Don Hector Aguanari

Early Life and Family Heritage

Don Hector Aguanari was born in Punchana, a small hamlet upriver from Iquitos, the jungle city on the Amazon River in Peru. From an early age, he watched his father, the renowned healer and Ayahuasquero Don Manuel Aguanari, carry out healings and Ayahuasca ceremonies. Don Manuel is also mentioned in Luis Eduardo Luna’s book on Vegetalismo.

Formative Experiences

One of the most memorable episodes from his childhood involved a woman who was brought to his father with a severely swollen belly and intense pain. After diagnosing her with Ayahuasca, Don Manuel understood that she had been harmed by another Ayahuasquero through a difficult form of sorcery. She had, in effect, been made pregnant by an anaconda. This kind of phenomenon is not considered entirely unusual, and similar accounts appear in both paintings and the testimony of healers.

To treat her, Don Manuel prepared a medicine from the powerful Katawa tree, highly respected for its capacity to heal or to harm. When the woman drank it, she experienced painful contractions in her abdomen as the anaconda inside writhed in distress. Finally, after everyone had fallen asleep, the anaconda emerged, leaving only traces of phlegm and blood behind. Experiences such as this left a deep impression on Hector, even though he did not immediately choose the path of a shaman.

Path to Shamanism

For many years, Don Hector focused on making a living and raising a family in Iquitos. It was only in his late thirties that he began learning the medicine way of Ayahuasca, as he says, “out of necessity.” He and his wife had fallen into a painful crisis, unable to agree on anything and feeling deeply repelled by one another. An Ayahuasquero told them they had been harmed by jealous people who wanted to separate them. Although both of them saw this in their visions, they resisted believing it.

When his wife later left for Pucallpa, Don Hector finally turned seriously to his healer. Through cleansing work, he and his wife were freed from sorcery, and the healer helped call her soul back to him. Two months later, without any contact between them, she returned to Iquitos of her own will, and they were reunited. The healer told Don Hector that he would not find peace until he learned the medicine path.

He then entered the demanding training to become an Ayahuasca healer. As the last of five apprentices to join his teacher, he endured many diets, tests, and hardships. In the end, he was the only one of the group who emerged fully empowered as an Ayahuasca shaman. One of the most difficult moments of his training came just before graduation, when he entered a vision during an Ayahuasca session and saw the end of the world. Overcome with grief and terror, he wept and vowed never to take Ayahuasca again. Yet he passed the trial, and since then has worked as a practicing shaman with a thriving clientele and countless healings to his name.

Ceremonial Style and Practice

Don Hector leads ceremonies with both care and strength. His singing is powerful and beautiful, and his ritual style remains deeply traditional. He primarily uses the Shacapa leaf bundle for instrumentation and sings in a blend of Quechua, indigenous Amazonian languages, and Spanish. His songs weave together jungle imagery and Christian symbolism, a common feature among practitioners in the Peruvian Amazon.

Most of his healing songs were learned from his teacher. Yet remarkably, even after his father’s passing, Don Manuel continues to come to his aid during ceremonies. Don Hector says that all of his father’s songs have returned to him, and he now sings them in his work.

Current Status and Students

Now in his sixties, Don Hector remains active and strong. He has twenty-one students, both men and women. His main apprentice is his foster son Fernando, and the two sing well together in ceremony. As Don Hector says, it is important to have apprentices who learn well, because when a healer is in trouble, students may be able to help.