We speak the way our forefathers taught us

Mamo Bunchanawin (Jesús Izquierdo)

We may also say that the Mamos are seers, clairvoyants, telepathists, clairaudients; they can foretell the time, and have in their own memory all that has happened through the centuries. It is as if someone talked to them.

Among our traditional rites, we have the Eyza: the "pagamento" to the dead. It is meant to help the dead to detach from their families —their wives and children— in order for the spirit to be freed. Its like the novena practiced by the Catholics.

All what dies is Eyza. If a leaf falls from a tree and decays, or even the trunk of that tree decays, that is Eysa as well. It does not apply only to humans who die and are buried. No, it does not; it is a wrong interpretation.

Eyza is all what falls and is transformed by the earth, being purified and thus following the process of new seeds and new trees for the benefit of the whole community; of all living beings. We, as Mamos, understand that the Yukunumas are spirits. And there are different apparitions in particular places like pits or hills. In any place may the Yuikunuma appear, and they have a particular meaning which is only known to the Mamo.

That spirit may be announcing the dry season, an earthquake or disaster; it might tell the Mamo about the death of another Mamo. Anyway, I mean that the Yucukumas have their mystery, and that it is the Mamo who knows and interprets that mystery.

What we are saying now we have not made up —we are teaching what we have been taught, so that the light may come some day. Therefore we speak the way our forefathers taught us.