Holy Nada: the Andean ceremonies trying to reconnect the world to Earth's rhythms

Four voices carry this nearly 30-minute documentary: the Andean masters Don Hipólito, Tito La Rosa and María Apaza, and the Argentine Matías De Stefano, founder of the Holy Nada movement. De Stefano, born in 1987 in Venado Tuerto, became known in Argentina as the "indigo child" who says he remembers past lives, the subject of the 2019 documentary "El Recordador." Here he appears as the organizer of ceremonies held at the equinoxes and solstices, with the stated aim of reconnecting people to the Earth's cycles.

The World Tribal Alliance (WTA) film crew follows part of these ceremonies in Peru. Three points sum up what the film shows. First, an alternative reading of Machu Picchu: for the masters, the site is not only the Inca sanctuary described by archaeology but a place designed to amplify the inner energy of those who visit it, in a symbolism that links serpent, puma and condor to different states of consciousness. This is a spiritual interpretation, not a historical thesis, and the documentary cites no academic sources for it.

Second, the pilgrimage to Ausangate, one of the highest and most revered mountains near Cusco. Along the way, the guides build apachetas, small stone cairns where each traveler leaves behind a wish or a weariness before continuing — a custom genuinely documented among Quechua communities in the region, narrated here firsthand by one of the guides, who recalls his father repeating the same prayer beside the stones.

Third, a scene in Cusco: a cultural center run by maestro Don Hipólito takes in migrants from Andean communities who arrive in the city and, according to the participants, lose pride in their traditions. The space offers pottery, weaving and ceremonies for anyone who wants to take part. It is this center, Muju, that receives part of the documentary's proceeds from YouTube, Patreon and the WTA website — a direct link between who appears in the film and who profits from it, worth noting.

Nothing the masters say about "superior" technology or the energy of the mountains has any proof outside the oral tradition they represent. That said, the documentary is worth watching for its images: rarely, outside a film like this, does one see so many ordinary people from the Cusco region explain, in their own words, why a stone, an altitude or a wind still organizes the spiritual life of an entire community.