I didn’t know what to expect. A town where almost all of their residents are blind? In my head I saw a multitude of people walking around with sticks, talking to each other and going on with their days as if nothing was missing. When I arrived I could feel that the residents were tired of the media. “Are you the reporter who said our town was hell?” a resident asked me. “Yes it was you! I remember you!” she added. She looked at me in disbelief as I explained over and over that this was my first time in town. She then went on to tell me how the media has totally misrepresented their town and that Parán has many things to offer, especially its delicious avocados and peaches.

It wasn’t easy to find a resident to interview for my story. No one wants to talk to the press “that gets it all wrong.” In the end I was lucky to meet Agapito Mateo, a pastor and farmer with a very optimistic perspective of life. It turns out that many of Parán’s residents develop retinitis pigmentosa in their adult life due to a recessive gene that found its way to the small community generations ago. Of course not everyone has the gene, and those who do have time to prepare themselves for the life ahead in darkness. Agapito started going blind when he was 45. He knew it was coming so he prepared by memorizing his routines well enough to do them without seeing. Something that really amazed me is how he was able to remember every detail of the rocky path that connects the town to his peach parcel. Certainly an inspiration and an example of human potential. I struggled along the irregular path even with my vision.

A version of this video was shot as one of 15 stories about social inclusion for El Comercio’s exhibit in Lima’s Photography Biennial.

Ayacucho certainly didn´t disappoint and along with fervor, praying and amazing processions, came other more earthly elements that made the week a mix of good and evil, quiet and loud and a contrast between the clear Andean skies and the thick smoke of bonfires and fireworks.

Plaza de Armas de Ayacucho, Easter Sunday