RETABLO. DEATH IN YERBABUENA

Death in Yerbabuena Year: 2007 Dimensions: 29.5 x 67 x 13 cm / 29.5 x 33.5 x 13 cm This is a retablo depicting images of a Shining Path execution of inhabitants of Yerbabuena, Chungui, for organizing themselves into peasant patrols (rondas campesinas). The inhabitants, who were sleeping in the school building, were surprised in the middle of the night, brutally beaten, and then had their throats cut or were hanged by the Shining Path members. Men, women, and children died that night in that prolonged massacre. The village was also looted and burned, and children were kidnapped to be indoctrinated and join the ranks of Sendero Luminoso. From the night sky of the retablo, many eyes look down because, as Edilberto Jiménez says, "the fear had a thousand eyes and a thousand ears." On the left is the school, which has been painted with Shining Path slogans, and beside which a red flag has been planted. Inside the school, the inhabitants are terrified, waiting to go out to certain death. Outside the school we see multiple murders and corpses lying on the ground. Toward the left and going up a path are the captured children, moving forward under threat of death, as was demonstrated to one of them as a warning of what could happen to them. The doors bear no floral motifs but rather testimonies recounting what happened. According to Edilberto, this is so the message is clear, given the importance of it being easily understood.