Blood of the Condor

Blood of the Condor (Quechua: Yawar Mallku, Spanish: Sangre de cóndor) is a 1969 Bolivian docudrama film co-written and directed by Jorge Sanjinés and starring Marcelino Yanahuaya. The film tells the story of an indigenous Bolivian community receiving medical care from the Peace Corps-like United States-backed agency Cuerpo del Progreso ("Progress Corps") which is secretly sterilising local women.

Blood of the Condor Yawar Mallku
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jorge Sanjinés
Written by	Jorge Sanjinés
Produced by	Ricardo Rada
Starring	Marcelino Yanahuaya
Cinematography	Antonio Eguino
Edited by	Jorge Sanjinés
Music by	Alfredo Domínguez Ignacio Quispe Alberto Villalpando
Production company	Ukamau Group
Distributed by	Tricontinental Film Center (1973, US)
Release date	1969 (1969)
Running time	70 minutes
Country	Bolivia
Languages	Quechua Spanish English

The story, which was based on accounts by the indigenous people to the filmmaker, provoked an outrage in the public which led to a government investigation about the Peace Corps' actions in Bolivia, which ended in the expulsion of the agency from the country.

Plot

An indigenous Bolivian community receiving medical care from the Peace Corps-like American agency Cuerpo del Progreso ("Progress Corps") which is secretly sterilising local women. The Bolivians attack the foreigners, and the attackers are rounded up and shot by the authorities. The brother of the shot protagonist desperately seeks medical care for his brother, but due to lack of money for proper care his brother dies.^[1]

Impact

Sanjinés' Yawar Mallku is thought to have led to the expulsion of the Peace Corps from Bolivia in an act of anti-imperialist cultural nationalism by the indigenous people.^[2]

After showings of Yawar Mallku, Sanjinés learned that many peasants had criticism about the difficulty of his films due to the use of flashback for narration, as his film-making was greatly influenced by European art cinema, and about the lack of attention to denouncing the causes of the indigenous peoples' issues. He took this into account when making his next film, called es:El coraje del pueblo ("The Courage of the People"), in 1971.^[3]

See also

• Forced sterilization in Peru

Further reading

• Revolutionary Cinema: The Bolivian Experience, Jorge Sanjinés. In: Julianna Burton (editor). Cinema and Social Change in Latin America: Conversations with Filmmakers. University of Texas Press, 1986. ISBN 0292724543, 9780292724549