I was born in the province of Talara in the Piura region. My grandfather was a doctor, and back then he worked for an American oil company. My mother wanted to give birth close to her family, so she returned for the birth. That was the beginning of m

The door was shut. I looked betweenIts iron bars; and saw it lie,My garden, mine, beneath the sky,Pied with all flowers bedewed and green: From bough to bough the song-birds crossed,From flower to flower the moths and bees;With all its nests and stat

My mother and father are from Lucanas, the largest province in the Ayacucho region. I was born there too, and I moved to Lima when I was 14 years old, without knowing how to speak Spanish. I only spoke Quichua, which is my native language. There were

Peruvian teacher Harry Hildebrand takes two hundred Lima high school students into the Amazon rainforest every year. He has been doing it for 20 years, stewarding eight-day trips one after another - that is, until the coronavirus pandemic reached the

How do other people see you? This is a question that philosophers pose from time to time in an effort to get us looking outside of ourselves; to reflect on our lives. British philosopher Adam Smith believed that much of our striving for wealth, prope

In a recent interview, author Anne Lamott quoted her friend who said: “If you’re an American girl over the age of 12 and you’re not angry, you’ve completely missed the boat.” The sentiment now seems almost universally applicable: not being angry may

BE THE FIRST TO RECEIVE WOMANKIND MAGAZINE, DELIVERED TO YOUR TABLET OR PHONE, BY SUBSCRIBING ONLINE NOW. Womankindmag.com is our online portal for subscribers to share ideas, writing, art, and much more. Want to become a Womankind affiliate? We

In the following winning entries of the Womankind’s Photographers’ Award XXIII: Abstract we can see a range of examples of abstract photography where photographers have altered our perception of a scene or an object, making us see the world anew. The

On the evening of 21 March 1969, at the Washington Square Methodist Church in New York’s Greenwich Village, a revolution stirred. Around 300 women, and a sprinkling of men, sat in the wooden pews to listen to fiery testimony. Taking it in turn, 12 wo

In the shadow of the 20,800-foot snow-clad peak of Ausangate in the southern Peruvian Andes, Maria Merma Gonzalo works at her loom, leaning back on a strap around her waist, just as her ancestors have done for centuries. She uses a wichuna, or llama

In 1989, days before the 6.9 earthquake hit San Francisco, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, who worked in the psychology department of Stanford University, handed out a questionnaire to 200 students. Nolen-Hoeksema, a researcher into predictors of depression in

When did you first notice ecoanxiety creeping into the consulting room? I think it was about five years ago, and it was mostly affecting people in their late 20s and early 30s, who were saying that they didn’t think they would ever have children. It

• Llamas are part of the camel family, along with alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos, which inhabit mountainous Andean countries such as Peru and Bolivia. Like their desert relatives, llamas require little water, gaining enough moisture from eating plant

Ruth Buendía is an Asháninka, an indigenous people with their own language, culture, and beliefs who have lived in Peru’s central rainforests for over 5,000 years. Although known as being fiercely independent, the Asháninka have faced encroachment on

There have been many large empires in history, topped by the British Empire, followed by the Mongol Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Qing dynasty. The Inca Empire, although not in the top ten in size, was one of the largest empires in the world at

Some people have a profound sense of time running out, which prompts them to get on with things, to not ponder for too long. For Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, an indigenous Quechua weaver from Chinchero in the Cusco region of Peru, this feeling has drive

We have been led to believe that creativity is something that a special few possess - artists, writers, poets, musicians, and actors. A list of ‘creative’ fields will include all of the above, with some professional fields thrown into the mix like ar

Day one: It has been eight days since the love of my life left me. After a week spent believing my heart had become too heavy for my body to carry, I’m starting to feel better. I decide to wake up at 6.30am instead of 7. Work starts at 7.30am and it

Dream big, take risks, reach for the stars. If we seek to have a mountain top experience, is this what we need to do to get there? Yes, indeed. Visualising one’s hopes and dreams is critical to achieving them. Setting intentions and goals - imagining

I am sure that one of the strangest and most extraordinary experiences of my life will always be my journey to the Peruvian Amazon to take part in an ayahuasca retreat. Back in 2017, I was researching a book about how westerners find ‘ecstatic experi

Describe for us the experience of growing up in Lima, Peru? I had a happy childhood, despite the fact that my country was in armed conflict for almost 20 years. Every weekend in the summer my father packed everything in the car and took us camping o

I am originally from Peru, born in Lima, the capital. Peru is a country of contrasts defined by three different regions. The coast, which is where I am from - barren, dry desert with little vegetation beside the rivers, grey and cloudy skies, barely

In 1999 the mummified body of a girl was discovered just shy of Mt Llullaillaco summit. “La Doncella”, or “the maiden”, as she was nicknamed, died more than 500 years ago aged 13 or 14. Yet she was so well-preserved that her round, ruddy cheeks still

I became very aware about eight years ago that I was about to become an empty nester. My youngest was off to university to study Fine Art and all our lovely creative conversations would be temporarily over. My husband owns his own all-consuming busin

Doris Gibson’s name is not well-known outside her native Peru, but in her home country she cuts a figure as one of the most striking, brilliant, and influential journalists of the 20th century. As the founder of Peru’s most influential political and

In a remote Andean village, three men have disappeared. Peruvian Army corporal Lituma and his deputy Tomás have been dispatched to investigate, and to guard the town from the Shining Path guerrillas they assume are responsible. But the townspeople do

My mother and father are from Piura in the north west. My father was an ice cream seller and my mother was a housewife. They had eight children. During the summer holidays, they sent us to boarding school, which was run by nuns. I lived at boarding s