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How to Solve Lima’s Missing Manhole Crisis in a Hurry
The body of the teenage boy who drowned in a Lima sewer has finally been found, Lima police announced July 24. After a 12-day search, the body of Ray Pomiano Villanueva was found in the Huaral district of Chancay, approximately 186 miles from where he fallen into an open manhole. Pomiano, who was trying to catch a bus when he plunged in the hole, was swept away by rushing sewage in front of dozens of witnesses. The boy’s body was found in a sewage drain by fishermen. He was 15 or 16 years old, according to conflicting accounts in Peru21 and El Ojo. Missing manhole covers are common on the streets of Peru, where thieves…
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El Híjo Weighs in on Bullfighting
After our encounter with Peru’s famous child matador yesterday morning, El Híjo and I hunted down a YouTube video of 10-year-old “El Andi” at the 2008 Las Palmas fiesta. Figure 1: Peru’s boy matador Andrés Roca Rey, at in the “Senor de los Milagros” bullfighting festival, in the historic Ancho bullring, in Lima, Nov. 4, 2007, by Martin Mejia (AP) The footage started out great: El Andi executing beautiful passes, tossing his silken hair in true matador fashion, the young bull charging at him with alarming ferocity. The boy’s presence and athleticism were riveting – or so I thought. “Can you believe that’s the nice kid we just met in the…
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Boy Bullfighters in the Park
The boy in the grey t-shirt swept out his arm and arched his torso in an elegant bow-shape as the “bull” charged within an inch of his hip. Then he pivoted on one foot and flicked the cape at his opponent’s head. The red fabric spun and twirled, daring the sharp, curved horns to come closer. They were two Limeno kids, dressed in tracksuits and sneakers, practicing bullfighting passes in Parque Leoncio Prado this morning. One boy held a pair of bull’s horns mounted to a wooden handle. The other boy took turns practicing with red and pink capes and various swords. Nearby on a park bench, a slim middle-aged man called out instructions and exhorted them to…
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Another Thing I Miss about the United States
Maple syrup. You can’t buy it in Peru. If you want syrup for your pancakes, you have to go with the corn syrup blends they sell in the supermercado. It’s not the same. Just looking at the picture on the right makes me salivate. A cousin from Massachusetts sent me a jar of maple syrup two months ago. It was like having liquid gold sent to your doorstep. El Hijo and I went into a frenzy of pancake-making. I don’t think anyone was ever so ecstatic eating a stack of pancakes.
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Lima Teen Falls in Open Manhole & Disappears in Sewer
This is one of the most awful events I’ve heard about recently. Lima has a huge problem with people stealing manhole covers, and the streets are becoming hazardous to pedestrians – now fatally, for one Lima teenager. El Fotógrafo told me about the incident over breakfast. “What a way to go,” he said, shaking his head. The story was so preposterous, I didn’t believe him at first. Then I googled “tapas de desagues [sewer tops], Lima,” and the news item came up on the Peru21 website. Blogger Kalun Lau wrote about a similar theft problem in Trujillo, on his Spanish-language site Kalumonology (Lau’s photo of sewer hole minus lid above).…
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Death Window, Lima Combi Bus
Looking through El Fotógrafo’s photos of the car crash in our neighborhood in April, I was struck by the irony of this image: The driver of the combi had just crashed his busload of passengers into a small car driven by a mother with her preschool daughter. Medics had already arrived on the scene to cart the wounded to the hospital. Combi drivers in Lima are notorious for their recklessness, which borders on the suicidal. Under the skull and crossed daggers, the message in yellow reads: “Si no manejo bien, llama a tu hermana” (If I’m not driving well, call your sister).
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Happy (Dead) Leoncio Prado Day
This morning, I woke up to find the park outside our house occupied by about 150 armed troops. It was not a coup. The guys in camo and cadet uniforms and 19th-century calvalry getups were members of the Peruvian military taking part in a tribute to Colonel Leoncio Prado, a hero/martyr in the War of the Pacific (1879–1883). Today marks the 125th anniversary of Prado’s death in 1883. The colonel led Peruvian troops in the ill-fated war with Bolivia against Chile, which resulted in both Peru and Bolivia losing valuable land to the victor. Peru has never recovered from the trauma, which lingers like an open wound in the national conciousness. The country still feels oppressed…
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El Chalan on the Street
Today I took Lola for a walk and bumped into this Wong supermarket employee pushing a shopping cart along the street. He was on his way back from bringing a customer’s groceries to her house, a free service that the store offers. Check out the chic Fiestas Patrias outfit: white poncho, red scarf and broad-brimmed straw hat — the traditional gear of the northern Peruvian cowboy. Wong bagboys wear these getups through July 28, Peru’s Independence Day. Maybe supermarkets in the United States could adopt this trend. What kind of “typically American” gear might the checkout people wear for 4th of July? Labor Day?
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Supermarket Cowboys
Peru’s biggest supermarket chain – Wong – plays up Fiestas Patrias in a big way, sponsoring patriotic events throughout Lima and featuring the “flavors of Peru” during the month-long season. The store’s colors are red and white, the colors of the Peruvian flag, but to celebrate the independence-day spirit during July, some employees wear outfits distinctive to Peru. The young men who bag your groceries wear these white ponchos with red scarves and big straw hats – the traditional costume of “el chalán,” the horse trainer or cowboy from northern Peru. (See photo of actual chalan, not in red and white, riding a horse in Lima, by Paul Ark, right).
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Red, White and No More Blue
This is an unusual July for me. Until this year, the most significant date on the calendar typically was July 4th – firecrackers, red white and blue, muy Americano. This year in Lima, July 4th was just another Friday. I didn’t even remember it was a holiday until a friend from Florida sent an email wishing me a Happy Fourth. It was thoughtful of her to remember her old friend in exile, but to be honest, the event felt insignificant here in the southern hemisphere. I tried to conjure that 4th of July feeling, and all that came to mind was grilled hot dogs – the smell of them, actually.…
