It takes seven hours by bus to travel from Huancavelica, Peru—a city whose population is majority Indigenous Quechua—to the country's capital, Lima. However, what could be a simple journey is, in reality, anything but. An increasing number of people are facing difficulties as they move from Huancavelica to the capital city looking for better healthcare options.
Primarily, there is the burden of first financing the journey, especially as local government and nonprofit organizations direct the majority of their aid toward economically supporting patients who are already at hospitals, while those who have yet to arrive are neglected. Additionally, following admission, patients who do not speak Spanish or receive linguistic and cultural accommodations encounter disparities with their medical treatment.
By interviewing the people who are familiar with the journey from Huancavelica to Lima and the strenuous process it entails, Allison Delgado reports from Lima on the stories of Quechua people who have taken charge of their own circumstances as they traverse the barriers that have blocked access to healthcare and health equity.
