CASILDA PINCHE SANCHEZ (74)

I was born in Pucallpa. I am the fourth child. My father is a plumber and my mother is a housewife. We are rather poor. Since I was 12 years oldd I liked drawing very much. When I was 17 a friend of my sister gave her the address of the Usko-Ayar school. There I started to take drawing lessons and then painting lessons. I finished high school when I was 18. I wish I could have continued university studies, but I was not able to do so for lack of financial resources. But I am thankful to God because he gave me the opportunity to make beautiful things, such as painting the forest. In the school I am also learning to love and respect people and to preserve the Amazonian environment, and also to teach others to do so.
I exhibted by first paintings in 1993 and at the end of the year I spent 20 days at the Sachaman Ethnobotanical Garden, toether with other students of the Usko-Ayar school. I am now one of the teachers and that makes me very happy. I like basket and volley ball and I like to cook. My dream is to become a good painter like my teacher Pablo Amaringo.

DAVID ESQUIBEL AMARINGO

David was born in Pucallpa. His parents were farmers , working in a chacra, a slash and burn plot in the jungle. Two days after he was born his father abandoned the family and David's mother, Francisca raised her seven children, with the help of her brother Pablo Amaringo. Pablo taught him to read and write and when he was nine years old he went to school for three years but he had to abandon his studies to help his mother sell fruit in the market. In January 1988 he went to live in the home of his uncle.
When the school was created in June of that year, David was one of the first 14 students. In January 1989 he completed his first painting and when it sold he was encouraged to continue with his art studies.
In 1991 he represented the school at an art exhibition in Lima. In 1992 he was invited along with his fellow student Julio Hurtado, to the International Museum of Children's Art in Oslo, Norway, where some of his paintings are permanently exhibited.
David has spent time working at the Sachamama Ethnobotanical Garden near Iquitos, created by Francisco Montes, where he has been learning about medicinal plants. David is a good cook and knows how to prepare delicious regional dishes.

DENIS GUERRA AMARINGO

I am Peruvian and I have born On December 25, 1969. I come from a humble family and my parents are Maeo Antonio Guerra Rfos and Francisco Amaringo Shuna. I am the second one of my family and in total we are seven all of us born in Pucallpa or Red Earth as in Quechua language means.
Since my childhood I worked hard because my parents got separated and we did not have my father's help and I grew together with my mother thanks to God because I became strong and for my mother that was working very hard too for giving us our daily food and she was teaching us how to work and to do the best. My studies I began in the school Ng 64006; 1979-84, on which I was one of the bests students in Literature and Art.
When I was 19, I have got a wife with a lady from Lima and we have 4 children and we are happy. I did not have any interest in continuing practicing painting but I thank to my uncle Pablo Amaringo who always said to me you most practice more on painting, I was more interested about parties, football which is my favorite sport that I did not care about it; so the time was passing so fast that a certain day my cousin Juan Visquez said to me that I am going to help and teach to you painting, so I stareted to practice on painting again to that I am very glad and happy painting about nature and a year and 11 months that I am doing painting and I have participed in some exhibitions in Peru and abroad. By painting I am discovering that we must not destroy jungle niether the wild animals and I know many varieties of trees that are used in folk medicine to cure illnesses and I know how to prepare some typical food and drinks of very good taste. I like art and I doing my best for the amazonian culture, thanks to USKO-AYAR.

DENNIS RENGIFIO GALLARDO

Dennis have born in Tamanco, Fanache riven a branch of the Ucayali river, on December 24, 1970. Son of don Luis Rengifo Ochoa and dofia Manuela Gallardo Huansi, when I was 3 my mother has died and aunt took care of me. When I was 6 I was walking for the virgin fores together of my mother brother to hunt for having the daily food to eat, he also took care of me and with him I was going to the up and low jungle and climbing mountings as the Cerro de Canchahuayo and its hills and also to the Cerro Azul del Shesha and walking and crossing by lakes and swamps in the low jungle. I became a hunter and a fisherboy when I was 7 this happened in Orellana when I moved to live there I have not grow together my father and I do not him, He has moved to live in yarinacocha where I studied till the fifth grade in a primary school then I came to Pucallpa working in making buildings. Since I was 12 I was along living by myself because my aunt I was living with, she died. When I was 15 I when to live in Ugarte, where I met to don Pablo Amaringo Shuna, who took me as an employer for two years and the he adopted me as his son, I was the first of his painting students on May 1987, when I was 17 I started to paint with don Pablo's teaching painting landscapes to give to tile world for knowing about the art that in the Usko-Ayar Inazonian School of Painting young people are doing.
My first collective exhibition in September 1987 and another ones in Lima and in many other parts of Peru, Europe and U.S.A. In 1990, don Pablo Amaringo was invited to travelled to U.S.A. for many scientifics till Finland in Europe, so I have accompained to him for representing to the school. I was very worried and happy at the same time because I never had travelled abroad and I had the opportunity to inow Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Okland, Sincinary, New York; in Berkeley we visited to the helicopter inventor Arthur Young; then we continued travelling to Estocolm, Finland, carkila, Porvoo, Turku. I am very thankful of don Pablito because he is giving me a good education through the art and also to love the nature because they are living creatures too and that they can help us when we need them. I want also to thank many other persons who are helping to the school and to them for make it all those travels possible. In 1994, in October I travelled to Brazil, invited for an organization U.D.V. Union de Vegetal, for giving them the objectives of the school in Sao Paulo, Campinas, and Brasilia where I made a studio of painting with children from 7 till adults of 32 years old, they were very happy for my way of teaching them that I had much peace in my person.

DICKSON ORBE V

I have born on June 11 1980 in the Pucallpa city where is plenty of tropical vegetation and fauna. My parents are don Arcadio Orbe Salas and dona Ilmer Vega Lozano, we live in a humble house in Pucallpa.
I studied my primary school in the Auristela Davila Zevallos No 65002 and there I always had a good behaviour and notes. When I have finished my primary studies I continued in the Comercia No 64 a national high school and for a friend I knew about the Usko Ayar Amazonian School of Painting so till a day 15 of May 1993. I started on drawing and then painting and also studying English language and many good advices from don Pablo Amaringo, the Director of the School and the teachers who are in charge on teaching of my shift.

DOMI LOZANO P

I have born in the Calleria District on March 20 1981. I am 14 years old. My father is don Nicilas Lozano Vasquez and my mother dona Sonia Rosa Paima Tapullima. I have 8 brothers and I am the fifth son. I studied my priary school in the Santa Clotilde in a settlement down Ucayali River.
I am studying in high school in the CEMBA national school, first degree I let to study two years because my father did not have economic resaources, so and I did not want to loose the time as my sister was studying ready in the Usko Ayar Amazonian School of Painting. I asked her for study also in this school and I am one year now studying here. During a year I understand that I am learning good things as how to honour my parents, to the neighbors, painting and English of course. My thanks to the director Don Pablo Amaringo and to his school. I practice to have a good hand to paint. I like to look at the plants and trees.
My goal is to become in future a good painter, to help and teach to the people. In the jungle are plants, trees, wild animals and beautiful birds. In summer the beaches are used to grow rice, watermelons, etc.