Note: Although the interview was originally conducted in Spanish, it has been translated with a view to retaining, as much as possible, Pedrina's style of speaking.
What's your name?
Pedrina Quispe Mamani.
Where are you from?
I am from the Unocolla Comite Artesanal, Puno.
How long have you been working in Minka?
For twenty years, around there, and we are still working.
What is your position in your Comite Artesanal?
I have the responsibility of a delegate, because the members of my Comite have nominated me to come here to be trained and so what I am going to learn here in Lima I am going to take there, to my Comite Artesanal, because I have 42 associates and with that we will train ourselves to think well so everything comes out right.
How is your family, do you have husband, how many children do you have?
My husband I don't have, he left me long time ago, he died. I have eight children, I live only with six children. The others have already left home.
Do you live all the year together?
Yes because they are little ones, they cannot go anywhere because they have to study, recently after they reach eighteen years maybe they are going to leave to work: maybe my children also will be like that.
When your husband was alive, did he go to work outside the community?
He went out like that, like builders to work. He had to stay there a month. When he used to go far he was never able to return, when he used to go near, he came back each evening.
And why did he have to go so far away sometimes?
Because almost in the community there are no jobs, this is why he has gone far.
Do you have other family members that have gone outside the community?
Yes I have relatives here in the capital that have left in search of work, in textiles on machines. They have come, many of my brothers. This is why my sisters have come here also to work.
What work do the people of your family or community do in order to be able to buy
what they need to eat?We generally work in agriculture, in livestock, in handicrafts. The men, more than anything, leave the community to work as builders.
Is it the same all the year round?
No, there are times in the community there is no work, it is not the same.
What do you think about the tourism project?
I think of tourism, when they visit us in the community, we think that tourists are going to bring us more markets. We feel very proud about it.
How do you think this project is going to help your family and your organisation?
We produce products, they can order orders from us or they can buy from us. I think tourism, when it can support us, with our husbands, with our children - they would not leave to work and we would work together much better because now more than anything all the people are going to work in triciclos (small three-wheeled taxis) or as builders. We can offer how we cook in our community, in relation to our handicraft work how we knit, and our landscapes more than anything. Later, in our community, how we live. All that.
Would you like to add anything else?
I can say to the tourists that come to our Comite Artesanal Unocolla that I would like it if more tourists would come here, and we are ready to receive them. We would like to know them as soon as they arrive.
25 March 2004
