Everyday Discrimination in the Southern Andes by Margarita
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Runama Kani icha Alquchu ?: Everyday Discrimination in the Southern Andes by Margarita Huayhua A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in The University of Michigan 2010 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Co-Chair Associate Professor Bruce Mannheim, Co-Chair Associate Professor Barbra A. Meek Associate Professor Jeffery M. Paige Associate Professor Andrew J. Shryock © Margarita Huayhua 2010 To my daughter, who supported me with her enthusiasm and respect for this project. ii Acknowledgments This dissertation has been possible thanks to the help, support and wisdom of my acquaintances, friends, and professors. I am, first of all indebted to the people of Uqhupata, who allowed me into their households, participating in their daily deeds and preoccupations. They accepted me as part of their own, spending their spare time with me conversing and making jokes. My special thanks go to the twenty families with whom I shared my stay in the village. Second, I am grateful to the staff members of the health facility who let me participate in their daily institutional tasks and walked me through the stages of paper-work that has to be done when a patient come in looking for medical assistance. And third, my thanks to the vans’ drivers who facilitated my work when their vans were ridden by passengers traveling from Cuzco to the village and vice versa. I am indebted to my dissertation committee: Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Bruce Mannheim, Barbra Meek, Jeffery Paige and Andrew Shryock. Their insights, encouragement, generosity have meant a great deal to me. Each one in different ways has inspired me to frame my dissertation in such a way that the voice of the people of the village can still be heard. My heartfelt thanks to all of them for their intellectual and moral support. Many scholars and friends have helped me to give life to my dissertation. I am grateful to Tom Fricke, Webb Keane, Alaina Lemon, Elisha Renee, and Elizabeth Roberts whose commentaries and references inspired me in the early stages of my research. In addition my thanks goes to the students of the 2004 and 2005 cohorts for their support, especially to Rebecca Carter, Kelly Fayard, Claire Insel, Kelly Kirby, Sergio Huarcaya, Viviana Quintero, and Susanne Unger. Special thanks are owed to Amy Mortesen, Carolyn Berge and Walter Spiller for their comments and suggestions, and their always warm welcomes during my stay in Ann Arbor. iii I would like to express my thanks to the institutions who gave financial support. My graduate training was supported by the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program through the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos. The preliminary research was funded by the Siembra y Democracia project (also administered by Instituto de Estudios Peruanos) and an individual Fellowship from the International Institute of the University of Michigan. The dissertation research was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant 849543), an Inter-American Foundation Grassroots Development Fellowship, and a One-Term Rackham Fellowship and Rackham Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, both from the University of Michigan. Support for writing was provided by a Mary Malcomson Raphael Fellowship from the Center for the Education of Women of the University of Michigan. Without this support my work would have been almost impossible. My heartfelt thanks also go to Ervin Frank for his insights and intellectual support; to Charles Kleymeyer for his enthusiasm and support during the early stages of this dissertation. iv Table of Contents Dedication ii Acknowledgments iii List of Figures vi List of Symbols vii Abstract viii Introduction: Everyday Discrimination 1 Chapter 1 Framing Village of Uqhupata 38 2 Refusing Labeling but Ascribing Identity 66 3 Contempt and Disdain in a Combi 84 4 Elusive Conversations: Conceding or Deceiving Oneself 118 5 Encroaching on the Household and its Members 159 6 Oxygen Deprivation: Llamas and Vicuñas 220 Conclusion: We are like You… 262 Bibliography 271 v List of Figures Figure 1 Spanish Vowel System (after Pérez et al 2009:17) 74 Figure 2 Quechua Vowel System (after Pérez et al 2009:19) 75 Figure 3 Identity Ascription by First Language Speakers of Spanish (n=14), by stimulus 78 Figure 4 Identity Ascription by First Language Speakers of Quechua (n=20), by stimulus 79 Figure 5 Education Ascription by First Language Speakers of Spanish (n=14), by stimulus 80 Figure 6 Education Ascription by First Language Speakers of Quechua (n=20), by stimulus 80 Figure 7 Urbanism Ascription by First Language Speakers of Spanish (n=14), by stimulus 81 Figure 8 Urbanism Ascription by First Language Speakers of Quechua (n=2), by stimulus 81 vi List of Symbols Quechua = Quechua language “Spanish”= Spanish language (/) = Overlapping or disruption in the flow of utterances (/:/) = Break in the flow of utterances, hesitation (.) = Pause (?) = Question CAPITAL LETTERS= Louder voice Bold= Highlighted phrases R= representatives (health facility staff members, school teachers, NGOs members and municipality agents) vii Abstract In the Peruvian highlands there is a pervasive pattern of racialized social hierarchy in which rural Quechua speakers are the objects of discrimination, despite public discourses of shared citizenship and equality under the law. This dissertation is an ethnographic study of the social processes through which hierarchical relations are created and re-created in Cuzco (Peru). I especially concentrate on the ways in which face-to-face interaction is instrumental in creating and maintaining social hierarchy. Face-to-face interactions involve multiple intertwined signs including talk, other semiotic forms (e.g., silence and gestures), and material forms (e.g., government forms, desks, chair distribution) that materialize hierarchical relations among participants. The study is grounded in more than 18 months of systematic field work, including participant observation, the study of natural conversation, open interviews, an experimental study, and the analysis of face-to-face interactions in public, institutional, and private settings. My findings are: (1) that despite an official ideology of “mestizaje” or social hybridity that reaches across the Peruvian political spectrum—and is routinely reported by social scientists—first-language speakers of Quechua and of Spanish are able to identify each other unequivocally by means of tacit linguistic cues, regardless of the language being spoken; (2) that the racialized social hierarchy is intertwined to a variety of everyday social practices, so that it is both reproduced and acquiesced outside of the conscious awareness of the persons involved in the interaction; (3) that nonetheless these interactions are frequently the subject of violent and conscious stereotyping; and (4) that these stereotypes are deployed fractally across all levels of social scale, from the most intimate and local setting of a clinic to national politics played out in the Peruvian parliament. An especially important finding is that both the tacit and explicit forms of social discrimination are qualitative in nature. viii Introduction Everyday Discrimination Cuzco: Husiku walks toward me (M) 1 I am writing the “famous” dissertation I stand up to greet him. The guard (G) stands in the middle of the hallway to keep Husiku away I am surprised, and I run quickly over to where G stands M: He is coming to see me, let him pass Husiku: Por favor papá, déjame pasar por un ratito nomás [Please, “papa,” let me pass. I’ll stay only a little bit] My acquaintance’s body is inclined slightly toward G G: No, no you cannot pass! I can’t think quickly enough of anything to say 2 M: I pay my money, and I have the right to talk with anybody G: No, he cannot pass, it is my boss’ orders M: I’ll attend to him and I’ll talk with your boss later Husiku: Papa un ratito nomás [“Papá,” just a moment, please] M: Husiku, come here and sit on the chair please The guard keeps standing in the hallway Husiku: Ay, rihistrumanmi hamushani [Ah, I am coming to the Public Registrar] M: Kumputadurata wisq’asaq, urayman risunchis [I’ll close the computer and we’ll go downstairs] Husiku: Ya, Aktatan apamushani [Okay, I’m bringing the Minutes book] M: Ñachu phirmasqaña ? [Does it have all the signatures?] Husiku: Ari, waqmantacha apasun abugaduman ? [Yes. Will we need to bring it to the lawyer? M: Ari, haku tapuramusun [Yes, let’s go ask] We left followed by the guard 1 This event happened while I was in Cuzco. I was doing my fieldwork and trying to write something in advance. I was in the coffee bar where people usually chat with their classmates, friends, and acquaintances, or play with their lap-tops. People are there to learn English or Spanish and as a student they have the right to use all the facilities that the institution offers. I was a student. That morning I was there to do some writing when my Quechua-speaking acquaintance arrived to meet me to do some paper-work to get his village officially registered, so his village could have at least something official to avoid land seizure by the government and corporations. 2 In Ecuador before the 1990s if a person was insulted with the word “Indian,” he would be speechless and feel frozen without being able to respond. (Sergio Huarcaya 2010, personal communication). 1 Lima: Friend: You arrived without telling me in advance 3 M: I was so overwhelmed with my writing Friend: You are like an untamed horse M: I won’t allow you to tell me such a thing Friend: You have come with your foot up! [You have an attitude] This investigation is not a theoretical disquisition about the leading trends of ways of analyzing discrimination in Latin America or the Andes.