Northern Peru is a mysterious, hidden, and enchanted land. Its enchantment reaches out to Lima, Peru’s capital city, and it invades the whole country to threaten whatever was born well and reveal whatever was born wrong.

The offended, the blasphemed, the unfortunate, the hurt or terminally ill, turn to the highlands of Piura to request a hearing with the spirits and to unleash their ultimate unspoken wishes, favors, hate, envy, revenge, spite, or ambition. Dark love, abundant health, and tempestuous money.

To look at and to deal with the soul in its entirety, within nature and among its components, constitute the healing strategy in Peru’s northern highlands, particularly in Huaringas, province of Huancabamba, where 14 lagoons are found at 4000 meters above sea level, as well as archaeological remains, and a healing center since pre-Hispanic times.
Dispute levels among sorcerers and healers, their tracks (rastreos) and clashes, are made visible with the San Pedro cactus.

The first level is a mythical dispute: negative forces (the devil and damned souls) clash with positive forces (god, the virgin, and the saints).
Peruvian photographer Roberto Cáceres started documenting these phenomena in 2008 and ended in 2015. He visited different parts of Lima and Piura, such as Huancabamba, Yumbe, and Salalá. In June 2016, he printed in Spain 500 copies of The Devil’s Pocket.