CHASQUI PERUVIAN MAIL Year 12, number 24 Cultural Bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs December, 2014 . Lima, March 20, 1828. Oil on canvas. 204 x 137 cm. National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History of Peru, Ministry of Culture of Peru, Lima. Ministry of Peru, and History of Culture of Peru, Anthropology, Museum of Archaeology, cm. National 204 x 137 Oil on canvas. 20, 1828. Lima, March José Olaya GIL DE CASTRO / PUMACAHUA’S REBELLION / JULIO RAMON RIBEYRO NATURE OF NATURE / A VIEW OF IQUITOS Photo above: Musuk Nolte. PONDERING ON THE LANDSCAPE OF PERU Photo below: Leslie Searles. NATURE OF NATURE The international meeting on climate change in Lima is also an opportunity to seek, in various artistic expressions, for new approaches to the relationship we have with our natural environment. A striking photography exhibition of some landscapes of Peru is part of that perspective. THE SOUL OF LANDSCAPE NATURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY he images of the landscape shine faraway and pure eru’s overwhelming natural wealth calls for its resolute like a vision of fantasy —the fantasy of matter— and conservation. Over 2,000 species of fish, 395 reptiles, Photo: Roberto Huarcaya. Roberto Photo: Tunwrap in a scenario which we separated from with a Pand 403 amphibians, for instance, have been recorded. refined, but shatterproof. There are 182 species of domesticated endemic plants, some he Conference of the As chair of the COP20 And yet, distant like the stars, such images of landscape 3,000 varieties of potatoes, 36 ecotypes of corn, 623 species Parties of the United and host of the conference, are close to us. They are our own remoteness, and so they in- of fruits, 15 of tomatoes, and 5 species of domesticated chi- TNations Convention on Peru undertook a series of still in us, along with the melancholy feeling of distance, the lies; plus dozens of varieties of these spicy fruit. 1,200 food Climate Change, known as efforts to ensure the success inexplicable metaphysical impression that in the enchanted plants, 1,048 medicinal plants, and 1,600 ornamental plants COP20, was held in Lima in of the event. Two factors fa- contemplation sphere, distance while remaining, fades away, have been identified. There are 462 species of mammals, early December 2014 and was cilitated the role of mediator and that as it straying away, allows the opposites of life of 1,815 birds, 4,000 butterflies, and 3,000 orchids. The sur- attended by about twelve thou- Peru was also called upon to space and soul come together as one. face of tropical forests, one of the most important globally, sand people. This gathering play: its recognized status as Iberico Mariano Rodríguez holds 15 billion tons of carbon. The seahorse, a symbol of marks a milestone in the long a megadiverse country and resilience, still whirls with her slender figure in the waters negotiations process to be con- the emerging nature of its Notes on the landscape of the highlands, 1973. of our coast. cluded in Paris next year with economy, which places it in the final approval of a legally an intermediate situation binding global climate agree- of rising expectations and ment, whose key purpose is to compels it to influence its limit global warming, increase domestic agenda on issues resilience, and ensure sustain- related to environmental able development globally. sustainability. Leslie Searles. Photo: In this context, and through a series of related activities, the Nature of Nature exhibition, organized by the Inca Garcilaso Cultural Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, proposes a symbolic return to its origins, to a succession of iconic landscapes of our country where human pres- ence is limited to the eyes of the beholder. Such view, as if giving truce, entices beholders to ponder on the emergence of the ancient cultural adventure endeavored by species and the various peoples of the world. Nature and culture, inhabitants, and landscapes, con- fluence and interference, once again challenge us. The challenges of today recur to the temptations lurking in different paradises and landscapes, whose continuity is re- quired to keep the solidarity of life. The exhibition includes works by outstanding Peruvian photogra- phers from different generations: Roberto Huarcaya, Nora Chiozza, Leslie Searles, Musk Nolte, Hans Foto: Nora Chiozza. Nora Foto: Stoll, and Francisco Vigo. CHASQUI 2 CHASQUI 3 unmovable assumptions when in his diary on March 11, 1965: assessing Ribeyro's work, a work "sometimes I think that, for me, PRESENCE AND PERMANENCE that despite having crossed a literature is only an alibi that I century, is still awaiting readings turn to so as to free myself from to renew its senses and offer other the process of life. What I call my possibilities of interpretation. In sacrifices (not to be a lawyer, nor OF JULIO RAMÓN RIBEYRO any case, the current outlook a college professor, or politician, is encouraging. A sure sign of or cultural attaché) are perhaps good health is the appearance simulated failures, impossibili- Alonso Rabí do Carmo* in the last decade of a number ties. My excuse: I am a writer. My of readings that renew the look relative success in this field makes on Ribeyro. A fair tribute to the up for my awkwardness in others. Twenty years ago, Julio Ramón Ribeyro died in Lima, the city where he was born in 1929. His sharp, unmistakable author of a work that does not I have always walked away from hide the wonder and pain its any test, any confrontation, and figure, which bore several years of residence in Paris, seems to fade into legend. His narrative, including short stories creator felt; a work that offers us any responsibility; except from and lectures, instill growing fervor among those who read and discover his writings. one the most intense literary life writing". and adventures of our tradition, * He studied literature at the National University although such forces might appar- of San Marcos and the University of Colorado ently be contradictory, as noted (Boulder, USA). With writers Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Manuel Escorza, Juan Rulfo, and two lady friends in Paris in the mid- ne of the key messages gaged in hybridity and reflection, 1970s. kept in the minds of the of some books which in addition Omany readers of Julio to fueling the uncertainty of some Ramón Ribeyro’s narrative work critics, easily placed themselves is that insignificance, failure, in such margin taken over by an REMARKS ON RECEIVING A PRIZE and defeat are forms of heroism. eccentric, little literature lacking THE CRAFT OF WRITING Many of his characters make up a large formal ambitions like the would like to remind you of some reflections that I have pondered legion of little and forgotten peo- one implemented by Ribeyro rite, rather than conveying knowledge, provides access to knowledge. over my life regarding my literary activity. Every story I have written The act of writing allows us to apprehend a reality of which we so far has been the result of spiritual accidents, ideas or experiences that ple, inhabitants of a world that is in Prosas apátridas (Stateless Prose I had an incomplete, veiled, elusive or chaotic grasp. We learn about amused, startled or marked me. Their dispersion and variety actually hostile to them, a universe whose Piece) (1975), Dichos de Luder W or understand many things only when we write about them because writing is rest on the fact that each story takes from, and sometimes symbolizes, rules of life keep such people in a (Luder's Sayings) (1989), his now scrutinizing ourselves and the world with a much more rigorous instrument the alternatives of my own life, the elliptical path of a rather dull, dis- state of perpetual alienation and monumental diary La tentación than the invisible thought; it entails appealing to the graphic, visual, reversible, parate, and wandering existence. Written in bars, hotels, boats, hostels neglect. del fracaso (The Temptation of Fail- implacable thought underlying alphabet signs. or offices, each of such stories has, in turn, its own history and its own By subverting the meaning ure) (1992- 1995) and Cartas a STATELESS PROSE PIECES # 55 destiny, and grouping them into series is an arbitrary task. I have always of these life trajectories and sid- Juan Antonio (Letters to Juan Anto- thought of writing a short story and very rarely about writing a book. ing with them, Ribeyro dignifies nio) (1996-1998), correspondence The art of storytelling: sensitivity to perceive the meanings of things. If I say, Since short story writing is a species that transmutes, perhaps mine them. These characters are not with his brother. These four texts "The barman was a bald guy", this is a childish remark. But I can also say: represent an alternative of a writer who still believed in the literary exactly antiheroes; it is not their are united by a sense of fragmen- "All baldness are unfortunate, but some baldness inspire deep shame". Such genres and stories yet to be told. As I wrote such stories in poverty contradictions or moral ambigui- tation that dominates his writing baldness grew from inglorious actions, as a result of routine and not pleasure, or prosperity, in my country or abroad, in a few hours or in years of ties which take up the foreground, and in more than one case fuels liken that of the man drinking beer in the Violin Gitano. Looking at him, I corrections, I just wanted them to entertain, teach or touch. And I but rather their helplessness and the inability to find, for at least wondered: "In what public agency did this poor Christian lose his hair!" It is also wanted to please myself, since writing is, after all, nothing but replication triggered by the narra- two of them, Prosas apátridas perhaps, however, in the first formula that narrative art resides.