©Paccarik Orue, El Muqui cover

Paccarik Orue is a Peruvian photographer who resided in the United States for 30 years but is now living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is publishing a book on his long term project, El Muqui, about the Peruvian mining town of Cerro de Pasco, with his new small press venture, Ediciones La Vicuña that he co-founded with his wife, Eleonora Ronconi.

Cerro de Pasco is a historical city of 80,000 people in the Peruvian Andes, situated on top of the biggest sources of income for the Peruvian government: mineral deposits. Throughout the years, each mining company that operated the open-pit mine has left its own mess behind; tailing in very close proximity to densely populated areas, which make children sick with very high levels of lead in their bloodstream, killing lakes and livestock, contaminating water supplies and polluting the air. Cerro de Pasco is on the brink on an environmental disaster.

The title El Muqui comes from a folkloric character in the Andean mines who is highly respected, even feared, by miners, and has a strong moral code. Popular tales talk about how he is aware of the miners’ desires and actions, but also playful with children. With this project, Orue wants to celebrate the inhabitants of Cerro de Pasco and give them a voice that they struggle to find and to save the memory of a place that is threatened to exist as we know it today.

The book has a collection of 53 photographs, plus vintage postcards of the beginnings of the mining activity in the area, a poem by Kristian Tolentino, a local musician, and two beautiful essays by Shana Lopes, Assistant Curator of Photography, SFMoMA, and Elizabeth Lino Cornejo, an anthropologist, environmental activist and writer from Cerro de Pasco.

An interview between Paccarik Orue and Eleonora Ronconi follows.

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

ER: I last interviewed you in August 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, with our plans of moving to Buenos Aires on hold, because traveling was almost impossible. Fast forward 5 years and we are now settled here with not only our Frankie, but a second rescued dog, Cleo, so the family is bigger now.

PO: Yeah, it is definitely a full house with the dogs- Buenos Aires feels like home now.

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

ER: I’d love to talk about your upcoming book, which has a few years in the making, El Muqui, and your decision to self publish through our new venture, Ediciones La Vicuña. Tell us why you decided to self publish.

PO: It took a long time to edit the book. I went through several different edits and I really wasn’t happy with any of them. The passage of time gave me fresher eyes and I was able to come up, with your help, with an edit and structure that works really well with the story I am trying to tell. The decision to self publish was an easy one since there wasn’t another option for me. Paying crazy amounts of money to some other publisher was out of the question, so I figured that if we published it ourselves through Ediciones La Vicuña, we would learn a lot about the whole process, and then later on we could use that knowledge to publish our future works and other peoples’ work we both admire. It is an opportunity to build on an experience and I am stoked with how the book turned out.

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

ER: What can you tell us about the process?

PO:  The old fashion way was what worked the best for me. No In Design or design software -just coloring paper and artist tape to stick the work prints to the paper. Being able to move images around, switching the images on the board, pairing them and visualizing it with my hands was very interesting. I had worked on In Design before but I was missing the physical process of handling the prints in my hands.  There is nothing like turning a page and feeling how things start to come together- image size, sequencing, and rhythm. Working that way truly helped with visualizing the end product along the way and erased the doubts I had when working digitally. Once I was finished we reached out to Fabio Massolo, who was a perfect match for us as a designer, and he came up with an awesome 3D cover and polished the final details. 

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

ER: What are your hopes with the book?

PO: I hope that I made justice to the history of Cerro de Pasco and its people. I hope that it lives a good long life to safeguard the contemporary memory of the city, that it finds its way in good homes and collections, which has already started to happen through the presale. 

ER: When do you think the book will be ready?

PO:  The book is ready and we are doing a presale now to help fund the printing. I am hoping the edition will be printed by February. 

ER: I am really looking forward to having the actual book in our hands soon. It has been a very fun and educational process. I loved working with you on this project. Thank you!

PO: I don’t know if I could say that the financial and technical aspects of the project were fun, but it’s great to have so much support. By the way, thank you for helping me get out of the rut when I was stuck and your support along the way. I couldn’t have done it alone. 

ER: Hey, it’s all part of the process, the ups and downs, and I think that is what makes it such a unique experience.

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread

© Paccarik Orue, El Muqui spread