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.

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.

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.

biography

As legend says, the Chullachaqui is a spirit guide, often in the form of a short person with strange-looking feet. In the Amazon, the Chullachaqui Caspi tree itself is named after this legend because of its notably twisted roots at the bottom—reminiscent of the spirit guide’s irregular feet.

As a spirit guardian, the Chullachaqui is one with the jungle and its inhabitants. As a guide, it is their role to protect the rainforest and its animals from outsiders or those with bad intentions.

If you have good intentions and respect the jungle, then the spirits of the land will help you—as was the case with Guillermo. However, if one is a threat and has any intent to harm the plants and animals, the Chullachaqui will bring bad fortune and may lead the person astray, deeper and deeper into the jungle—ultimately leaving them lost.

This story helps teach us about the deeper energies of the jungle, and how important it is to respect the life of the forest—because if you do, then it will respect you.

Guillermo, unsure of this little man, asked him, “Where did you come from?”

And the little man replied, “I live right here, in this area.” He waved his hand toward the trees and plants behind him, explaining that he was the guardian of all the animals and nature surrounding that area. That this was his home, and he was there to protect it.

Then the strange man said, “And I know you are dieting with Chullachaqui.”

Guillermo, surprised by how he knew this, paused and then replied, “Oh… can we be friends then?”

And the Chullachaqui said to him, “Yes, we can be friends. Because I know you are dieting Chullachaqui, I am going to teach you, and I am going to take care of you.”

As a child, Maestro Guillermo Arevalo had seen his father, Dom Benito, taking part in the practice of plant dietas. At the time, the plant dieta his father was following was of Chullachaqui Caspi, also known as Acero Caspi. As a master plant, it has the power to deepen one’s connection with the ancient wisdom of the jungle, and it is known to have many spiritual and physical healing properties.

As a six-year-old, and wanting to follow his father, Guillermo began to secretly take the prepared plant medicine from him and drink it—without his father knowing.

After three months of secretly dieting from his father’s medicine, Maestro Guillermo was walking through the jungle when he came across a mysterious figure in the trees. Guillermo tells of how the person was very short, had ugly feet, and spoke to him in a calm voice.

“Hello, Kestembetsa,” the strange figure said. Kestembetsa meaning “echo of the universe.”

Born of the Dieta: A Master’s First Vision