THE POTATO, A BLESSED FOOD FROM THE ANDES.

When you travel through the mountains of Souther Peru, try to visit the region of Apu-Rimac. The name in Quechua means "God Who Speaks." You will stand in awe before the majestic Pacucha Lagoon. It is located at 3,120 meters (10,236 feet) above sea level and is one of the loveliest and largest of Peruvian lagoons. A local villager of this area told about this ancient story which focuses on the vegetable which has been cultivated in the Andes for more than 10,000 years: The Potato.
In the very ancient times, The Andes were populated by men and women that lived in perfect harmony with Nature and all its abundance. Their respect and veneration for the Pachamama, Mother Earth, was great. The Earth, in return, never failed to give the people all the fruits needed to sustain them.
This perfect Spirit of Harmony, however, was not to last. It is said that one day, People controlled by the forces of Chaos, arrived in the land from a far away region outside the Andes. When they saw the Natural Abundance of the Land, and, they decided to stay. They were controlled by a very powerful Spirit of Selfishness that made these people very selfish, and deceptive. They took everything for themselves, stealing from every place they encountered in the land.
The People were depleted from all their becoming crops and the Spirit of Hunger and Need began to grow among them. There was no longer a source of food, and conflicts with the invaders started to grow and increase in high proportion.
In their desperation the villagers cried and called upon the Apu Mountain Gods (The Spirit of the Mountains) who heeded their cries for help and gave them seeds to plant. They worked very hard and made them grow.
When the evil foreigners saw what they were doing, they uprooted all of the plants, and once again the villagers were without food. They cried again and called upon The Apu. The Spirit spoke to them and told them to remove roots that grew from the seeds of the uprooted plants and eat them. In this way all the people became knowledgeable about The Potato.
With the new root as food the villagers were able to instruct all the Andean People about it and all grew again in strength and were able to face and overcome the foreigner evil spirit with its people that once enslave them and savage their land.
The Potato then was considered sacred and never again they were attacked by foreigners and the root grew in the high mountains to everybody and the Spirit of Harmony came again.