This study examines how the Quechua population of the village of Hualla, Peru, managed the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of a public health system crisis. An ethnographic method was employed to this end, including interviews with individuals exhibiting symptoms of the virus and the collection of information from the staff at the Hualla Health Center between April 2021 and June 2022.
The findings reveal that community members relied on traditional medical knowledge, such as the use of medicinal plants, healing rituals, and invocations to divine beings, as well as on communal organization. These strategies enabled them to adapt to the new situation and demonstrate their agency.
The study concludes that the strategies adopted by the population not only helped to mitigate the effects of the pandemic, but also constituted a form of cultural resistance against the hegemony of biomedicine and the state’s control over the body.
