CHASQUI PERUVIAN MAIL

Year 7, Number 15 Cultural Bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs December 2009 Photograph of Julio Ramón Ribeyro reinterpreted by Enrique Polanco, 2009. Polanco, Enrique by reinterpreted of Julio Ramón Ribeyro Photograph

REMEMBERING J. R. RIBEYRO / THE ROUTE OF BIODIVERSITY TRENCHES AND BORDERS OF PERUVIAN FOLK ART THE CAHUACHI DIVINITIES / CUZCO, THE CULINARY EMPIRE READING RIBEYRO César Ferreira* Julio Ramón Ribeyro would have turned eighty this year. Though his thin, discrete firgure is no longer with us, anyone who has read his books knows that his words and characters are. Summarizing the vast richness of his œuvre is, indeed, a difficult task, but it is worth remembering that Ribeyro was one of the most versatile writers in the history of .

ver the course of four decades, mudo, in which Ribeyro explores he made notable incursions the troubles of marginalization in Ointo the novel, playwriting, Europe. In thse texts, among which the essay, the diary, and short . the title story, as well as «Agua Nevertheless, it was through the short ramera» [«Whore water»]and «Los story that he left his most important españoles»,[«Spaniards»] Europe is legacy in Peruvian litarature. Like all the setting for the adventures and great artists, Riberyo is a visionary mishaps of individuals who wander because he illustrates our many its cities with only loneliness and paradoxes and contradictions as boredom to keep them company. a society and as a nation through They generally live in cheap hotels his characters, delving through our or modest pensions in which they individual and collective mind with establish a sparse friendship with lucidity and intelligence. other marginalized figures in European Ribeyro’s first texts, which sprung CourtesyPicture of Claudio de la Puente Ribeyro. society, and in anonymity, identify forth in the 1950’s, appeared at themselves vaguely as «Peruvian», a point in our literature at which when more detail is required than many writers were struggling to just saying «South Americans». write realistic and urban works, in Another example of unhappiness an attempt to represent the new in Europe is «La juventud en la challenges faced by Peruvian society otra ribera» [« His Youth on the at the time. was then a city other Bank»], which appears in engrossed in a difficult transition: that the third volume of La palabra del of a large village which is beginning mudo. It is a story in which Ribeyro to grow and which, by so doing, expresses more sharply than ever becomes a large city forced to enter his desire to demystify the splendor a new era of difficult modernity. of Paris. The protagonist is another The first short stories published by Ribeyro character par excellence: Ribeyro, memorable tales such as «Los the bureaucrat. Plácido Huamán, a gallinazos sin plumas» [«Featherless «Doctor of Education», is sent from Vultures»] or «Al pie del acantilado» Lima to Europe to participate in a [«At the Foot of the Cliff»], are true conference in Switzerland. Before to this phenomenon and are still arriving in Geneva, Huaman stops in important testimonials of a changing Paris to realize a dream he has waited and contradictory urban space, the his whole life for: to spend time in product of constant migration from Paris, and, along the way, to treat the provinces and a difficult process of himself to an affair. In the beginning, cross-fertilization. Through this urban Dr. Huamán’s dreams appear to come space, pre-capitalist and blocked true when he meets Solange, an off by contrasts, the classic Ribeyro attractive French girl, in a cafe, and character roams in ever greater Julio Ramón Ribeyro (Lima, August 31st, 1929 - Lima, December 4th, 1994). proceeds to have a romance as false numbers: that subject who, as best he as it is short lasting with her, though can, carries the weight of frustration though, when the protagonist finds adventures, many times charged Huamán, given the mediocrity of and mediocrity, and who fights for himself trapped in a police holding with an irony that often flows into his existence, refers to it as, «one a place in a society which displaces cell, drunk and unable to pay the tab dark humor, are examples of the of the golden pages of my life». The and marginalizes him time after that he ran up at the bar hours earlier. typical vicisitudes and frustrations of protagonist’s romantic success is short time. Figures such as Boby López, To these we must add Mr. Fernando Peruvian life, and populate the pages lived indeed, and, in a sort of bitter the protagonist of «Alienación» Pasamanos, the central figure of of Julio Ramon’s work. Ribeyro gives paradox, Paris soon becomes the city [«Alienation»] and his fruitless «El banquete» [«The Banquet»]. voice to many of these characters, which provides the aged expert in struggle to shed his mulatto identity Pasamanos is a once wealthy old marginalized by society and locked Education with a cruel rite of passage. and become, at any cost, an American provincial landowner who aspires to in a trivial and mediocre existence, In fact, Solange and her group of gringo, are indeed illustrative. His regain his lost social status, throwing conceding them a fleeting moment of accomplices want nothing more than efforts, though, are so absurd, that the last of his savings out the window, hope, until institutional order, social to take the few dollars that Huaman one day death takes him by surprise on a huge party that the President prejudice, or just absurdity itself bring has brought along with him, and, this as he fights to defend the American of himself will attend. Destiny them back to cruel reality. achieved, they take his life as well. flag in the faraway Korean War. As seems to be generous, and his fortune This view of the human condition Paris becomes a scummy, sleazy city in such, his yearned-for American regained, when, the next morning, in Ribeyro’s work is not, however, this Ribeyro story. And, like so many dream becomes a tragic nightmare. an unexpected occurance destroys limited to a Peruvian context. In Paris, other Riberyo characters who reach I am also thinking of Pablo Saldaña, the last of his ambitions: a sudden where he arrived early in the 1950’s some stage of life at the wrong time, the protagonist of «Explicaciones a coup d’etat forces the president to and wrote much of his work, Ribeyro Huamán realizes his Parisian dream un cabo de servicio» [«Explanations resign. Worse still, the coup happens would himself live the dilemmas of too late, and, as the text repeats with for a Corporal»], who, unemployed during the banquet itself, and is exhile and uprooting. The result of tragic premonition, «his youth was left and sitting at a bar in Lima, dreams of executed by a government minister this experience is a handful of short behind on the other bank». becoming a prosperous businessman. taking advantage of the President’s stories, grouped together as «Los A tone of bittersweet skepticism The false illusions entertained by absence from the Presidential Palace cautivos» [«The Captives»] in the and a discreet element which hopes Saldaña are abruptly interrupted, to declare himself President. These second volume of La palabra del to maintain human dignity in the

CHASQUI 2 face of humiliation and adversity are again and again, but who, taking constant companions to Ribeyro’s refuge in his dreams of false grandeur, characters. As José Miguel Oviedo never gives up. says, Ribeyro’s world is made up of Ribeyro’s was a body of work «humble characters, small actions, written in silent rebellion and [and] great dreams: this group of somewhat against the grain. When, Photo: José Pons. elements..... leads almost inevitably in the 70’s, Latin to failure and to the conviction that saw the birth of a writing rich in regardless of what our ambition verbal and structural experimentation is—love, adventure, power, money, thanks to the generation known as the the imagination—we are always alone generation of Magic , Ribeyro and defenseless, playing parts whose remained true to his own voice and his words we forget exactly when we own art, often marginalized from the need them. Life is a game of masks commercial and marketing banquet and deceit, a cruel contrast between of the era. But in this faithfulness tough realities and fragile dreams. lies his second great lesson: the Nevertheless, it would be a ethic of an artist who, far from the mistake to reduce Ribeyro’s work temptations of success, continues to a few categories such as those working with exemplary tenacity, mentioned above. His fiction is until finally forging a body of work also a dialogue with great works of whose relevance and transcendence With: Enrique Lihn, Waldo Rojas, Sergio Pitol, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Juan Rulfo, Alfredo Bryce, Literature. In stories like «La insignia» is found precisely in its apparent Manuel Scorza, Augusto Monterroso and Bárbara Jakobs in Paris in the mid-1970’s. or «Silvio en el rosedal» [Silvio in the anachronism. Rose Garden»] his writing reveals a A more intimate and reflective «happy or unhappy times, finding of the difficult status being Peruvian meticulous knowledge of absurdist Ribeyro emerges in the last volume nothing more than the ashes of some entails, but also made us the priviliged literature, establishing points of of La palabra del mudo, published in or the still-burning flames of others». circle of friends of a solitary and chain- contact with the works of writers like 1992. This work contains a series of Perhaps for this very reason, this smoking man who, contemplating the Borges, Cortázar, and Kafka himself. texts in which the author turns up for effort, like so many others undertaken sea off Barranco, could only be an On the other hand, one critic has said an appointment with his past, in which by Ribeyro’s characters, turns again authentic writer. with sharp irony that Ribeyro is the he revisits times in a lifespan ranging into disappointment. Nevertheless, if, best Peruvian writer of the nineteenth from the innocence of the world of as the author proposes in the prologue, century. This comment is not too far childhood to the wise skepticism «writing is a way of conversing with from the truth, since his elegant, sober of old age. As such, it should not the reader», all we have to do is thank style sends us back to the best pages surprise us that a quiet nostalgia the author for the privilege of this of great masters like Maupassant or runs through the pages of «Relatos long and fascinating dialogue. Not * Assistant Professor of Spanish. Department Chekhov who, like Ribeyro, examine santacrucinos»[«Neighborhood only because through this literary of Spanish and Portuguese. University the individual caught up in solitary Tales»], since, as one of his protagonists friendship Riberyo allowed us to of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, United States. battles against a reality which wins says, these stories look to bring back discover the vicissitudes and troubles E-mail: [email protected] BETWEEN FICTION AND LIFE Jorge Coaguila* It would be a mistake to think that literary works must be autobiographical, or that these are better than entirely made up stories. This examination was written to observe the way Julio Ramon Ribeyro’s work was built.

iberyo once declared, in an ppened to me, to my family, or what novels. The first, Crónica de San interview with Gregorio Mar- was happening in the country. The Gabriel [Chronicles of San Gabriel] Rtinez and Roland Forgues thing is that I can write a series of (1960), is in reality the transposition (1983), that he was trying to write an chapters on these elements, but how of a season he spent at a hacienda in autobiographical book, but couldn’t do I then put them together? This is Tulpo, in the mountains of La Liber- find the right way to do so, since he what I am trying to figure out. I have tad province, north of the capital city wanted to avoid convention. Anyone Dionisio Torres. Caricature: to put them together somehow». of Lima. The characters are real, all who writes about his own life is forced In an interview in 1973, Reynaldo exist or existed at the time. to confront certain topics. «You start Trinidad asked: «It is said that most His second novel, Los geniecillos talking about your ancestors, your of your stories are autobiographical. dominicales [Sunday Elves] (1965), parents, your childhood, your school, Is this true?» To which Ribeyro res- is also autobiographical. The Lima- your friends, the trips you took. All ponded, «Exactly. My stories, to em- born narrator proclaims that all of biographies, in the end, are alike», ploy statistical terms, are 80 percent the episodes contained in the book explained Ribeyro. realistic and 20 percent imagination. are taken from his own experiences. The writer had, at that point, spent In a nutshell, he was searching for When I say realism, I am referring Real life friends and acquaintances three or four years of his life trying to elements with would allow him to to experiences I myself have had, or of Ribeyro’s who inspired characters find a way to approach a book on his gather a series of memories together those which were told to the author in the book include Doctor Jorge life. He had a series of symbolic ele- in relation to a central theme. In the directly by their protagonists. As Puccinelli (Rostalínez), Carlos ments in mind, though they may have end, the cigarette was used as the such, my next book will be a collec- Eduardo Zavaleta (Carlos), Fran- seemed trivial. For example, beaches. excuse to talk about his life. tion of stories told to me by friends, cisco Bendezú (Cucho), Eleodoro All the beaches he had ever been to, In 1983, Ribeyro refers to a chap- entitled «Lo que tú me contaste» Vargas Vicuña (Eleodoro), Wáshing- from childhood on. He also conside- ter of his autobiography titled, «Terre- [«What you told me»]. The memory ton Delgado (Franklin), Hugo Bravo red using an approach based on all the motos y temblores» [«Earthquakes is an inexhaustible archive of material (Hugo), Pablo Macera (Pablo), Ma- hotels he had ever stayed in. «I must and Tremors»]: «I was there for the to be turned into prose». nuel Acosta Ojeda (The Wise One), have stayed in around one hundred earthquake that hit Lima in 1940, Besides the fact that this book Juan Gonzalo Rose (Gonzalo), Alber- hotels», he declared. Other subjects and later lived through very strong was never published, how much of to Escobar (Manolo), and Víctor Li he considered: libraries, books, cats, earthquakes. Through these earth- Ribeyro in the flesh appears in his Carrillo (Victoriano). Other elements restaurants, brands of wine, shoes. quakes, I wrote about what had ha- writing? Let us examine his first two taken from real life include: «Letras

CHASQUI 3 Peruanas» magazine (Prisma) and which allowed him to break through the Insula Cultural Center (Ateneo his isolation and escape, even if for cultural center). only a few moments,’a reality that Allow us to review Ribeyro’s short was increasingly strange, and, in many stories. The story which goes back ways, unbearable». furthest in his life is «Por las azoteas» «Surf» is the last story Ribeyro [«On the Rooftops»], which is based wrote. Bernardo, somewhere around on experiences he lived at his child- 60, moves into an apartment in hood home at 117 Jirón Montero Ro- Barranco, right above the sea. He sas in Santa Beatriz, on the southern was planning to write the book that edge of downtown Lima. Most people would make everyone hold him in think that Ribeyro was from the Mira- high esteem. After a few weeks, he flores district, but in fact he was born feels the project is shipwrecked and in Santa Beatriz and only moved to decides to hold parties. The country the Santa Cruz section of Miraflores is living in a climate of violence, with in 1937, at the age of 7. His child- never-ending guerilla attacks. «He hood trips to the eastern mountain began to receive visits from a small town of Tarma allowed him to write and happy group of young friends, two stories set in the city: «Vaquita mostly writers, and of young inte- echada» [«Cow laying down»] and Paris, 1978. lligent girls who loved literature as «Silvio en El Rosedal»[«Silvio in much as they loved to party and live the Rose Garden»]. The latter is not The stories set in the Old World life as a newspaper employee. Not the turbulences of nightlife. In his particularly autobiographical, but are generally part of the Los Cautivos a single line of fiction deals with his study, memorable parties, dinners, there is a certain representation of Ri- [The Captives] collection: Madrid, in time as a diplomat, either as the cul- and dances went on until the early beyro in the protagonist: a somewhat «Los espanoles» [Spaniards] a small tural attache of the Peruvian embassy morning in an atmosphere of febrile solitary individual, who creates art Belgian town in «Ridder y el pisapa- or later as a permanent delegate to euphoria, at times almost distressing, for the few, and is a seeker of truth. peles» [Ridder and the Paperweight], UNESCO. as if they were living the last days of Champagnat Elementary and High Frankfurt in «Los cautivos» [«The What were Ribeyro’s last years a time which would soon be up» says School in Miraflores, where Ribeyro Captives»], Warsaw: «Bárbara», like? We can find something out from the narrator. Ribeyro died soon after was a student from 1935 to 1945, is which is based on his trip to the Polish the protagonist of Dichos de Luder writing this story, which is dated Ba- the setting for several of his stories. capital in 1955 as one of the thirty [Luder’s Sayings] (1989), who returns rranco, July 26th, 1994. From this period of his life, we have thousand children attending the Fifth to Peru after a long sojourn in Paris. Ribeyro’s characters are born of «El señor Campana y su hija Perlita» World Youth and Student Festival, in «In his spacious library, where he memories, the observation of reality, [Mr. Bell and his daughter Pearl»], which 114 countries participated, the would spend most of his time reading, and complex creations. In an inter- «Mariposas y cornetas» [«Butterflies slogan of which was, «For peace and writing, or listening to music—be it view with Ernesto Hermoza, the wri- and Bugles»], «Los otros»[«The friendship!» Verdi operas or boleros by Agustín ter confesses, «I don’t think that there Others»], «La música, el maestro He said very little regarding his Lara—he would very occasionally is a single character that I created Berenson y un servidor» [«Music, Be- time at Agence France-Presse (1961- be visited in the afternoons by two from head to toe. All are either real renson the Maestro, and a servant»] 1972), as a newswriter and translator, or three friends and the few young life characters that I have observed and y «Sobre los modos de ganar la which was the most productive period authors or students who had read and known, or compound characters guerra» [«On the ways of winning a of his life as a writer. Only the story the couple of books he had published. created from pieces of real people. You war»], which takes place at the near- «Las cosas andan mal, Carmelo Rosa» These evenings were simple. They take two or three people, put them by Juliana archeological site. «Página [«Things are going pretty bad, Car- drank only wine (red wine, Bordeaux together, and shape a character». de un diario» [«Page from a diary»] melo Rosa»], which is based on the if possible, on this Luder was firm), * Master of Peruvian and Latin American on the other hand, is taken from one Catalan novelist Xavier Domingo, and they would talk about anything Literature from the Universidad Nacional of his most painful experiences: the the protagonist being a Spaniard who and everything, without rhyme or Mayor San Marcos. He is considered one of the leading researchers on the works of Julio death of his father, who passed away is in charge of quotes on the stock reason. You could see that Luder drew Ramón Ribeyro. in 1945. exchange, gives us a window into his a lively pleasure from these visits, E-mail: [email protected] THE CITY AS A STATE OF MIND Eva Valero* Ribeyro, who used a very personal style in his narrative work, consistently penetrated the indecipherable message hidden behind urban chaos; the city was the essential point from which to launch the numerous quests of his characters.

Cities, just like people or does not, nevertheless, make it an outdated, epemereal odor in response and Munich, his hometown—Lima things, have a particular indigenous-oriented novel, which is to the overbearing imposition of – would reappear as the main point «smell, often a pestilance». what sets it apart from great Andean a cloud of smoke in the rapidly of reference in his stories, as much in With these words, Julio Ramón writers like Ciro Alegría and José modernizing city, where the young Los Gallinazos Sin Plumas [Featherless Ribeyro began his first novel, Crónica María Arguedas. Its specificity comes writer´s time was actually spent. Vultures] as in later collections: de San Gabriel [Chronicle of San from the fact that it is a vision of the The author makes a concious effort Cuentos de circunstancias [Stories of Gabriel*](1960), capturing, through mountains, but the vision of a resident to reveal the representation of the Cirmcustances] (1958), Tres historias a plot that takes place on a hacienda of Lima.« Later, Ribeyro evokes the Lima transformed by a distressing sublevantes [Three Infuriating Stories] high in the , the attraction perception of his hometown: «Lima, scenario of social and urban change (1964), Las botellas y los hombres of the city which rules over all of the old ladies would say, smelled in the 1940’s and 1950’s in which [Bottles and Men] (1964), El próximo his work, and, as such, ratifying like old clothes. To me, it always the failures of provincial migrants mes me nivelo [I’ll Balance Myself Out the urban gaze that he had already smelled like baptismal fonts, kerchifed anticipates the title under which Next Month] (1972), Silvio en El explored during the 1950´s in his self-sacriminous churchgoers, and Ribeyro will later publish his collection Rosedal [Silvio in the Rose Garden*] first collections of short stories. In pot-bellied, dusty vergers». These of short stories: La Palabra del Mudo (1977), Solo para fumadores [For the «Introduction» to this novel, lines belie one of the keys to the [The Words of a Mute]. Even after Smokers Only](1987) and Relatos Ribeyro confirms the essentially urban construction in Ribeyro´s he had firmly established himself Santacrucinos [Neighborhood Tales] ubran vision that runs through all work: the emotional apprehension in Paris, in 1960, after wandering (1992). Likewise, his book entitled of his work, «That Chronicle of San of the spaces of childhood, that «old through other European cities such Los cautivos [The Captives] (1972) Gabriel takes place in the mountains city» smell. Further, he evokes an as Amsterdam, Antwerp, London, is a collection of most of his stories

CHASQUI 4 that take place in European cities, the essential image which is drawn in but even here Ribeyro projects his the background is always the city, the vision of Lima-centric narrative on reference point from which a whole «alien» cities. theory of life emanates. Paris, the cultural capital of Latin Riberyo, therefore, made the city America for all time, was the place in the essential focal point from which the world where the writer chose to he established his characters quests’, live, but Lima was forever deep within be it in urban spaces, in the moun- his character and his writing. And the tains, or even in the Amazon jungle. urban image that pulses through the Ribeyro’s art, from this point of view, background of his writing lies in the follows a series of enigmas through thinking, the philosophy of life, the vi- the imagination of individuals who sion of the world that the writer, from are travelling or drifting, through the the watchtower of his tiny apartment recreation of «ghost towns», or, quests on place Falguière tried to transmit to for places of refuge, which in stories us throughout his work. such as «La casa en la playa» [«The It would be accurate to recall House at the Beach»] or «Silvio in that in 1953, Ribeyro had written an the Rose Garden», achieve a meta- article called, «Lima, a city without physical resonance. a novel», in which he offered a sort Many of the stories in The Words of challenge in order for «someone of a Mute give off a sense of uneasi- to be the one to cast the first stone». ness with a world that refuses to be That said, during that decade. He understood; a reality whose rapid circumscribed his urban vision to the transformation is charaxterized by short story, and it would not be until the confusion of a pre-capitalist the 1960’s that he would publish his society unable to assimilate the first novels. Fiver years after Chroni- process of modernization without cle of San Gabriel, the publication of democratization. Ribeyro gives a Sunday Elves (1965) signified —just as voice to the «mute», who is finally Washington Delgado had predicted— able to speak to this society, which the advent of the urban novel in in the end refuses to listen. From his Peru. In this work, Ribeyro further conception of literature as a vehicle explores the emotional perception of for a hereforeto unknown perception social change in the city, its physical of reality, this calm and swarming voi- state, also undergoing drastic change, ce comes forth, spilling experiences serving to transmit the alienation of in which every fantasy breaks down its native-born inhabitants. Generally, into painful reality onto the pages. in Ribeyro’s writing—whether short Pont de Grenelle (Paris, 1954). Chaplinesque mutes in their sarcastic fiction or novels—this process of ac- marginalization, or quixotic in their celerated mutation appears constantly the part of the human soul hidden in zone, are some of the key points of effort to re-humanize themselves as subject matter, recreated through landscapes [..]. revealed the sad and Ribeyro’s, whose sound, in this origi- though imagination, they suffer the different points of view that go all the often tragic heart of the modern city». nal register, proposes a painful tonality head-on collision of their dreams with way up and down the socio-economic In fact, in the human landscape from which imagined figures of anon- the cruel disenchantment imposed ladder. But, in any case, the remaining represented in Ribeyro’s stories and ymity and alienation emerge, figures on them by daily life, and modulate a aromas of an old city falling into novels, the reader can discover beings of dehumanization and withdrawal. voice dripping with irony—as Alfredo decadence, and the able treatment as real as the wretched inhabitants of In his travels through, «the areas Bryce would say, an irony as dry as a to which the author subjects them, Lima’s first shantytowns, the humble around The Temptation of Failure», raincoat in Lima—which permeates depend on the purpose of each story, professionals and employees of a Ribeyro directed his gaze towards the each and every page and allows the flowing between the lines of this prose middle class hiding behind a facade conflict between a disproportionately writer to expose reality, transcend like an indispensable message which of stale and alienating normalcy, or growing society and the moral values it so as to better suggest it, free it of determines the literary construction the old bourgeois aristocrats who are of declassed man in the space of the its limitations, and come out on the of the city as a state of mind. witnessing their own decline and the city. A close observer of the human other side. Criticism of Ribeyro’s work has disintegration of their already-expired condition, the writer described in The city in Ribeyro’s work, in repeatedly mentioned the absence of world. Each of these give life to this his stories, whether they took place which life is debated between sha- descriptions of urban spaces in a prose recurring problematic which genera- in Lima or in European cities, the dows and dreams, has its roots that, nevertheless, gives its complete tes, unfailingly, Ribeyro’s atmosphere faces of the dispossesed, the loners; a firmly planted in an attitude of an attention to the figures who wander and tone; a problematic which trans- human landscape united in common unchanging human quality: that of through it almost unmentioned. As lates into the relentless need to create marginality by their daily failures and he who refuses to succumb, finally, such, the concept of the city as a state reality in all its contradictions and wasted efforts; an «urban theater» of to the «temptation of failure», and of mind –that invisible city through miseries in his work. And to achieve individuals who live in the multitude perseveres, almost out of breath, which we accompany with the cha- this, Ribeyro aimed for the true cause, of the city and who, given the im- in the temptation of achievable racters, and which we recognize as which was born with the city, and, possibility of breaking the spaces of dreams. As part of the celebration of the vital space that conditions their unerringly linked to its continuous aloneness, suffer, in the tediousness of the 80 years since the author’s birth, interior conflicts and their vision of growth, reached its vast dimensions their grayness, a loss of hope. may these lines serve as an homage the world—is without a doubt one of through the centuries. Through a deeply personal style, and a stimulus to continue reading the main themes of Ribeyro’s work. As such, the writer analyzed the led by simplicity of form and the Ribeyro’s work, and, above all, to In order to represent the con- essential problematic of a changing skilled use of ambiguity, Julio Ramon continue enjoying what is without a flictive national transformation that and contradictory society in the heart Ribeyro consistently penetrated, in his doubt on of the sharpest, penetrating, took place in the middle of the of a completely transformed city. This urban narratives, the indecipherable and human bodies of work that con- twentieth century, the writer painted problematic becomes real in conflicts message hidden behind the chaos temporary Latin American literature the portrait of a Lima in which the over migration and the formation of of the city, in its ancient facades, in has to offer. native-born inhabitants witnessed suburbs, in the ideological dimension the surprises of its streets, through the arrival en masse of new settlers of social mobility and of social and the exploration of the undetermined emigrating from the highlands. In a ethnic differences, the precariousness possibilities of its urban spaces. In this certain sense, setting their differen- of human relationships, etc. Lone- exploration, Ribeyro traced what he ces aside, Ribeyro’s urban writing liness, marginality, autobiography, himself called, «an inventory of enig- * Universidad de Alicante. Doctor of Hispanic Philology; she has centered her comes purposefully close to the goal uprootedness, timidity, antiheroicism, mas». And, though on occasion the research on the study of Peruvian literature pursued by the great poet of the city, nostalgia, irony, and fantasy, which stories fictionalized in his work took of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Baudelaire, who, «bringing to light clash in the city as in any crisis place in mythical places of nature, E-mail: [email protected]

CHASQUI 5 THE DESERT OF THE CAHUACHI DIVINITIES A century after Max Uhle’s report came to light, creating the basis for current knowledge of the Nasca culture, the publication of this impeccable volume is a pleasant surprise, bringing together collected contributions in the framework of the Nasca project.

1 CAHUACHI, THE LARGEST ADOBE CEREMONIAL CENTER IN THE WORLD Giuseppe Orefici ut of the complex panorama characterize the structures of this ce- than 100 meters in length, and which of religious centers, it passed through of the Early Intermediate Pe- remonial center. Back in 1957, W.D. are completely submerged under the an evolving process from a sacred Oriod, the culture groups that Strong, in his report on the works soil used by agriculture. The main place – when it was not linked to a emerged from the southern coast of conducted between 1952 and 1953, core of the ceremonial center has an ceremonial architecture – to become, Peru differ in a significant manner from described some sectors of Cahuachi extension of 4 km2, while the total during its last phase, into a theocratic those that developed in the north. Two as being an early village occupation, dimension of the architectura complex capital. Starting from that point, there main ceremonial centers can be identi- but those areas have been completely reaches 24 km2, including the sectors exist evidence that it fulfilled a num- fied in the territory under study. Both destroyed by agriculture. Although we of the east and west side, as well as ber of complex functions which were had a direct influence over a vast area may have a different vision, there is no the portion that was built crossing the carried out inside its buildings such as and determined, over a long period of way to prove this fact, because Strong Nasca River. Taking these dimensions the making of musical instruments as time, a stylistic pattern in a diverse has credited the whole ceremonial into consideration, it might be the well as the manufacturing of pottery array of iconographic expressions. On center a housing function – although largest adobe ceremonial center in and textiles. The factors that led the central coast, Pachacámac played limited to some periods of its develo- the world, even though we still do to choose Cahuachi as the place to a predominant role since the Early pment. John H. Rowe also intuited a not know how big was its ultimate build this ceremonial center are the Horizon Period and kept its power as transition process of Cahuachi: from extension given that there are many following: the availability of water all a sacred place until the Colony. On huaca, or sacred place, to city. More buildings buried by an alluvial layer over the year, its elevated position over the southern coast, the presence of the recent studies (Orefici 1993, 2003; which, in different moments, covered the pampa where the geoglyphs were ceremonial center of Cahuachi gene- Silverman, 1993) have contributed the area of the temples in its entirety. drawn and the nearness of the Ingenio rated an extensive zone of ideological more data on the development of this Thus, we can assert that during our River, where culturally related settle- influence, not only on the coastal areas sacred site, based on the excavations research not a single finding eviden- ments were located. The nearness of but also in the upper valleys and in that were done down there since the cing the presence of housing areas the crop fields also played an important the Andean vicinity. On the northern Eighties. On its part, the Nasca Project in Cahuachi was made, except for a role. At present, we know that for the coast, the situation was less homoge- has conducted systematic excavations sector where remains of domestic use 800 years it was used, and in parallel to neous because there was more than on more than 150 sectors and has were found, but those belonged to a the development of the early phases of 1. Overhead view of Cahuachi. one center that reached a noticeable always ratified the characteristics of transitory period during which modifi- the Nasca culture, the site was never 2. Side view of Cahuachi. importance in the cultural formation Cahuachi as a ceremonial center. cations in the then existing structures abandoned and kept on functioning 3. One of the observatories or «Chimneys» along the Cantalloc aquaduct. and in the subsequent development Recent geophysical studies (Masini, were made. Up to date, Cahuachi all through the period corresponding 4. Trophy heads. of the civilizations that dominated Rizzo, Lasaponara, Orefici, 2008) have represents, in architectural terms, to the flourishing of the Paracas and 5. Anthropomorphic orca figure with legs and loincloth. the historical scene of Peru. Cahuachi allowed finding out that the current the most important site of the Nasca Nasca societies. Photos: Beatrice Velarde. was not a true city and always kept cropping area, which W.D. Strong culture and its function was eminently its singularity as a ceremonial center. thought were inhabited villages in ceremonial as it was corroborated all The concept of a big city does not Cahuachi, is occupied by pyramidal over the sectors where excavations N.B. Due to domestic and international copyright regulations, Chasqui is unable to alter the existing version of this text, translated into english by Antonio Yonz Martínez. We correspond with the parameters that structures whose base sides are more have taken place. As in the majority regret any inconvenience to our readers.

CHASQUI 6 THE DESERT OF THE CAHUACHI DIVINITIES A century after Max Uhle’s report came to light, creating the basis for current knowledge of the Nasca culture, the publication of this impeccable volume is a pleasant surprise, bringing together collected contributions in the framework of the Nasca project.

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irected by Dr. Orefici, the shown by it polychrome ceramics— DNasca Project is being executed in which various forms and shapes without interruption since 1982 and can be perceived, thus allowing to is scheduled to continue until 2011. group them into different developing The action taken is permanent, phases; and its mastery on varied as is demonstrated by the findings textile techniques, which produced released this year, relating to the dis- sumptuous fabrics containing a ul- covery of what could be the remains titude of artistically drawn emblems of a priestess who was buried along and expressed with great display of with a rich funerary offering, which colors. The newly found samples includes no less than a «nose ring» retrieved from the excavations of in white gold. The development of tombs by Dr. Orefici are testimony the Nasca culture occurred during of all these achievements. To deepen the first half of the first millennia of the knowledge on the Nasca culture, our Era. Standing out, exceptiona- Dr. Orefici convened a group of ex- lly, is its monumental architecture perienced scholars from a variety of —exponent of which is the cons- specializations. Their contributions, truction of the ceremonial center of several of which are contained in Cahuachi; its sophisticated system of this book, allow the Nasca Project to aqueducts, which feed on the water illuminate the most diverse aspects table and carry the resource along of the Nasca past. to reservoirs known as cochas; its gigantic geoglyphs, which appear drawn on the desert plains of Nasca and Palpa; the exceptional brilliance Federico Kauffmann Doig.

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1. Overhead view of Cahuachi. 2. Side view of Cahuachi. 3. One of the observatories or «Chimneys» along the Cantalloc aquaduct. 5 4. Trophy heads. 5. Anthropomorphic orca figure with legs and loincloth. Taken from Nasca, the desert of the Cahuachi divinities. Research and texts: Giuseppe Orefici, Angel Sánchez Photos: Beatrice Velarde. Borjas, Adine Gavazzi, Katharina Schreiber, Josué Lancho, Andrea Drusini, Luigi Piacenza, Mary Frame, Anna Gruszczynska-Ziółkowska, Mariusz Ziółkowski, Nicola Masini, Enzo Rizzo, Rosa Lasaponara. Photographs by N.B. Due to domestic and international copyright regulations, Chasqui is unable to alter the existing version of this text, translated into english by Antonio Yonz Martínez. We Beatrice Velarde. Graph Ediciones/La Positiva Insurance. Lima, 2009. 307 pp. Bilingual English/Spanish Edition. regret any inconvenience to our readers. Web: www.graphediciones.com

CHASQUI 7 THE CULINARY EMPIRE Rosario Olivas Weston* Cuzco’s traditional cuisine, enriched through the centuries, has a varied repertoire of meals and beverages related to the year’s seasons and festivities. It is a fusion of techniques, food and customs of Inca, Spanish, early independence, and contemporary societies.

Temptations Yucay Valley (2900 m/9,500 ft above in the city sea level). The Sacred Valley includes districts of the provinces of Urubamba uzco was the ’s and Calca, which are covered by the administrative and religious Vilcanota or Urubamba River (it Ccapital. It was built by changes its name as it goes through Pachacutec, the Inca Emperor, and the village of the same name). the royal Inca lineages and main This valley is Cuzco’s breadbasket. lords of other ethnic groups lived Its most famous product is giant white there, with their respective servants. corn. It grows only in the province Ceremonies, rituals and celebrations of Urubamba and is the biggest and held in Cuzco were the most splendid tastiest corn in the world. events in South America. All types of food items for local [..]. Nowadays, Cuzco is Peru’s consumption are produced here. Its main tourist destination and it offers agricultural-livestock development- a series of culinary temptations potential is basically composed of throughout the day. land for agricultural use and natural Both the streets surrounding pasture. The most common items the Main Square and the Central cultivated in the area are corn, barley, Market host the places that sell wheat, Lima beans, kiwicha, olluco, Preparation of a dinner, according to an engraving by Paul Marcoy, XIXth Century. the typical Cuzqueño breakfast. On oca and several types of . weekdays, most of the clients are Beef, followed by pork, lamb office employees or the youth who mansions and have a loyal public that chicken, steaks, or Chinese food and alpaca meat are the red meats were up all night. On weekends, it is gathers on a daily basis for a chat. (). Some of the main hotels and most commonly consumed in Cuzco. Cuzqueño families that fill the stalls. Around half past six, the streetlights restaurants offer the trendy dishes Guinean pig meat is at the top of Based on personal taste, one can come on. Cuzqueños return home and and beverages of ‘Andean Nouvelle the value chain and is eaten at all choose between a chicken broth, tourists hang around the Main Square Cuisine’. celebrations. lamb’s head broth, Cuzqueño adobo. buying souvenirs. On the corners, All three dishes are delicious and street vendors set up emoliente FOOD FROM THE EARTH A cuisine defined by the comforting. and hot punch stands; these typical seasons [..]. Street vendors offfer stuffed beverages comfort anyone feeling the The Sacred Valley of the Incas rocoto hot peppers, tamales, stuffed sting of cold mountain air. During the year, Cuzco’s climate potatoes, pork skin (tocto), toasted The evenings’ culinary offers are The area known today as the is divided into two very well defined corn (cancha) and Oropesa bread diverse. There are several restaurants Sacred Valley of the Incas was called seasons. One is the rainy season (from [..].. with folk music and dancing shows for Yucay in early Spanish chronicles. November to March) and the other Tourists have two options for tourists included. The valley became famous because one is the cold, dry winter (going lunch: restaurants with set menus, Other options on hand include foodstuffs that could not be grown from April to October), with each of which, for a fixed price offer soup or an small restaurants, which specialize in around Cuzco (3400 m/11,200 ft them presenting their own culinary appetizer, a main course, dessert and pizza or pasta, vegetarian food, roast above sea level) blossomed in the specialties. a soft drink; and, luxury restaurants, During the season starting in which offer modern cuisine. November strawberries show up; The Picanterias, or traditional THE NEW CUSQUENA CUISINE these can be eaten on their own, or restaurants, would open from 4 pm uzco is South America’s main tourist destination. Every year, thousands with some whipped cream. They are to 6 pm, until a few years ago, as this Cof visitors from all over the world come to admire the , also used to prepare strawberry jam was the traditional time to eat, during Colonial works of art, the popular traditions and the nature. and a strawberry chicha (beverage) both Inca and Colonial times. Today, Modern culinary offerings are assorted. Traditional restaurants coexist with called frutillada. it is possible to be served at 1 pm at others offering French, international, Italian (pizzerias and trattorias), Chinese Season between December and any picanteria and savor the typical (chifa, as they are known in Peru), vegetarian, and Indian food, as well as ones March, dishes based on fresh corn are food they whip up, be it related to offering steak, rotisserie chicken (pollerias) and kosher food, to name just a very popular; e.g., corn topped with the rainy season, dry season, or any few. fresh, cheese, corn pie, corn humitas holiday. (similar to tamales) and corn cream In the year 2000, ‘Andean Nouvelle Cuisine’ began to assert itself on the Cuzco culinary scene; it is a blend of modern culinary techniques from around the soups (lawas). Afternoons and evenings in world and the region’s native products. This is also the mushroom season Cuzco and a great variety can be found The term was conceived by the culinary chronicler, Mr. Bernardo Roca Rey, at the countryside. Cuzqueños are To this day, a high percentage of during the late 80’s. His assistant, Chef «Cucho» La Rosa has created most of quite passionate about setas, a very the dishes that they both spread out in books, culinary arts schools and other Cuzco’s population still make their media channels. small but extremely flavorful type of way towards their neighborhood mushroom. These only pop up after chicheria or the one closest to work This culinary trend has increased the demand on Andean products. Many a rainy day and countrywomen go every afternoon, to have one or two chefs have joined this trend; based on their art and imagination they are out to pick them up very early in the glasses of chicha with their friends. developing their own recipes using ingredients Cuzqueños have eaten from morning in little baskets that they time immemorial. Chicherias and are located in old cover with leaves. Setas are used to

CHASQUI 8 INCA CUSINE RECIPES he Inca nobility, along with their subjects, consumed two meals a day. The main Tmeal was served in the morning, between eight and nine o’clock. The second 250 g (8.81 oz) of sour cream, 1 sprig meal, which was lighter, was eaten between four and five in the afternoon. At noon, of huacatay, 1 sprig of spearmint, 150 a small snack was served, featuring grains like mote (boiled kernels of corn), cancha g (5.29 oz) of soft white cheese and (toasted corn), boiled potatoes, cornmeal, quinoa, or wild quinoa [..].. 2 eggs. Certain foods were reserved exclusively for the nobility, such as alpaca, white guinean Preparation: Gently brush the setas pig, duck, fish caught in and the Pacific Ocean, quinoa grown in to eliminate any remaining dirt, then and around the town of Chucuito, and certain especially prized varieties of potato wash. Lightly fry the onion, garlic, red and corn [..]. The most common, and indeed, the only beverage, that nobles and hot pepper, cumin, salt and pepper in commoners drank, was chicha (fermented corn wine) which was served at the end the oil. Add the broad beans, potatoes of a meal, or between meals. To stimulate the thirst, the Inca would eat either a hot Ti m p u o r p u c h e r o pepper sauce or some other spicy food. [..]. (cut in half), sour cream, the huacatay and spearmint and bring to a boil. Any significant event was a reason to spend days and nights dancing, singing, eating, Ingredients: 1 k (2.20 lb) of beef, 1 k Then add the setas, diced soft white and drinking. These could be joyous events such as victory in battle, the birth of a (2.20 lb) of lamb, 300 g (10.5 oz) of child, and weddings, or solemn, such as funerals and burials. These occasions were cheese and the eggs, slightly whipped. chalona (dried lamb), 500 g (1.1 lb) of made even more festive through the use of clothes made of the finest materials, and Let cook thoroughly and serve. a wide variety of colors [..]. lean salt pork (in strips), 6 big slices of cabbage, 6 pieces of yucca (manioc), 3 All holidays were marked with banquets. In the dry season, public banquets were Ro a s t l a m b virracas (white carrots), 6 big morayas held on the main square, and in the rainy season, and under the cover of four large (dehydrated white potatoes) soaked in tents annexed to the Inca emperor’s quarters. The men would sit on the floor in two Ingredients: 1 suckling lamb or 1 leg long lines, and the main local authority would sit on a wooden bench at the head of water, 6 mid-sized peeled potatoes, 3 of lamb, 200 g (7 oz) of garlic, 200 g the two lines. Curacas, the local gentry, were covered in blankets, extending beyond carrots, 3 sweet potatoes, 6 peaches, (7 oz) of yellow hot pepper, 1 handful their feet, and the Inca emperor and his family were given reed mats to recline on. 250 g (9 oz) of cooked chickpeas, 100 of cumin and salt. Women and children sat behind their men, stirring their earthen pots full of food g (3.5 oz) of rice, salt and chopped Preparación: Put the chunks of lamb and their pitchers of chicha. Once the men had been served, the rest of the family scallions and parsley (as a garnish). in a deep container, fill with brine began to eat. Seasoning: 2 spoonfuls of oil, ½ finely- (saltwater) and let marinate for four Not everyone ate the same delicacies, because each family prepared and brought chopped onion, 3 cloves of garlic and hours. Grind the garlic, yellow hot its own. Inca banquets lasted a long time, as after serving themselves, each family 10 grains of Jamaica pepper. pepper, cumin and salt and spread would share with the others a little of what they had brought. This custom has Preparation: Heat the oil up in a big the seasoning mix all over the chunks not disappeared with time to this very day snacks in Cuzco involve seven or more pot and make a seasoning with the different specialties being piled onto one plate. of lamb. Put the container in the onion, garlic, salt and Jamaica pepper. oven, first at an average temperature Pour in 4 liters (135.25 fl oz) of water (200°C – 392°F) and then lower the and bring to a boil. As soon as the heat until well browned. Serve with water starts boiling, add both beef and cook several delicious dishes, stewed roasted potatoes. into it the capchi, souffléd, or simply lamb and lower the flame. Cook on a scrambled. low flame and monitor the degree of One of the tastiest dishes of doneness by puncturing with a knife. the rainy season is called the nabos Once they are halfway cooked, add haucha, a stew made of wild turnip the cabbage slices, peeled pieces of and squeezed potatoes. yucca, the peeled virracas (whole or Cuzco’s dry and night-frost season in halves), soaked morayas, peeled starts in April and lasts until October. potatoes (whole) and the carrots Pe s k e o r s t i rr e d q u i n o a During the cloudy and coldest days (halved or quartered). Gradually take Ingredients: 250 g (8.81 oz) of well the comforting chuño cola, a beef or each of the ingredients out of the washed quinoa, 1 l (33.81 fl oz) of lamb broth cooked with chickpeas, pot as they are done cooking, until water, 150 ml (5.07 fl oz) of evaporated potatoes, rice, onions, garlic, chuño only a clear broth is left. Strain this milk, ¼ teaspoonful of aniseed, 100 (traditional freeze-dried potato) flour broth and set aside. Sweet potato, There is a specific date when all g (3.52 oz) of soft white cheese, 50 g and mint leaves is prepared. peaches, chickpeas, and rice are boiled (1.76 oz) of butter, and salt. The dry season’s most Cuzqueños eat huatia: June 24th, the separately. Serve on two plates: The Preparation: Wash the quinoa off, characteristic culinary specialty is day Inti Raymi (The Festival of the strained clear soup previously topped changing the water several times, the cachu chuño or frozen potato, Sun) is celebrated. Today, the huatia with finely chopped green onion and until no froth is produced; then let a poorly-disseminated pre-Hispanic technique is used to cook potatoes, parsley in a soup dish, and the beef soak in clean water overnight. Next potato-storage technique, which ocas, Lima beans and cheese molds. and the lamb at the center of a dinner morning, wash it off again and cook it surprises chefs. Home meals are It can be eaten with hot-pepper plate, surrounded by the potatoes and in clean water over a low flame, until planned in such way that it is always sauce, and as the garnish of a baker- covered by the virraca, the manioc, the garnishes the main course (known as oven broiled Guinean pig or piglet the grains pop up and are well done. moraya, the carrots and the peaches. the second dish in Peru) which could serving. Then strain; in another pot, mix the All of this is then topped off with be roast beef, a steak or a stew. cooked quinoa with the milk and the cabbage and finally joined by the rice During May, June and July, after aniseeds and cook at medium heat and and chickpeas. the potato harvest, the earth rests add the diced soft white cheese, salt and religious and popular festivities and small pieces of butter; continue intensify. During these months Se t a (w i l d m u s h r o o m ) c a p c h i stirring until the cheese has melted. families and friend groups go out Check that the desired level seasoning to the countryside to prepare the Ingredients: 500 g (17.63 oz) of fresh has been reached and serve. * Researcher and writer on gastronomy. A setas, 3 spoonfuls of oil, 50 g (1.76 oz) huatia, a technique involving cooking few of her most popular publications are: potatoes in adobe bricks and hot Cultura, identidad y cocina del Perú; [Peruvian of chopped onion, 1 teaspoonful of earth. Its origin can’t be tracked back Culture, Identiy, and Cuisine] La cocina minced garlic, 1 spoonful of minced red Excerpt from Cusco, el Imperio de la Cocina cotidiana y festiva de los limeños en el siglo in time; it was a technique practiced garlic, cumin, salt, pepper, 250 g (8.81 [Cuzco, the Culinary Empire]. Rosario XIX [Everyday and Holiday Cuisine in XIXth Olivas Weston. Universidad de San Martín by the Incas and mostly likely by other Century Lima]; and La cocina en el virreinato oz) of cooked green broad beans, 500 g de Porres, 2008. 231 pp. preceding cultures. del Perú [Food in Colonial Peru]. (17.63 oz) of mid-sized boiled potatoes, Web: www.usmp.edu.pe/fondoeditorial

CHASQUI 9 THE BIODIVERSITY ROUTE The Cordillera Escalera and the IIRSA Norte highway segment stretching from Tarapoto to Yurimaguas, together make up what for some symbolizes «the biodiversity route». The exuberant flora and fauna of lowland jungles converge with the unique woodlands and animals of the cloud forest, home to a large number of endemic species.

N.B. Due to domestic and international copyright regulations, Chasqui is unable to alter the existing version of this text. We regret any inconvenience to our readers.

he North Amazonian Tourist in 6 communities and population corridor is characterized centers. Immigrants from other regions Tits natural and cultural in the country, these populations have attractions and by the presence of been established themselves in the a dynamic living culture. Amongst Cordillera Escalera in the last 20 its main attractions are the first class years. The native communities of the archaeological sites such as Tucume, Lamas (in Lamas) and Cayahuitas Sipan, , and Kuelap. (in Munichis and Charapillo) ethnic Nevertheless, the trend in tourism is groups are particulary noteworthy. changing and nature tourism, rural Communities formed of mestizos of community – based tourism and other Amazonian origin and immigrants innovations, are proving viable as of Andean origin are part of the alternatives to develop sustainable peculiarity of the region, as is the case tourism products in the northern Peru as the villages of Progreso, San Jose which allow the participation of local and Santa Rosa. The Lamas located communities as well as companies and near Tarapoto as well the Chayahuitas institutions. As an example of the located near Yurimaguas are well extraordinary natural diversity of the known for their fantastic colorful North-Amazonian Tourism Corridor, traditional dress and they combine one can highlight the approximately their ancestral customs with others 1, 400 species of birds, many of them acquired from their contact with the endemic, that live here and can be nearby settlers. seen in a great variety of ecosystems In recent years thanks to the from the Pacific Ocean through the initiatives companies (IIRSA Norte- Andes to the Amazon river basin. PDISPA), the state and international cooperation agencies (GTZ, AECI, Ecosystem and geography Tapir (Tapirus terrestris). Drawing by H.W. and M. Koepcke, 1960. Gran Geografía del Perú. Manfer- SNV), sustainable agricultural The area covered by this publication Mejía Baca (Mexico, 1988). practices under community includes the Cordillera Escalera production for palm hearts, coffee Regional Conservation Area with nutritional, industrial, ornamental, see elsewhere in Peru, such as Dotted and organic cacao cultivation have an extension of 149,870 hectares, and artesian properties and uses. Tanager and Planalto Hermit. been introduced, as well as promoting the stretch of the IIRSA Northern The region is also characterized for • Despite the fact that the native products and ecotourism. Highway (Tarapoto-Yurimaguas), hosting a fauna with a high proportion mammalian fauna of South America covering 125 km, and adjacent of endemic species, such as frogs of was severely depleted by the arrival of Access and ecotourism areas. The topography of the zone is Centrolenidae and Dendrobatidae humans just 12,000 years ago, when The road that connects the city of mountainous and varies between 180 families, the Black-bellied Tanager, 80% of the genera of large mammals Tarapoto with the river of port of and 2000 m in altitude. and the Black Tortoise. Likewise, disappeared, the region continues to Yurimaguas, designed with the aim The Cordillera Escalera is a ridge many threatened species such as the have a diverse variety of mammals, of minimizing the negative impact of forested mountains that from the Spectacled Bear, Yellow-tailed Wooly although now dominated by rodents on the wildlife of the region, provides north-eastern limit of the Peruvian Monkey and Royal Sunangel have and bats. The Cordillera Escalera access to beautiful scenery such as the Andes bordering the lowlands of been recorded in the area. and surrounding areas support both spectacular Ahuashiyacu falls. the . These forested With the exception of the long- Andean and Amazonian species This important route of mountains are very important as term herpetofauna studies carried and are still home to some of the communication will speed up the they are the headwaters of the basin out by Rainer Schulte, there have most spectacular species such as development of tourist infrastructure and because they are the main area not been major investigations or the Spectacled Bear and Jaguar. from both state and private of production and accumulation inventories of fauna or flora in the The larger mammals have tended investment, which should promote of water, which is used for human region, which makes further research to be hunted and are now generally responsible tourism assuming social- and agricultural consumption in urgent to generate knowledge required confined to remoter areas and are very environmental commitments and the region, including the city of for the conservation of the immense wary of humans. generating decent jobs that will Tarapoto. biological wealth of the zone. • The Cordillera Escalera and improve the quality of life for the local Leaving Tarapoto and taking the Recent entomological inventories adjacent lowland forests of San Martin population in the future. road that goes to Yurimaguas, one have shown a great diversity of and the upper Amazon (Yurimaguas) passes through the tunnel located butterflies. It has been estimated support 33% of the Peruvian at Km 19, the highest part in this that region supports 50% of the birds, herpetofauna, with 122 species of stretch (close to 1050 m), here the 37% of the reptiles and 30% of the amphibians and 147 reptiles, many environmental humidity increases amphibians of Peru. of which are newly described species. notably and the presence of the Of these, 30 species of amphibians lowland rainforest. From here on, the • The Cordillera Escalera and and 10 reptiles are endemic to the area has more lagoons and marshy surrounding areas are one of the most region. Deforestation and habitat habitats which are typical of the diverse regions on earth for birds and destruction are the principal threats

lowland rainforest. Towards the species from the Andes, the humid to the amphibians and reptiles of the Spectacled bear. south-east of the cordillera are the Amazon lowlands and the dry forests region. dry forests of Huallaga which due to of the Huallaga can all be found in the their low humidity conditions have a region. This incredible diversity makes Communities and sustainable unique flora and fauna. the area a prime birding destination development Excerpt from Cordillera Escalera. La ruta de la with huge potential for birding tourism As well as its natural richness the biodiversidad [Cordillera Escalera. The Biodiversity Flora and fauna as part of the Northern Peru Birding region has an important socio-cultural Route]. (Bilingual: English-Spanish edition) The Cordillera Escalera and its Route, which stretches from the coast heritage. Despite the occupancy Heinz Plenge, Rob Williams y Rainer Schulte. neighboring areas have great diversity to the Amazon. In addition to the restrictions, almost 250 families live in Translation: Rob Williams, Rainer Schulte, Esther Oliveros y Heinz Plenge Pardo. IIRSA Norte, in flora many species of which large number of species, there are this area, which means that there is a Odebrecht, Graña y Montero. GEOgráfica. Lima, are valuated for their medicinal, several specialities that are hard to population of 1,000 people distributed 2009. 107 pp.

CHASQUI 10 Juan gONZALO ROSE/ SOUNDS OF PERU

GASTRONOMÍA

Para comerse un hombre en el Perú hay que sacarle antes las espinas las vísceras heridas, los residuos de tanto llanto y de tabaco. Purificarlo a fuego lento. Cortarlo en pedacitos d e fa m i l i a . e n l a o r i l l a . y servirlo a la mesa con los ojos cerrados, [f a m i l y m a t t e r s : p u r i t y o f a [o n t h e s h o r e ] mientras se va pensando p a m e l a r o d r í g u e z que nuestro buen gobierno nos protege. t r a d i t i o n ] v a l d e l o m a r y d á v i l a (Ie m p s a , 2008) Luego: (Sa y a r i y , 2008) Pamela Rodríguez appeared in afirmar que los poetas exageran. Great duos such as that formed by mid-2003, as the protagonist of the Arturo «Zambo» Cavero and Óscar Peruvian opera Rosa de Lima. In Y como buen final: 2006, she was nominated for a Latin tomarse un trago. Avilés have helped Peruvian music grow in stature. De Familia is a duo Grammy in the Best New Artist for GASTRONOMY to which the Valdelomar and Dávila her album Perú blue. One year later families bring their talent and their she began to compose the songs for To eat a man up in Peru love of traditional Peruvian coastal what would become En la orilla. you have to take out all the little bones beforehand All of the songs on the album the wounded organs, music, called la canción criolla. We residue left behind from screams and from tobacco. have the Valdelomars on vocals, led by ehxude fusions of Afro-Peruvian Purify over a low flame. Amraham Valdelomar Prada, singer, rhythms mixed with either jazz, Cut him up into little pieces songwriter, and guitarist. His sons, cumbia, pop, or chillout. Except for and serve him up on the table with his eyes closed, José Francisco and Félix Valdelomar «Don’t explain», by Billy Holiday while thinking and Arthur Herzog Jr., all were that our good and great government protects us. Ganoza, stand out for their talents as singers and on the drums. The composed by Pamela herself, set to Then: Dávila brothers, led by Máximo, a landó beat. Pamela caresses and remark that poets exaggerate. Julio, and Carlos Dávila Farfán, take seduces us with her fresh voice, full charge of the guitar section with of passion and melancoly, such as in And to top if off: «Me estás sintiendo» [«You’re feeling have a drink. inexhaustible creativity, bringing forth pure, traditional sounds. me»],: «You’re feeling me in your EXACTA DIMENSIÓN De Familia. Pureza de una tradición hidden parts, in your past, your past boasts 15 jewels from the criolla that has pulled off threads [..]. that Me gustas por que tienes el color de los patios songbook, including «La abeja» [«The today I sew together, with even more de las casas tranquilas... bee»], one of the Old Guard’s songs, desire to free your waters and drink you up in the rain». Produced by Greg y más precisamente: which goes, «That which takes from me gustas por que tienes el color de los patios the chalice of flowers, brings it to a Landau, who has worked with such de las casas tranquilas tiny cell and later, without thinking artists as David Byrne and Susana cuando llega el verano... of its labors, without stopping its Baca, En la orilla is an album with a uncertain wandering, brings honey vital, resonating sound. The album y más precisamente: also features contributions from me gustas por que tienes el color de los patios for this bitter life and white wax de las casas tranquilas for the poor dead man». Also, «Las crowd-pleasing Peruvian musicians en las tardes de enero limeñas» [«Women from Lima»], by like Juan Medrano «Cotito» on cuando llega el verano... the unmissable Felipe Pinglo, «Si tú the cajón and Fallo Muñoz on the me quisieras» [«If you loved me»], guitar. y más precisamente: me gustas por que te amo. by the skilled Manuel Acosta Ojeda; See: www.pamelaperu.com and «Caridad» [«Charity»], by old EXACT DIMENSIONS Abraham himself. Worth picking up. See: www.sayariyi.com Piero Montaldo. I’m attracted to you because you’re the same color as the coutryards of calm houses... CHASQUI OFFICIAL WEB SITES and to be more precise: Cultural Bulletin I’m attracted to you because you’re the same color as the MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTERIO DE RELACIONES EXTERIORES DEL PERÚ courtyards Under-Secretariat of External Cultural Policy Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru of calm houses www.rree.gob.pe Jr. Ucayali No. 337 – Lima 1, Peru when summer has come... Telephone (511) 204-2638 CENTRO CULTURAL Fax: (511) 204-2636 INCA GARCILASO and to be more precise: Inca Garcilaso Cultural Center I’m attracted to you because you’re the same color as the E-mail: [email protected] www.ccincagarcilaso.gob.pe Web: www.rree.gob.pe/portal/cultural.nsf courtyards PORTAL DEL ESTADO PERUANO of calm houses The articles contained herein are the individual Web Portal of the Peruvian Government on January afternoons responsibility of their respective authors. www.peru.gob.pe when summer has come... This bulletin is distributed free of charge by Peruvian missions abroad. INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE CULTURA Editorial Coordinator: Arianna Castañeda and to be more precise: National Institute for Culture [email protected] www.inc.gob.pe I’m attracted to you because I love you. Translated by: Joshua Kardos BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL [Except as otherwise indicated] DEL PERÚ Juan Gonzalo Rose (Tacna, 1928 - Lima, 1983). One of the most important poets of the [email protected] The Peruvian National Library generation of 1950. In 1958, he was awarded the [Peruvian] National Poetry Award. Author www.bnp.gob.pe of, among other publications, La luz armada (1954), Simple canción (1960), and Las nuevas Printed in Lima, Peru by Editora Diskcopy S.A.C. PROMPERÚ comarcas (2002). The National Institute for Culture (INC, as per its acronym in Spanish) Telephone: (511) 446-3035 / 445-5902 Comission of Promotion of Peru published Obra poética as part of its «Poets of 1950» collection, a volume which includes the [email protected] www.promperu.gob.pe complete works of his poetry.

CHASQUI 11 ON PERUVIAN FOLK ART An important compilation of texts on written by historian Pablo Macera over the course of thirty-five years (1971-2006) has been published. A lifetime of passion for shapes, colors, and meanings.

his anthology brings together source of disagreement, marginaliza- long-term artistic studies, along tion, and underdevelopment. […] Twith prologues, articles, and At the same time, Macera’s work notes, published over the course of the begins to reveal key pieces to us, which last 30 years in a variety of hard-to- are presented as a sort of «missing link» find periodicals. Readers will be even in the evolution of folk art. For example, more delighted by the unparalleled his fascinating discovery of a «harp- diversity of topics included than by gourd» suggests the early incorporation the wide time frame included. Murals of European iconography and musical from the Southern Andes, traditional resonance through the pre-Colombian handicrafts, and even the Amazonian Cosmovisiones amazónicas. El ojo verde. technique of pyrography. The object is conception of the universe are inclu- a pumpkin or gourd ingeniously trans- ded, as are notebooks scribbled with formed into the resonance chamber of drawings and sketches by a political a unique harp with ornamental motifs prisoner held at Fronton prison in of European inspiration. This then the 1930’s, the atavistic vicissitudes serves as the beginning of a group of of street performers, or urbanism in reflections on what would be art of the Independence-era Lima. All are dealt «Transition». This controversial term, with by Macera in his usual heterodox Meémeba wanéhji, Festival of Pijuayo. by J. Churay, natural dyes on palm fiber. proposed around 1930 by Manuel Valle, style, making Pierre Francastel’s ob- has generated a constant series of cases servation that «works of our are not of «mistaken identity», as it has been simply symbols, but rather real objects applied indiscriminately to colonial necessary to the lives of social groups» pieces incorporating indigenous motifs all his own. Throughout this book, the or techniques, which would in fact be infinite and contrasting modulations better characterized as part of the «Inca adopted by the artistic image appear, Renaissance» of the eighteenth century. understood neither always nor only as Macera, in contrast, investigates the few a vehicle meant to affirm power, but objects created by indigenous artisans also as an instrument of resistance to during the Spanish conquest, their it. The multiple iconographic reper- peculiar configuration almost seeming toires, at times indecipherable for the to be an illustration of the violence of . Photo: Billy Hare y Roberto Huarcaya contemporary spectator, give testimony the clash between the two cultures. of beliefs and ideals from different times In truth, the subject is the traumatic and places, but have above all played puzzlement brought on by a colonial an influential role in the construction status that quickly razed away ancient of our collective identities. indigenous traditions. Particularly illus- As such, even the title, Trincheras trative of this phenomenon is another y fronteras [«Trenches and Borders»] sixteenth-century gourd decorated announces, in and of itself, the combati- with scenes from the Conquest which tive, polemic nature of this book, like all seems to describe, through the babbling

of those published by Macera. Against Cosmovisiones amazónicas El ojo verde. of an incipient figurative language, the the grain of an Art History traditionally unequal battle between Indians and centered on Lima and the main provin- Spaniards, the latter equipped with cial cities of Peru, Macera opts to explo- iron weapons, in addition to horses and re certain habitually neglected margins. hunting dogs. He thus turns his interest towards the vast world of rural cultures—both those Luis Eduardo Wuffarden which are truly folk cultures as well as those of local elites—or to ignored Extract from Trincheras y fronteras del arte popular actors, discovering that Peruvian art peruano. Ensayos de Pablo Macera. [Trenches and or handicrafts are not actually singular, borders of Peruvian folk art. The Essays of Pablo linear categories, but rather that there Macera]. Miguel Pinto (editor). Editorial Fund of are a multitude of simultaneous and the Peruvian Congress. Lima, 2009. 564 pp. Web: Zoomorphic decorative ceramic piece. Feline figure. www.congreso.gob.pe/fondoeditorial/ parallel developments, often unknown to one another. As such, Macera’s wor- ks do not often invoke famous names, acera’s texts have created their , folk art, contemporary except those, such as Guaman Poma Mown counciousness in each of folk painters, and articles offering or Pancho Fierro, that incarnate voices the subjects the historian has studied. analysis. outside of the hierarchical discourse of His independant thinking has always Over 35 years of articles are offered «fine arts» of their respective eras. In defined new concepts on the cultures in this book, which is divided into 4 this way a fascinating mosaic of con- of yesterday and today. […] parts, each spanning the course of a trasting visions and gazes surges forth, This grouping of articles, published decade. These sections are divided through which we can see the complex in chronological order and offering as follows: I) 1971-1980, entitled social and cultural web that makes up bibliographical footnotes, could be “Art and Social Struggle”; II) 1981- contemporary Peru. Through the use divided into I) Ancient Peru; 2) Folk art, 1990 (“Discoveries”); III) 1991- of an all-encompassing and inclusive Nineteenth Century; 3) Folk painters 2000 (“Folk Gods”); and IV) 2001- point of view, the cultural historian can and paintings, Nineteenth Century; 2006, designated as “Never-ending build bridges as unexpected as they are and 4) Contemporary folk art. It could History”. The first section includes 7 indispensable in order to allow us to also be classified according to subject articles, the second 11, the third, 12, leave behind the secular fragmentation matter: ceramics, gourds, altarpieces, and the fourth 11. of our country, this mutual ignorance of Sarhua pieces, nineteenth century folk Miguel Pinto the «other» which has been a constant

CHASQUI 12