biography

Maestro Kestembesta

Guillermo Arévalo Valera, also known as Maestro Kestembesta (Echo of the Univesre), was born in 1952 in the village of Yarinacocha in the Ucayali region of Peru. He comes from an ancestral lineage of Shipibo-Conibo healers, including both of his parents, Benito Arévalo Barbarán and Dona María Valera Teco, both renowned vegetalistas (traditional Amazonian healers). After receiving foundational schooling, Maestro traveled to Brazil to study nursing, but ultimately chose to dedicate his life to preserving and working with the ancestral medicine of his Shipibo people. He is the only child of Dona María Valera Teco.

To gain a deeper understanding of the ancestral medicine, Maestro spent 18 months alone in the Peruvian jungle on plant medicine dieta, learning from the master plants. He has since spent decades dieting hundreds of plants to gain their insight and healing knowledge. Maestro is known as a "healer's healer" and has dedicated his life to sharing his knowledge and heritage with the people of the Amazon and of the world. He actively facilitates healing ceremonies in multiple countries and has worked diligently to spread the teachings of Amazonian ancestral medicine to the people of the Occidental world.

In addition to his work as a healer, Maestro has been politically active in advocating for the Shipibo-Conibo people and the preservation of the Amazon. In 1982, he co-founded the Aplicación de Medicina Tradicional (AMETRA), an organization focused on improving the availability of healthcare for the Shipibo-Conibo people. In 1999, he met with the United Nations to present his view of traditional, ancestral medicine as essential for the preservation of indigenous healthcare in the Amazon. Maestro has established several community hospitals and healing retreat centers in Peru, including Soe Pasto, Espíritu de Anaconda, Anaconda Cosmica, Tingo Maria, Baris Betsa (now Caya Shobo), Bena Shinan and most recently, Ishmin Center.

Maestro is a published author and has written several books on plant medicine. He is an actor and has been described as the being the muse of Parisian film maker, Jan Kounen and has appeared in numerous documentaries and films. There are also many recordings of his powerful icaros available on many popular platforms and also on a recent a VR project on Ayahuasca. Maestro is the proud and loving father of ten biological children and has several grandchildren and adopted children and grandchildren. In his free time, he enjoys good company and sharing a joke and a laugh over a good meal.

family