Maestro Rober is the son of Maestros Franciso Vasquez Huayta and Maricela Rios Inuma and the brother of Maestra Mary Julliana. He was born in the Shipibo community of Antigua Ahuaypa, in the Iparia district, on the Ucayali River in the Shipibo region of the Peruvian Amazon. He grew up around medicine and dietas from early childhood, and he began drinking the medicine at age 16 and dieting at age 18.
Rober considers himself very lucky to have grown up in a Shipibo medicine family in which his parents helped him take his first steps on the medicine path. He continues to learn and collaborate with his parents as well as with his older sister Mary Julliana, who is his partner in his work at Soltara.
Rober’s first dieta was Marusa and that is one of his favourite plants to this day along with Niwe Rao. Rober credits these plants with first opening his medicine path, with teaching him self acceptance and self love, and with teaching him how to begin to help heal others who suffer from psychological and emotional traumas.
Rober is grateful to be working at Soltara with his sister Mary Julliana. They are Soltara’s only brother and sister team, and Rober feels that gives them the capacity to work in deep harmony with each other, and to support each other, in service to Soltara’s guests and to the medicine. He says that the master plants have shown him that his purpose as a man and as a maestro is to continually work on having a good heart, and that a good heart will always be his guide for his healing knowledge and capacity. A good heart helps him open up a world of peace and tranquility for Soltara’s guests.
When Rober isn’t at Soltara, he spends time with his partner and three children. He says that he normally takes the first month off to rest and enjoy life with his family and have fun with his kids. After that first month he starts dieting, as well as fasting for two days every week, in order to clean himself, recharge, and prepare for his next shift at Soltara. During his time at home he also works with his sister and parents in Pucallpa, offering ceremonies to Shipibo community members as well as to non-Shipibo Peruvians who seek his family’s help via the medicine.
Their commitment is to always be open and generous with anyone seeking assistance and healing.
Rober’s Shipibo name is Niwen Mané, which means he who brings good energy and pure love, or simply “a person with a good heart”.