism; where even our bodies echoe the Tinku. It is the mestizaje, the place where authentic cries liberate torn blodies. It is where half-bloods thrive./