When the sun rises tomorrow, Cusco will find itself with golden lines. When the sun’s rays caress and illuminate the roofs and buildings in the morning, their foundations will be outlined with small golden points. Yellow will shine from below as the month of wind and of the Pachamama begins.
Tonight, young and old will carefully let flow from their hands the dots that compos that line of light and fortune. The golden color comes from confetti, dots of paper what they call here picapica or mixtura.
Mistura is found throughout the Andes of Peru and Bolivia, not only today but whenever there is a celebration. People will place an handful of multicolored confetti on the head of the person undergoing the celebration. Colors like from an entire garden now flower from the head thanks to the love of their friends and family.
You can see the intimate relationship between the colors of mixtura and the flowers that grow and bloom, showing a world of beauty before dying and leaving in their place growing seeds which will produce the following year.
This is the idea enclosed in mixtura, of sharing the symbols of flourishing and production so that they can become reality. The flower is a symbol of the production of all that we eat and which nourishes us, not only food but also relationships.
This is especially important right now, in full winter, when the earth rests. There is no rain and the fields and landscape dries up. Still, this is the moment in which the earth opens to receive people’s offerings in order to nourish it and share with it elements of energy it needs in order to be reborn and flourish with the rains in a few months.
The first of August, and throughout the month of August, from the municipal government of Cusco to its families, people will make payments, offering, to the mother earth, the Pachamama , to thank it for the lives they have and pray it gives them good fortune. In this ay they maintain a relationship of ayni, of reciprocity, with the earth that is a central axis of life in Cusco whether in the countryside of the city.
Golden lines will be drawn today, as a sign of fortune that the earth gives and which people wish, as well as of the energy and light of the sun that will fertilize the earth and nourish its produce. In this way, people deepen their relationship with the earth and maintain it for their homes and buildings where the earth consents to permit production, progress, and fortune.
As a consequence, tomorrow yellow will reflect the boundaries of the homes and businesses like a cosmic outline of the Imperial City as well as a model of what it is.
