Huaca Piru II (Detail)

H Carre Hermes > Spring-Summer 2003

In the Quechua tongue, it is "Sacred Peru". The character facing us is a symbolic figure linked to feretility rites. Fertility comes from a soil which nevertheless needs irrigating. Generosity from an ocean abundant with fish. Moral riches from these Indian folk: hunters, clergy, farmers and woodcutters, who, for centuries, before the arrival of the Conquistadors, before even the rule of the Incas, gave evidence of an artistic brilliance, a political sensitivity and a wisdom we can only envy now.