In Lima there is a town (San Augustine) of farmers next to the airport. The airport is working to take over that land in order to expand the airport. The people on the land are predominantly poor Indigenous.  There is an organization advocating for them.  If the airport is successful in taking the land, the Indigenous farmers will be dislocated. Peru does not have social security or welfare; these farmers will have no financial support. All they know is farming, thus moving to the city to work is not a real option for them.

This is just one example of appropriation that I have learned about. The idea of a big business taking over land of a minority community is nothing unique to Peru. What I find concerning is that if this take over happens there is no federal support for the farmers.

What will happen to them and their families?

I am so thankful for my fellow Fulbrighter, Lindsay. She to me is the cultural conscience of the group. When traveling one cannot assume or demand that the US/American cultural norms should apply in the foreign country one is visiting. It is important to know that cultural norms are subjective. Just because one group of people operates a certain way, does not mean it is uncouth or savage – it is just different.

For example, Lindsay tends to remind us about our volume when we are in a group talking and I am thankful that she does. I have come to realize that some Americans (especially me) tend to be louder than Peruvians. Lindsay made a great comment that if we are quite for a moment, we would realize that we are the only group that is loud. She is RIGHT. I was even told today by a local that I do not need to be so loud 😮

Another thing to keep in mind when traveling,  is that if the official language is not English in the country you are visiting,  one cannot expect people in that country to speak it.

Well that is all the travel etiquette that I have to share for now.

Now I am off to Lima on a 8 hours bus ride. Pray that I get a good night’s rest. Adios!

The last two towns we visited were Morropon and Zana. They are both Afro-Peruvian communities. I really enjoyed my visits. In Morropon, I had the honor of meeting Augusto; he is a teacher. After our visit to the school, we all went out for lunch. Something that I have found interesting when I visit the Afro-Peruvian communities is that when I look at them I see/view them as Latino and not as Negro. They proudly declare that they are Black. Over lunch we talked to Augusto and asked him how they know their heritage. He stated that it is passed down from generation to generation who they are. He also said that they can clearly see it in themselves physically. He point to his nose and hair. Proudly he stated that he has a wide nose and kinky hair. I found it so beautiful that even though they may not look African, they know they are – they know who they are and they take pride in that.

After our visit to Morropon we headed off to Zana. (See the pictures above.) We met the Mayor and visited the Afro-Peruvian Museum. The Museum was amazing. I saw artifacts about Afro-Peruvian history and culture. The most moving part of the museum was the chains and the torture instruments that were used on the slaves. The items in the museum were from Zana. The Mayor took me personally around the room. Even though I do not speak Spanish well, I knew exactly what he was saying.

I learned so much about Zana and the Afro-Peruvian community, so I ended up buying 5 books (libros) from the Museum. If you are affiliated with Morgan State University, the books I bought will be in the library.

Above is the Zana sunset – Just as beautiful as the Zana people.

Hola mis amigos :0 Hi my friends!

I am loving Peru. Part of me does not want to leave, but I am also missing Baltimore and my family and friends. So in today’s Spanish Lesson I am going to share with how to ask for directions and words you would hear in a response.

To ask to go somewhere you say: “Donde hay _____”. Where is_______?

The person you ask  may respond using the following terms:

Usted esta aqui (You are here)

Siga derecho por est calle  (Straight down the street)

Siga de frente  (Go straight ahead) una cuadra (one block), dos cuadras (two blocks), etc…

Doblar a la izquierda  (Turn left) Doblar a la derecha (Turn Right)

Yesterday we visited an Afro-Peruvian community called Yapateras. Yapatera is the largest Afro-Peruvian community in Peru. In 1835 Blacks brought to there as slaves.

We talked with community leaders, school teachers, and the children. Some girls were very eagar to talk to us and I enjoyed praticing my Spanish 😮

The school we went to was amazing. They embraced an Afrocentric philosophy in how they educate their students. Furthermore, they infused their Afro-Peruvian heritage into all aspects of the school.  The school leaders told us that a goal they have is to build a strong Afro-Peruvian identity in their children. They accomplish this by making sure these students learn about their past and how their journey to Peru is different from other groups. They also include Afro-Peruvian traditions into their curriculum. They feel that “[knowing their history can help their present and future.”

The school also focused on teaching its students about the problems in the community so they can solve them. I get the feeling this school engenders their students to give back and work for the Afro-Peruvian community.

After the school visit we went to one of the school leader’s home to view his private Afro-Peruvian art and artifact collection. I noticed that he had a picture of Martin Luther King on his wall next to all his pieces. I asked him why he has this picture. He told me that MLK is a major inspiration for the Afro-Peruvian community, especially his “I Have a Dream” speech. The Afro-Peruvian community shares that dream “that [their] children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

*Now we are off to Morropon, another Afro-Peruvian Community. I do not know where I will be staying or if I will internet access, however I will make sure to update you when I can.  Adios 😮

The military in Peru say that rebels from the left-wing Shining Path group have killed two soldiers in the jungle region in Ayacucho province.

Three other soldiers were injured. This is the second such attack in the area in recent weeks.

The group’s power and impact have declined since the arrest of its leader, Abimael Guzman, in 1992.

A military statement said the army would intensify the search for the guerrillas in the region.

In a similar attack last month, the authorities say the rebels ambushed and killed five soldiers.

The Shining Path was a powerful organisation in the 1980s and early 1990s.

It fought to remove what it described as Peru’s bourgeois democracy to replace it with a communist government, of Maoist inspiration.

The arrest of Abimael Guzman, in 1992, and a fierce campaign during the government of President Alberto Fujimori all but dismantled the organisation.

Drug Dealers:

Remnants of the Shining Path group are now said to operate in Peru’s Ene-Apurimac valley, in the southeast of the country, alongside drug traffickers.

Abimael Guzman is now serving a life sentence

The BBC Correspondent in Lima, Dan Collyns, says the Andean-Amazonian valley is a virtual drugs factory supplying Argentina, Brazil and Europe with high quality cocaine.

The area, known by its Spanish acronym as the VRAE, is also home to some of the Andean nation’s poorest people.

President-elect Ollanta Humala – a left-wing politician who as an army officer battled the Shining Path – will face key decisions when he takes office on 28 July.

Mr Humala’s election manifesto spoke of decriminalising coca farmers and even the low-level cocaine processors and smugglers.

Analysts like Ruben Vargas, a Peruvian security expert, says being too lenient with those involved in the drugs trade would be “naive”.

Gen Luis Howell, chief of the Joint Command of the Peruvian Armed Forces, says they are combating “not just terrorism but also drug trafficking”

*From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14212293

** check out my post “Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación” to learn about the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Well I am semi-sad at the fact we are leaving the beach paradise in a few hours. I really needed this time away to catch up on my blogging and other work. I am only semi-sad because we are now on our way to visit Afro-Peruvian communities (Yapateras, Morropon, and Zaña).  I have no idea where I will be staying or if I will have internet service, so please forgive me for tardy updates.

The Négritude Movement

In Dr. Ngom’s (2011) article, “Afro-Peruvians and The Official Cultural Institutionalism: Recovering the Lost Voices” he mentions the Negritude Movement.  “Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France in the 1930s.” After the 1950’s, in Peru,  a group of intellectuals began to write about Africans from a different angle, one of social rehabilitation”. This movement was not only poetic, it was also very political. These writers sought to provide a real depiction of the African person and experience. The Negritude movement in Peru was a process of recovery and affirmation of being Afro-Peruvian and black cultural heritage.

“These literary demonstration was part of the process of the recovery of the Afro-Peruvian voice, as well as the relocation of this group into the national venture, trying to give us a more realistic, authentic, and reliable vision from an inside perspective. The majority of studies on Peruvian literature deal with the theme of negritude as an appendage and not as an active component of the Peruvian literature” (Ngom, 2011, p. 290).

The more I learn about the Afro-Peruvian experience, the more I see that there are many similarities to African-Americans in the States. I see that we all have a common shared experience of exclusion in many areas of society.

Ngom (2011) in his article “Afro-Peruvians and The Official Cultural Institutionalism: Recovering the Lost Voices” (see the previous blog post) goes on to state that Afro-Peruvians are absent and excluded from Peru’s literary systems. Within the literature of Peru, it is a  “kidnapped space marked by historical, political, and cultural otherness where minority groups (speaking politically and economically) lack expression, which converts them into outside subjects without a voice in the context  of the official discourse of the nation” (Ngom, 2011, p. 288). This exclusion, cultural otherness, and lack of voice are seen in many other aspects of Peruvian society.

I have noticed how Afro-Peruvians are invisible socially and economically. I have not seen Afro-Peruvians as business owners in the city or in more developed areas of the country. Only in the Afro-Peruvian village are they owners. In the city, most of the Afro-Peruvians that I have seen are working on the streets as doorman or other manual laborers. And these persons have all been Afro-Peruvian men. In Lima (the capital of Peru) walking into any store or restaurant, you do not see any or maybe one person of Indigenous or African descent.

In addition, I have seen how products and advertisements do not include them.  Also Afro-Peruvians along with the Indigenous, are not represented in most of the media. Turn on the TV and whether you are watching the news or music videos, the person on the screen is closer to the image of a European than someone who is Indigenous or African. This unfortunately “makes sense” since Peruvian nationality is based on a Eurocentric vision (Ngom, 2011). This Eurocentric perceptive on what it means to be Peruvian has ostracized Afro-Peruvians.

As mentioned in the previous blog post non-European voices are slowing being incorporated into the cultural system and climate of Peru. I have seen this mostly in dance in and food. (Interesting enough being dancers and cooks are stereotypes of Afro-Peruvians.) In closing, I can only SMHH (shake my head hard) at the fact that Peruvian society has included – really appropriated- aspects of Afro-Peruvian and even Indigenous culture, yet not accept who they are wholly as a people into EVERY aspect of society.

*My comments are based on my observations, literature I have read, and lectures I have been in.

Ngom, M. (2011). Afro-peruvians and the official cultural institutionalism: recovering the lost voices. Callaloo, 34(2), 286-293.

Below es (is) an excerpt for an article written by Dr. M’bare N’gom, the Fulbright-Hayes director for this project en (in) Peru.

Just recently, in some countries a few voices have started to incorporate themselves in to the national cultural system and, consequently, in the literary system. Peru is no exception. The Afro-descendent contribution to the official Peruvian national cultural is conspicuous by its absence, though this is not the case in the field of popular culture….In Peru, the African and his decedents were active protagonists of nearly every phase of national history: from the arrival of the Spanish until the nation’s confirmation, and later, what some scholars have been reminded to call “postnation.” Within this historic framework, the representation of the Afro- descendent has been marked by political, economic, and official cultural invisibility. In addition, throughout history there have been punctual and systematic efforts to erase Afro-descendents from Peru’s history. This discourse of exclusion formed part of a project about the construction of Peruvian nationality that was based on a Eurocentric vision of modernity prevalent among many young Hispanic American nations in the nineteenth century. This exclusion prevailed despite the fact that this vision of modernity invoked mixed race as one of the defining traits of nationality.  Jose Carlos Mariategui’s reflections, placing the Afro-Peruvian on the margin of Peruvianism, stay within this vision of the fragmented and contaminated world.

The black contribution, became like a slave, almost like merchandise, appears as hopeless and negative as ever. The black man brought this sensuality, his superstition, his primitivism. There were no conditions to contribute to the creation of a culture, but rather to obstruct it with the crude and lively influx of its savagery. (226)

This, therefore, refers to the a specific model of what it means to be Peruvian half jointed to an “imagined community,” “civilized and illustrated” to the European. This utopian vision of Peruvian nationality is also fragmented and partial, since is excluded, among others two key elements of being Peruvian: the black and the Indigenous.

*Make sure to come back later to check out my next blog post “Recovering the Lost Voices”. I will be responding to this segment of the article from above. Please see the full citation below if you are interested in reading the full article. Buenos Noches!

Ngom, M. (2011). Afro-peruvians and the official cultural institutionalism: recovering the lost voices. Callaloo, 34(2), 286-293.

We made it to Piura. Sorry that I have not posted in 3 dias o put up any new fotos. I will be working on them tonight. So our AMAZING director, Dr. Ngom, gave us Fulbrighters a suprize by taking us to Sausalito Beach Resort to work on our final projects. I wish all profesors did this at Morgan 😮

My first day in Piura, as soon as we got off the plane, a few of us went to the beach. Others stayed at the hotel to relax and walk around the town. It was amazing and much needed. We went to Sunset Beach. It was an 1 1/2 van ride from the hotel. It was a great drive. Our personal drivier, Manuel, was awesome. As soon as we got to Sunset Beach we hit the water and spent the day eating, walking, and enjoying the sun.

While at the beach we were participated in the tourism industry -thus supporting Peru’s economy. We ate and ate, thus enjoying the cultural food of Peru. What is interesting to know is that the coast of Peru is a desert, so we saw the different environments of Peru. We went from the desert to the beach.

FYI – this AMAZING mini vaca for 8 personas was about $350 US dollars. This included: a personal drivier that waited for us all day, food and drinks, and the resort to ourselves with personal cabana boy 😮

Me encanta Perú! (I love Peru!)