Lu.cu.ma

There is a painter in Iquitos named Lu.cu.ma, a folk artist whose paintings focus on social inequality. I learned a little about Lucuma’s history and was fascinated by his story.  He is a rehabilitated convict who did twenty-three years in prison for several murders. I had heard some stories about him before I met him in person, and when he came over to the house the other day I asked him if it was OK to tell a little about his story.

Lu.cu.ma

When I met Lucuma, he was sitting by the roadside, working on the painting below which depicts a jungle village scene. I asked to see his other works, and as we left, he told my friend Slocum to add something to the painting if he wished. When we returned ten minutes later, Slocum had sketched himself into the foreground along with the other faces, but he had drawn himself with Indian features so he would fit in! Lucuma later painted him into the painting permanently. I loved the spirit of that gesture.

So, When Lucuma was a younger man, he would sometimes hear of places in the jungle where coke dealers were keeping large amounts of cocaine or cash. So he would go there, kill everyone, and take the loot for himself. If you know the HBO series ‘The Wire,’ Lucuma was like Omar– a thief who targets drug dealers. I asked him how many men he killed, and he said he didn’t remember but that it was more than twenty.  At one point he escaped from prison for a time, but was recaptured and so added yet more time to his sentence.But now Lucuma has found God, and has been painting for over a decade since his release. He speaks of his past with great openness and acceptance. While there is nothing good to be said for these kinds of crimes, I’m also struck by the sheer brazen courage it must take to do something like that, lone-wolf gangster style. Among his many tattoos are a snake coiling up a dagger on his arm, and he has a big scar on his head where someone tried to split open his skull with a machete. The guy is a warrior, and he still has that warrior spirit. He says that the proper expression for violence now is in his paintings, where there is a running theme of killing corrupt politicians. The piece below depicts a series of Peruvian presidents with a hydra-like creature that suggests the entanglements of corruption. Che Guevara and Karl Marx also figure prominently among other political figures in his work, as in other piece below, which shows Mona Lisa with a Che-style beret.

I think my favorite works are the army helmets. A Peruvian military official gave Lucuma twenty combat helmets that had been issued and seen action in the conflict with Ecuador. Slocum bought one painted with Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and Che Guevara, a great piece of pop art.

Now Lucuma’s agent has arranged for him to be included in the upcoming Biennial Exhibit in Santiago, Chile, held every two years. Many famous Latin American artists will be exhibiting there, and Lucuma will have a chance to show his work to a wider audience, so I wish him the best.

the bone-setter

Last night I went to see Maria Louisa, a woman here who is renowned for her ability to set bones and re-align joints and connective tissues. The concept is similar to Rolfing, as a form of bodywork. She does deep tissue massage until she locates something that is out of place, it could be an old injury or just something that is misaligned, and she uses her knuckle and thumb to pop it back where it needs to be. It feels like she is shearing the connective tissue and pushing it back where it should be. She also sets bones and deals with new injuries as well as old ones.

I don’t have any pictures of this, but I found the experience very powerful. It was painful, though not as bad for me as it is for some people, who say it can be almost more painful than anything you’d want to experience… but it seems to really work. Both gringoes and locals seek her out and most get quite good results after only a few sessions. Maria Louisa is a schoolteacher by profession, but learned this technique from her father I believe, and decided to continue the practice when he retired from it.

The session happened at chez Aussie, where several expat Australians live. Cielo and her daughter Erin were hosting seven Shipibo shamans for the night, before they all headed back out to the Temple of the White Light deep in the jungle. Cielo’s two spider monkeys were running around, and we were playing flutes and a mini didgeredoo that someone had.

I have an electronic flute on my iPhone, and that was a big hit with the Shipibo women:

Finally, I took this pic yesterday outside a clothing shop. They were sanding down the models. I just like the image.