Sixteenth-century Spanish soldiers described Peru as a land filled with gold and silver, a place of untold wealth. Nineteenth-century travelers wrote of soaring Andean peaks plunging into luxuriant Amazonian canyons of orchids, pythons, and jaguars. The early-twentieth-century American adventurer Hiram Bingham told of the raging rivers and the wild jungles he traversed on his way to rediscovering the "Lost City of the Incas," Machu Picchu. Seventy years later, news crews from ABC and CBS traveled to Peru to report on merciless terrorists, starving peasants, and Colombian drug runners in the "white gold" rush of the coca trade. As often as not, Peru has been portrayed in broad extremes: as the land of the richest treasures, the bloodiest conquest, the most poignant ballads, and the most violent revolutionaries. This revised and updated second edition of the bestselling Peru Reader offers a deeper understanding of the complex country that lies behind these claims. Unparalleled in scope, the volume covers Peru's history from its extraordinary pre-Columbian civilizations to its citizens' twenty-first-century struggles to achieve dignity and justice in a multicultural nation where Andean, African, Amazonian, Asian, and European traditions meet. The collection presents a vast array of essays, folklore, historical documents, poetry, songs, short stories, autobiographical accounts, and photographs. Works by contemporary Peruvian intellectuals and politicians appear alongside accounts of those whose voices are less often heard-peasants, street vendors, maids, Amazonian Indians, and African-Peruvians. Including some of the most insightful pieces of Western journalism and scholarship about Peru, the selections provide the traveler and specialist alike with a thorough introduction to the country's astonishing past and challenging present.
Orin Starn is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. He is the author of Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last "Wild" Indian and Nightwatch: The Politics of Protest in the Andes, also published by Duke University Press. Carlos IvAn Degregori is Professor of Anthropology at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. He served on Peru's government-appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has written dozens of books and articles about Peru. Robin Kirk is Co-director of the Human Rights Initiative at Duke University. She is the author of More Terrible Than Death: Massacres, Drugs, and America's War in Colombia and The Monkey's Paw: New Chronicles from Peru.
A Note On Style xi Introduction 1 Part I: The Ancient Civilizations 13 The Chavin Cult / Brian Fagan 17 Nazca Pottery / Javier Sologuren 28 The Huarochiri Manuscript / Anonymous 30 Moon, Sun, Witches / Irene Silverblatt 36 The Origins of the Incas / Garcilaso de la Vega 50 Cloth, Textile, and the Inca Empire / John Murra 56 Taxation and the Incas / Pedro de Cieza de Leon 71 Officials and Messengers, Guaman Poma de Ayala 76 The Search for Machu Picchu / Hiram Bingham 82 Part II: Conquest and Colonial Rule 93 Atahualpa and Pizarro / John Hemming 97 In Defense of the Indians / Bartolome de las Casas 119 Our House / Marco Martos 123 The Tragedy of Success / Steve J. Stern 124 Diary of Colonial Lima / Josephe de Mugaburu y Honton 149 Friar Martin's Mice / Ricardo Palma 154 The Rebellion of Tupac Amaru / Alberto Flores Galindo 159 "All Must Die!" / Jose Antonio de Areche 169 Part III: Republican Peru 175 The Battle of Ayacucho / Antonio Cisneros 179 Comas and the War of the Pacific / Florencia E. Mallon 181 Priests, Indians, Soldiers, and Heroes / Manuel Gonzalez Prada 199 Women of Lima / Flora Tristan 207 Amazonian Indians and the Rubber Boom / Manuel Cordova 215 Pat IV: The Advent of Modern Politics 227 Tempest in the Andex / Luis Valcarcel 231 Water! / Juan Pevez 235 Reflections / Jose Carlos Mariategui 240 Human Poems / Cesar Vallejo 246 The APRA / Victor Raul Haya de la Torre 253 The Massacre of Chan Chan / Carleton Beals 258 Lost to Sight / Cesar Moro 266 Part V: The Breakup of the Old Order 269 The Pongo's Dream / Jose Maria Arguedas 273 "The Master Will No Longer Feed Off Your Poverty" / Juan Velasco 279 The 24th of June / Gabriel Aragon 285 Villa El Salvador / Cecilia Blondet 287 Recipe for a House / Mercedes Torribio 293 Featherless Vultures / Julio Ramon Ribreyo 296 Peru's African Rhythms / Nicomedes Santa Cruz 305 A Guerrilla's Word / Javier Heraud 307 Liberation Theology / Gustavo Gutierrez 309 A World for Julius / Alfredo Bryce Echenique 313 Part IV: The Shining Path 319 "A Frightening Thirst for Vengeance" / Osman Morote 323 We Are the Initiators / Abimael Guzman 325 The Quota / Gustavo Gorriti 331 Memories of a Cadre / Nicario 343 Oath of Loyalty / Anonymous 351 Part VII: Manchay Tiempo 353 Vietnam in the Andex / Pancho 357 Death Threat / Anonymous 364 Women and Terror / Raquel Martin de Mejia 366 Chaqwa / Robin Kirk 370 Huamanguino / Ranulfo Fuentes 384 "There Have Been Threats" / Maria Elena Moyano 387 Peasants at War / Ponciano del Pino 393 Time of Reckoning / Salomon Lerner 401 Part VIII: The Cocaine Economy 407 The Hold Life has / Catherine J. Allen 411 My Little Coca, Let Me Chew You! / Anonymous 424 The Cocaine Economy / Jo Ann Dawell 425 Drugs, Soldiers, and Guerrillas / Chaname 438 Part IX: The Struggle for Survival 441 Soup of the Day / Family Kitchen No. 79 445 Nightwatch / Orin Starn 447 "A Momentous Decision" / Alberto Fujimori 460 Choleric Outbreak / Caretas 468 Bribing a Congressman / Alberto Kouri and Vladimiro Montesinos 474 Simply Pascuala / Jose Maria Salcedo 477 Part X: Culture(s) Redefined 481 Chayraq! / Carlos Ivan Degregori 485 The Choncholi Chewing Gum Rap / Nosquien y los Nosecuantos 489 Sarita Colonia Comes Flying / Eduardo Gonzalez Viana 491 is Peru Turning Protestant? / Luis Minaya 496 Interview with a Gay activist / Enrique Bossio 502 Adrenaline Nights / Carmen Olle 507 Reencounter / Giovanna Pollarolo 509 I Am the Bad Girl of the Story / Maria Emilia Cornejo 511 Conversation in the Cathedral / Mario Vargas Lllosa 512 The Slave / Jaime Bayly 528 Aguaruna Adventures / Anonymous 553 Self-Images / Workshop for Social Photography 562 Suggestions for Further Readings 567 Acknowledgments 571 Acknowledgment of Copyrights 573 Index 577
An interdisciplinary anthology of work from and about Peru, including nonfiction, poetry, journalism, history, and cultural analysis, that includes many primary resources never before published in English
"The Peru Reader is a joy both for Peru specialists and those seeking an introduction to the country's political and social development...It brings together in English a wide variety of texts, to provide a diversity of views of Peruvians (past and present) about their country, as well as foreign observers...The beauty [is] that the texts speak for themselves, reflecting a multiplicity of views." --John Crabtree, Journal of Latin American Studies "A livelier, more literate introduction to a foreign world could not be hoped for. A Peruvian trove, indeed; so much that one hardly knows where to begin dipping into its treasures."--Alma Guillermoprieto, author of Dancing with Cuba: A Memoir of the Revolution "This is an extremely deep, broad, and insightful collection on Peru."--Jorge Casteneda, author of Utopia Unarmed: The Latin American Left After the Cold War and former Foreign Minister of Mexico "One of the best overviews yet of Peruvian history and politics."--The Rough Guide to Peru "This is a great paperback to bring on the airplane or a long train ride, stuffed with an endlessly entertaining and eclectic collection of short stories, anthropological essays, translated chronicles, and a bit of poetry."--Moon Handbooks Peru "This anthology is a wonderful addition to any course on Latin America and Peru and is accessible to both graduates and undergraduates. I have used pieces from this book for my undergraduate courses and plan to incorporate at least one of the pieces new to this second edition into my courses in the near future. The book should also be of interest to nonacademics interested in learning more about Peru."--M. Cristina Alcalde, The Latin Americanist
