Alejandro was born to an Indigenous Quechua farming family in central Peru, where he often woke to the mountain aromas of his grandmother cooking potatoes. Alejandro has spent his career working with Indigenous peoples, small-scale farmers, NGOs, and research  institutions, focusing on food as a way to address the environmental and climate crisis and human-rights challenges. He is the Director of Programs and Andes Amazon Lead at Swift Foundation and lives in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Cusco, Peru.  He is the founder of Cusco’s Potato Park.