"A trote y moche" means a fast and disorder way to do things. This series is a tribute to Guna's, all those characters that go unnoticed in the eyes of those who visit a country, even though they are actors of their culture. The portraits do not belong to the celebrities or models of a country, they are people like any of us, people from the village that I met in a small strip between the ocean and the jungle. And if one pays attention, they all belong to the female gender. These links, created by brushstroke and line by line, were my way to approach to the Guna community, their mesenteries, the textures that are formed between them...That allowed me to enjoy what is probably different in the similarity.
The Gunas Indians live in 49 communities, most of them in islands, in the Caribbean strip of Panama. Some of them are located on land such as Armila where the artistic project of La Wayaka Current was developed in which I participated. To enter the territory you need a valid passport and a special permit issued by the Guna's Congress.
In 1925 the Guna Indians staged an armed revolution to achieve their independence. Subsequently, in 1938 they signed a pact with the Panamanian government, which recognized that only one guna could own the land of the region, would be autonomous politically and administratively, the Panamanian state should request permission from Congress to develop any kind of project in its territory; In return, education would be a matter for Panama.
Its political organization is the assembly, each community meets two or three times a week to discuss issues and make decisions. They have a representative, the Sahila, elected by votes and for a year in office, and he and the secretary represent the community in the region and the General Conference.
Women have a special relevance in the community, they work as matriarchy, they are the owners of the land, the protagonists of the rites and in the legends assume the role of "knowledge".
Communities are self-managed, living on agriculture, fishing, banana and coconut exports and eco-tourism. Its main enemy nowadays is climate change, which endangers the survival of its territory.