We are delighted to launch the pre-sale of the collective book Susto al susto (Scare the Fear) published and designed by A ediciones. This Bolivian publication brings together 11 authors who explore, in a unique way, the practices surrounding the jayintilla stone; a stomach stone formed in the llama's stomach and used to cure fear in traditional Andean medicine. Despite strong colonial influence, its use has survived and is today an essential part of traditional medicine in the Bolivian Altiplano. This practice embodies the Andean worldview from multiple perspectives: from being conceived within the llama, a sacred animal, to its use to summon the lost ajayu (soul). Susto al susto explores Andean practices related to the jayintilla , its medicinal ingestion, fright, the importance of sound—especially the llama's cry—and its relationship to traditional music.

 

The book's contents are the fruit of a nearly three-year interdisciplinary collective process initiated by artist alfonso borragán and performance artist Malena Rodríguez in Bolivia. The book brings together contributions—mostly from local authors—from anthropologist Alison Spedding; poet César Antezana/Flavia Lima; llama caretaker Sixto Icuña; poet Montserrat Fernández; ethnomusicologist Fernando Hurtado; traditional healer Gumercindo Acarapi; cultural manager Denisse Aguilar; historian Marco Antonio Flores; performance artist Malena Rodríguez; sociologist Gabriel Rodríguez; and artist alfonso borragán.

 

Both the initial collective process and the results contained herein are freed from the academic lens to serve as research based on the processes and methodologies of art and interdisciplinary coexistence. The result is a compilation of diverse and autonomous voices gathered in this book: essays that seek to connect subjectivities, poems that seek to expand objectivities, stories that seek to re-memorize, images that capture performative actions... All of this is brought together by an experimental design that is an integral part of the process and embraced by the voice of the traditional Cahuayo healer Gumercindo Acarapi.