Author Topic: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila  (Read 13505 times)

Offline huerfana

  • Posts: 4
Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« on: April 09, 2012, 10:47:59 pm »
"Don Valerio Cohaila" (Freddy Arrevalo) who claims to be "-a Yatiri (Incan Priest) of the Amayra tribe from the high Andes mountains of Tacna, Peru" has come to my attention from someone who holds him in high regard.

In an email I received telling about an upcoming "medicine ceremony" I read this; "Freddy holds a Masters degree in Romance Languages from the University of Chicago and dual citizenship in Peru and the US. He currently resides in Austin, TX with his wife Yolanda, who is an Aztec Dancer from Monterrey, Mexico, and their four delightful children. Freddy holds vision quests in the US, Mexico, & Peru and travels every weekend holding plant medicine ceremonies. His next trip to Peru will be in June, 2012. He was recently honored by the Lakota Chief Leonard Crow Dog with the Eagle bonnet headdress and given the sacred medicine bundle. He Sundances with Uncle Leonard in South Dakota every year."

Can anyone tell me more about this person in regards to his connection to Chief Crow Dog?
 
Respectfully-
La Huerfana

Offline amorYcohetes

  • Posts: 71
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2012, 05:26:26 am »
The terminology used here raises some questions.  I guess maybe people who are looking for customers outside traditional cultures use a sort of shorthand in their marketing, tacking on tags with wide name recognition, that those more familiar with the culture would recognize as inaccurate.  For example:
Quote
"a Yatiri (Incan Priest) of the Amayra [sic] tribe from the high Andes mountains of Tacna, Peru"
Okay, so which is it?  The yatiri are traditional healers among the Aymara.  The Incan empire forced a lot of smaller tribes to adopt the their Quechua language and customs, before the Spanish colonization, but they never did get the Aymara to assimilate, and so the two today are the largest ethnic groups in Bolivia.  To repeat, these are separate ethnicities with separate languages.  (This article on wikipedia about the yatiri is based on research by Bolivian scholar Tomas Huanca Laura, who I believe is himself Aymara.)  So is Cohaila/Arrevalo an Aymara healer/spiritual leader or a Quechua one?  Ethnically he could be mixed, as many people are, but which cultural tradition does he follow?

By searching on google I came across this bio page for an event that includes Cohaila/Arrevalo.  From his picture he has mixed features and I would have guessed he would maybe be considered a mestizo.  Here is an excerpt from his bio:
Quote
As an heir of the Andes/Amazon Tradition, when the 10th cycle of the Pachacuteq Calendar started, in 1992, he was sent to Europe and North America by his Elders, to share their traditions and to fulfill the Inca Prophesy that states: When the Condor of the South meets the Eagle of the North and they fly together, then it will be the sign that the Children of the Mother Earth are reawakening.
Similarly, so which tradition is he from - Andean or Amazonian?  The Andes and the Amazon are in a sense opposite geographical and cultural regions of South America.  In Bolivia today for example there continue to be huge political divisions between the western highland mountainous area close to Peru and the eastern tropical zone near Brazil. (There are large percentages of indigenous people in both areas, but there are also other groups, and it's a complicated situation.)

By the way... is there reputable scholarship on the origin of the Eagle-Condor prophecy?  Searching these boards, I don't see a thread although it is discussed quite a bit.

Offline Cetan

  • Posts: 238
  • Hoka Hey
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2012, 05:40:48 pm »
I knew Freddy for many years and some people I know still regularly go to his "ceremonies". He is from the Andes, works with both ayahuasca and also peyote. He mixes traditions and I have seen a family seriously hurt as a result of a ceremony he did. My godfather who has a NAC altar said "he has no business feeding medicine to anyone". The first year he went out to Crow Dogs Sundance it was only supposed to be to support, the person who took him wouldnt not sponsor him  so he went around until he found someone who would (I think it was Luciano Perez). They told him he was going to pierce by hanging from the tree and when they started to raise him up he grabbed onto the ropes to take the pressure off of his chest, a good friend said it looked like a helicopter rescue attempt and said they lowered him and a few helpers gave him fans to hold and told him he couldnt drop them so he wouldnt grab onto the ropes.  I am skeptical about the claim the he was given an eagle feather bonnet by Crow Dog.  My nephew gave a good description of Freddy once by saying "he is a nice person and if he were my next door neighbor I would probably get together for dinner with him about once a week but I wouldnt sit in ceremony with him".


Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2019, 09:21:20 pm »
Our Mission
Condor Eagle — Tuesday, September 25, 2018
The Condor Eagle foundation is dedicated to bringing the indigenous tribes of both South and North America together as one. Our team, lead by Chief Cohaila from Peru is raising  funds to bring the Sacred Sundance from the Lakota Nation down to Peru to be shared amongst the people of the Andes. This will be a historical event to be witnessed, help support us by donations or sharing our page to your friends and family.

This is the beginning of a sharing and the growth of cultures and people around the world.

Sundance Peru : Update Chief Valerio Cohaila
Condor Eagle 1.8K Views · about 2 months ago ·
Hey everyone!

Thank you to everyone who has donated to the project so far. It means so much to us to see this project slowly become a reality, all of the money donated so far has been used for building the Sundance Arbor as well as buying plane tickets for the Chiefs, Sundancers, and Singers to go to Peru this Feb 9th. There's still time to donate to the project! Any dollar will count and help us get closer to our goal!
Learn more about the project here:

https://www.facebook.com/Sacredsundanceperu/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Thank you and aho!

"Chief" Valerio Cohaila has been asked about in the forum before, in the thread "Inca Priest". His name is Freddy Arevalo (not Arrevalo):

"Don Valerio Cohaila" (Freddy Arrevalo) who claims to be "-a Yatiri (Incan Priest) of the Amayra tribe from the high Andes mountains of Tacna, Peru" has come to my attention from someone who holds him in high regard.

In an email I received telling about an upcoming "medicine ceremony" I read this; "Freddy holds a Masters degree in Romance Languages from the University of Chicago and dual citizenship in Peru and the US. He currently resides in Austin, TX with his wife Yolanda, who is an Aztec Dancer from Monterrey, Mexico, and their four delightful children. Freddy holds vision quests in the US, Mexico, & Peru and travels every weekend holding plant medicine ceremonies. His next trip to Peru will be in June, 2012. He was recently honored by the Lakota Chief Leonard Crow Dog with the Eagle bonnet headdress and given the sacred medicine bundle. He Sundances with Uncle Leonard in South Dakota every year."

Can anyone tell me more about this person in regards to his connection to Chief Crow Dog?

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2019, 09:26:50 pm »
Right now there is a new thread about "Sundance in Peru ??" which led to this "Incan Priest":

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5335.0

When I replied there just now I titled my comment "Sundance in Peru — Freddy Arevalo AKA "Chief" & "Don" Valerio Cohaila".

Offline Cetan

  • Posts: 238
  • Hoka Hey
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2019, 12:18:33 am »
I knew Freddy Aravelo. He used to do weird concoted ceremonies mixing peyote and ayahuasca around Chicgo and Michigan. he went out to Crow Dogs the first time just to observe and then ended up dancing. When they pierced him to hang from the tree he grabbed onto his ropes, my friend who was there said it looked like a helicopter rescue. I know one family who was really harmed from one of his fake ceremonies

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2019, 12:59:20 pm »
Interesting, Cetan, you posted more details in the "Incan Priest" thread:

I knew Freddy for many years and some people I know still regularly go to his "ceremonies". He is from the Andes, works with both ayahuasca and also peyote. He mixes traditions and I have seen a family seriously hurt as a result of a ceremony he did. My godfather who has a NAC altar said "he has no business feeding medicine to anyone". The first year he went out to Crow Dogs Sundance it was only supposed to be to support, the person who took him wouldnt not sponsor him  so he went around until he found someone who would (I think it was Luciano Perez). They told him he was going to pierce by hanging from the tree and when they started to raise him up he grabbed onto the ropes to take the pressure off of his chest, a good friend said it looked like a helicopter rescue attempt and said they lowered him and a few helpers gave him fans to hold and told him he couldnt drop them so he wouldnt grab onto the ropes.  I am skeptical about the claim the he was given an eagle feather bonnet by Crow Dog.  My nephew gave a good description of Freddy once by saying "he is a nice person and if he were my next door neighbor I would probably get together for dinner with him about once a week but I wouldnt sit in ceremony with him".

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2019, 01:55:02 pm »
I found this very short article, with a photograph, where Freddy Arevalo claims to be "Inca Priest and Engineer, Yatiri Priest":

Freddy Arevalo, aka Don Valerio Cohaila

Author Quotes
I am a particle of this organism called the earth... Life is because life must be... Life and death are cosmic breath... Each person designs his own destiny... The purpose of life is to continue developing consciousness.

Author Picture


Bio
Inca Priest and Engineer, Yatiri Priest

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #9 on: February 21, 2019, 07:53:18 pm »
The terminology used here raises some questions. … Okay, so which is it?  The yatiri are traditional healers among the Aymara.  The Incan empire forced a lot of smaller tribes to adopt the their Quechua language and customs, before the Spanish colonization, but they never did get the Aymara to assimilate, and so the two today are the largest ethnic groups in Bolivia.  To repeat, these are separate ethnicities with separate languages. … So is Cohaila/Arrevalo an Aymara healer/spiritual leader or a Quechua one?  Ethnically he could be mixed, as many people are, but which cultural tradition does he follow? … Similarly, so which tradition is he from - Andean or Amazonian?  The Andes and the Amazon are in a sense opposite geographical and cultural regions of South America.

Seems he claims both (click the link and go to the Sundance in Peru — Freddy Arevalo AKA "Chief" & "Don" Valerio Cohaila thread to see more about that short bio):

I found this very short article, with a photograph, where Freddy Arevalo claims to be "Inca Priest and Engineer, Yatiri Priest":

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #10 on: February 21, 2019, 08:00:50 pm »
My previous post seems to answer questions asked in the Incan Priest thread, i.e. Freddy Arevalo claims both traditions:

The terminology used here raises some questions.  I guess maybe people who are looking for customers outside traditional cultures use a sort of shorthand in their marketing, tacking on tags with wide name recognition, that those more familiar with the culture would recognize as inaccurate.  For example:
Quote
"a Yatiri (Incan Priest) of the Amayra [sic] tribe from the high Andes mountains of Tacna, Peru"
Okay, so which is it?  The yatiri are traditional healers among the Aymara.  The Incan empire forced a lot of smaller tribes to adopt the their Quechua language and customs, before the Spanish colonization, but they never did get the Aymara to assimilate, and so the two today are the largest ethnic groups in Bolivia.  To repeat, these are separate ethnicities with separate languages.  (This article on wikipedia about the yatiri is based on research by Bolivian scholar Tomas Huanca Laura, who I believe is himself Aymara.)  So is Cohaila/Arrevalo an Aymara healer/spiritual leader or a Quechua one?  Ethnically he could be mixed, as many people are, but which cultural tradition does he follow?

By searching on google I came across this bio page for an event that includes Cohaila/Arrevalo.  From his picture he has mixed features and I would have guessed he would maybe be considered a mestizo.  Here is an excerpt from his bio:
Quote
As an heir of the Andes/Amazon Tradition, when the 10th cycle of the Pachacuteq Calendar started, in 1992, he was sent to Europe and North America by his Elders, to share their traditions and to fulfill the Inca Prophesy that states: When the Condor of the South meets the Eagle of the North and they fly together, then it will be the sign that the Children of the Mother Earth are reawakening.
Similarly, so which tradition is he from - Andean or Amazonian?  The Andes and the Amazon are in a sense opposite geographical and cultural regions of South America.  In Bolivia today for example there continue to be huge political divisions between the western highland mountainous area close to Peru and the eastern tropical zone near Brazil. (There are large percentages of indigenous people in both areas, but there are also other groups, and it's a complicated situation.)

(The quoted bio is defunct, since the page www.midwestshamanicgathering.com has disappeared.)

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #11 on: February 23, 2019, 11:59:54 pm »
Right now there is a new thread about "Sundance in Peru ??" which led to this "Incan Priest":

http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5335.0

When I replied there just now I titled my comment "Sundance in Peru — Freddy Arevalo AKA "Chief" & "Don" Valerio Cohaila".

That new thread has now been merged into the old one, here at http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=3660.0.

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #12 on: February 24, 2019, 12:38:33 am »
I found this very short article, with a photograph, where Freddy Arevalo claims to be "Inca Priest and Engineer, Yatiri Priest"…

Same picture, plus another one, plus four links, only one working, at this 2009 site. Also 7 Responses:



http://www.childrenofthesunfoundation.org/freddybio.html

http://wisdom-lovers.com/blog/ayahuasca-icaros-and-chants-from-don-valerio-cohaila/
http://www.wiseways.com/sun_flyer.pdf
http://www.websitecontrol.com/601679/964/

Offline Sparks

  • Posts: 1412
Re: Freddy Arevalo AKA Chief or Don Valerio Cohaila
« Reply #13 on: February 24, 2019, 01:06:19 am »
I found this very short article, with a photograph, where Freddy Arevalo claims to be "Inca Priest and Engineer, Yatiri Priest":

Same photo here, same claims, and another biography that I have seen before. And hurry, if you wish to participate!:

SPIRITUAL TOURISM EVENTS

March 1 , 2019

Lakota Sioux Medicine Ceremony with  Freddy Arevalo, aka Don Valerio Cohaila

Inca Priest and Engineer, Yatiri Priest

Cost : $100


Location: Missouri City, Tx 77459

Call for more details: 832.338.9971

BIO

A native Aymara from Tacna, Peru, Chief Don Valerio Cohaila (Freddy) is a teacher and ceremonial leader.  He is an YATIRI (priest), born in the Khallawaya community, 13,000 feet high in the Andes, the frontier for Peru and Bolivia.  As an heir to the Andes/Amazon tradition, when the 10th cycle of the Pachacuteq Calendar started, in 1992 he was sent to Europe and North America by his Elders to share their traditions and to fulfill the Hopi Prophesy that states:  When the Condor of the South meets the Eagle of the North and they fly together, then it will be the sign that the Children of the Mother Earth are reawakening.  In 2011 Freddy received the Chief's Bundle from Lakota spiritual leader and chief, Leonard Crow Dog.  This was an historic event and the first ever for a South American spiritual leader. Not only is Freddy a roadman in the Lakota tradition, he is President and spiritual leader of the Pachamama Native American Church.

Tribal origin:  Khallawaya - Aymara

Home: Cedar Park, TX

That appears to be the same bio that was partly quoted from elsewhere seven years ago:

By searching on google I came across this bio page for an event that includes Cohaila/Arrevalo.  From his picture he has mixed features and I would have guessed he would maybe be considered a mestizo.  Here is an excerpt from his bio:
Quote
As an heir of the Andes/Amazon Tradition, when the 10th cycle of the Pachacuteq Calendar started, in 1992, he was sent to Europe and North America by his Elders, to share their traditions and to fulfill the Inca Prophesy that states: When the Condor of the South meets the Eagle of the North and they fly together, then it will be the sign that the Children of the Mother Earth are reawakening.