Tierra adentro ~ "Inland" By: Patrick Liotta
Publisher: Cukierman editores Softbound
87 B & W images
94 pages
23.5 by 25 Cm. Price: U$S 30 Companion website



Tierra adentro ~ Tierra adentro ~ Tierra adentro ~ Tierra adentro ~ Tierra adentro ~


Book Synopsis
My work with the indigenous tribes of Argentina began in 1992. In October of that year, countries in the American continent commemorated the 500 year anniversary of the discovery of the New World, and thus I felt a profound necessity to show the world the state of the lives that these millenary people where living under, so many years after there lands were overrun by another culture. It was an opportunity to tell another side of this tale in a society where the educational manuals only tell the story recounted by the conquistadors.

I began visiting several different communities and the more time I spent with them, I began to truly see the despondency of the living situation of tribes such as the Mapuche, Toba, Kolla, Pilaga, Wichi, Mbya-Guaranies, Mocovies and the Chiriguanos-Chane. These tribes are the poorest of the poorest, forgotten by the Argentinean government and the people of the big cities.

They have been displaced to lands where surviving entails more than finding subsistence. They suffer from all kinds of violence. The Church does visit these communities, but always with the intention of imposing their religion unto them, threatening these people’s spiritual inheritance and, thus, their identity. Societies that have lived in these lands for thousands of years have had their spiritual rites taken away from them for many years.

The majority of the Argentinean people have no idea of the rich cultural life that these tribes still practice to this day; many do know even know of their existence.

My intention is to reduce the distance that separates these tribes and the rest of the world, and to show the dignity that lies in their eyes and their thoughts. These are people that have so much to teach us, from how to appreciate the simplicity of Life to how to live in harmony with the Earth.
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