Santiago Yahuarcani belongs to the Aimen+ (White Heron) clan of the Uitoto people of the northern Amazon. His mother, Martha López Pinedo, was a descendant of Gregorio López, the only member of the Aimen+ ? clan who migrated from La Chorrera (today part of the Colombian Amazon) to the Ampiyacu River region (now the northern Peruvian Amazon). Yahuarcani is a self-taught painter, sculptor, and leader of the Uitoto and Bora peoples of the Ampiyacu river. His life has been dedicated to the development of art and storytelling as a form of expression. Through his work he shares the rich and complex spiritual world of the Uitotos and other Indigenous Amazonian communities. His poignant works expose the violence perpetrated against the Uitoto during the Amazon’s rubber boom (ca. 1860–1920) and the current destruction of the rainforests. Yahuarcani also reclaims the presence and force of the spirits (guardians) of the plants, trees, and animals, who are largely ignored in the modern era.