HIJADELACOCA
ON THE NAME
I work under the name hijadelacoca, a name that condenses an Andean ritual genealogy.
On my father's side, my family traces its roots to Huancané, in Peru's Altiplano. My great-grandfather belonged to a lineage of Aymara coca leaf readers, a longstanding practice through which coca leaves are consulted for guidance and spiritual orientation. This knowledge was later passed to my father alongside other Andean ritual practices, including mesadas, baños de florecimiento, and limpias, which understand healing as a relationship between body, territory, and collective energy.
I continue to learn from this living tradition under my father's guidance, through family practice and the ritual celebrations of Huancané.
By working under the name hijadelacoca, I acknowledge myself as an apprentice within this living tradition rather than its heir. The name reinscribes this genealogy into my artistic practice as an ongoing source of memory, translation, and cultural transmission.
Huancané, Puno, Peru, August 1997.
During the Octava de Santiago, with my father wearing the traditional Morenada costume.
Huancané, Puno, Peru.
The Aguilar family gathered around memory, before preparing the unkuña for coca leaf reading.
The Aguilar family gathered around memory, before preparing the unkuña for coca leaf reading.