El Señor de los Andes

Overview

Inspired by "el aini," a tradition of collective work in the Peruvian Andes, the "Los Andes" savings and credit cooperative was founded in 2001 in the small town of Cotarusi. This cooperative was created for rural communities who had never before had access to credit. They started with 100 members and today have more than 60,000. The cooperative that organized the 2013 Señor de Ánimas festival in Chalhuanca successfully combined cooperativism, festivity, and tradition into one of the most popular and spectacular festivals in recent years. It represents a new way of conceiving economic development and a response from impoverished communities to the economic crisis.