Performing national identity through Peruvian food migration in Santiago de Chile WALTER A. IMILAN Imilan, Walter A. (2015). Performing national identity through Peruvian food migration in Santiago de Chile. Fennia 193: 2, 227–241. ISSN 1798-5617. The article explores the processes of re-production of national identity based on food-related practices and discourses of Peruvian migrants living in Santiago de Chile. The meeting point of these three fields – migration, national identity and food – is most evidently performed in the celebration of the Peruvian National Holidays in Santiago. The article finds evidence that the performance in this national festivity reinforces a sense of Peruvianness, thus contributing to the study of contemporary processes of renewal of national identities in transna- tional contexts. The case study also demonstrates that the ascription of national identity by Peruvian in Santiago is strategic, and it operates as an assemblage of various and locally situated elements. Keywords: migration, national identity, food migration, performance, Santiago de Chile Walter A. Imilan, Instituto de la Vivienda, Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Portugal 85, Santiago, Universidad de Chile, Chile, E-mail: [email protected] Introduction clearly reenact the kind of identity process theo- rized by Goffman (2009) and Bruner (1986), which The presence of Peruvian migrants in the city of stress the importance of communication to achieve Santiago de Chile has become increasingly visible recognition from ‘others’, in this case, the host so- thanks to a booming of food-related businesses ciety. This performativity of national identity finds a such as restaurants and convenience stores. These precise time and space for its execution in the case businesses advertise themselves with a Peruvian of Peruvian migrants in Santiago. Since 2012, a se- image through the display of national symbols like ries of massive celebrations have taken place in flags, photographs and logos that certify the na- central parts of the city during the Peruvian Na- tional origin of their products. Through these refer- tional Holiday. These weekend festivals follow the ences, they have shaped an unprecedented mi- concept of culinary festivals, which have become grant landscape in Santiago (Imilan 2014). Food increasingly popular in Peru, mixed with elements businesses have become a successful integration taken from Chilean National Holidays. Among all strategy for an important sector of the migrant the Peruvian communities abroad, it is only in San- community who rely on displaying a recognizable tiago that Peruvian migrants have attempted to re- link to their national origin. create a sense of national identity by at the same This article explores the ways in which migra- time seeking recognition from the host society. tion, food and national identity intersect in the case Food is undoubtedly an important resource in of Peruvian migrants in Santiago. Food and the ac- the construction of individual and collective iden- tivities surrounding it are not only a resource for tities (Goody 1982). In contexts of globalization economic integration, but also act as a mediating and transnational migrations, food migration – factor in the re-creation of a Peruvian national understood as the movement of foodstuffs and cu- identity. Peruvian migrants in Santiago indeed use linary practices during human migration – opens food as a way of performing their national distinc- up a field where multiple geographies intersect; tiveness from the host society. In this sense, they references to what is local, national and global URN:NBN:fi:tsv-oa46369 DOI: 10.11143/46369 228 Walter A. Imilan FENNIA 193: 2 (2015) are reorganized based on the everyday experi- shape to an unprecedented migration landscape ence of migrants. (Stefoni 2008; Imilan 2014). Peruvian migration to Chile has rapidly in- Certainly, the concept of national cuisine has creased in the last decade. In 2011, over thirty played a significant role in the construction of im- thousand temporary residency visas were granted aginaries of national communities since the rise of to Peruvian citizens, thus becoming the largest mi- national states in the nineteenth century (Barlösius grant group, which currently makes up 37% of 2011). In Peru, in recent years, these culinary prac- Chile's foreign population and close to 2.5% of tices have influenced the way in which Peruvian- the total national population (DEM 2013). ness is narrated and performed. At the same time, Research on migration to Chile is relatively re- they have driven a very successful gastronomic in- cent and it focuses on a few specific subjects: fem- dustry. Thus, nowadays Peruvian cuisine has be- inization processes (Mora 2008; Stefoni & Fernan- come both a marker of national identity and a dez 2011; Tijoux 2013); transnational maternity source of economic development. The government and care (Acosta 2013; Gonzálvez 2014); use and agencies and private associations of gastronomic construction of public and private space (Garcés entrepreneurs, who act as official promoters, have 2014; Márquez 2014; Imilan 2014); border rela- worked together in the formulation and execution tions (Lube & Garcés 2012; Tapia-Ladino 2012); of policies aimed at promoting food-related busi- and aspects related to migration and citizenship nesses and activities. Thus, they have contributed to (Stefoni 2011; Thayer 2013). The food migration the strengthening of a dominant narrative around field has only been marginally investigated, main- Peruvian culinary knowledge. Entrepreneurship, ly as economic integration strategies and not as a sustainable food industry, heritage of food products source for identity construction processes. and local producers have joined forces, achieving The presence of Peruvian migrants in Chile is international recognition and a prestige status (Lau- particularly relevant when one considers that er & Lauer 2006). As a result, there has been a sig- Chile’s national identity was founded on a relation nificant improvement in the labor perspectives of based on opposition to the elements of Peruvian Peruvians working in this sector both at home and culture. The War of the Pacific (1879–1883) played abroad. The emergence of this renewed national a fundamental role in configuring both national narrative has had a deep impact on an important imaginaries – especially in the consolidation of occurrence in Peru's recent history: in the course of Chilean national identity – bringing about con- the last two decades over 10% of the country's pop- trasts and differentiations which still persist today ulation has migrated abroad (Sánchez 2012). A (González & Parodi 2014). The war resulted in the strengthened notion of national cuisine now sup- defeat of the allied army of Bolivia and Peru, and ports the renewal of symbolic and emotional links the loss of a significant portion of their national of the millions of migrants with their country and territories. Additionally, the Chilean army took communities of origin. possession of Peru’s capital city, Lima, for two This article focuses on the public performance of years (1881–1883). national identity in relation to food practices. Its Chileans have constructed their image as a main argument is that Peruvian migrants in Santiago white, – allegedly European – modern and wealthy construct their national identity by appropriating society exactly in contrast to Peruvians, who have the official narrative surrounding Peruvian food and been regarded in the Chilean imaginary as poor, cuisine. The migrants take advantage of this narra- backwards and indigenous. This outlook still in- tive as an effective strategy in the negotiation of forms all sorts of discriminatory actions and heat- their multi-sited emplacements resulting from their ed nationalist debates in relation to the large pres- transnational experiences. The present article illus- ence of Peruvian population in Santiago (Garcés trates the mechanisms of performing national iden- 2014). However, instead of attempting to “blend tity as an assemblage of narratives and practices that in” as a means of protection, the Peruvian migrants are produced in different spaces – national and make themselves visible in the public spaces of transnational – and performed in Santiago. Based Santiago. This is particularly true for activities re- on an ethnographic account of the celebration of lated to gastronomy. Especially in Santiago's case the Peruvian National Holiday in Santiago, the pa- one can speak of a Peruvian food migration. Peru- per reflects on how food plays a major role in un- vian food shops, restaurants and street food ven- derstanding the forms of self-representation and dors have transformed the urban space, giving recognition of the Peruvian migrant community FENNIA 193: 2 (2015) Performing national identity through Peruvian food migration 229 abroad. Furthermore, it explores the re-construction Food, as a source of construction of national of a national identity as a local process within the identities, has been one of the main narratives in context of transnational migrations. the making of imagined communities (Anderson 1993), as described by Elias (2010) in terms of the civilizing power of what and how to eat. Food and identities In global contexts, the national is redefined as a contest between diverse geographies. For instance, The relationship between food and processes of Wilk (1999) indicates that Belize’s cuisine is de- identity formation might