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 The collection presents a vast array of essays, folklore, historical documents, poetry, songs, short stories, autobiographical accounts, and photographs.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.
Table of Contents:
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
About the Author :
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 IvÁn 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.
Review :
"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
