Summary

Irineo had lived in Cochabamba since he was 10 years old. He moved there with his parents from Alota, a small town in the highlands where they grow quinua. The international quinua boom led Irineo to return to his home town 20 years later, with his wife and children, in search for a better life that the city was unable to give him. In Alota Don Lucio is waiting for them; he is Irineo's grandfather and the leader of the community, who never left his home town, but who has watched how the population has gradually moved out from the town to different metropolitan areas. Now Alota looks forward to a future of economic prosperity, which threatens to destabilize the everyday life of the community, as mass marketers move in to commercialize a product that only yesterday was a basic foodstuff closely linked to the Pachamama.