With the peaks of the Andes rising up behind him, Graciano Pumayalli Huilca blows a conch shell to signal the beginning of Cruz Velaqui, an annual religious celebration in his home village in Peru’s Sacred Valley. For hundreds of years Catholicism has been interwoven with traditional Andean religious practices by many Peruvians living in the highlands. Pumayalli, a Quechua speaker, was selected to serve as alferado, or leader, of this festival for a year, a community honor.