Don Valerio Cohaila, also known as Freddy, comes from the Aymara people (Peruvian native) and is an Inca priest keeper of Andean-Amazon tradition. He was born in a Khallawaya community 13,000 feet high in the southern Andes Mountains and grew up with Yatiris (medicine men.) In 1978 he began to teach the Mother Earth spiritual path. Valerio invites us to meet our ancestral memory on the Andes and the Amazon; to find, follow and live by the Mother Earth spiritual path.

Experience

- Active in human rights/peace/social justice/environmental organizations since the early eighties.
- Committed to help educate people worldwide in the historical and contemporary truths affecting Native people everywhere.
- Working with people from over 50 countries to cultivate relationships with traditional Native people in North and South America.
- Participated in and committed to Lakota Sundance Ceremony for the purpose of building relationships and exchanging traditional knowledge among North and South America.
- Founder and Director of the Institute "Intiq Amarukuna", Cuzco, Peru.
- Organized educational gatherings in Cuzco, Peru and La Paz, Bolivia focusing on the necessity of Indigenous wisdom for human survival in balance with the environment.
- Organized gatherings of Indigenous Leaders from North and South America in Cuzco, Peru and Teotihuacan, Mexico.
- Created forum to share support for social progress and ways to be an instrument of positive social change and promote new understandings about and among Indigenous peoples, continuing yearly since 1992.

Education

• University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
  
• Masters of Arts Degree in the Humanities, 2001.
  
• Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL
  
• Liberal Arts Associate Degree with Spanish Major, 1999.
  
• National University of Engineering, Lima, Peru
  
• Environmental Engineering, 1982.
  
• Speaker and participant in Seminars, Forums and Workshops with specialization in Vocational Human Development and Incan Cultural Tradition.
  
• Trip leader providing programs for cultural tours to Peru and Mexico, conducting groups and guiding trips to historic, cultural and ecologic places of interest during the summer season.
  
• Founder and Director of the Inti Wayna Foundation, Peru and Children of the Sun Foundation US.
  
• Sponsor of bi-lingual education for Children of the Quechua, Aymara and Amazon ethnic groups.
  
• Fluent in Spanish and Aymara.

Publications:

• Time Life books - Meaning of Life 1991-1992. Article on interviews with many people from around the world.
  
• Article on the Coca leaf tradition and history.