Staging Lo Andino: the Scissors Dance, Spectacle, and Indigenous Citizenship in the New Peru

Staging lo Andino: the Scissors Dance, Spectacle, and Indigenous Citizenship in the New Peru DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jason Alton Bush, MA Graduate Program in Theatre The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Lesley Ferris, Co-Advisor Katherine Borland, Co-Advisor Ana Puga Copyright by Jason Bush 2011 Abstract “Staging Lo Andino: Danza de las Tijeras, Spectacle, and Indigenous Citizenship in the New Peru,” draws on more than sixteen months of fieldwork in Peru, financed by Ohio State‟s competitive Presidential Fellowship for dissertation research and writing. I investigate a historical ethnography of the Peruvian scissors dance, an acrobatic indigenous ritual dance historically associated with the stigma of indigeneity, poverty, and devil worship. After the interventions of Peruvian public intellectual José María Arguedas (1911-1969), the scissors dance became an emblem of indigenous Andean identity and valued as cultural patrimony of the nation. Once repudiated by dominant elites because it embodied the survival of indigenous spiritual practices, the scissors dance is now a celebrated emblem of Peru‟s cultural diversity and the perseverance of Andean traditions in the modern world. I examine the complex processes whereby anthropologists, cultural entrepreneurs, cosmopolitan artists, and indigenous performers themselves have staged the scissors dance as a symbolic resource in the construction of the emergent imaginary of a “New Peru.” I use the term “New Peru” to designate a flexible repertoire of utopian images and discourses designed to imagine the belated overcoming of colonial structures of power and the formation of a modern nation with foundations in the Pre-Columbian past. I ask what does the staging of the dance as national and transnational spectacle do to and for marginalized Andean subjects. And what forms of indigenous citizenship do highly- ii skilled Andean performers engender and enact when they inhabit the role of the “millennial” Andean Other on cosmopolitan public stages? To address these questions, I draw on interdisciplinary research from anthropology, folklore studies, visual culture studies, and theatre and performance studies about the ways that indigenous cultural forms acquire value as icons of particular nationalities in transnational public culture. I argue indigenous cultural performances, such as the scissors dance, often gain visibility and public recognition as they become commodities in a world market that increasingly values spectacles of cultural difference. Yet, the emergence of new forms of neoliberal governmenance circumscribe the articulation of cosmopolitan indigenous subjectivities as scissors dancers have become highly visible participants in the remaking of Peruvian national identity within a performative economy of spectacle in a globalizing world. iii Dedication This document is dedicated to my wife Gladys Aragon Ccorahua, my amazing parents, and all those who have helped me along this long journey. iv Acknowledgments I am grateful for the generous support of the Graduate School and Office of International Affairs of The Ohio State University that financed the fieldwork for this project. I was able to spend so much time in Peru with support from the US Department of Education‟s FLAS Fellowship, Ohio State‟s AGGRS Grant, International Affairs Research Grant, and Presidential Fellowship. I would also like to thank Carol Robison, Lesley Ferris, and Thomas Postlewait for their painstaking assistance in the search and application process for these various grants and funding opportunities. This project would not have been possible without my felicitous discovery of the existence of The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics in their course in Peru in 2005. I am sincerely grateful to Gisela Cánepa Koch for always agreeing to meet with me to discuss my progress during my fieldwork. Her rigorous attention to the complexities of contemporary Peru has inspired me as an emerging scholar. Professor Jill Lane was also an invaluable interlocutor during the ebbs and flows of my research. Most of all, I had the opportunity to get to know the amazing theatre professionals of Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani. Augusto Casafranca, Teresa Ralli, and Amiel Cayo were sources of encouragement, ideas, and inspiration during the research for this project. My first few years as a doctoral student at The Ohio State University greatly impacted my intellectual development, primarily because of two sources of guidance and v inspiration. First, the generosity, thoughtfulness, and care Professor Thomas Postlewait shows to each one of his students are amongst the most important reasons this California boy decided to go to the mid-west for graduate education. I can only hope in the future I can impact young scholars‟ lives in the way he impacted mine. Through his encouragement, intellectual inspiration, and sometimes toughness I began to see that the study of history was so much more than facts but required empathy for the people of the past and the circumstances in which they lived. During my first quarter at Ohio State, I adventured outside of my discipline and took a folklore course taught by Dr. Dorothy Noyes. Through the work of the Center for Folklore Studies I found a second intellectual home that stimulated my research interests and introduced me to caring people. I am also greatly indebted to the generous guidance of my co-advisors, Lesley Ferris and Katherine Borland. The genuine interest Dr. Ferris, then the chair of the Department of Theatre, showed in my potential as a scholar was another reason I arrived at Ohio State. Over the years she has provided me with a great deal of enthusiastic encouragement and most of all patience. This project was in part born in Dr. Borland‟s course on “Latin American Folklore,” where I wrote a short paper on the scissors dance based on my memory of a single performance the previous year in Peru. Through her guidance I began to see that I could write a dissertation that captured my fledgling interests in Peruvian culture using this fascinating cultural form as a case-study. Katey has been always willing to hear my half-formed thoughts, and has filled some tough shoes in helping me with my writing issues after Dr. Postlewait left Ohio State. Although she came on board relatively late in the process, Dr. Ana Puga more than fulfilled her vi duties as my third committee member. I wish her a great deal of success in her relatively new position at Ohio State and hope she will continue to help me refine my project. Two other faculty members at Ohio State deserve my gratitude for opening doors for me in my naïve desires to belatedly become a specialist in Latin American Studies. Dr. Abril Trigo and Ulises Juan Zevallos Aguilar from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese have shown a great deal of interest in my work. In various courses and private conversations Dr. Trigo has inspired my interests in the cultural log of globalization and neoliberalism. Dr. Zevallos Aguilar has been a generous interlocutor and friend in my quest to have a better understanding of Peruvian culture. I could not have completed the fieldwork for this project without the assistance of a number of collaborators in Peru. I would like to thank all of the scissors dance performers, fusion artists, and intellectuals I interacted with during my time in Peru. I am inspired by their tremendous energy working under often adverse conditions. My special gratitude goes out to Angel Rubio Cataño, Romulo Huamaní Janampa, Damián de la Cruz Ccanto, Oswaldo Machuqa Ichpas, Andres Lares, Pachak Chaki, Walter Velille, Carlos Sayre, Julio Perez, Amiel Cayo, Luis Millones, Alvaro Zavala, and Jorge Febrero Navarro. Without the contributions of all of these people I would not have achieved all that I have been able to over the past several years. I am eternally grateful to all of my amazing friends and colleagues who have live throughout the world. I have known Donna Breitzer and Danny Chung since high school, but they continue to bring both laughter and tears to my life. To the amazing people I met in Ohio, especially Gibson Cima, Gina Di Salvo, and Lizzie Nixon, thanks for vii helping me to adjust and thrive in a new situation and providing me with both intellectual and emotional support. I have never lived in the same city as Kathy Nigh, but our unique world-trotting friendship has sustained me over the past six years. Kathy‟s humor and fun-loving spirit, and relentless drive are the qualities that make her an amazing person to be close to, even across long distances. My parents are wonderful people who have always supported me in whatever endeavor I choose. I cannot express in words my indebtedness to the infinite wisdom, generosity, and care they have shown me ever since I was a shy and sensitive young boy. I only hope I can raise my own children with a small portion of the loving atmosphere I grew up with. To Tricia, Adam and Cameron, I hope I can spend more time with my siblings and new nephew. I am so proud of the young woman and mother my wonderful sister has grown up to become. Most of all, I would not be who I am today without my beautiful and spirited wife, Gladys Aragon Ccorahua. I know it has not been easy to confront our various differences, of culture, language, and background, but I would not trade these past five years for anything in the world. In terms of this project her emotional support and knowledge of Quechua were invaluable to me. We travelled together to small villages 17,000 feet high in the Andes, with no electricity and running water, and I am not quite sure how I would have done it without her.

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