EPISTEME AND AESTHETIC SYNCRETISM IN QICHQA, A COLLECTION OF POEMS IN QUECHUA BY OLIVIA REGINALDO

Abstract

This article analyzes Olivia Reginaldo's Quechua poetry book, Qichqa, published in Lima without a Spanish translation in 2024. It sheds light on the Quechua categories essential for an epistemological approach to the book. It also shows that Qichqa reveals a key syncretism between the initial paratext, a fragment of El Aleph, by Borges (1998), and the opening poem, titled "Qichqa," a locus from which Andean knowledge engages with other epistemic systems. Within this framework, we employ discourse analysis and hermeneutics. We show that the book, despite its brevity, poses ruptures with traditional forms of writing poetry in Quechua and requires an epistemic approach from an Andean perspective. Finally, we observe that Qichqa addresses the migration of Andean peasants to cities as a way of integrating with the other, becoming one with the other, as part of a survival strategy.