I wish all of you read my other two comments before reading this. I didn’t intend to write anymore but I am feeling some kind of mission which I must say for the sake of everything, American foreign policy, world humanity, Justice for all, whatever.

First of all, gringos must be real careful to get involved thses kinds of issues happening in somebody’s bedroom. I understand your intention but it is real touchy matter. It’s like a missionary goes to jungle and tell tribes that they are sinner. And America has not been a humanistic heaven since her birth. It took a lot of bloody struggle until a half black citizen became the president of the country.

Secondly, all of your views and activisms reflects the American government’s foreign policies by all the experts, Phd’s, and elites from Havard, Yale, MIT and you know it. I don’t have Phd, never been to Ivy, except street smartness. But I know one thing which they don’t know.
Don’t look at the world through your filter.

So I must tell you another story of my past again, whch I do not enjoy that much. My family had had a live-in maid until I was 16. Were we rich? Not at all. You can not apply the concept of rich and poor to class because almost entire population were struggling to survive after the war during which my real mother died of malnutrition after giving my birth. My stepmother was illterate and vindictive treating our maid like shit and used to beat me hell. Was she a bad character like evil Medussa? No, not all. That was the culture at that time and that was the norm. Lots of old folks had second wife living right next to each other with no shame or guilt. Of course it was against the constitution adopted and imitated to the western sample. It was the transitional period from thousands years of long traditional culture to the modern in result of world super powers’ conflict. There was no such a thing like dignity, humanity or individuality if you were low class. Just be happy to be alive.

I resented and hated the culture. I couldn’t stand the country, so finally I gave up my career (which every body envied) and became a naturalized gringo. Now I will assume anyone who read this comment has read the others also.

Now that third world country has been so remarkably transfromed that the young generations are taking as granted. That is why I mentioned in other comment that I really don’t like their arrogance now. That arrogance reached to the level of being very obnoxious. But they are doing a lot of charity work all over the world and so many young peoples are devoting their lives to help unfortunate people in every third world countries like American used to do to us when I was a kid. Second wife as a rich guy’s mistress? No way! Now woman is above than man, they have own career in every fields and have louder voice in politics, young people don’t even understand what maid is and was. What a amazing transition! I couldn’t believe that.

More than half of the farming area in the country is abandoned and stay empty because no one wants to that hard work since it has been industrialized. But there are still some people stay in farming. And guess what.
The young men in farming can not marry until they reach the age of 40′s because no women want to live with farmers. So they are getting brides from the third world countries through mail order. Blue eyes, brown eyes, blond, dark, all kinds of combination. It is booming business. You might think I am exaggerating a tiny incidence as a big deal. No no no!!!!!! This becomes so significant matter that government is getting seriously involved to the welbeing of those of foreign brides now, like teaching language, culture, etc.

So this sounds like a tale of Cinderella? Not really. When all the conquistadoras, missionaries, volunteers, pirates adventured to the new world, they brought nice tools, hunting guns together with diseases also. So is there.
Now the divorce rate is top of the world. No women wants to tolerate shit with men. When I lived there the divorce was like a life sentence to women because women were not entitle to any property or custody of the child. Three generations used to live together so the young took care of the elderly. It is history now. 90 % of the populations are living in high rise aprtments due to urbanization. Isolation and lonelyness is the norm of being old.

I am not trying to determine whether it is desirable or not. Yes it is very positive change in certain area and there exists negative effect also. It is a different subject. I am trying to emphasize how the change was possible in that short or long period of the time.

It was their dertermination to get out of poverty and their WILL for the education of their children. And the equality to genders, social justice, political stabilty, etc. was the by-products of their economic achivement.

You can not force the change with any forms of method. You can not have anyone to change at gun point and you can not entice anyone to change with mighty dollars. Only their own will to change will make it possible.

Look at the IRAQ. With all the good intentions and sacrifices of our own people’s lives, the lack of their own will to make the changes results in waste of our lives and efforts. I am not discussing the poltics or Bush’s doctrine. I am just mentioning that the simple fact the elimination of the tyrany itself could be a tremendous gift to the opressed whether Bush’s policy was a mistake and failure or not, but it did not seem to be so.

We had expierenced this too. I am mentioning from own expierence. If an Iraq’s power was overturned by their own hands, it would be entirely different consequences.

Gringo folks, you have to draw the line how far you will dip your feet into some others’ internal affair. Are you guest there or host? Just be careful. I know your intention and noble cause but we have to take the consequence into consideration too.

El Fotografo was in elementary school during the military takeover of ’68 and the ensuing years of the Velasco administration. The educational system was changed overnight, and all Peruvian kids were required to study the Inca civilization in depth. So he is part of a generation of Peruvians who knows a lot about the Incas; in fact, when I met EF in Miami Beach in the 1990s, he impressed me by being able to recite the names of all the Inca leaders!

However, I don’t think those educational reforms lasted long, and when Velasco left, the curriculum must have reverted to shortchanging the Incas (and other civilizations). Readers: if you know otherwise, please let me know!

You are quite right — when foreigners visit Peru, they overwhelmingly want to see and learn about the ancient cultures. That was what drew me to Peru in ’95 when I first visited Cusco and Machu Picchu. Afterward, I was thrilled to learn that the Inca were preceded by more than 1,000 years of other civilizations. It is mind-boggling.

Yes, Andean studies are big in the U.S. I know that the Universidad San Antonio de Abad de Cusco has some excellent scholars of Andean culture, such as Jorge Flores Ochoa.

Unfortunately such thinking is common in Latin American countries where the so called elite is a minority. The biggest culprit is that this group has no identity or real pride to the country’s origins and its culture.

And I believe it all comes from the education system. As an example, in school (at least when I went), very little time was spent in the pre-Inca and Inca periods and a large percentage in the Republic. There is no way to build national consciousness like that. The origins of the Inca empire was still based on a fable about the 4 founders appeared from a mountain cave and founded the city when one of them sank his walking stick on the ground.

When I got to this country, I was amazed that there is so much written about the Peruvian indigenous cultures from studies done by many American universities and institutions. It was incredible! I was blown away and saddened that many of my countrymen do not get the opportunity to learn from it and appreciate what we have.

As I tell my family back home, when tourists visit Peru, they do no go there to see a mall or an American style experience. The want to see what our ancestors left as proof of a rich culture.

Gracias

“As a Peruvian living in the US for quite a while, it is appalling to see what goes on in places like Asia.” — yes, appalling is the word.
” My family is original from Mala and I do remember when we used to go to the beach and the town was an ‘arenal’.” — El Fotografo also remembers when beaches like El Silencio were just sand dunes.

“I had heard so much about the ‘new’ Asia from family members and decided to go in the off season. What a pretentious place!”

Utterly.

I know the Hamptons and Montauk from when I lived in NYC and was invited to stay at friends’ summer houses. Yep, that is real money alright. The so-called money at Asia is nothing compared to the million-dollar homes that celebs own out in the Hamptons.

“It is really sad that Peruvians still think along those lines and justify those actions. ”

If Peru wants to enter the 21st century and be respected by developed nations, those kind of attitudes will have to go, whether the so-called elite like it or not. It is a matter of educating people — there really has been no national sensitization (word?) to issues of diversity and tolerance, as there has been in the US for the last several decades.

Yes, there was an article in El Comercio one or two weeks ago about the water crisis in Asia. It was a two-page spread. Peru is having a hard time balancing residential development and farming needs. This friction will only intensify as water becomes scarcer in Peru due to the loss of glacial meltwater, which supplies 80% of Peru’s water supply.

I had heard so much about the ‘new’ Asia from family members and decided to go in the off season. What a pretentious place! I have spent a couple of weeks in the Hamptons in Long Island and you don’t see the kind of stupidity that goes on in that place. And we are talking about people with some serious money in LI.

It is really sad that Peruvians still think along those lines and justify those actions. The last I heard, farmers in the nearby towns are having all kinds of issues with irrigation because the powers that be are diverting water to accommodate the water sports that take place in Asia.

Glad I found your blog.