By Ines Kudo
When I founded Tinkuy Marka Academy, supporting parents along their own growth journey wasn’t part of the original vision. My focus was on building a learner-driven environment for children.
Over time, I realized something essential: to truly empower young people to lead their own learning, we had to build strong, trusting partnerships with families. And that meant aligning not just logistics, but our deeper beliefs about parenting, education, childhood, and even life itself as a hero’s journey. We didn’t need to agree on everything, but we did need to share key principles.
In most schools in Peru, parents are referred to simply as “padres de familia,” a label that shows up in associations like APAFA. Some communities have moved toward “madres y padres de familia” or “ma/padres,” a more inclusive shorthand.
A couple of years ago, during a Geology Trivia game at Tinkuy, where students (our Pumas) teamed up to compete against parents, a new name emerged spontaneously from “ma/padres”: a Puma joked “Mapaches”. The name stuck, as parents embraced it joyfully from that moment forward. It eventually rose to capture the spirit of brave, open-hearted parents who want to raise resilient, thriving children and build lasting bonds of trust and love.
Earlier this year, drawing from my experience walking alongside Tinkuy parents since 2018, I created the Ruta Mapache, a framework to guide and support families through the parenting journey. It brings together powerful questions, practical tools, and insights from many valuable sources to strengthen the five essential roles we have identified parents will step into throughout their child’s development: Guardian, Mentor, Challenger, Ally, and Legacy.
In our day to day, these five roles offer a transformative lens for parenting:
As Guardians, Mapaches create a safe and steady base where their children can grow, even when it means choosing paths that look different from the norm.
As Mentors, they support lifelong learning, modeling curiosity and knowing when to step back and let independence flourish.
As Challengers, they foster courage and autonomy, holding space for struggle without rushing to rescue.
As Allies, they offer perspective, encouragement, and trust, accepting that their child’s path may differ from their own hopes.
And as Legacy keepers, they honor the journey, letting go with pride and love, confident that they’ve prepared their child to step into the world with strength and purpose.
These roles don’t just strengthen the parent-child bond, they also invite parents to grow, to learn, and to transform alongside their children. This is what makes parenting meaningful, even magical.
At Tinkuy, our Mapaches loved this approach so much that they began to request more: more resources, more challenges, more ways to connect with each other, and ways to share it all with other families outside Tinkuy. Their stories, their growth, and their generosity became the spark that lit a new fire in me.
And so, with their encouragement, I created Comunidad Mapache: a new space where brave, open-hearted families can grow together. It’s a network for raising resilient, thriving children while we grow as human beings, with joy, gratitude, honesty, and intention. And, in this way, discover, cultivate, and share a meaningful way of living, rooted in family and strengthened by community.
This community is open to all Mapaches, whether you're part of Tinkuy or walking your own path. It’s for those of us who are:
Brave – willing to question inherited patterns and parent differently.
Authentic – showing up as real parents, not perfect ones.
Committed – seeking real transformation, not quick fixes.
Intentional – parenting with purpose, not on autopilot.
Curious and humble – open to hard questions and lifelong learning.
Present – knowing that emotional presence matters more than any strategy.
We’re just getting started, and we’d love for you to be part of what’s coming next.
Register here to join our this community.