El poder de Matuna : Matuna zu Jumamu

Matuna obeyed her mother, planting four seeds from which the four guardian men were born. Matuna Zu Jumamu is a living testament to the power of the remembered word. It transforms the fleeting echo of oral tradition into an enduring record, reminding us that the true “power of Matuna” lies in a people’s capacity to safeguard their memory, their language, and their territory against the pressures of modernity.

One of the most powerful methodological aspects of this book is its creative process. The work bridges the gap between ancestral knowledge holders—the Mamos and Elders—and new generations. The active participation of young people in the graphic and textual interpretation workshops ensures that the book acts as a mirror of their own identity, allowing memory not to remain static in the past, but to be revitalized in the present.

Under the masterful translation of Elder Jeremías Torres, the book successfully navigates the historical challenge of rendering metaphysical concepts from an Indigenous language into Spanish without losing their cosmogonic essence. By maintaining a bilingual structure, it simultaneously serves as a fundamental pedagogical tool for strengthening the language within the Arhuaco Indigenous Reserve and as a bridge of understanding for researchers, anthropologists, and readers from the wider society.

The support of the Indigenous Center for Diversified Education (CIED) and teachers from the Ikarwa region places this book within the category of decolonizing pedagogical literature. It is not intended for exotic or folkloric consumption, but rather as a textbook that legitimizes Indigenous education and the sacred geography of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.