In Monday’s article about Coca Leaf, we mentioned the rich archeological sites found near Ayacucho, Peru. The most famous of these sites is Pikimachay Cave, source of the oldest evidence of human habitation in South America. Today, you can hike up a mountainside to visit the cave, but there’s not much left to see. The […]

Outside of Latin America, coca leaf is most often associated with cocaine. However, there are many other uses for the plant. Indigenous people began using coca thousands of years ago. The first instance can be traced back 5,000 years ago to coastal Ecuador. In pre-Columbian times, coca was so valuable that the Incans restricted its […]

The lives of indigenous people and their struggles to protect their lands and rights can seem pretty abstract to outsiders. We may support their rights in theory, but what have we done to help? And do we truly understand the consequences of failing to protect these rights? Recently, a group of filmmakers collaborated with the […]