Curanderismo and the New Age tourism (2012)
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Salas, Peruvian capital of shamanism
Peru is a world known destination for spiritual tourism where all kinds of retreats and mystical healing experiments are offered, boosting the economy while transforming the local customs and structures.
It especially attracts followers of the New Age movement, a trend referred to a new world religion in which teachings of the world’s great religious traditions would be fused. In this sense, New Age implies a break with traditional forms of religion and spirituality. -
Peru, and especially its Northern Region, combines local ancestral beliefs and medicine (curanderismo) with a strong Catholic influence leading to a particular religious syncretism
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The popularity that took Shamanism allowed most of the shamans who used to hide their practise until the seventies, to shed light on their secret activity. The attraction for mystical healing from foreigners led to the end of persecutions of shamans from the Peruvian State and from pharmaceutical companies which saw them as “witches”, or used it as a pretext for their own economic interest.
Master Henri Velásquez testifies “I used to do my ceremonies in secret. The patient could not talk and had to keep it for himself, which obviously did not help the promotion of this sacred activity.” -
Henri Velásquez's "mesa".
A shaman’s mesa is a table or portable altar where the shaman goes to meet the spirits or a medicine bundle used for healing, ceremony, prayer and divination. The contents of a mesa vary from shaman to shaman, but generally include healing stones and other artifacts representing elements of their personal healing journey. -
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Another renowned shaman's house
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While rising the volume of the radio songs, Maximino Diaz admits most of his Peruvian custommers come to him to seek help for their diseases and their love stories.
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Maximo Diaz showing out the interpretation behind his cards symbols.
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Just like Henri, Maximino is happy to welcome foreign tourists. When asked if his real name should be used for the reportage he replied " You crazy ! Of course I want my real name so I can have a good communication and attract more foreigners to discover my healing".
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But most tourists from overseas cannot speak Spanish and therefore depend on their guides. The latters are English fluent Peruvians, but they are not from Salas. They make small deals with the charlatans, pushing these young so-called shamans to do an overall ceremony for tourists group in exchange of a jackpot commission.
A pact against the tourists and the real shamans’ interests. -
Hence these past years less New Age tourists came to visit Salas because they were disapointed by the fake ceremonies, the charlatans and also by the lack of infrastrutures and facilities.
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Salas inhabitants have shared their wish for an “integral development program” of the town. But the lack of political will and resources stop Salas from developing such social and economic project.
The political answer is not unanimous: while the cityhall of Salas does its own promotion as“spiritual healing town”, the Governor of the region argues there are now far too many charlatans, and too many disapointed tourists who left, to the point that Salas has reached a “mala fama” - a bad reputation.
Until political powers share a same constructive voice, it is the people of Salas who pay the high price of combining agricultural labour with the unformal work that surrounds tourism to meet their basic needs. -
Violeta Muro, an old local woman who uses her house as a guest house gave a similar warning.“You’re investigating about shamanism? You have to be careful here! There are fake ones…and a lot of young folk cheat with that.”
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As she explains “the famous shamans put a high price for the tourist, but if you know them personally you always get a better deal. There is fidelity from the shamans of Salas to their own town and people.”
When asked about the evolution of how she was treated as the patient by shamans, she replied: “The only difference is when a famous shaman has to make national or international travels to cure a patient, and so he is momentarily unavailable. Or when you have to make sure you have an appointment a week before with him because he is just busier. But we, people of Salas, are still considered as the priority patients by our local shamans.” -
The case of Salas illustrates the repercussions of an unregulated tourism and its dangers.
The country's mystical tourist industry has constructed and marketed the utopic, spiritualized, indigenous body of Peruvian people - but it has not advertised the dystopic emotional confrontations with inequality or prepared tourists for these social realities.