Introducing WachuMadre
Our quest to plant a million San Pedro cacti in Peru
Volume 6 | 27 March 2022
When I woke up from the dream, the number sounded so far-fetched that I wrote it off immediately. A million San Pedros? There are only three of us, working in our spare time. But as the days went on, the seed that was planted in my heart that night did not fade. It sprouted. It grew.
It has been a busy month of activism for us in Peru, with a record number of cacti planted and a record number of people collaborating with Huachuma Collective projects. Thanks to your donations and our own, we have planted hundreds of San Pedros so far this March in five well-looked-after sites.
The soil has been ripe for this project for a long time. Josip has been gifting San Pedros for the last 20 years, ever since the plants in his garden got big enough to share. These gifted plants have thrived under the care of friends, and many already produce flowers each year. The same friends have gifted cuttings to others in turn, so that the thousands of mother-plants in our garden have found their way organically and exponentially to their new homes.
This web of gifting happens naturally for us in response to the natural generosity of happy, healthy plants. Caring for San Pedro is a joy that asks to be shared. But a year ago, when we planted San Pedro in indigenous community lands that border the Central Andean archaeological site of Kuntur Wasi, we didn’t know what we were starting.
It was the first act in the project we have come to call WachuMadre.
WachuMadre is HC’s most important and central project. It is the beating heart of all the education, research, and conservation work we do. It is the primordial and undeniable need to get as much San Pedro in the ground as possible, as quickly as possible, in places where the plants will be safe, with the collaboration of good people. It is a whole network of people who love the plants, working together to reach a shared goal.
The 520 plants we planted this month are particularly special, because nearly all are specimens from the most endangered population of San Pedro in Peru: the renowned Salas/Chiclayo variety of San Pedro. These are the plants which once fueled the great Moche culture and are now at risk of extinction from overharvesting in North Peru.
Here is the March roundup of Huachuma Collective’s planting projects.
1. WachuMadre: El Castillo
Plants donated: 50
Felipe Pereda, Community Director for HC, gave an incredible workshop during our donation of plants to the Indigenous community of El Castillo. In it, he stressed the importance of the connection with ancestral wisdom that planting and caring for San Pedro represents. As a result of christianization and colonialism, most Indigenous communities in Peru no longer preserve the tradition of working shamanically with the plants. Planting in these communities means cultural revitalization and re-valuation of the medicine.
Each community member received as many plants as they were willing to be responsible for: one, two, or five. The plants will teach the people, who have long been disconnected from their cultural relationship with San Pedro, to listen to them once more. Felipe will stay connected with the community on behalf of HC and provide troubleshooting and support as the plants grow. In seven to ten years, we hope to return to El Castillo to purchase the first cuttings of these original plants from the community members, cuttings which will seed other communities in turn.
2. WachuMadre: Barbacoa
Plants donated: 20
This is Don Pascual Saavedra, a farmer who has spent his entire life caring for a plot of land in indigenous Moche territory. His parents were employed by wealthy hacienda owners until the Peruvian Agrarian Reform gave them title to the land they worked.
Pascual is a man who knows his plants. He prepared space close (but not too close) to an agricultural irrigation canal that borders his property. There, the twenty plants we planted together will receive periodic water and plenty of sun without giving Pascual too much extra gardening work. His grandchildren will play among them when they visit on weekends. They will smell the first flowers that these plants sprout. And someday, it will be a full-on wall of plants which can be propagated and shared with other caretakers, or harvested for medicine.
3. WachuMadre: Chankillo
Plants donated: 4
Chankillo is an ancient astronomical observatory in the Casma River basin. Thirteen giant stone structures are lined up on a ridge to mark the rising points of the thirteen full moons of the year. All but forgotten by archaeologists, the site is still important to the communities who live in its shadow. Old-growth Carob forests surround the site, and the indigenous people here subsist on selling wood from the dying trees, which giant rotisserie chicken chains use to smoke their meats.
Don Gabino Maya Lavado and his son want to try planting San Pedro, but the pure sand of the soil makes water and nutrients an issue. We donated four plants to test how they do in this environment, so Gabino can assess whether to make San Pedro a larger part of his land’s production.
4. WachuMadre: Tortugas Beach
Plants donated: 46
Mayucayan is an environmental activist from coastal Peru. His organization, Green Tortugas Peru, has already planted more than a hundred San Pedro cacti (not to mention a variety of other plants) in the beach community of Tortugas, under the care of many community members. It was an inspiration to connect with Mayucayan and witness his love for the plants – and how that love has translated to action over years of hard work and personal dedication.
HC donated 46 plants to Green Tortugas, and we have a feeling it’s only the beginning of our work with this new collaborator. We will be publishing a longer interview with Mayucayan in the coming months about the work of Green Tortugas and their conservation mission (so if you haven’t already, subscribe to AguaCoya!).
5. WachuMadre: Casa Mullu Chaclacayo
Plants planted: 400
Do you remember the 344 ‘Covid plants’ that Josip recovered from Northern Peruvian markets last June? (If not, read about the project here). They have been soaking up the sun and making roots for the last few months. After some serious garden finagling and the construction of a huge new bed at HC Base Camp, all the plants are settled in their forever homes at last!
And because we can’t seem to help ourselves, we brought more plants home from my most recent PhD research expedition to North Peru, which brings the grand total to 400 plants. We can’t wait to watch these plants take off!
That’s the end of the March Roundup.
We don’t know how long it will take to plant a million cacti. Even guessing – Five years? Ten? Twenty? – seems unwise, because we don’t want to set the project up for failure, nor do we want to limit the possibilities for how quickly this could happen with the right support.
All these planting projects happened thanks to the personal donations of Paul & Pat, Mary, Mayana, Robben, Ian, Peta, Vito, Chio, Sadie, Delancy, Bardha, Sebastian, Mateo, Ricardo, Farid, Devin & Brian, Josip, and Felipe. You all are spectacular!! For anyone who would like to support more projects like this, you can always send a Venmo donation to @Huachuma-Collective, or you can mail a check (reply to this email for the address). Josip and I volunteer our time and we have few administrative costs, so every dollar you donate now goes straight to getting plants in the ground.
The plants take time to grow, and so will we as an organization. They speak to us of the mix of urgency and patience that will be required to meet this goal.
We are here for it all.
In love and community,
Laurel
