Our Team
Taita Hector Ortiz
Taita Hector Alirio Ortiz Jimenez was born in the Colombian city of Ibague, Tolima. As a musician, singer, and songwriter, he has produced 2 records of healing shamanic spiritual music of praise.
He started his ancestral Amazonian cultural studies related to Ayahuasca-Yage in 2002 by becoming a disciple of Taita Ruber Garreta, of the Inga community, in the lower Putumayo region, humid and tropical zone in the Colombian Amazon. His formation continued under the spiritual guidance of Taita Guillermo Mavisoy Mutumbajoy and Taita Jose Bernardo Chindoy Chindoy, of the Kamentsa Biya community of the higher Putumayo, the cold region of the Colombian Amazon.
In the year 2009, being ordained as a Taita by the elder Taita Guillermo Mavisoy Mutumbajoy, he started his career as a Traditional Doctor of Sacred Plants and started serving medicine and hosting ceremonies in various cities of his homeland, Colombia. Currently, he resides in the United States and holds Ayahuasca-Yage ceremonies in various states, such as Florida, California, Texas, and New Hampshire.
Disciples And Assistants
Mama Monica Vasquez
Mama Monica Vasquez was born in Miami, FL to Colombian parents. She spent most of her early years in Bogota and after completing high school she moved back to South Florida, where she has lived all her adult life. For over the last two decades she has been working at the University of Miami, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2007.
From her first experience with Ayahuasca-Yage in the summer 2012, she knew that she had found her tribe and ever since, has been involved in sacred medicine circles at different capacities. In 2018, she accepted the call of the Great Spirit and became a disciple and apprentice of the sacred medicine yage and in February 2025, she was ordained as a Mama by Taita Hector Ortiz. Currently, she supports the mission and vision of the Kamentsa Inga Church, The Soul of the Hummingbird and is part of the organizing team in ceremonies in Florida and Georgia ceremonies.
Giampiero Scattolon
In January 2019, I began exploring Ayahuasca as a path to healing, driven by unresolved emotional challenges from military combat experiences that had persisted despite prior psychotherapy. A transformative podcast interview at the end of 2018 reintroduced Ayahuasca to me as a source of knowledge, wisdom, and a promising tool for trauma recovery, which sparked my deeper interest.
Growing up in Lima, Peru, I encountered contrasting views about Ayahuasca—both as an ungodly practice and as a potent spiritual resource—prompting me to seek a fuller understanding of its potential. Over the past five years, guided by my teacher, Taita Hector Ortiz, I’ve come to see Ayahuasca as a powerful spiritual tool that expands consciousness and supports healing—a transformative journey that began with one of the most life-changing experiences of my life.
Board Of Directors
Samuel Romero – President
Brenda Raudales – Secretary
Brenda Raudales was born and currently lives in Houston, TX where she is employed as a financial adviser. The medicine of Ayahuasca-Yage has helped her heal her physical and spiritual diseases, allowing her to make structural changes to her life and have a different vision of the external world. Additionally, the sacred medicine has allowed her to connect with her spiritual gifts.
Taraina Philips – Treasurer
Taraina Phillips was raised in the US Virgin Islands and now lives in San Antonio, FL. For the last 20 years, she has been a Regional Sales Leader for USHealth Advisors. After losing her husband to lung Cancer as well as losing her father in 2018, Taraina was searching for healing and a more meaningful life. She found Ayahuasca Yage through a friend and since her first ceremony, she has experienced profound changes. Taraina has found a deep level of self-love and has developed a much more meaningful relationship with God, her family, her children and her community. Taraina has expressed that she has a new awareness of her interconnectedness to nature and her spirit: “Ayahuasca Yage is a beautiful tool to really know yourself deeply, to heal, and find the beauty that truly lies within all of us.”
