One book, many readings

"All the bloods", the monumental work of José María Arguedas could also be called all the voices, all the souls, all the Andean world.

It is a book that opens different forms of reading: from the conflict of interests and factions, exclusion, injustice, violence, abuse; going through the beautiful descriptions of the exuberant Andean nature or, the recognition of the firm peasant traditions with the permanence of the Quechua language in the Peruvian Andes; the ideas, the prejudices and the opinions of the life and the customs of the people of the coast, the city dwellers, those of the mountain range, the rich people, the foreigners, the politicians, the entire people.

The paragraphs on the land, the crops and the agricultural work are abundant, the description of the mountain landscapes of Peru, the review of diverse flowers, trees and Andean birds, all wrapped in the sacred tone that emits the chacarero world of the Andes: 

"On the yellow of the dead weeds and the blackish of the small parched trees, the flowers of the k'antus shone at the top of the mountain. It is the only flower of winter; It opens its bells that have not only the colour but the brightness of blood, precisely when the surface of the earth seems dead."

Arguedas refers to the ancient tradition of sharing the toast with the earth, with the mountain: "Don Adrián invited a drink of aguardiente to each ringleader. He first poured a few drops on the earth and scattered others to the air, in the direction of the Pukasira"; 

"Five community members spilled a few drops on the palm of their hands so as not to wet the carpet, and they blew the cognac drops, spreading them in the air. In this way they participated in the toast to the mountain gods."

Todas las Sangres besides representing Peru, its contradictions and its struggles, is also an exaltation of the strength of its mountains, that is, the creative and revolutionary power that exists in the Andean soul: "Peru is scary, sometimes! (...) These mountains! If they begin to march, who can stop them? Their summits reach heaven."