Some days ago I was watching tv at home, I didn’t like the programme I was watcing so, I started zapping. After some time I had to stop in one channel because the landscape on the screen was amazing and called my attention. It was Tilcara and the programme was Rutas Solidarias, in Encuentro channel. This programme was about La minka de tilcara.
The word minka comes from the quechua language, and it makes reference to the tradition of community work with an end of social utility.
The programme showed a minka project carried out by a teacher. The project consisted on working with primary school students gathering plastic bottles. The teacher explained that she started doing this because she was told that the school could get a computer if they gathered a determined amount of bottles. That was the beginning. Now they continue doing this. They organize a one day trip, and go to La garganta del diablo where they pick up plastic bottles from the floor (things which tourists leave). The purpose of this is to clean one of the most important tourist attractions of the place and to learn the importance of taking care of there town, places and nature. They protect nature because the bottles are sold to be recycled. Apart from that students learn how valuable is their work and they can value other people’s work.
I really liked the project and the meaning of minka. I think we can do good things not just for us and our own benefit but also for others and thinking in the community benefit.
Hanna
Hello Hanna. I love that someone highlight part of the Quechua culture. I would like to add that minka tradition (community work with socially useful purposes) is present in several Latin American countries, like Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. Since the pre-Columbian era, Minka is basically a system of cooperation and compensation. How nice would it be to take it as an example ...
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