Huitaca was considered a godness by the Muisca people that settled on the Colombian plateau near Bogotá (Capital District). In several stories she is considered as the rebel wife of Bochica, the social organizer. Her special charm was her indomitable, playful and carefree temper. Huitaca represents the moon, the water, mother Hood but also the independent strength of nature, the germinal power of earth, the irreverent joyfulness, the dark and fertile mysteries of life and the wish that they occur under the night mantle.
The legend says that the godness was transformed into an owl, eternal queen of the night whose eyes embody the mystery of darkness. Ever since, the energy of her influence remains in the soul of her descendants.
Carlos Saavedra, a Colombian photographer, went about remote towns and trails of the country looking for the daughters of Huitaca to follow the ancestral and original traces of her descendants. In this collection, when observing her pictures and the
photographs that Carlos was able to capture allowing us to glimpse at her secrets for an instant, we can see that al these women share a mysterious strength, Trough their eyes seem to reflect ancestral secrets. Some with faces grooved by wrinkles that bring
back the memories of centenary roots or the tired signs of the furrows left by the plows. Others show true smiles which dentures remind the crooked and intricate paths of fate.
Saavedra capture the spirit of these women who are wise and naïve, happy and nostalgic, strong and vulnerable. All of them have within themselves the seed of life and the agony of old age. If we carefully come close to each of these faces we will discover that in the depth of their look we can see the sparkle of the eyes of Mother Earth.
Susana Castellanos Colombia
Colombian historian and writer
