Daily Life in Lima,  Festivals, Sacred Rituals, Religion

Happy International Workers’ Day! (May 1)

This morning at five to eight I left our house to walk to exercise class and encountered a deep silence.

The roads were empty. There were no buses or taxis rushing down our street, no construction workers hammering away on the new condominium project two doors down. Parque Leoncio Prado, which at this time ordinarily would be filled with city gardeners trimming hedges and maids walking their employers’ dogs, was just an empty grid of grass and concrete. You could hear cuculis (morning doves) cooing plaintively, a noise that echoed eerily off the poured-concrete streets.

For a moment I was puzzled by the lack of cars and people, and then I remembered: Today is May 1, Labor Day, a holiday for the country’s workers. El primero de mayo marks International Workers’ Day around the world, and Peru celebrates by giving nearly everyone the day off, from city officials to bank tellers to street sweepers. Even Wong, the huge grocery chain that is open year-round, closes its doors on Labor Day so employees can “celebrate with family and friends” (that’s what I read in Spanish on a sign posted on the Benavides Wong last night, when I made a last-minute rush to buy bread for this morning). The sign at Wong apologized to its patrons for the inconvenience but hoped that we understood.

I should have known that if a mega business like Wong was closed on May 1, my eight-person exercise class would be canceled, too, but I didn’t think to ask my instructor in class would be on; having lived in America for most of my life, I don’t think of May 1 as a holiday (Labor Day falls in September in the United States). I arrived at my instructor’s studio to find the door closed and no one inside. Yet another case of my not being in synch with the Peruvian agenda. But no problem.

El Fotógrafo, El Hijo, Lola and I savored the calm by taking a long walk through the deserted streets to the Malecon and back. It was pleasant to amble along, with Lola trotting ahead on her leash, without choking on exhaust fumes or dodging speeding combis. Lola had plenty of time to sniff at suspicious things on the sidewalk, and El Hijo was relaxed enough to spend the hour or so chatting away about Japanese anime and obscure animal facts he’s gleaned from watching the Discovery Channel (two of his favorite pastimes). He was still rambling on when we passed the newish church of the Madonna and crossed the avenue to the Malecon. “What kind of breakfast cereal did you this morning?” El Fotógrafo kidded him.

We watched the waves break on the Pacific and let Lola chase a tennis ball around a patch of grass. Along the concrete pathways, well-off Limeños walked their own dogs, jogged and biked. No maids walking Weimaraners, fidgety poodles, pugs in sweaters. No city workers in bright-orange hazard suits and facemasks sweeping dirt from the sidewalks. A few taxis, but very few (did those occasional cab drivers feel like traitors or savvy opportunists?) It was remarkable and humbling -– a landscape bereft of the thousands of low-paid service workers who make daily life in Lima bearable.

Hopefully they were home in bed enjoying their well-deserved day of rest.

This year, the Peruvian government has added an extra holiday on Friday to make a four-day weekend (May 1 – 4), reports Living in Peru.

Here’s a photo of Limeños celebrating Primero de Mayo in Lima’s Plaza de Armas, in 2006 (courtesy of Juan Arellano’s Globalizado blog):

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.

4 Comments

  • Stuart

    1st of May is not only a holiday in Peru, but a holiday in the world outside of the US.

  • Barb

    Thanks, Bob. I plan to post a lot on this site in the future. The site will be running on automatic through May 21 because I’ll be out of Lima temporarily. Going to Qoyllur Rit’i with El Fotografo, to report on the pilgrimage and what’s happening with glacial recession in the Andes. Stop by after May 21 for news about that.