Maids Still Banned from Swimming at Peru Beaches? Sadly, Yes
- Artist’s depiction of discriminatory laws at some Peruvian beaches that prohibit maids from swimming during daylight hours (until 7 p.m. at Asia beach)
It sounds like a scene straight out of the Jim Crow era in the American South, but it’s happening today in coastal Peru: discriminatory laws in some exclusive seaside resorts prohibit maids (nearly all of whom are poor Andean and black women) from swimming on the beach during daylight hours.
As Juan Arellano described in Global Voices Online in 2007, the beaches where this discrimination is practiced are located south of Lima, among them the fashionable resort town of Asia. Wealthy Limeños flock to beach houses in Asia during the brief summer months, bringing with them their trusted family maids and nannies to look after the children. But while the vactioners have full access to the sand and surf, their servants do not.
Apartheid-like laws passed by homeowners’ associations in Asia forbid maids and nannies, or “domestic employees,” as they are called, from swimming at the beach between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Rules of conduct for homeowners also stipulate that maids must wear a uniform and cannot wear a bathing suit — a cruel twist, given the intensity of Peru’s summer sun, notes Hypathia’s Daughter.
The unjust laws at Asia have roused both anger and protest in Peru. On a fundamental level, the town’s discriminatory policies violate Peruvian laws “that state that Peruvian beaches cannot be privatized and must be open and accessible for all,” as Alejandro of LAX-LIM points out. However, the political pull of the homeowners’ association at Asia obscured that legal contradiction — at least for a while.
Then, two years ago, Peru’s National Coordination of Human Rights, an umbrella group of various human-rights, anti-discrimination and anti-racism groups, in coordination with Amnesty International, organized a protest at Asia beach. The group issued a call for concerned citizens to come to Asia dressed as maids and nannies on January 28, 2007, to show their solidarity with household workers at the resort.
The outpouring of support for “Operation Smart Maid,” as it was called, was enormous, as was world media coverage of the event. (See 1/27/07 wire story from EFE.)
About 1,000 activists, domestic workers and even foreigners turned up at the beach dressed in maids’ uniforms and carrying signs that read “Enough with Racism” and “Racism Be Gone,” reported EFE:
The peaceful march moved through the security gate that is usually closed to keep out the public and headed for the beach, where demonstrators formed a human chain and later took a dip in the cold Pacific waters as astonished visitors and police watched.
“Our goal is to call for reflection on the situation of domestic workers who suffer from beastly discrimination and can only go to the beaches at nightfall,” Mar Perez, who runs the economic, social and cultural rights program for the National Human Rights Coordinator, told EFE.
Perez said the protest was intended to “plant the seed of the citizens’ movement against discrimination.”
Organizer Laura Balbuena provided an up-close look at the “Operation Smart Maid” protest on her blog Hypathia’s Daughter (which is intriguingly subtitled, “A Female Philosopher Lost in the World of Peruvian Feminism”). See the photo below.
- “Smart Maid” protestors infiltrate the ocean at Asia Beach, Peru, Jan. 28, 2007 (photo courtesy Hypathia’s Daughter)
So, did the peaceful protests at Asia end the discriminatory practices there?
Sadly, no.
Two years later, status-seeking Limeños still flock to Asia, local laws still prohibit maids from swimming in the ocean, and maids still sit on the parched sands in their uncomfortable blue uniforms.
The flurry of attention garnered by the protest did not lead to a legal challenge against the Asia homeowners’ association.
What will it take for the discrimination to end? I suspect it will require a dual effort of raising shame among wealthy homeowners and of a concerted legal effort backed up by international aid groups that can put pressure on local and national government.
In the meantime, the “Asia Problem” (as I see it — I believe I’m in the minority here in Lima) rests with the individual. If you are a homeowner at Asia, you can opt to register a complaint with the association. You can give your maid a nice bathing suit and let her swim with the children that she is supervising. And if you are invited to be a guest at an Asia beach house, you can opt to decline and politely but clearly explain why.
As someone who might receive an invitation to play at Asia one day, I know what my response will be.
Barbara
I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.
15 Comments
Rachel in Peru
A.) Asia is overrated and seems like a big mall to launder money.
B.) I’ve been by there in off season and noticed that it’s a ghost town only inhabited by “domestic employees” that maintain the houses.
C.) He with the most gold makes the golden rule. I guess that’s the law of Asia (and most of Peru for that matter.)
I know when a domestic employee works for a foreigner they often fear having to go back to work for another Peruvian again. Now I know why.
I expect an employer/employee relationship with my domestic help, but I never treat them like 2nd class citizens or animals.
I personally believe that every deed in life comes full circle. It’s a universal principle.
Barb
“He with the most gold makes the golden rule.” That is how many laws are made here in Peru.
I’m glad to hear that you’re doing your part, Rachel, to treat maids fairly. Until there is more oversight of domestic workers in Peru, it is up to the individual employer to do the right thing.
Stuart
This is something I wanted to write about two years ago but couldn’t find the energy. Thanks Barb for making the effort!
Rachel, there’s not a country on the earth where laws are made for the benefit of the ordinary man! The best you can hope for is for things to be kept smooth and orderly by the law so that you can benefit almost as much as the rich it was written for. Sad but true. In fact, laws are not written to benefit “rich people” in the west any more, but “rich corporations”.
Barb
Stuart, you’re welcome. I’d like to do some real reporting on the issue and interview the Asia homeowners’ association, maybe some members of government. It depends on what media outlet would bite at a story that doesn’t have an obvious hook right now (the great hook was two years ago, as you say, when the Smart Maid Operation was taking place).
But the issue still nags at me, maybe even more so now that it’s back to “business as normal” in Asia.
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Pico
Hello Barb. As a Peruvian living in the US for quite a while, it is appalling to see what goes on in places like Asia. My family is original from Mala and I do remember when we used to go to the beach and the town was an ‘arenal’.
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.
Barb
Pico — thanks for finding An American in Lima. It always interests me to hear the viewpoints of Peruvians who have lived in the States or abroad for a while. My Peruvian lived 27 years in the US before returning to Peru in ’07, and, like you, that experience has enabled him to see Peruvian attitudes and traditions in new ways. He’s even been called a “gringo” here for that.
“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.
Pico
Barb,
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
Barb
Pico — your perspective is very interesting. (I am curious as to how old you are!) Yes, Peru’s relation to its Inca and preInca pasts is a troubled one, and that friction is reflected in how that history is taught in the schools.
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.
Amazilia
Thanks for writing about this problem of racism and discrimination in Peru. Hope the elites understand that they can not pretend to be in 21th century clinging to attitudes of the 18th.
Barbara
Truly, Amazilia, the attitude does seem to be from centuries ago, no?
Enriqueta
As a Peruvian living in the US for quite a while..I understand the position of the maids …discrimination always exist in Peru and every Peruvian are the same on this position about them. They feel more and superior than the maids and they treat them like hell….we are on the 21 century come on stop discriminate the maids …..
Naturalizedgringo
To Gringos and Peruvians:
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.
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Hop Skip Jump Peru
Thanks for writing about this. I have only just learned about it recently. The discrimination does not only play itself out at the beach. Maids are only permitted to enter the country clubs if they are in uniform.
Many Peruvians treat their maids very well, but there are also a large proportion that treat them as second class citizens and take advantage of them.