Exchange Market in Hito Cajón
In the past as today, the exchange or barter affects not only manufactured products, but in its time, cultural codes were exchanged. When political frontiers didn't exist, to be able to exchange their products, different towns had to learn to speak their respective languages among themselves.
Sunday January 14, 2007
Jenny Cárdenas Pérez
Note:

If you participate in the exchange market, don't encourage monetary transactions. Try to make the effort to offer products that are needed by the participants.
Little by little, we near the Hito Cajón, on the Bolivia-Chile border, the temperature begins to go down, and far off you see a willing crowd in a semi-circle, backed by the Jurike and Tata Likanzo volcanoes.

Men, women, and children: Aymaras, Quechuas, Likan Antay (from Atacama) and Chileans, offering their products standing by their cars or walking from place to place.

The market begins with an offering to the Patha Ohiri or Mother Earth. Alcohol and coca leaves are offered in gratitude; in the middle of the gathering, there is an apacheta, a stone hill that is created to thank the mountain spirits and Mother Earth.
  The exchange is a millennial custom among the original South American towns. The Andean grandfathers went with llama caravans, which extended from Peru to Chile. In some other Latin-American places, the markets are a living example of bartering, even though each time with less frequency, due to the place money occupies in our time and the expansion of large supermarkets. Still, nowadays, en South Lípez, (Potosí, Bolivia) the llamas' shepherds continue going by old exchange routes, the road through the Andes extends hundreds of kilometers; which permits them to allow agricultural products that prosper in other ecozones and add to their base for survival. They in turn exchange products like: leather, beef jerky (dry beef), suet, fat from llama belly or tijtuca (used as a medicine or ritual element), llama fetus, sullies, raw wool, costales, hondas (warakas), ropes and old capones; as well as ritual plants or medicines, salts that are accumulated at the river and swamp edges, much used as soap to wash clothing and for personal cleanliness.
 
Bibliography consulted:

Aguilar, Carlos y Verónica Moreno "Encounter of Ancient Towns in the heights of Atacama" in; "Citizens in action, San Pedro de Atacama, June 2002, year 1, No. 4.

Nielsen, Axel E. "Caravan traffic in the south of Bolivia: Ethnographic observations and archeological implications" in: Relations, ed. Argentine Anthropology Society, Buenos Aires 1997-1998, volume XXII-XXIII.

The Bolivian towns that participate in the Hito Cajón exchange fair are: Little and Big Quetana of South Lípez; and from Chile: Rio Grande, Machuca, San Pedro de Atacama, Toconao, Talabre, Camar, Socaire, Peine, Ayllu de Coyo, Solor and Sequitor. All of them come ready to participate in the continuity of this millennial tradition.

The value of the products offered is, in part, in relation to the necessities and deficiencies of those who sell it. Because of its geographical characteristics, the Bolivian high plain is lacking agricultural diversity. For example, it is possible to exchange a case of fruit for a blanket hand-embroidered with llama or alpaca wool.

Without any doubt, the textile variety occupies an important place in the exchange. The women offer the fruits of their work, made with their brown hands, in exchange for fruits, vegetables, clothing or technology; the alcohol, the coca leaves and the sale of food, are all part of the life together, which affects the exchange fair.

The wind pushes the clouds, bringing the rain to the mountains. Surprised, the people put away their things, many having already acquired the needed things. Thus, with complete tranquility, pick up their things and put them in their collective vans and trucks. Even with the rain and the cold, the people continue the noise.

The exchange fair is an example of solidarity among towns. Besides bringing us the memory of what the old founders practiced, it reminds us there are real motives to cross territorial frontiers to help brother towns.