{ "id": "eppczvtxhm", "slug": "the-blood-of-the-condor", "title": "The Blood of the Condor", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Yawar Mallku (The Blood of the Condor, Sangre de Cóndor) is Jorge Sanjinés's 1969 Bolivian film about Peace Corps sterilization of Quechua women; its release led to protests and the Peace Corps' 1971 expulsion from Bolivia.", "snippet": "Yawar Mallku (The Blood of the Condor, Sangre de Cóndor) is Jorge Sanjinés's 1969 Bolivian film about Peace Corps sterilization of Quechua women; its release led to protests and the Peace Corps' 1971 expulsion from Bolivia.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "markdown": "# The Blood of the Condor\n\n**The Blood of the Condor** (original title *Yawar Mallku*, also released as *Sangre de Cóndor*) is a 1969 Bolivian black-and-white feature film directed by Jorge Sanjinés that dramatizes the alleged sterilization of Quechua women by United States Peace Corps medical workers without their consent[1](https://ukamau.org.bo/films/yawar-mallku-sangre-de-condor/) • [2](https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/yawar-mallku-sangre-del-condor-blood-of-the-condor/oclc/81222075). Produced by the Grupo Ukamau collective, it became one of the best-known works of the New Latin American Cinema, and its release contributed to the expulsion of the [Peace Corps](https://www.edgepedia.org/peace-corps) from Bolivia[3](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/17383/Thesis-Isabel-Segu%C3%AD-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title / year | *Yawar Mallku* (Sangre de Cóndor; Blood of the Condor), Bolivia, 1969[1](https://ukamau.org.bo/films/yawar-mallku-sangre-de-condor/) |\n| Director and writers | Directed by Jorge Sanjinés; screenplay by Sanjinés and Óscar Soria[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065228/) |\n| Production | Grupo Ukamau, producer Ricardo Rada; cinematography Antonio Eguino; 16 mm black and white[1](https://ukamau.org.bo/films/yawar-mallku-sangre-de-condor/) • [5](https://www.mardelplatafilmfest.com/libros/23-Festival-Catalogo.pdf) |\n| Runtime | 70 minutes per the Ukamau Foundation and IMDb; the International Film Festival Rotterdam catalog lists 105 minutes[1](https://ukamau.org.bo/films/yawar-mallku-sangre-de-condor/) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065228/) • [6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1969/films/yawar-mallku) |\n| Principal cast | Marcelino Yanahuaya (Ignacio Mallku), Benedicta Mendoza Huanca (Paulina), Vicente Verneros Salinas (Sixto)[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065228/) |\n| Subject | Forced sterilization of indigenous women by a US Peace Corps-style medical mission, the fictional \"Cuerpo del Progreso\"[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835) |\n| Political aftermath | Mass protests and censorship battles in Bolivia; the Peace Corps was expelled from the country in 1971 under General Juan José Torres[3](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/17383/Thesis-Isabel-Segu%C3%AD-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe film opens with Ignacio and his wife Paulina, who have lost their three children, walking to a hilltop to bury three dolls in their memory. In the village, people discuss why the women appear to have become barren. A shock cut shows villagers, Ignacio among them, taken to a hilltop and shot. Ignacio, not quite dead, is carried by Paulina to [La Paz](https://www.edgepedia.org/la-paz) to find his brother Sixto, who tries to get him medical treatment; at the hospital the blood is too expensive[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835).\n\nSixto asks Paulina how the shooting happened, and in flashback the film revisits how Ignacio, elected head of the community, discovered that the Cuerpo del Progreso (Progress Corps), a thinly veiled reference to the real-life Peace Corps, had been sterilizing the village women in its Maternity Clinic under cover of providing modern medical treatment. While the story is recounted, the film cross-cuts to Sixto's desperate attempts to save his dying brother. The community decides to attack the foreigners during a party, killing or possibly emasculating them. Sixto returns empty-handed to find his brother has died, and the film closes with rifles raised in defiance[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835).\n\n## Production and basis in fact\n\n**A collective production.** The film was shot in 1968 by a group of friends and young families from the intellectual elite of La Paz, with funding collected by students, technicians, workers, and peasants[3](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/17383/Thesis-Isabel-Segu%C3%AD-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2) • [6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1969/films/yawar-mallku). It was filmed with the people of the remote Kaata rural community, and its cast combined non-professional indigenous actors with a few professionals such as Danielle Caillet and Felipe Vargas[8](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/yawar-mallku) • [5](https://www.mardelplatafilmfest.com/libros/23-Festival-Catalogo.pdf). Benedicta Huanaca and Vicente Vernero, who play Paulina and Sixto, were miners from Huanuni and Huanani[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835).\n\nThe film is based on events the filmmakers treated as real. Sanjinés said it denounced sterilization of peasant women by the US Peace Corps[9](https://ukamau.org.bo/fundacion/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Jorge-Sanjines-Biofilmografia-1960-2023.pdf), and WorldCat describes it as a dramatization of an actual incident involving charges that Quechua women were sterilized without consent as part of a birth control program administered by the Peace Corps[2](https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/yawar-mallku-sangre-del-condor-blood-of-the-condor/oclc/81222075). Whether forced sterilization actually occurred is a matter of some dispute: the cinematographer Antonio Eguino wrote that the script's denunciation of Peace Corps birth control came from the [Lake Titicaca](https://www.edgepedia.org/lake-titicaca) area, the Bolivian film writer José Sánchez called the film \"a dramatic reconstruction based on actual events published by the press,\" and Sanjinés himself acknowledged the issue's allegorical potential[10](https://covell.ca/gender-representations-in-camila-hour-of-the-star-and-blood-of-the-condor/).\n\n## Censorship and political impact\n\nOn the day of its premiere in La Paz, 17 July 1969, the 18 de Julio theater was suddenly closed because of the film's inflammatory subject matter; a public riot followed, and the authorities eventually allowed the screening[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835). The film was banned by Bolivian censors and released after protests[6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1969/films/yawar-mallku). In the same year, the authorities tried to prevent its submission to a Uruguayan film festival, characterizing it as a film about \"Indians\" that could not possibly represent Bolivia abroad[11](https://bolivianexpress.org/storage/magazine-file/dvcjxrNk6m.pdf).\n\nThe release provoked demonstrations, publicized debates, bans, and police repression, and the Peace Corps was expelled from Bolivia[12](https://revue-doctorale58.numerev.com/articles/actes-7/218-la-construction-d-un-heros-populaire-les-formes-politiques-du-cinema-dans-le-film-yawar-mallku-le-sang-du-condor-1969-du-realisateur-bolivien-jorge-sanjines). The film scholar Isabel Seguí records that, in part as a consequence of the film's exhibition, the American organization was expelled by the progressive military government of General Juan José Torres in 1971[3](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/17383/Thesis-Isabel-Segu%C3%AD-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2).\n\n## Style and place in Sanjinés's career\n\nThe film alternates present and past through flashbacks that intensify the drama, and it works with a conventional visual language joined to a second, more private and cyclical language carrying the symbolic weight of the Andean subject[5](https://www.mardelplatafilmfest.com/libros/23-Festival-Catalogo.pdf) • [13](https://www.scielo.org.bo/scielo.php?lng=es&nrm=iso&pid=S2077-33232016000100005&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es). The use of the cross-cut within the flashback structure was not seen at the time of release as an unmitigated success[14](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1554672/1/Hart_Latin_American_Cinema_9781780234038.pdf).\n\nSanjinés later drew practical lessons from the film's reception. When he screened it in peasants' and workers' centers, he found that peasants resisted its formal structure, though they understood its non-linear narration; what they missed was the presence of the collective, since the film centered on individuals. This experience pushed him toward the collective filmmaking practice of his later work, notably *El Coraje del Pueblo* (1971)[15](https://campuspress.yale.edu/theateroftheoppressedandradicallatinamericancinema/latin-american-cinema/) • [16](https://www.ocec.eu/cinemacomparativecinema/index.php/es/34-n-9-esp/468-entrevista-sanjines-esp).\n\nThe film is counted among the founding works of the New Latin American Cinema movement alongside *La Hora de los Hornos* (1968), *El Chacal de Nahueltoro* (1969), and *Memorias del Subdesarrollo* (1968), and it is regarded as fundamental to the formation of Third Cinema (anti-colonial political film movement of Latin America)[17](https://ukamau.org.bo/fundacion/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PDF-Jornadas-de-Cine-Boliviano-la-mirada-cuestionada_web.pdf) • [18](https://ges-2.org/en/blood-of-the-condor).\n\n## Reception and honors\n\n*Yawar Mallku* is Sanjinés's most famous film, even if not all critics agree it is his best[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835). Its awards included the Timón de Oro at the Venice International Film Festival, the first Premio Espiga de Oro at [Valladolid](https://www.edgepedia.org/valladolid), Spain, and the Georges Sadoul Award for the best foreign film presented in France in 1969[9](https://ukamau.org.bo/fundacion/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Jorge-Sanjines-Biofilmografia-1960-2023.pdf) • [7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835). UNESCO ranked it 59th among the most historically significant films, and the [Mar del Plata](https://www.edgepedia.org/mar-del-plata) festival catalog describes it as chosen by UNESCO as one of the top one hundred films ever made[7](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835) • [5](https://www.mardelplatafilmfest.com/libros/23-Festival-Catalogo.pdf).\n\n## References\n\n1. [Yawar Mallku – Sangre de Condor, Fundación Grupo Ukamau](https://ukamau.org.bo/films/yawar-mallku-sangre-de-condor/)\n2. [Yawar mallku = Sangre del condor = Blood of the condor, WorldCat](https://search.worldcat.org/es/title/yawar-mallku-sangre-del-condor-blood-of-the-condor/oclc/81222075)\n3. [Isabel Seguí, PhD thesis, University of St Andrews](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/17383/Thesis-Isabel-Segu%C3%AD-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2)\n4. [Blood of the Condor (1969), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065228/)\n5. [Yawar Mallku, Mar del Plata International Film Festival catalog](https://www.mardelplatafilmfest.com/libros/23-Festival-Catalogo.pdf)\n6. [Yawar mallku, International Film Festival Rotterdam](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/1969/films/yawar-mallku)\n7. [Stephen M. Hart, \"Yawar Mallku: La Sangre Del Cóndor,\" A Companion to Latin American Film, Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/companion-to-latin-american-film/yawar-mallku-la-sangre-del-condor-the-blood-of-the-condor-1969-directed-by-jorge-sanjines/AC770BAD70AA12A21A06098F313DE835)\n8. [Yawar Mallku, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/yawar-mallku)\n9. [Jorge Sanjinés, Biofilmografía 1960–2023, Fundación Grupo Ukamau](https://ukamau.org.bo/fundacion/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Jorge-Sanjines-Biofilmografia-1960-2023.pdf)\n10. [Tim Covell, \"Gender Representations in Camila, Hour of the Star, and Blood of the Condor\"](https://covell.ca/gender-representations-in-camila-hour-of-the-star-and-blood-of-the-condor/)\n11. [Bolivian Express on Yawar Mallku and censorship](https://bolivianexpress.org/storage/magazine-file/dvcjxrNk6m.pdf)\n12. [Ronald Vargas, \"La construction d'un héros populaire,\" Doctorales 58](https://revue-doctorale58.numerev.com/articles/actes-7/218-la-construction-d-un-heros-populaire-les-formes-politiques-du-cinema-dans-le-film-yawar-mallku-le-sang-du-condor-1969-du-realisateur-bolivien-jorge-sanjines)\n13. [Óscar Gracia Landaeta and Andrés Laguna Tapia, \"Medio siglo de Jorge Sanjinés,\" Revista Ciencia y Cultura](https://www.scielo.org.bo/scielo.php?lng=es&nrm=iso&pid=S2077-33232016000100005&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es)\n14. [Stephen M. Hart, Latin American Cinema (Reaktion), UCL Discovery](https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1554672/1/Hart_Latin_American_Cinema_9781780234038.pdf)\n15. [Latin American Cinema, Yale CampusPress](https://campuspress.yale.edu/theateroftheoppressedandradicallatinamericancinema/latin-american-cinema/)\n16. [Interview with Jorge Sanjinés, Cinema Comparat/ive Cinema](https://www.ocec.eu/cinemacomparativecinema/index.php/es/34-n-9-esp/468-entrevista-sanjines-esp)\n17. [Jornadas de Cine Boliviano: la mirada cuestionada, Fundación Grupo Ukamau](https://ukamau.org.bo/fundacion/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PDF-Jornadas-de-Cine-Boliviano-la-mirada-cuestionada_web.pdf)\n18. [Blood of the Condor, GES–2](https://ges-2.org/en/blood-of-the-condor)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Blood of the Condor\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Blood of the Condor](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Blood of the Condor\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-blood-of-the-condor. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Yawar Mallku is Jorge Sanjinés's 1969 Bolivian film about Peace Corps sterilization of Quechua women; its release led to protests and the Peace Corps' 1971 expulsion from Bolivia." }