Year of Peru Lecture Series (2011-2012)

For centuries, Peruvian literature–with few exceptions, which has generally been male-dominated–has resisted the open treatment of female sexuality and eroticism as natural. Not until the end of the 1970s did women begin to make their own voices heard in this realm. Now, a group of female poets is exploring the role of women as not only the object of desire, but also the subject of desire who seeks to fulfill her own satisfaction. Consequently, they have developed literary innovations that reveal an erotic thematic as they confront their political, economic, and domestic positions in Peruvian society–whether dealing with their own bodies in particular, or those of other women in general. This presentation will explore their attitudes toward female sexuality in its diverse manifestations, and it will investigate the relationship between sexual conduct vis-a-vis the power structure as well as the socio-cultural norms that impede the total development of Peruvian women. Moreover, it will offer an overview of similarities and differences among these writers’ works and why they are considered the most representatively innovative of this genre.

The extreme poverty in the Andean zone of Central and Southern Peru represents Peru’s most important issue and challenge in becoming a fully developed nation. At more than 10 million people, the Andean population of Peru is significant (37% of the country’s total population) but a large percentage (40%) lack drinkable water and electricity; and even fewer have refrigerators. Historically, women have played an important role in the evolution of Peruvian society and therefore this presentation emphasizes the crucial role that the women of the Andean region have in improving conditions there. These women have traditionally shown great strength in the most adverse scenarios; children depend on them in almost all aspects of life, especially feeding, clothing, values, work among many other things. The average number of children is around three and only 45% of women use some form of contraception. The overall health of women and children depend on access to basic services, including the number of available hospitals, number of physicians, and public education. A frank discussion of these issues will attempt to share with the audience a better understanding of the realities of health care in the Andean regions of Peru.

Every few years, the climatic , known as El Niño changes weather throughout the world. Sometimes these changes are positive, such as a reduction in hurricanes. Often, however, El Niño is devastating--nowhere more than its heartland on the coast of Peru. There, torrential rains can ravage the desert landscape, destroying buildings, roads, canals, and fields and bringing plagues of insects and diseases. At the same time, the normally productive fishery is decimated. On the longer term, the synergy between earthquakes, rains, and wind can make agriculture less sustainable. All of these effects of El Niño influence human lifeways today and must have done so in the past. This talk explores the prehistory of El Niño over the 13,000 years that people have lived in coastal Peru, discussing methods used to track ancient El Niños and thoughts on how this phenomenon may have affected cultural development in the region.

In the past, the story of Peruvian cinema has not been precisely characterized as one of the most interesting traditions in the Latin American cinema scene. Since the second half of the twentieth century, vigorous cinema industries from Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil dominated the range of Latin American cinema, through competitive systems of production that resulted in outstanding movies and filmmakers. Peru's own cinema industry lagged behind. However, towards the end of the century, some important figures arose; Armando Robles Godoy, for example, whose film Espejismo (Mirage) was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globe Awards in 1973 and a new generation of filmmakers arose thanks, in part, to a new law that promoted the cinema industry -Francisco Lombardi would be the most international exponent. Despite the fact that cinema production in Peru is still precarious and not abundant; it can be said that a young generation of filmmakers has obtained international acknowledgment in the 21st century. For example, the terrorism sequels have been incorporated in movies like Las Malas Intenciones (Rosario García Montero’s The Evil Intentions) or La Teta Asustada (Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow,), Berlinale 2009 winner and nominee to Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010. Let's also mention films like Octubre (Daniel and Diego Vega’s October) and Paraíso (Héctor Gálvez Paradise). Finally, thanks to the new digital technologies, a group of young directors has appeared in Lima and other provinces, inside the cultural and underground circuit, parallel to the commercial one, reaching an artistically valuable production and acknowledgement, as the case of Juan Daniel Fernández (his experimental documentary Reminiscencias -Remembrances- was exhibited at the MOMA in 2011).

For the Year of Per, Luis Herrera and Roger Arakaki make delicious looking entrées in Kennesaw State University’s dinning hall, The Commons. The exotic foods they prepaire are tuna ceiche, lomo saltado, tuna and flounder shashimi, and anticuchos to celebrate the Year of Peru series at KSU.

Peru, as a core country of the Spanish Empire for almost 300 years, had a very difficult time over many decades in overcoming the authoritarian legacy imposed by colonial rule. In fact, Peru is among the Latin American countries with the fewest years of sustained formal democracy since independence. The country has had to face various challenges along the way. These include a devastating War of the Pacific (1879-83) that left Peru economically prostrate, reformist political party (APRA)--military hostility (1932-78) inhibiting civilian political control, institutionalized military rule legitimating the left (1968-80), and a brutal guerrilla war (1980-1992) that almost brought about government collapse. Recent political and economic progress, however, suggest that Peru may finally have found a path to sustained national development, even as local and regional issues continue to challenge elected authorities.

This essay intends to show the work of a contemporary Peruvian theater defined by the political atmosphere that reigned from 1980s to the early XXI century. From the beginning, this type of political theater served different masters and was produced for different consumption. For example, Shining Path Guerrilla used theater (1978‐1983) in order to recruit soldiers for its war against the government; in the other hand Peruvian groups used theater to protest against Human Rights abuses of the government and communist guerrillas alike; and even the government itself used performance to convince public opinion that it was defeating leftist guerrillas. At the end, the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (2003‐2005) worked side by side with Peruvian theater groups to provide a voice to those silenced by the terrible actions of a civil war.

This presentation will describe the impact and work of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco from the perspectives of its founder and one of its visiting artists. Since it’s founding in 1996, the CTTC has fostered the preservation and continuation of ancient textile traditions that are the lifeblood of Andean highland communities. Thanks to the CTTC Cusco textile traditions will be carried on, taught by elder generations to youth. A recent innovation, thematic community collaborative projects, have instituted for the first time cooperative work in which the weavers can express their ideas, often in figurative ways and using applique and embroidery in addition to weaving. From the burial garb of the Mummy “Juanita” to pieces depicting community rituals and geographic characteristics and reinterpretations of ancient Andean textile motifs, the community projects have opened up a new tradition. They are an avenue for talented artisans to develop new skills and personal creativity.

Professor Dizgun’s talk focuses on the past and present splendor of Peru’s northern coast, notably the area surrounding Trujillo. Long overshadowed by more popular Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu, and Titicaca in the south, Peru’s northern coast is an underappreciated archaeological, historical, and cultural gem. He explores the sophisticated art and architecture of three pre-Incan ancient cultures— the Moche, Sican, and Chimu— and concludes with a discussion of the region’s fascinating geography, surfing culture, and thriving sugar ethanol industry.

One's mathematics is a product of one's culture, and the form it takes and the problems it grapples with depend heavily on the nature of the civilization that nurtures it. We will discuss the most salient feature of the mathematics of the Incan people, the khipu. We will discover the ways in which these collections of knotted cords paint a picture of mathematics very different from our own, with some surprising similarities.

“The Children at the Intersection: Child Street Labor in an Age of Urban Renewal,” is based on years of research with development institutions and, most notably, children who work on the streets of Peru's busy capital city. Leigh's research over the last decade has been made possible by a Wenner-Gren individual research grant, an Advanced International Fellowship from Duke University, a Ford Doctoral Pre-Dissertation Research Fellowship, a Tinker-Mellon Graduate Student Research Award, and a Duke Center for International Studies Research Fellowship.

Through a selection of short stories written by the Peruvian writer Julio Ramón Ribeyro, the lecture will present some of the defining characteristics of twentieth-century Peruvian society and will include a discussion of how some of these characteristics impact Peru today.

Andean peoples inhabited a complex world of sacred mountains, caves, and places of mythical origins. These places were also inhabited by mummified ancestors who played an active role in maintaining a fragile balance between the living, the dead, their gods and the natural world. The enduring relationships between the living and the dead, and the locations where ancestors were venerated, were viewed as a threat to Spanish political and religious domination of Peru, and were the focus of campaigns in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to stamp out Andean religious and mortuary practices. Nevertheless, scholars have been able to reconstruct many aspects of such practices from early eyewitness accounts and through archaeological excavations.

The near lack of a historical record and centuries of intentional destruction of archaeological sites challenges the ability of the New World to construct empirically-based narratives founded exclusively on material remains. This paucity of data also provides an ideal environment in which metaphysical claims flourish and challenge empirically-based ideas. Of all the major sites in the Americas, it is the pre-Inca highland Andean site of Tiwanaku (AD 500-10000 that has been a magnet for the most extreme ideas on the nature of indigenous Andean society. Global tourism, an indigenous revival movement, and a volatile political and economic climate have increased the number of stakeholders vying to control this high profile and potentially lucrative site. This presentation reviews the historical reasons why this megalithic highland site has become such a draw for radical ideas and the effect that this environment has on the preservation of the site, our understanding of pre-Columbian Andean achievements, and the future of research.

The efforts and projection of Clorinda Matto de Turner's works go beyond the issue of indigenous people, women or religious aspects. They are fundamental to the construction of the imaginary, where the identity and future of Latin-American leadership is formed by their own history, from Pre-Columbian times to the present. Her initial premise in novels such as Aves sin Nido, Tradiciones Cuzqueñas, Indole o Herencia shows us a difficult social reality in XIX century Perú. During her exile in Argentina (1895), until her death (1909) is when her vision extends beyond borders and the result is discourses that cover aspects of the foundation of a Latin American nation, emerging in a new concept of the mother-land. In this imaginary, she criticizes the perpetuation of patriarchal tradition and seeks to reform progress in a way that men and women participate equally. Her essays, discourses and diaries in Boreales, miniaturas y porcelanas (1902) for example, emphasized the role of women who are bearers of great social change, women who write and educate. She called them Workers of Progress or Intellectual Workers. It is necessary to refer to the previous effort of Juana Manuela Gorriti, one of Matto's friends and mentors. She is important in the history of both Argentina and Perú because of her work associated with women representation in the building of a nation. This work focuses on Juana Manuela Gorriti’s stories from Sueños y Realidades (1875) where nation-building drama is narrated. Gorriti is a protagonist of this drama as well, during Manuel de Rosas' regime in Argentina. This essay will also show her journey while she was exiled, and her educational and intellectual work in Perú promoting literary circles and transnational intellectual networking.

Peruvian-born Eduardo González Viaña pens bold and powerful depictions of immigrant life as they face fierce challenges adapting to life on this side of the border. His book Los sueños de América, published in Spain, by Alfaguara was a best seller among the books in Spanish. It was translated to English by Arte Público, University of Houston. His most recent book is the novel “El corrido de Dante”(Arte Público 2007) published in English as “Dante’s Ballad”, Arte Público, 2007 , an language as La Ballata di Dante, Gorée, 2007. Dante’s Ballad received the Latino International Prize of Novel of the USA.

Vargas Llosa’s Lima will provide the audience with key examples from his works to illustrate the complex relationship the author has with Peru’s capital, a dominant force in the lives of all Peruvians, including those, like Vargas Llosa, who are considered outsiders since they were born in the provinces and have lived for extended periods of time overseas. The city of Lima, also called “City of the Kings” and “City of Balconies”, has been the object of study of scholars who study daily life during the colonial period as well as today. The historic center of Lima is known by its abundance of historic monuments and the originality of its hundreds of balconies constructed during both the viceroyalty as well as in the republic eras. These majestic structures were meant to replicate the Moorish influence in the south of Spain and garnered Lima the distinction of being a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988. This presentation will look at Lima both through the eyes of Vargas Llosa's works as well as describing the city’s historic architectural beauty and cultural significance.

Since 1992, shamans in South America have announced that "the condor and the eagle fly together," thus it is time for North Americans to understand and appreciate shamanism. It has played a key role in Peru since earliest times and continues to be a major force in the culture, art, and belief system today. This talk will show how the art of the ancient Moche people of the North Coast depicted curing scenes and even the experience of shamanic trance visions. Modern shamans, such as the late Eduardo Calderon, identified the items depicted in Moche curing scenes as still in use currently. Likewise, firsthand reports of what happens in trance visions correlate with Moche images now recognized as illustrating what the shaman sees and feels during altered consciousness states used for curing. The continuities from past to present are striking; in fact, President Alejandro Toledo, the first indigenous president of the country since the fall of the Inca, held a shamanic burning ritual during his inauguration at the site of Machu Picchu in 2001. This demonstrates that imposed Western and longstanding traditional Peruvian beliefs can coexist in relative harmony within a shamanic wordview.

Kennesaw State University’s celebration of the “Year of” Peru Day. "Year of" Peru Day introduces music, cuisine, and special guests that provide an insight to the Peruvian Culture. This festive kick-off event features the Andean music of local artists Apu Inka, performances by the KSU Tellers, and the culinary delights of one of Peru's top chefs, Roger Arakaki of Sushi Ito in Lima.

Originally an insignificant community, the Inca developed a grand mythic history to monumentalize and sacralize their ascendancy to power. Under the direction of Sapa Inca Pachacuti, architects cast the mythology in stone, combining key architectural elements from pre-Inca sites of legendary import to accentuate their claims to hegemony and authenticity. Architectural elements, most notably the trapezoidal shaped doorway and niche, served as an imprimatur of authority, a symbol of the territorial and cosmic core of the empire, thereby connecting the geographical center and periphery of a hard to rule ethnically diverse empire.

Pedro Lasarte speaks about the satirical poetry in early Viceragal, Peru and focuses on the literary & cultural contradictions. The satirical poetry of Juan del Valle y Caviedes, written during the latter half of the 17th century, gives his reader, albeit satirically, an accurate description of the many struggles between Creoles and Spaniards, a struggle that would in turn gradually forge what could be seen as a local Peruvian subjectivity different from its Spanish counterpart.

The encounter of the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, took place in Cajamarca, and has been a matter of discussion, interpretation, and debate, not only because of the different accounts but also because each Peruvian intellectual of the time offered a cultural interpretation of the facts. Re-enacted even today in the Peruvian countryside, this encounter is an intriguing narrative of historical, mythical, and popular dimensions.

Panel of students provide their perspectives and experience gained from Peru. Panelists share their stories and the impact of their trip to Peru. Panelists also show a documentary of their trip and later answer questions from audience members.