(La Guajira cowpeas)
Called kapeshuna in the local language, la Guajira cowpea includes several different varieties of beans that vary in color, ranging from white, blue, gray, or brown with white speckles. It is one of the traditional crops that have been most commonly grown by the indigenous Wayuu people from the Alta Guajira region.
Traditionally, the cowpea-planting season takes place between March and October, before the rainy season, when the seeds are planted by being scattered in furrows. Beans have been closely connected to the Wayuu community’s way of life and culture, and they are believed to have been the fruit of the sacred union between Juyakai (male personification of rain) and Pulowi (female personification of drought), both of whom are mythological figures from the Wayuu cosmogony.
High in protein, the Guajira cowpeas are used in various traditional specialties, including a thick cowpea soup (poy) that has been traditionally given to young women after they get their first period. People from the Alta Guajira region have been severely affected by various economic, environmental, social, and cultural issues, which has led to a life of extreme poverty for the majority of the Manaure municipality’s population.
