© 2019 Christopher Bauer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE IMAGINATION ROUNDTABLE: PERFORMANCE AND INDIGENOUS REPRESENTATIONS IN PERU’S MESA DE CONCERTACIÓN PARA LA LUCHA CONTRA POBREZA By CHRISTOPHER BAUER A dissertation submitted to the School of Graduate Studies Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Anthropology Written under the direction of Ulla Berg And approved by _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May, 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Imagination Roundtable: Performance and Indigenous Representations in Peru’s Mesa de Concertación Para la Lucha Contra Pobreza by CHRISTOPHER BAUER Dissertation Director Ulla Berg This dissertation explores why volunteers at Peru’s Mesa de Concertación Para la Lucha Contra Pobreza dedicate considerable energy to service when neoliberal policies have diluted its mechanism of direct representation. Hailing from indigenous backgrounds, these volunteers view the Mesa, and associated decentralization reforms, as structural advances supporting their democratic representation. The Mesa’s decline would seem to be the logical consequence of theories positing that direct representation under neoliberal policies constrains activism or depoliticizes the population (Hale 2002). Conversely, my findings show that volunteers use the Mesa’s charter and programming to shape their inclusion in state institutions. To illustrate this, I apply a performative framework to the volunteers’ interactions with public officials orchestrated by the Mesa. This framing highlights the imaginative potential of their interactions for inclusion in a future state, demonstrating that they use neoliberal techniques for starkly different political projects than typically ascribed to neoliberalism. ii Dedication For Karin and Aneva iii Epigraph We stood together, and I was thinking of the way my father had described Cuzco on our journeys, when I heard a musical sound. “The María Angola,” I cried. “Yes, be still, It’s [sic] nine o’clock. It can be heard five leagues away on the Anta Plain. Travelers stop and cross themselves.” The world must have changed into gold at that moment—I, too, as well as the walls and the city, the towers, and the façades I had seen. The voice of the bell welled out again. And I seemed to see before me the image of my protectors, the Indian alcaldes – Don Maywa and Don Victor Pusa, praying on their knees before the façade of the whitewashed, adobe church of my village, while the evening light sang instead of glowing. In the pepper trees the hawks—the wamanchas so greatly feared because they were carnivorous—lifted their heads, drinking in the light, drowning in it. José María Arguedas Deep Rivers Translated by Frances Horning Barraclough iv Table of Contents Abstract ii Dedication iii Epigraph iv Illustrations vi List of Acronyms viii Introduction: Performance and Imagination in La Lucha 1 1. Attrition of the Pro-Democracy Reforms 53 2. Displaying Resentment, Demanding Indemnification 114 3. Performative Publics at the Sites of the State 174 4. The Acuerdo de Gobernabilidad 229 Conclusion: Directions for Public Policy and Research 282 Appendix 1: The Governance Accord 301 Notes 306 Reference List 328 v Illustrations Photographs 1. Supporter of candidate for Regional President Ángel Unchupaico 12 2. The Mantaro Valley 20 3. Plaza de la Constitución, Huancayo 24 4. Roundtable pamphlet 62 5. Walkout in defense of technical education 67 6. Main hall, coordinating roundtable 115 7. Cross overlooking Avenue Huancavelica 132 8. Front facade of the regional memorial 147 9. The memorial on the anniversary of the final report of the CVR 158 10. Woman examines a photograph from the Yuyanapaq exhibition 160 11. President of the Regional Association of Displaced Persons – Central Peru 168 12. Banner for the COLECTIVO DE JÓVENES INDIGNAD@S 174 13. Congressman Sergio Tejada 176 14. Development volunteer Isabel Alvarez 188 15. Audience for the Peace and Reconciliation Forum 199 16. Edelberto Óre presents 205 17. Candidates and candidate-representatives accept a round of applause 208 18. Election sign for Ángel Unchupaico 213 19. Candidate Unchupaico and desplazados in meeting 220 20. Bills publicizing candidates for regional president 229 vi 21. Press event for the Governance Accord 239 22. Graphic design for the cover of the Governance Accord 243 23. Nivardo Santillán, Coordinator, Regional Executive Committee – Junín 262 24. Attendees of the second signing ceremony for Vladimir Cerrón 267 25. Attendees of the second signing ceremony for Ángel Unchupaico 270 26. Lobby mural, Yalpana Wasi – Wiñay Yalpanapa 282 27. Meeting of the development volunteers 297 Figures 1. “Comparative table of citizen participation, 2005-2013” 105 vii List of Acronyms APRA Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (American Popular Revolutionary Alliance) ARDCP Asociación Regional de Desplazados – Central Perú (Regional Association of Displaced Persons – Central Peru) CTAR Consejos Transitorios de Administración Regional (Transitional Regional Administrative Councils) CONDECOREP Coordinadora Nacional de Desplazados y Comunidades en Reconstrucción Del Perú (National Coordinator of Displaced Persons and Communities in Reconstruction of Peru) CVR Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) GDP Gross domestic product IMF International Monetary Fund INEI Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática (National Institute of Statistics and Information) JNE Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (National Jury of Elections) MIDIS Ministerio de Desarrollo e Inclusión Social (Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion) MRTA Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement) NGO Non-governmental organization PPBR Presupuesto Participativo Basado en Resultados (Participatory Budget Based on Results) PROMUDEH Ministerio de Promoción de la Mujer y del Desarrollo Humano (Ministry for the Advancement of Women and Human Development) SNIP Sistema Nacional de Inversión Pública (National Public Investment System) TRNC Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus viii UNCP Universidad Nacional Del Centro - Perú (National University - Central Peru) USAID United States Agency for International Development VRAEM Valle de los ríos Apurímac, Ene y Mantaro (Valley of the Rivers Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro) ix 1 Introduction: Performance and Imagination in La Lucha Some may read the title of the Peruvian public office where I conducted my fieldwork – the Mesa de Concertación Para la Lucha Contra Pobreza (Coordination Table for the Fight against Poverty, hereafter: the coordinating roundtable) – and mistakenly call to mind mental images of dry committee deliberations or a contingent of bureaucrats. “La mesa,” as my research participants call it, is in fact a curious hybrid. It could be best described as part community center, part clearinghouse, and part development workshop. Its staff and volunteers are approachable, dedicated and creative. There may be no better place to begin my dissertation than by honoring these qualities with an act of interpretation. I propose to substitute “roundtable” for mesa (table) when translating the Spanish title into English.1 Notwithstanding the complaint that the roundtable’s founders were surely aware of the Spanish term, mesa redonda, for roundtable when they devised the institution, this interpretation captures the ethnographic experience of the institution for an English-reading audience. The substitution alludes to my experiences of the dedication and accessibility of the staff; the importance its volunteers placed on the institution’s commitment to multicultural inclusion; and the roundtable’s own promotional materials which contain illustrations of roundtables populated with chatty, multiethnic participants. To add to this interpretation, I propose to substitute an active verb, “coordinating” for the noun cognate of the term “coordination.” These changes will prepare readers to better understand the coordinating roundtable as a meeting place, a space for democratic imagination, and a workshop on the state. In this dissertation I offer an ethnographic examination of the politics of indigeneity at the coordinating roundtable. My examination will support my thesis that 2 volunteers at the coordinating roundtable cultivate interpersonal encounters which draw on its charter and configuration to create openings towards inclusion for Andean Peruvians within state institutions. The starting point for understanding this thesis lies in the practical realities of the roundtable. In effect, it is an intersectional space both in terms of policy and daily circulation. The roundtable mediates between state anti-poverty programs and local understandings of development through meetings between community leaders and public officials. This convergence of politics and personalities make it a compelling space to document the signs of indigenous politics and the intents of state institutions. To better understand this interplay, I apply performative framework to the interactions between volunteers and public officials. The volunteers’ performative displays are informed by a history of inequality which has shaped the socioeconomic opportunities of Andean citizens from indigenous cultural backgrounds. Displays create openings for these indigenous citizens