Latin America Professional Award 2025 3rd Place

This project aims to give an account of the Indigenous Mbyá Guaraní community, Tekoa El Chapá, which is located in Misiones, Argentina. These Indigenous communities inhabit southern Brazil, parts of Paraguay and Misiones in northeast Argentina. Their mother tongue is Mbyá, which can be translated as ‘people’ or ‘many people in one place.’ Their worldview is shaped by the land, and they view themselves and each other as extensions of the environment around them, brought to life by Nanderú, ‘The Creator.’ They preserve a traditional way of life called ‘tekoa,’ which refers to a territory where the ‘teko’ – the Guaraní ‘way of being’ – is practiced (agriculture, hunting, fishing and spirituality in harmony with the land). Their history and existence depend exclusively on collective and shared memory, emphasising the ‘community’ that is fundamental for their survival.

Mauricio Holc is an award-winning queer visual storyteller from Argentina working exclusively on film photography. He studied at the Universidad Nacional de Misiones (UNAM). Mauricio creatively through a documentary approach, celebrates his community, especially addressing and investigating issues of identity, territory, corporalities, communities and the environment as a collective paradigm. His vision as an artist is closely linked to his identity process.