ANTARES
CULTURA
AND DEVELOPMENT

Antares Culture and Development is a non-profit organization, founded on February 22nd 1983 by Mr. Alberto Benavides Ganoza, director and founder. Through this institution, he has been constantly supporting Peruvian culture in all of its forms and expressions. He has been able to create a dialogue, philosophical reflection and the poetic works of our country. Likewise, he has sponsored and made possible the appearance of a series of literature prints including, philosophy, general culture, archaeology, children’s books, poems and others. The initiative has always been to better provide Peruvians with the word and wisdom of their creators, emphasize everything that is implied within Peruvian culture.

The books that have been published, are available for sale at our Samaca Store, along with books written by Mr. Alberto Benavides Ganoza. They invite the reader to reflect on the philosophy and meditation regarding life in the country, they are both simple and profound with the effort to create a dialog in this field. Mr. Benavides has also written poetry, with a vision that awakens the close relationship he shares with nature, in the Ica Valley, where he lives and writes his creations.

His book “After the War” (Despues de la Guerra), is a treasured testimony of a Philosophy teacher who shares his knowledge and teaches at the San Cristobal of Huamanga University, and invites the reader to reflect on some of the most violent periods of our recent history. It creates a space to reflect upon education which is vital and creates a debate on the current education system in our country, both involving de government and the private sector.

You may also find other interesting books such as: The Huida Bird (“Ave Huida”), Stories of the way in the woods (“Cuentos de Caminos del Bosque”), At the feet of the Desert (“Al pie del Desierto”), High Espionage (“Alto Espionaje”), The Natural Life Route y Fray Ramon Rojas’, Prodigy (“La ruta natural vida y prodicos de Fray Ramon Rojas”), The Father of Guatemala (“El padre de Guatemala”), The farm is sacred (“el Campo es Santo”). We hope these books, written in and enjoyable and light character are of our reader’s likings.

Cesar Panduro Astorga

POETS IN THE SAND

This book fills a blatant void: the absence of a generalized anthology in Ica´s poetry, considering not only the iqueños by birth, but also those who live in the city and the circumstances of the surrounding lands, as in the case Alberto Benavides Ganoza. The poetic imprint from the scenery and it´s millenary past is so intense that many Peruvians and their poetry have originated here.

Fray Ramon Rojas the Father of Guatemala

LIFE AND PRODIGIES

The Iqueños hand their faith to cherished and merciful saints, where we can find Franciscano Ramon Rojas as one of them. He is remembered as the father of Guatemala, as he served as a Guatemalan friar who preached in Pisco, Ica, Palpa and Nazca until 1830. According to popular belief, he made water sprout in the middle of the desert, a place known as Holy well or Well of the Guatemalan Father. In these pages, the father of Guatemala comes out as a pilgrim who is a saint, searching for men in their existence in a simple and mundane manner.

Fracisco Perez Silva

THE CHAUCATO EYE

Francisco Perez published his first stories in the Umbral magazine, under a chapter called the stories of Paco Perez. Perez Silva waited to gather these and other narratives, that had never been told, in a volume that would take the name The Chaucato Eye. It is published today as a tribute by the Abraham Valdelomar Library, including an insightful prologue by Alberto Benavides Ganoza.

Alberto Benavides Ganoza

THE NATURAL ROUTE

In a set of essays and short reflections, of invocation, searching and finding, a door opens and tell us, directly, that the road to philosophy grounding our feet on earth.

It includes a series of writings extracted from multiple conferences and articles that Alberto Benavides has developed throughout the last ten years.

Alberto Benavides Ganoza

THE HUIDA BIRD

A set of essays regarding current philosophy and some of the issues that Alberto Benavides presents in this book, are far from creating a typical encyclopedia or common maze to which the modern press is lavishly used to.

Alberto Benavides Ganoza

HIGH ESPIONAGE

This is probably the term that best defines this singer, agriculturer and engineer in the broadest sense of the word. A madman in the exact measure that is his poetry, as one must be crazy to put himself in the place of the Kon God, but also a poet so that his odyssey makes perfect sense. Although he does not hide his hate for bureaucracy and the modern world, and lets his rage spin out here and there, in the end he is defeated by the voice of love. No creature, plant or little bird is excluded from his consideration. Everything has a place in the mind of this love-struck poet. A side from fashion and trends, Alberto Benavides Ganoza evokes from this mysterious desert and invites the gods, animals and men to a communion. (Claudia Luthi)

Alberto Benavides Ganoza

THE LAND IS SACRED

The land is sacred, is a careful selection of articles and conferences that Alberto Benavides Ganoza published in different Newspapers in Cajamarca, Ica, Lima and Trujillo. They create a fragmented meditation, like the author says, of ideas that appear and reappear along the pages of the book; one which’s main theme is a country free from arrogant technocrats, politics, ideologies, religion or simply certain ideals.