Summary
According to the tradition of the U’wa people, those children who born with malformations must die. Berichá was born without legs, but her parents, who had lost five children, decided to raise her. Years later, the girl was left in the care of a Catholic boarding school, as her father had died and her mother could not support her. Since the first days in there, ‘Esperanza Aguablanca’, as she was called, stood out for her charisma and lucidity.

In “My feet are on my head”, Berichá tells us about her childhood among priests and nuns and how she later returned to the land of her grandparents in the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, where she took up ancestral customs and knowledge. In defense of the culture and territory of the original peoples, she would become one of the first indigenous leaders in the country.

Through these pages, Berichá also leads us to discover the u’wa universe: its myths; their rituals around birth, planting and hunting; the role of the ‘uejéná’ as mediators between the people and the spirits of the Earth; and a coherent system of thought and behavior in which abundance and health depend on a good relationship with nature.

This book is part of the Library of Colombian Writers, an initiative of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia that reunites a series of notable works from female writers in the last two hundred years.

Data sheet
Category: autobiography
ISBN: 978-958-52751-7-1
Publication date: 15/06/2022
Extent: 172
Format: 14.5 x 22 cm