When the heart remembers its purpose: The birth of circular culture
By Ángel — Co-Founder of SONQO
There are moments in life when the heart speaks so clearly that it becomes impossible to pretend we haven't heard it.
One of those moments came to me years ago, barefoot in the dense humidity of the Amazon. I gazed at a patch of parched earth – once teeming with life, now dry, gray, weary. The farmers next to me were weary too. Not just from work, but from a world that had forgotten them.
I felt a slight pulling sensation in my chest.
And in this struggle, a truth was revealed: Humanity has forgotten how to give back. We have forgotten that life is a cycle. We have forgotten Munay.
That day, the seed of SONQO was planted in my heart – long before it had a name, an organizational number, or a webshop. It began with a prayer.
A personal reflection
The same pull returned years later – this time in my personal life.
I realized that violence—whether domestic, economic, or societal—lives in our collective unconscious. I wasn't always able to navigate the ignorance and confusion surrounding what it means to be a man in a patriarchal world. I wasn't always able to care for and protect my partner the way she deserved.
This truth has become one of my deepest lessons. Today, my former partner and I have gone our separate ways – in silence and with mutual respect. It is not easy, but it is possible when we surrender to old patterns and identities and let them go.
I am not sharing this to condemn, but as part of the learning journey that has shaped SONQO itself – because healing, responsibility and love must also be circular.
This experience made me realize how many of us are searching for an authentic life – how many hearts are quietly yearning for a more truthful way of living.
This realization gave new roots to SONQO's vision for the next hundred years.
The modern hunger that no supermarket can satisfy.
In Europe, when I led my first cacao rituals, I saw a different form of exhaustion.
People with full refrigerators and empty hearts.
People with secure salaries and insecure souls.
People who could buy almost anything – except peace.
They didn't lack material comforts. What they lacked was meaning – the bridge between their inner world and their outward actions.
And I realized: Our deepest human needs – freedom, connection, meaning – are the same seeds that Pachamama planted in us from the very beginning.
Where did we lose the thread?
With this question began the weaving of something that would later become: SONQO Circular Culture – the infinite reciprocity between spirit and earth, between ancient memory and modern responsibility, between commerce and consciousness.
Two countries, one heart: Cusco & Pucallpa
Many people ask:
"How can your cacao come from Cusco while your regeneration project is in Pucallpa? Is that still circular?"
I smile every time. Because the circle was never meant only geographically. It was always meant as a relationship.
-The Chuncho cacao from Cusco carries the memory of my ancestors – the heart-opening medicine that has guided generations toward harmony.
-The land in Pucallpa carries the future – a place where we regenerate soil, biodiversity, and dignity through syntropic agriculture and education.
One is the heart. The other is the breath. Together they create life.
We support our cocoa producers from Cusco in learning Jungle Care in Pucallpa, and families from Pucallpa in turn learn about cocoa – a vibrant circle of sharing diversity, knowledge and seeds.
This is Circular Culture:
Not a place, but a movement.
Not a map, but a promise.
A company and an organization rooted in prayer.
A company and an organization rooted in prayer
When we founded SONQO, I made a personal decision: This organization must serve life – not the other way around.
Conscious trade is one of the most powerful forces on this earth. It shapes forests. It shapes communities. It shapes the next hundred years.
So why not design it with love?
Why not create a company in which
-every product forms the heart,
-every cent contributes to soil regeneration,
-every ceremony reconnects people with themselves,
-every farmer stands upright and dignified,
-every customer becomes a guardian of life?
Why not create an organization where profit and purpose go hand in hand – like two old friends who have finally found each other again?
The effect has already begun.
Today, this vision is no longer just a dream – it is alive.
-Wild Chuncho cacao from Cusco, processed by families who still work with tenderness, patience, and prayer. -110 hectares in Pucallpa , regenerated according to the teachings of Ernst Götsch – a living school for farming families. -Ceremonies, celebrations, meditations, courses: Thousands of people reconnecting with the wisdom of the heart. -A growing community in Europe and beyond: people who no longer simply want to "consume" – they want to participate in the regeneration.
The circle slowly expands. And every person who joins strengthens this loop.
A personal invitation
As you read these words, something within you is already listening.
Perhaps you feel the same pain I felt back then in the jungle. Perhaps you yearn for a way of living, working, and buying that truly honors life. Perhaps you are looking for a place where your spirituality and your material world are no longer in conflict—but work together.
SONQO is one such place.
I invite you – with humility and joy – to become part of this movement where life celebrates life. Where love becomes strategy. Where business and organization become prayer. Where the next hundred years are shaped by hearts that remember their purpose.
Walk a little way with us. The circle is open.
Munay, Ángel