Chacobo

This portrait is inspired by the Chacobo people, an Indigenous community of the Bolivian Amazon. When I drew this image, I was thinking about how their traditions and aesthetics hold both strength and fragility—strength in their resilience, and fragility in how easily their stories can be overlooked or erased.

The Chacobo are known for their deep connection to the forest, for their knowledge of plants, and for their rituals that tie the human body to the spirit of the land. In painting them, I wanted to emphasize that interconnection. The vines encircling the figure are not just framing devices; they are lifelines, threads that tie people to the natural world.

I often think about how representation becomes both an act of preservation and a question of responsibility. By placing the Chacobo within this vivid, almost dreamlike space, I wanted to highlight their presence in a way that resists invisibility—reminding myself and others that their identity is not static, not “of the past,” but alive, rooted, and deserving of recognition.