“Huaquero”, derived from the Quechua and Aymara word “huaca”, means sacred place or object. It is a film inspired by encounters on the coasts of Ecuador and Peru with ex-huaqueros, people who were once involved in the illicit excavation and sale of pre-Hispanic archaeological artefacts. It blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination, reconstructing their fragmented memories through a hybrid mise-en-scène that interweaves everyday life with fictional recreations of the past.
Set between the lush green Chocó and the vast desert of the Chicama Valley, Huaquero (2024) evokes the nostalgia of early 20th century travel cinema with its 16mm images. It attempts to recreate experiences that move away from a colonial perspective, entering spaces where scientific conservation is absent or has imposed exclusionary marks on local needs. Through the fragmented memories of the huaqueros, the film serves as a portal to the deep colonial wounds that still persist in these territories.
Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez
Graduated in Film at the San Francisco University of Quito in 2007, Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez later completed a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Amsterdam. After directing several short films, he premiered his debut feature, Saudade (2013) at the Mostra Internacional do Cinema de Sao Paulo. Huaquero (2024) is his second feature-length doc.
Huaqueo is a practice of gravedigging to obtain pre-Columbian artifacts. The people who practice are called huaquero(s). Both of these words stem from the word huaca, deriving from the Quechua and Aymara language, meaning “sacred place or object”. During the Spanish Invasion, the indigenous people of the Abya Yala were forced to open the tombs…
