Spirit, Symbols, and Change Among the Aymara: A Blind Shaman's Guide to a Maryknoll Missionary in Peru - Paperback

by Inocente Salazar (Author)

Spirit, Symbols, and Change is more than a "how to" manual--it is a celebration of how to relate to people with a vastly different culture, language, and set of values. It is an adventure that takes the reader into an Andean world very different from our own. As a missionary among the Aymara of Peru, Salazar initially tried to convince them to become strongly committed Catholics. However, the Aymara did not show much promise of accepting his mission, nor had they changed their way of life for the last five hundred years. As the author tried to get beyond this impasse, he became friends with Marcelino, a blind shaman, and through him entered a totally unfamiliar world--the mind and the spiritual history of the Aymara. From these insights, the author developed an understanding of their values and assisted them in making the needed changes that broke their isolation and exclusion from mainstream society in Peru.

Author Biography

Inocente Salazar, a former missionary, tending to the spiritual needs of the Aymara of southern Peru, sidestepped prejudices about the Aymara and embarked into a religious world unlike Catholicism. Without denying his Christian background and with the guidance of Marcelino, a blind shaman, he developed a program for social change. His work was documented in the Maryknoll film The Healer. He married an Aymara woman and settled in Arizona, where he taught philosophy and world religions.