Co-hosted by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
"Tarpuna El Maíz" Film Screening and Conversation with Film Producer/Protagonist
March 4, at 4 pm
Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory, Urbana
"Tarpuna: el maíz" (34 mins, 2019) Tarpuna means ‘to sow’ in Kichwa, the ancestral language of the Andes. In the Corn episode of this documentary series, guardians from the highlands of Ecuador share their skills and traditions to preserve, exchange and reproduce their most sacred seed.
Teresa de Jesús Quizhpe Guamán, is protagonist of the documentary Tarpuna: El maíz featuring the farmers of the Seed Guardians’ Network of Ecuador. Teresa is a specialist in agriculture and ancestral food of her people, the Kichwa-Saraguro living in southern Ecuador. She is an Engineer in Ecotourism from the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo and Technologist in Ancestral Andean Medicine at the Technological Institute Jatum Yachay Wasi. There she teaches courses in Ancestral Medicine and Andean Agriculture on Ancestral Andean Trophology, which is the study of the optimal combination of foods to maximize their nutritional and medicinal potential. She currently directs Chakra Chimborazo Achachila, a family garden dedicated to the research and preservation of ancestral seeds and
healthy eating. She is a gastronomic tourism guide and Kichwa instructor focused in culturally immersive language learning methods such as textile and agro-ecological workshops in the Kichwa language.
Pilar Egüez Guevara, PhD is an Ecuadorian cultural anthropologist, writer and award-winning filmmaker. She is
co-founder and director of Comidas que Curan, an independent food education and media company dedicated
to researching and promoting traditional foods and knowledge through ethnographic research and film. Her films
have been screened in three different languages across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. She is
director and producer of Raspando Coco, and Tarpuna, award-winning documentaries about the culinary and
medicinal traditions of Afro-ecuadorian and Indigenous communities throughout Ecuador. Through her research, public speaking and films, she amplifies the voices of older men and women who are the bearers of traditional knowledge about food and medicine. She has brought this work to communities in Ecuador through filmmaking and research education
projects, as well as to US college students in the United States through film screenings and Q&A sessions. She is a published author and speaks internationally on topics ranging from cultural history, food heritage health, nutrition and conflict transformation. Learn more at www.comidasquecuran.org. Publications and recorded talks/interviews
