Ximena Málaga Sabogal

Chaska is a well-known Quechua radio speaker, so when her twin daughters decide to become influencers, she gets it – and becomes a successful TikToker herself. Meanwhile, grandma Santusa, an alpaca shepherd and weaver, tries her luck in the growing Quechua film industry after a cameo in the latest Transformers movie. As Chaska and Santusa gain prominence in the Quechua media scene, the divide with the twins grows: like most kids of their generation, the girls do not speak Quechua anymore. Quechua might be all the rage in certain circles, but being a Quechua speaker bears the weight of centuries of oppression and is still looked down upon in Peru. AYLLU, which in Quechua means both family and community, follows these three generations of women and their media adventures as they navigate their dreams of fame in a racist environment. Drawing from years of fieldwork and engagement with the Peruvian “Quechua-sfera”, as well as the collaboration with its protagonists-producers, AYLLU is a visual and aural exploration of contemporary Andean Indigeneity. By combining archival audio files from Quechua radio, contemporary TikTok content, and intimate footage of Chaska’s family’s everyday life, we aim to portray the plasticity and permeability of this world.