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Cultural Bulletin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

PERUVIAN MAILYear 6, Number 11 February 2008

THE VIOLIN, ART, AND QUECHUA: ZUIDEMA, ROWE AND MURRA /PERU, WORLD HERITAGE SITE / VALLEJO: COMPLETE POETIC WORKS IN ENGLISH /

ON MESTIZO THOUGHT / THE WORLD OF CHRISTIAN BENDAYÁN

CHASQUI 2

THE VIOLIN, ART, AND QUECHUA:ZUIDEMA, ROWE AND MURRA

Manuel Burga*During the second half of the twentieth century, research done by R. Tom Zuidema, John H. Rowe, andJohn V. Murra dominated the historical and anthropological facets of the field of Andean studies. Theyfounded a sort of territorial, intellectual, and methodological division of schools of thought, or at least

tendencies, with original and sometimes conflicting proposals and interpretations, with differenttheoretical backgrounds, but with results that fortunately turned out to be complementary.

R. Tom Zuidema (Haarlem, Holland, 1927).

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s.ainer Tom Zuidema (1927) waseducated at the Dutch Anthro-

pological Faculty of Josselin de Jong, aninstitution focused almost exclusively onthe East Indies, specifically on Sumatra,Thailand, Borneo, and Indonesia, whereits students generally ended up doingfieldwork. That said, Zuidema—trainedto study those same Indies—later cameto the mysterious West Indies, havingbecome interested through a researchproject in Spain. In 1962, he completedhis surprising and thorough study, TheCeque System of Cuzco: The SocialOrganization of the Capital of the Incas inwhich he used, for the first time, the thencontroversial and complicated techniqueof structural analysis. This thesis project,originally published in English in 1964,soon became the object of heated deba-tes, curiosity, and meticulous study dueto its abstract treatment of the almost in-visible aspects of Andean reality.

Zuidema brings to mind the great«hedgehog» intellectuals, described byIsiah Berlin as interpreting the mostcommonplace detail through a «Thereoyof Everything,» an all encompassing viewof the world, often their own. It istherefore no surprise that the projectZuidema started in his youth, a thoroughresearch of the ceques, has been usefuleven now, at the height of his career, toexplain the workings of the Inca calen-dar. This makes him a typical«hedgehog» intellectual, constantly usinga single theory to explain various things,not due to some personal whim, as mightbe argued, but rather because that isexactly how the concepts in questioncame into being. I remember that, in1982, I went with him to try to find thetomb of Tanta Carhua the capac hucha,beautiful daughter of the Ocros regionalcuraca, who paid with her life to enterthe Mount Olympus of the Inca gods tosolidify the agreement between the IncaEmperor and her father, a low-levell pro-vincial curaca from Chinchaysuyo. Wewere looking for the invisible ceque,walking tirelessly with the text of RodrigoHernández Principe, a sixteenth centurypriest in Ocros parish, in hand, stoppingto figure out some geographicalreferences, and finally, gave up, beaten

by the mystery of the tomb of TantaCarhua.

These hikes, as well as ourconversations in his personal library,convinced me of his passion, knowledge,and talent for Andean subjects. Theceques, which were perhaps not evenknown to the curaca or Inca Governor,were the key which helped himunderstand the social, ideological, andmental reality of the Andean society. Ifinally understood this urge after he toldme about his own arrival in Peru in 1953,when Luis Bastos Girón steered himtowards the study of historic documents.He then went to Cuzco, where perhapsdue to financial distress, he joined anorchestra that played chamber music andlived off his violin. The violin allowed meto understand his truly close relationshipto music, a key to understanding hiswork. It seemed like he was trying to writethe true music of the Andean cultures,

with their own melodies and harmonies,but always composed according to thesame principles. He wanted to givewriting to a culture that was without it,that at the time didn’t even need it,because it used other methods to conser-ve memory and keep accounts. This wasa theory that was logically polemic forlovers of the exact date, of provable facts,but for us— myself in particular— itrevealed and explained the enormouscomplexity of pre-Hispanic societies.

John Howland Rowe (1918-2004)arrived in Lima for the first time in 1939and also went directly to Cusco to startresearch on the Temple of Santo Domin-go (formerly known as the CoricanchaTemple). From then until 2004, more thansixty years, he continued traveling aroundPeru, combing its deserts, its Inca tels,spending time in academic circles,publishing and researching Andeanhistory Professor Rowe, with whom I was

fortunate enough to spend a good deal oftime with in the 1990’s, was a trainedarcheologist with a solid background inArt History. In 1935 and 1936, at BrownUniversity, in Providence, Rhode Island,he majored in Classical Studies. Later, atHarvard University, he completed aBachelor of Arts degree, and received adoctorate in 1946 from the sameinstitution after presenting his dissertation,Introduction to the Archeology of Cuz-co. The key to understanding Rowe ishis background in Art History, which hecompleted, due to the requirements ofAndean Studies, with a thoroughlyanthropological approach. Both allowedhim, from his very beginnings in Peru, toapply— to the study of Andean history—a trained and careful eye, whichincluded interest in the historic documentas an objet d’art, as well as the classicalmethods of archeological study. He wasalways very comfortable, whetherstudying pottery, artifacts from pre-Hispanic cultures, or dry technical files.For this very reason, he never tired ofrepeating— with a certain irony— thathis conclusions were drawn from factualstatements, from artifacts he examinedor written testimonies, from art history.

I remember Rowe well: his bountifulgestures of goodness, relaxed, wise, in themiddle of heated intellectual discussionsin Cuzco, when he would smile— in thebeginning of the 1990’s— upon hearingmy unbounded desire to understand the18th century, the Inca nobility of the co-lonial period, that «Inca Nationalism»that he had studied so thoroughly fromthe standpoint of an «Andean Utopia.»Over many years, Professor Roweperformed a peculiar role in Cuzco’sacademic world, conversing with hiscounterparts in the region, readingstudents’ papers and recruiting Americanstudents to do research on Andeanhistory. He and Patricia J. Lyon made quitean intellectual team, both interested inthe same subjects, both innovators. John,a close friend of Franklin Pease in Limaand of Jorge Flores Ochoa in Cuzco, hadextremely varied areas of interest, a true«fox» in Isaiah Berlin’s sense of the term,an outstanding pluralist. He worked onarcheological and art history projects in

CHASQUI 3

John V. Murra (Odessa, Ukraine, 1916 – Ithaca, New York, UnitedStates, 2006).

John H. Rowe (Sorrento, 1918 – Berkeley, California, United States,2004).

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a.tandem; he was as much at home withthe pick-axe, flashlight, and laboratorytest as he was with colonial literature,colonial Cuzco school paintings, and usedthe colorful and picturesque queros, cere-monial Inca pottery, to investigate thetransformation and lot of the Incas andAndean culture under Spanish rule. Iwould like to take this opportunity tolament my inability to compile and publishhis complete works, a task which, to mycomplete surprise, he confided in me in aletter from 1994 that I’ve kept, butwhich— although it seems demoralizingto admit, we were never able to getfinancial backing for. Luis Soberón andTeobaldo Pinzás, who at the time co-chaired the Peruvian Association of So-cial Sciences (Fomciencias), mustremember this project very well, theunsuccessful attempts at fundraising, thedejection we felt in response to Fujimori’scoup d’état in 1992, which promptedmany of us to emigrate. Luckily theNational Institute of Culture (INC),based in Cuzco, published, though in avery limited numbers, a collection of essaysand articles that the author himself hadcompiled.

I had very few opportunities tointeract closely with John V. Murra (1916-2006) Perhaps I was too young when Iheard him speak for the first time at theUniverisity of San Marcos, although Iattended many more of his lectures atthe Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP)while José Matos Mar was its chair. Likeothers, therefore, I became familiarthrough his work indirectly, at firstthrough Alfred Métraux’s small butfascinating work, Les Incas (1961) andthen through another great introductionin Nathan Wachtel’s 1971 book, La visiondes vaincus (The Vision of theVanquished). That said, I think whatmost inspired me to value his work was aheated intellectual discussion at RuggerioRomano’s house in Paris, in the beginningof the 1970’s, where we chatted for hoursabout his work, his wanderlust, his initialLeftist posture, his friendship with JoséMaría Arguedas, his participation in theSpanish Civil War, his closeness withpsychoanalysis, and the need to read himdirectly. After his death, on October 16th2006, much was said about the highquality of his work and his originalcontribution to the understanding of theeconomic organization of the Inca state.His dissertation, presented at theUniversity of Chicago in 1955 when hewas 39 years old, substantially changedthe direction of modern Andean history.A dissertation that, despite onlycirculating on microfiche had anenormous impact on the field of SocialSciences and stayed in this format,adamantly unpublished, for 22 years,until its author, after consulting hisanalyst, authorized its publication in 1978.Young history majors at San Marcos, likeourselves, as removed from psychoanalysisas we were convinced (though not verycultivated in our understanding) ofMarxist theory, admitted that it wasnecessary to read Murra because of hisparticipation, on the Republican side, inthe Spanish Civil War.

This offered a romantic charm that

neither Zuidema nor Rowe could. Besidesthat, the theories of Karl Polyanyi, whosebackground was in AnthropologicalEconomics, allowed Murra an innovativereading if the economic workings of theInca state. In the researcher’s eyes, theIncas appear to be astute manipulators ofancient traditions, bending them to servethe needs of a newly formed empire, agiant with mud feet, with enormous,apparently new dimensions, but firmlyrooted in tradition and not in a politicaltheory such as the organization of the newstate needed. While preparing my bookNacimiento de una utopia (The Birth of aUtopia), I was surprised to see that heended up agreeing with Inca Garcilasode la Vega and Blas Valera, who,according to specialists, often lied aboutor falsified Inca history, but who Murraused to demonstrate that, what thesubjects, the hatun runa, thought of theirInca Emperor, whose title huaccha cuyas,meant «Generous and Kind to thedestitute». The concept fascinated me,because from this vantage point one couldderive the illusion of Inca society as anideal one, entirely bereft of evil, ruled bythe precepts of justice and fairness, withan abundance of goods and services madepossible by the Inca’s generosity. But hedidn’t stop at the economic workings ofthe state, and its probable structural crisis,but also analyzed regional economies,ethnic, though rural, subjugated to theEmpire, from the notion— now athereoy— of vertical economics. Thisconcept was not new, but Murra gave it arelevance that made it an analytical toolany anthropologist, historian, agronomist,archeologist, and biologist, interested indoing so could use to understand theAndean rational, now lost, ignored bysome, but, as far as many are concerned,important to the future of Peru. I havealways wondered, who was this characterand why did he hide, if the expression iscorrect, his dissertation for 22 years? Washe a «hedgehog» or a «fox?» I sincerelythink, if the late Isaiah Berlin will allow it,that he was both at the same time. TheQuechua language, which he spokefluently and used to communicate withArguedas in the most far-flung sites, was

analogous to Zuidema’s violin and Rowe’sart, his personal key, what allowed him toenter the unknown world of the Andes.Now I could also wonder, why did thethree of them always prefer publishingessays to books? R. Tom Zuidema’sdissertation was recently published in1995 by the Catholic University of Peru(PUCP) thanks to the tireless efforts ofhis friend Juan Ossio, and John H. Rowenever authorized the translation andpublication of his extensive study IncaCulture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest,which appeared in the Handbook ofSouth American Indians, in 1946,considered a classic. I am unable toanswer these questions, but doing sowould surely reveal these complexpersonalities, who did research neither tobecome famous in our country, nor toenter the international marketplace ofbooks or ideas. I have added nothing newabout the work of these three experts onPeru. I will content myself, for themoment, with these three keys tounderstanding Zuidema, Rowe, andMorra, who reveal to us— in some way—the secret and the simplicity common toall great researchers. Finally, I want tomention many friends, engineers andagronomists, who became interested inrecovering the techniques, plants, andanimals of the Andes that had beenalmost destroyed by the Europeanavalanche of the 16th century, and whichwere then stigmatized by the aristocracyof the newly independent Republic ofPeru. Then, starting with a newunderstanding of the Andean, of theindigenous, the experts began to arguewith a new enthusiasm that, like Incairrigation systems, drew its source fromthe heights of the Andes, and not fromthe coast, as imposed by the Spanish, thatnot only was their a need to rebuild theplatforms that had fallen into disuse, butto create new ones that the Andeanprehistoric culture hadn’t had time tobuild.

This Andean avalanche, this«Andinization» of Peru, at timesdangerously fundamentalist in nature,was already clawing its way into thenation’s zeitgeist, and it became necessary

to understand it completely in order todomesticate it, to tame it in the bestpolitical sense of the word. From thestandpoint of our idea of an Andeanutopia, we saw these attitudes as part of asea change in attitudes towards theAndean past, a generalized movement,whose leaders were at times unconsciousof their actions, to rescue and rebuild ourindigenous past. We were like IncaGarcilaso de la Vega or Guaman Poma,captivated, enthused by our discoveries.For Peruvian experts, this was perhaps themost important element of the works ofZuidema, Rowe, and Murra: to study theIncas the same way other specialistsstudied the ancient Romans, Greeks,Egyptians, or Chinese in their golden age.They helped us, undoubtedly, to speakup, with more firmness and conviction,when we argued that Peru, whether nowor in the future, cannot became a realnation until it integrates this part of ourpast and its inheritance, which these sin-gular researchers saw as an age of cultu-ral renaissance. In this way, Murra, Rowe,and Zuidema, through their socialresearch, became more than just expertson Peruvian history, but indeed indispen-sable to the construction of a modernPeruvian state.

* Manuel Burga (Chepén, 1942). PhD. inHistory from Sorbonne University, Paris IV.Former President of The National Universityof San Marcos (UNMSM). Specialized inresearch on cultural history, rural Andeanhistory, and the study of the historicalmindset. He has published the followingworks, among others: Nacimiento de una uto-pía: muerte y resurrección de los incas (TheBirth of a Utopia: The Death and Ressurectionof the Incas), De la encomienda a la haciendacapitalista (From the package to the CapitalistPlantation), Los yanaconas. Antología de lec-turas (The Yanaconas: An Anthology), andLa vigencia de Mariátegui: feudalismo, capita-lismo y desarrollo desigual (The Relevance ofMariátegui: Feudalism, Capitalism, andUnequal Development).

1 Isaiah Berlin, Russian Thinkers, 1978.2 John H. Rowe, Los incas del Cuzco. Siglos XVI-XVII-XVIII, Instituto Nacional de Cultura(INC), Región Cuzco, November 2003.

CHASQUI 4

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CÉSAR VALLEJO:

COMPLETE POETIC WORKS IN ENGLISHMario Vargas Llosa

The publication of the new edition of The Complete Poetry*, by César Vallejo, translated over the courseof more than half a century by the American poet Clayton Eshleman, is a literary event that English

language readers will definitely appreciate. Chasqui is delighted to offer our readers the prologue, writtenby Mario Vargas Llosa, as well as an excerpt from the introduction by Efraín Kristal.

XXXII

999 calories.Roombbb ... Hulllablll llust ... sterSerpenteenic e of the sweet roll vendorengryrafted to the eardrum.

Lucky are the ices. But no.Lucky that wich moves neither more nor less.Lucky the golden mean.

1,000 calories.The gringo firmament looks blueand chuckles up its hocker. The razzedsun sets and scrambles the brainseven of the coldest.

It mimics the bogeyman: Weeeeeetrozzz…the tender railcar, rolling form thirst,that runs up to the beach.

Air, air! Ice!If at least the calor (———Better

I say norhing.

And even the very penwith which I write finally cracks up.

Thirty-three trillion three hundred thirty-three calories.

XXXII

999 caloríasRumbbb... Trrraprrrr rrach... chazSerpentínica u del bizcocheroengirafada al tímpano.

Quién como los hielos. Pero no.Quién como lo que va ni más ni menos.Quién como el justo medio.

1,000 caloríasAzulea y ríe su gran cachazael firmamento gringo. Bajael sol empavado y le alborota los cascosal más frío.

Remeda al cuco; Roooooooeeeis...tierno autocarril, móvil de sed,que corre hasta la playa.

Aire, aire! Hielo!Si al menos el calor (________Mejor no digo nada.

Y hasta la misma plumacon que escribo por último se troncha.

Treinta y tres trillones trescientos treintay tres calorías.

here are poets who are easilyexplained, and poets who are enig-

matic, such as César Vallejo. Beingenigmatic by no means suggests that theycannot be understood, that they are totallyincomprehensible, hermetically sealed intheir own world of meanings. It means that,unlike explainable poets, after having triedall the tools that rational understandinghas to offer— the analysis of the author’sinfluences, his techniques, his specializedvocabulary, his choice of topics, and theparticular historical circumstances thatsurrounded the creation of his poems—we still lack a concrete explanation of thatmysterious aura which we feel instinctivelyis the secret of the originality and power ofthis particular type of poetry.

Whether or not a poet can rationallybe explained says nothing about the depthor excellence of his poetry. Neruda, a greatand original poet, still manages to writepoetry which even in its darkest instance,that of Residencia en la tierra (Residenceon Earth, published 1946, New Directions,New York), is still accessible to the logicalanalysis of the critic’s divining rod, whichcan, through the text, find the roots, thedeepest bowels of the work. With Vallejo,the opposite occurs. Even the works of hisyouth, those of Los heraldos negros (¨TheBlack Messengers̈ , published in Nine LatinAmerican Poets, Las Américas, CyrpessBooks, New York, 1968, translated byRachel Bensen,), very marked by themodernist movement and theVanguardist schools that followed it,contain within their apparent transparencyan irreducible core of pure reason, a secretheart that seems to evade any attempt byrational intelligence to fathom it

Vallejo´s Poetry, despite its abundantreferences to a familiar landscape and so-cio-historical environment, transcendsthese coordinates of time and place andputs the reader on a deeper and morepermanent plane: that of the humancondition. That is to say, that existentialreality of which of the lives of men andwomen are made: uncertainty about theirorigins and future and their otherworldlydestiny, the extremes of suffering anddesperation that human beings can reach,and, also, the intensity of feeling when theylove, praise, pity, or sink into nostalgia.

The mysterious aspect in Vallejo’s poetryis not these existential states or issues, butrather the way in which they are moldedinto a language which transmits themdirectly to the reader, either by osmosis orcaught like a bad cold, instead of throughany intelligible discourse.

Vallejo’s is a poetry that makes us feelthe most intimate fibers of being, that stripsus of all that is transient or secondary, andputs us face to face with what is essentialinside ourselves: our condition as mortals,the desperate will to reach transcendence,to survive death in one form or another,

From Trilce (1922)

César Vallejo.

and the thread of extravagancies,mistakes, and confusion that determineour individual fate.

The author of this translationdiscovered César Vallejo in 1957, whilestill a university student with a less thanfluent level of Spanish, and as he himselfexplains, has spent the better part of hislife reading, studying, and trying to coaxhis poetry into English. He was neversatisfied with the results. Time and timeagain he edited and polished draft afterdraft to reach the slippery goal ofperfection. There is something heroicabout his undertaking, like those artiststhat have made writing into a propositionas beautiful as it is impossible. His casereveals an admirable loyalty to a poet, who,without a doubt, changed his life. Thislevel of prolonged resourcefulness andloyalty has made possible the completeedition of César Vallejo’s poetry in English,which comes closest to that which flowedfrom the poet’s own hand. Only the boldperseverance and love with which thetranslator has spent so many years of hislife explain that the English editioncontains all the daring and vigor of theunmistakable voice of César Vallejo.

* César Vallejo. The Complete Poetry. ABilingual Edition. Edited and Translated byClayton Eshleman. With a Foreword by MarioVargas Llosa, an Introduction by Efraín Kristaland a Chronology by Stephen M. Hart.University of California Press, 2007.

CHASQUI 5

ver the past few years, theAnglophone public has been

fortunate indeed, as some of thegreatest works of Hispanic poetry havebeen painstakingly translated intoEnglish. The complete poetic works ofFederico Garcia Lorca as translated byChristopher Maurer is one of the greatcontributions of American Hispanicstudies, and thanks to Eliot Weinbergerthere is finally a beautiful edition inEnglish of Octavio Paz´s most importantpoems. Pablo Neruda has been skillfullytranslated by great poets, includingAlastair Reid. In this context, however,Clayton Eshelman’s work is stillsomething special: for the first time, agreat Hispanic poet’s complete workshave been translated in one singlevolume, by one translator, a translatorwho happens to be a notable poet in hisown right in his own language.Eshelman began translating Vallejo‘spoetry five decades ago, and when heturned 70, decided it was finally timeto publish.

No one knows better thanEshelman that Vallejo’s poetry can beimpossible to paraphrase, interpret, orexplain, but then a translator’s job is notto simplify the perplexity of such acomplex work, but rather to transposeis as accurately as possible. Eshemlanalso knows that when a language’sresources are insufficiently equipped toperfectly translate a poetic effect, theonly option is to invent parallel conceptsthat respect the poem’s integrity.

This way, Eshelman translatesVallejo’s paradoxes with ease, and histransgressions of linguistic conventionsusing good instincts. The geometric la-yout often integral to Vallejo’s poems iseasy enough to reproduce, but hisneologisms and disregard for the normsof spelling and syntax are another story.In some cases, Eshelman has foundequivalents that could enrich theEnglish language, such as when hetranslates «corazonmente» as«heartially.» When he goes with«epexegesis» as the equivalent for«espergesia,» Eshleman captures, inEnglish, the power of this impossibleword that some experts consider anambiguous neologism, and otherssuggestively archaic.

Eshleman succeeds in recreating inEnglish the emotional effect thatVajello could only achieve by distortinglanguage. The terms he creates to ma-tch Vallejo’s omonopathy are at timesas impressive as his way of reproducing,

González Prada. As his friend AntenorOrrego pointed out, Vallejo was an avidreader of the poetry from Spain’sGolden Age. He filled notebook afternotebook with variants and imitationsof the Spanish classic poets, such asLope de Vega, Quevedo, and Góngora.There are traces, vestiges, and directquotes from all three in his poetry.Américo Ferrari and André Coynéhave also shown that an invaluable keyto understanding Vallejo’s poetic back-ground is the influence of a few cen-tral poets from the southern cone ofSouth America, including José Herrera,an Uruguayan poet, and LeopoldoLugones, from Argentina. Beyond theHispanic world, it is worth mentioningthe magnitude of the debt thatPeruvian poetry owes CharlesBaudelaire. Peruvian poets firstdiscovered Baudeliare towards the endof the 19th century, as Estuardo Núñespoints out, so that the great French poetwas a sort of contemporary to Darío.Vallejo read Eduardo Marquina’stranslation of Baudelaire, which iscloser, the sensibility of his own poetrythan the original French.

His literary backround complete,Vallejo began his own poetic adventure.In the luminary poem «Los HeraldosNegros» (The Black Heralds) healready begins to distance himself fromthe esthetic of symbolism towards anunknown land that would only bereached decades later by otherrepresentative poets of the 20thcentury. Vallejo protested against ourfate with feelings piety, isolation, andguilt. By projecting man’s innerstruggles towards an order that surpasseshis incivility but cannot save him,Vallejo anticipates Kafka:

Yo nací un día que (I was born ona day that)Dios estuvo enfermo. (God wassick)

Through the emphatic repetition ofthese lines, at the end of «Los HeraldosNegros,» the omnipotent God has beenpurged from Vallejo’s poetry, openingthe gate to the world of Trilce, theHispanic Vanguard’s masterpiece, andto Poemas Humanos (Human Poems),a collection that many consider to bethe high point of Peruvian poetry.

* Professor at the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA).

FIRST BILINGUAL EDITIONEfraín Kristal*

through the linguistic conventions ofEnglish, certain of Vallejo’s poeticliberties regarding spelling and syntax.His version of poem XXXII from Trilce,for example, is quite admirable. No oneis quite sure if, in this poem, Vallejo isdeconstructing words to createfragments of sound, or if, on the otherhand, he is stringing sounds togetherto imitate certain bodily functions.The translator artfully demonstrateshis skill when transposing the followinglines:

999 caloríasRumbbb… Trrraprrr rrach... chazSerpentínica u del bizcocheroengirafada al tímpano

999 calories.Roombbb ... Hulllablll llust ... sterSerpenteenic e of the sweet roll vendorengyrafted to the eardrum.

One need not interpret this poemto feel its emotional force, becauseVallejo’s linguistic and formalcomplexities are not the products ofgratuitous experimentation with poeticlanguage, but rather a manifestation ofthe author’s belief that spoken andwritten language can be lacking whentrying to express human suffering.Vallejo’s dissonance and asymmetry,which is without precedent or evensuccessors in Hispanic poetry, hissilences and his abandonment of theword are not the work of an experi-mental poet, but rather one that isaltering language due to necessity,because he has no other choice. Thesedistortions bubble to the surfacebecause of intense feelings of guilt,embarrassment, and insecurity thatdisarticulate common uses of language.The intimate conviction that satisfyingthe most basic human needs can be

humiliating when faced with thesuffering of our loved ones abounds inhis poetry, and at times it brings him tosilence. Vallejo’s poetry cannot be readon only one level, his poetic voiceunfolds into a myriad of dimensions: itcan suddenly warp from one to another,and at times these different dimensionsbecome part of an irresolvable battle,like when his attempt to capture thehuman voice through writing comesinto conflict with the conventions ofthe written word. Vallejo is not immuneto sentimentality or vulgarity, but hismistakes are those of an inspired poet,able to bend the local and cosmopolitantraditions of his time.

Some consider Vallejo’s poetry themost inexplicable of the 20th century;others consider it to be a deconstructionof the Western logos. According to JoséMaría Arguedas, it is in fact a windowinto the soul of the Andean people:

In his heart and in his spirit, Vallejocarried the wounded and torturedsensitivity of a great nation, which iswhy his poetry is so deep, so throbbingwith human life, so indisputably uni-versal. In Vallejo, Peruvian poetryreaches the highest summit of LatinAmeican lyricism. Rubén Darío wasperhaps a more skilled poet, a greaterversifier, but his voice always expresseseither complaint or happiness, theworries and emotions of one man; hespeaks constantly of his own fate.Vallejo, however, feels responsible forthe pain and fate of all men; he speaksand cries out in our name.

Vallejo’s early work has a well knowndebt to Rubén Dario’s symbolistesthetic, but to other contemporaryPeruvian poets as well: the modernismof Abraham Valdelomar, José MaríaEguren’s symbolic daydreaming, andthe anticlerical virility of Manuel

CLAYTON ESHLEMAN,POET AND TRANSLATOR

Clayton Eshleman was born in the US state of Indiana, in 1935.A distinguished poet and essayist, he has been a Professor of English atEastern Michigan University. He spent a good part of his life studying andtranslating Hispanic writers such as César Vallejo or Pablo Neruda, andFrench writers such as Aimé Césaire, André Breton, and Antonin Artaud.He has won prestigious awards both for his poetry and translation, the Lanonand the National Book Award; in addition he is the author of y Juniper Fuse:Upper Paleolithic Imagination and the Construction of the Underworld (WesleyanUniversity Press, 2003) and My Devotion (Black Sparrow Books, 2004).

O

CHASQUI 6

City of Arequipa. Engraving. Atlas geográfico del Perú. Mariano Felipe Paz Soldán. París, 1865.The Lanzón, 4.50 meter monolith granite idol. Photo: Alejandro Balaguer.

Machu Picchu general view. Photo: Mylene d’Auriol.

Snowcapped mountains of Huascarán. Photo: Renzo Uccelli.

PERU, WORLD H

The history of Peru with its ongoing dramas and sagas sets the stagand capricious here; it has planted almost all the contrasts and diterritory of Peru: cloud forest at the foothills of the Andes, and mysteries. In the procession of the Andes Mountains, the spinal

cultures, whose gifts- the potato, for example-have brought so mufacing the abundant ocean that combines warm and cold currents

History has gone through centuries and millennia, adapt

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CHASQUI 7

Reliefs, Velarde archeological complex. Photo: Heinz Plenge.

Cathedral. Photo: Daniel Giannoni.

Fresh water otters in Cocha Cashu. Photo: Walter H. Wust.

TEN UNESCO WORLDHERITAGE SITES IN PERU

So far, ten places in Peru have been recognized as UNESCOWorld Heritage Sites and hopefully others- such as the ancientcity of Caral, the Qhapaq Ñan or Great Inca Trailway, (in acooperative project with neighboring countries) to cite just afew- will soon be given this esteemed and binding honor.These ten World Heritage sites include national parks andnature reserves, archeological monuments, and historiccenters. There is biodiversity and cultural heritage, the countryand people as we know them today are a result of thecombination of different cultures and peoples. This exhibitionis an invitation to visit and protect these sites, through thework of photographers and artists who have tried to capturesome of their most important elements. One of the greatchallenges in Peru today is, precisely, to protect its heritagewhile sharing it with the world. Fondness for the roots thatfeed it, the enriching act of dialogue and understanding withother peoples and cultures, and consideration for the future,make this a task that cannot be postponed.

«Peru, World Heritage Site» exhibition curated by: Gredna Landolt, CeciliaRaffo, Alonso Ruiz Rosas.

Anthropomorphic figure. Photo: Yann-Artus Bertrand.

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Los Pinchudos, mausoleumsmade by the Chachapoyasculture, carved into a cliffabove the Montecristo River,are the only remainingexamples of wooden funeraryart in Peru. Photo: JorgeFlorez Araoz.

HERITAGE SITE

ge for exceptional storytelling. Nature has been especially generousisparities that one can imagine. The Amazon takes up half of thethen, the jungle itself, with a multitude of towns destined to itscolumn of Peru, condors build their nests, and sun-worshipping

uch benefit to mankind, continue to survive. On the desert coast,, sophisticated cultures flowered, and now modernity roars ahead.ting itself to the landscape and ceaselessly challenging it.

CHASQUI 8

THE POTATO,TREASURE OF PERU

In 1532 Spanish conquistadors reached the IncaEmpire in search of gold and silver. We now know that, along

with the fabulous wealth they found, there was somethingeven more important: the potato, which, like other native foodstuffs, springs from the agricultural talent of the ancient Andean settlers.

The potato has contributed like few other foodstuffs to the fight against world hunger.In Peru there are more than 2,300 varieties of potato. The skill of Peruvian cooks

has transformed their culinary possibilities into a fine art.In 2008, The International Year of the Potato, Peru congratulates

those who eat potatoes, thanks them for trusting the ancient wisdom containedwithin the tuber, and invites them to discover this fine art.

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CHASQUI 9

AJIACO DE PAPAS*(POTATO AJIACO)

Mash 1 kilogram (2.2 lbs) of (boiled)white potatoes by hand and set aside.In a pot, heat several tablespoons ofcooking oil and fry 1 medium sizedfinely chopped onion and onetablespoon of ground hot pepper untilthe onion is transparent. Add ¾ cup ofpureed mirasol pepper, add salt andpepper to taste, and fry. Mix in thepotato and slowly mix in 1 cup of milkand a ½ cup of water, stirring until hot.Add a tablespoon of huacatay and a ½cup of cubed farmer’s cheese, mix well,and serve. Serve with beef or fried eggs.

PAPA RELLENA CON CARNE**(STUFFED POTATOES)

Boil 1 kilogram (2lbs) of whitepotatoes. Peel the potatoes and mashthem while still warm with a potatomasher or whisk. Once cooled, add 1egg, salt and pepper to taste, and knead.Sautee 1 finely chopped onion with atablespoon of ground hot pepper. Whenthe onions are lightly browned, add 2peeled, seeded, and finely choppedtomatoes, let cook for 5 minutes, andadd 250 grams (1/2 lb) of ground beef,50 grams (1 1/2 oz) of raisins, 6 peeledblack olives, 2 tablespoons of cilantroand 2 tablespoons of parsley. Removefrom flame when the beef is sufficientlybrowned. With a spoon or spatula, moldthe mashed potato mixture into 2 circlesa 1/2 centimeter high (1/2 inch) and 8centimeters (3 inches) wide. Takeenough mashed potato to fit in the palmof your hand and mold it into an oval.Add an ample tablespoon of the groundbeef mixture and a slice of hard-boiledegg and cover with another palm fullof mashed potato. Mold into a wellrounded oval. Fry in hot oil. If you like,lightly dust the stuffed potato with flourbefore frying.

PAPA A LA HUANCAÍNA***(HUANCAYO STYLEPOTATOES)

Peel 6 potatoes and cut into thickslices. Sautee half a julienned onionuntil well browned. In a blender, mix200 grams (7 oz.) of farmer’s cheese, 3de-veined and seeded hot yellowpeppers, 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/4 cup ofcooking oil. The texture of the blendedmix should be uniform. Season with saltand two tablespoons of limejuice. Pourgenerously over the slices of potato and

RECIPESserve with a hard-boiled egg, blackolives, kernels of boiled corn, and freshlettuce.

OCOPA AREQUIPEÑA*** (AREQUIPA STYLE OCOPA)

Toast 6 mirasol hot peppers (de-veinedand seeded) in a little bit of oil on highflame. Peel and set aside. Set aside of ajulienned onion and 4 cloves of peeledgarlic. With a pestle and mortar grindthe onion, garlic, mirasol peppers and alittle bit of water into a fine paste. Add afew sprigs of huacatay and continuegrinding. Add 200 grams (7 oz.) ofwalnuts or toasted peanuts and continuegrinding. Add 1/4 cup of crushed Ani-mal Crackers. Add the cooking oil bit bybit until the mixture becomes an evenlydistributed cream. Season. Boil 12potatoes and slice. Serve the potatocovered with the cream sauce andgarnish with half a hard-boiled egg.

CAUSA LIMEÑA******(LIMA STYLE LAYEREDMASHED POTATOES)

Grate 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of yellowpotatoes and place in a large pot of hotsalt water. Slowly bring to a boil andcook until soft, about 15-20 minutes.While waiting for the potatoes to boil,place two red onions in a small bowlwith 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 tablespoonsalt until it turns a rosy pink color. Strainthe potatoes well and when they arecool enough to handle, peel and mashthem finely by pressing through a finemesh sieve with the back of a spoon.Alternatively you can use a potato ricer.Add 1/2 cup vegetable oil, the juice of1 key lime, yellow hot pepper paste andsalt and mix thoroughly until allingredients are well incorporated.

Poach 2 small fillets of sea bass andput aside to cool. Slice an avocado andsprinkle with a little key lime juice andsalt. Drain the onion well and combinewith the yellow hot pepper paste andthe juice of 1 orange. Set aside. Lightlyoil and line a 25 cm (10 inch) rectan-gular loaf pan of mold with plastic wrap.Line the base of the mold with a layerof the potato mixture, pressing downlightly and leveling with the back of aspoon. Spread a thin layer ofmayonnaise on top. Spoon in the cornkernel mixture and add another layerof potato.

Spread another thin layer ofmayonnaise on top of the potato layer.Layer the avocado slices on top andcover with another even layer of potato.Cover with the poached fish, spreadwith a fine layer of mayonnaise andfinally top with another layer of potato.Chill in the refrigerator for at least onehour until ready to serve.

CARAPULCA CON CERDO*(PORK CARAPULCA)

Toast 1/2 kg (1 lb) dried potatopieces in a dry skillet over high heat forabout five minutes. Shake the skilletfrom time to time to prevent them fromburning and be careful not to let them

get too brown. Remove from skillet andcover with double their volume of hotwater. Soak for 1/2 hour.

Cut 1kg (2 lbs) pork into smallchunks or short strips. Heat 3 tbsp oil ina large pan over medium heat andbrown the pork pieces well on all sides,for about 15 minutes. Remove from thepan with a slotted spoon.

In the same pan sauté 2 choppedred onions with 1 tbsp crushed garlic,1/4 tbsp cumin, and 3 tbsp of panca hotpepper paste in the pork fat until theonion is browned, about 5 minutes.Season with salt and pepper.

Add the browned meat and thedried potato along with the liquid intothe pan. Cover and simmer on low heatuntil the potato is tender, about 40minutes. If the carapulca dries out, addsome stock or water, keep stirring fromtime to time to prevent burning.

When the potato is cooked, add 1/2 cup port, 2 cloves, 2 sprigs of choppedcilantro, 1 square of gratedunsweetened chocolate, 10 groundsweet butter cookies, and 1/4 finelychopped roasted peanuts. Cook for anadditional 15 minutes and season totaste.

Let sit 1/2 hour before serving.Reheat and serve hot accompanied bywhite rice.

CHUPE DE VIERNES*****(FRIDAY SOUP)

Fry 1 chopped onion, 2 crushedcloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of hot redpepper paste and 1 teaspoon of choppedhuacatay. Stir until the onioncaramelizes and add 150 grams (5 oz.)fresh peas, 1/2 cup of peeled fava beans,2 diced carrots, 1 cup chopped cabbage,and 1 ear of corn kernels. Stir for severalminutes so that the hot pepper saturatesthe vegetables. Add a sufficientamount of fish broth. If you prefer aheartier soup, add a smaller amount ofmussel broth. When it reaches a boil,add 4 potatoes cut in half, 4 pieces ofcourgette, and 1 cup white rice thathas previously been lightly fried. At thispoint add 1 whole rocotto hot pepper(being careful not to let it burst, as thiswould make the soup too spicy). Whenthe potatoes are ready add 1/2 cupevaporated milk, season to taste, addseveral eggs (one for each serving). Ifyou want, add any pieces of fish orseafood you might have on hand.Before serving sprinkle with gratedcheese. Note: it is important not toallow the corgette to fall apart. Somecooks recommend cooking separatelyto avoid this problem.

LOCRO DE PECHO*****(CHUCK BEEF STEW)

Boil 1 kilo (2 lbs) chuck beef and 1/2 kilo (1lb) beef stomach (cleaned andpeeled) until somewhat soft. Preparethe stewing with, 1/2 kilo (1 lb)chopped peeled potatoes, cumin, mint,and broth, until all ingredients aresumberged. Mash the potatoes and addin the meat. Garnish each serving withchopped cilantro. Serve with rice.

MANJAR BLANCO DE PAPAAMARILLA*(SWEET YELLOW POTATOCARAMEL)

Heat ½ kg (1 lb) of yellow potato,puréed, 1 can of evaporated milk, 1 ½cups of sugar , 1 tablespoon vanillaessence, and 1 tablespoon of butter,stirring constantly. When the mixthikens add 1 glass of port, 1 tablespoonof ground cinnamon, 5 cloves, and 3egg volks. Continue stirring. Removefrom heat when the mixture has acaramel texture. Add 125g (1/2 lb)chopped nuts and mix well

BIEN ME SABE DE PAPAAMARILLA**(YELLOW POTATO SWEETS)

Boil 1/2 litre of milk and add vanillaessence to taste. Boil 4 yellow potatoesand press through a sieve with the backof a spoon, mixing afterwards with themilk. Drain. The syrup is made with 11/2 lbs sugar and 2 cups of water heateduntil thickening occurs. Mix with therest of the ingredients until thick, thenremove from flame and mix in 8 beatenegg yolks and 1/2 cup of port. Heat onmedium flame until the egg yolks arecooked, then garnish with toastedalmonds

DULCE DE COCO Y PAPASAMARILLAS** (COCONUTAND YELLOW POTATOSWEETS)

Prepare the syrup with 1/2 lb ofsugar and 1 cup of water, and when itthikens, add 5 yellow potatoes (boiledand pressed through a sieve while stillhot) and one whole grated coconut.Stir viragously, and when you can seethe bottom of the pot, lower the flame.Beat 10 egg yolks and add little by little,beating until the mix is white.

* Teresa Izquierdo. Mariella Balbi. PromPerú.Lima, 2006. Web: www.promperu.gob.pe.** El Perú y sus manjares. Un crisol de culturas.Josie Sison Porras de De la Guerra.Mastergraf. Lima, 1994.*** Perú, mucho gusto. A compilation.PromPerú. Lima, 2006. Web:www.perumuchogusto.com.**** Peruvian Embassy in France. PeruvianCuisine.Web: http://www.amb-perou.fr.***** Recetario de la cocina de Arequipa.Oswaldo Chanove.Web: http://chanove.rupture.net/indexcocina.htm.****** The Art of Peruvian Cuisine TonyCuster. Lima, 2003.

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CHASQUI 10

el pensar mestizo is not a textwritten to explain mestizos or their

thought. If readers find the titleintriguing, then it was well chosen. [...]Neither is it a book on lexical hybridity,like in Guaman Poma’s works or inGamaliel Churata’s formidable book Elpez de oro (The Golden Fish). Perhapsmy goal is more modest. What I’m reallysuggesting is that the hybridity in thiscollection of essays lies not in languagebut rather in ideas. It is therefore a con-ceptual work. And if that be the case,what does it even mean?

I worked on these texts like somekind of intellectual nomad. True, as aresearcher, as a professor, but in the end,the comings and goings are not whatcounts, but rather not leaving anyimportant subjects behind, like asuitcase forgotten on a train stationbench. When you add the culturalallegiances with which we live, itbecomes a double-edged sword. Andthis is the first point I would like tosummarily explore. The second is howthis intellectual condition, this mentalimbalance common to researchers,paradoxically allows for a specialoutlook, which Ortega explained as«the melancholic privileges of the out-sider.» I am by no means arguing thattheir is no choice besides self imposedexile, but rather inviting the reader tocarefully examine the concept that agreat thinker and sociologist, NorbertElias, has called the work of«distanciation.» The third point is in-evitable, as it deals with a couple ofconcepts which I myself invented.True, Montaigne wrote often in praiseof dépaysement, of traveling, banishingoneself, leaving. Exile, foreignness alsomean, according to the dictionaries, tolose one’s balance, to lose one’s way.The idea itself is quite fertile: someonewho absent mindedly loses his way, wholoses track of the path he was on, mayvery well find a better one. It is an oldidea, that the gates of knowledge opento he who leaves, and as it seems almost«Hebraic», has no other meaning. Theprocess of leaving is full of risk andopportunity. Undoubtedly, reaching thehorizon, discovering other countries,other worlds [...]

What happens when a «criticalintellectual» (but is this not a redundantterm?) is displaced, not only ingeographic terms, but that this mobilityin and of itself gives him a new way toformulate ideas? Is there an intellectualadvantage to exile? Not the exile of

ON MESTIZO THOUGHTHugo Neira

Del pensar mestizo,(On Mestizo Thought) by Hugo Neira* (Abancay, 1936), is a compilation of severalworks on the thinking of Peruvian intelligentsia at the beginning of the twentieth century: González Prada,

Riva-Agüero, Mariátegui, García Calderón, Belaunde, Porras, Haya de la Torre and Basadre.The following text is drawn from the introduction.

nations or bodies, but rather that ofUniversity Departments. In PensonsAilleurs, Nicole Lapierre discusses thisidea in reference to those who crossinterdisciplinary borders. There areexemplary cases, such as that of Lévi-Strauss, who arranged and classifiedAnthropological materials using a mindtrained in philosophy. [...]

The subject is intriguing. What islucidity? From what source floworiginality, dissidence, and scientific,philosophical and political heresy? Inour time there is a passionateexplanation, a theory of original manas outsider, and I refer to the work oftwo researchers. In 1944 thephenomenologist Alfred Schultzreturned to the theme of the strange oroutsider in a different culturalcommunity...»As he does not share allthe basic suppositions of the «relativelynatural world view», the outsider is ableto question almost everything thatseems unquestionable to the native of

the incorporating culture» Schultz alsosignals the «outsider’s greater level ofobjective perceptivity when faced withbehaviors and habits that areunquestionable for the native of thecommunity. And, as paradoxical as itmay seem, this condition of beingoutside (but not completely) permitshim to develop a sharp sensitivitytowards the incoherence or incongruityof the others’ cultural schematic. «Theoutsider is therefore capable ofdiscerning, «says Schultz, «theappearance of a crisis that threatens thevery basis of he relatively naturalconception of the world, whereas thesesymptoms are unseen by other membersof the endogroup, used to trusting thecontinuity of their traditional way oflife.» I have taken this reference to thework of Alfred Schultz from theexcellent work of the Mexicanresearcher Gil Villegas, who in turn wasinspired by the cases of Lucács, Simmel,and Ortega. [...]

These texts are excerpted from achapter called «Anticipations.» Thetitle is no exaggeration. In fact, theanalysis of Caserian Populism, whichdates form 1969, when I was a youngresearcher at the Institute for the Studyof Political Science in Paris, andpublished in the Revue Française deSciences was directly in conflict withFrench contemporary notions of LatinAmerican political case studies, suchas the Peronist, Brazilian Getulist, andPeruvian Aprista movements. Is this notthe very point of research? Newcategories of analysis, a differentreading, other meanings (only visible ifyou have a different way of questioningreality) I would like to point out theimportance of anticipation in this work.When everyone was betting on thetransformation of Latin Americanpolitical life either by Cuban backedguerilla movements or representativedemocracy, I argued that whatwould happen would in fact be thesimultaneously increasing relevance ofthe masses and strongman leadership.At the time, in Peru, there was justVíctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, founderof the Apra party, to speak of. AbimaelGuzman, Alberto Fujimori, AlejandroToledo, and Ollanta Humala had yetto appear on the public scene, and ahumbled, wiser Alan Garcia was evenfurther away. And on the LatinAmerican scene, neither Evo Morales,Lula, nor Hugo Chávez. For partisansof American style analysis, today it isindeed easy to prove the obvious. Theskill is in anticipating a sort ofunchanging variable in public life. Thatof strongmen, whether ferocious orastute, and the emerging masses. [...]

I use the lens of my background asa political scientist to ponder the greatquestions that concern all of humanity.They are indeed few. What is freedom?What is the state? What can be known?What can be hoped for? What directioncan we modestly hope to take? Theauthor, with what he has left ofexistence. You, the reader, with all thatis still needed to create a nation.

Hugo Neira. Del pensar mestizo. (On MestizoThought) Published by Herética Press. Lima,2006. 446 pp.* Peruvian essayist honored at Weimar byan international jury as one of the six greatestessayists in the Spanish language. Since 2006he has been director of the National Libraryof Peru.

D

Manuel González Prada (1844-1918).

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CHASQUI 11

SOUNDS OF PERU

AGENDACHASQUIPeruvian Mail

Cultural Bulletin

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRSUnder-Secretariat of External

Cultural PolicyJr. Ucayali No. 337 - Lima , Peru.

Telephone: (511) 311-2761Fax: (511) 311-2762

E-mail: postmaster@rree.gob.pe

The articles contained herein arethe individual responsibility of theirrespective authors. This bulletin is

distributed free of charge byPeruvian missions abroad.

Translated byJoshua Kardos

Print: Editora Diskcopy S.A.C.Teléfono: (511) 446-3035

OFFICIAL INTERNET SITES

MINISTERIO DE RELACIONESEXTERIORES DEL PERÚ

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peruwww.rree.gob.pe

PORTAL DEL ESTADOPERUANO

Web Portal of the PeruvianGovernment

www.peru.gob.pe

PROMPERÚComission of Promotion of Peru

www.promperu.gob.pe

CULTURE CHANGES THE FUTURE EXCLUSIVE DISTRIBUTOR IN PERU

Nicomedes Santa Cruz.

SUSANA BACA. COLOR DE ROSAY VESTIDA DE VIDA(Play Music, re-released in 2006)

No one can question the globalrelevance Susana Baca has acquiredsince the American Independant labelLuaka Bop decided to announce her im-prescindible existence to the world. It isworth mentioning, however, that she wasnever a particularly well known artist inPeru itself, being fairly well removed fromthe Peña (show bar) culture of Lima andits accompanying scandals. Instead Bacaalways bet on the revindication of herAfrican roots from a multidisciplinaryperspective, and has always been closer—ideologically and esthetically— to poetsand anthropologists than to her «criolla»counterparts. As such, the re-release ofthese two CD’s, long impossible to find intheir original edition, is as valuable as it isfortunate: the great star of ContemporaryWorld Music who started off artisticallyon a sure foot and these two gems donothing more than confirm that DavidByrne was right when he decided toexport her talent to the rest of the world.Both Color de Rosa (1987) and Vestida deVida (1991) should be distributed aroundthe world, the sooner the better.

VARIOUS ARTISTS:. LO MEJORDEL GÉNERO AFROPERUANO.Afro Peruvian Music Classics(Play, 2007)

There have been many attempts togather the numerous hits of the AfroPeruvian repetoire on one CD, arecording that could serve as a sort otsummary of a musical genre that, sooneror later, will be discovered by the rest ofthe world, much like Cuban orBrazilian music within the last severaldecades. Afro Peruvian music is sovaried and rich that there still hasn’tbeen a record able to compile all itsvariants. Although a work like this one,like all compilations, offers animpeccable selection, there are nota-ble absences, rendering it a decentintroduction to the genre for novices.In addition, it is the perfect CD for anycelebration dedicated to honoring theAfrican roots of Peruvian music. Thebig ones are all here: SamboCavero,Nicomedes Santa Cruz, LucilaCampos, Pepe Vásquez, Eva Ayllón andPerú Negro, along with many others.This two CD set includes 42 songs. It’sworth picking up.

MAGALI LUQUE. BÁSICA(Independant, 2007)

There have been few all girl bands inrecent Peruvian history. And before,in the faraway seventies and even theeighties, there were even fewer. In thenineties, the music fan with anexceptional memory will recall Sán-dalo and Lunazul, two exclusively

LA PALABRA VECINA (VOICESFROM NEXT DOOR)

The «Voices from Next Door» (LaPalabra Vecina) Writers’ Conference(Peru-Ecuador, 2007), organized by theMinistry of Foreign Affairs’ IncaGarcilaso Cultural Center and theOrganization of Iberamerican States,was held from September 4th to 13th.This international meeting creates aspace in which to strengthen culturalrelationships between two countrieswith a shared history and memory inthe Andean region, and facing similarchallenges with respect to internal cul-tural diverrsity. The writers chosen torepresent Peru in this conference wereAlonso Cueto, Mario Montalbetti,Oswaldo Reynoso, Rossella di Paolo,Fernando Ampuero and the essayistFidel Tubino. The Ecuadorian writerswho visited our capital city were Fer-nando Balseca, Raúl Pérez Torres, Ja-vier Vásconez, María Fernanda Espi-nosa, Carlos Carrión and AlejandroMoreano. These distinguished authorsshared their experiences as writers andoffered readings of poetry, prose, andessays with the audience. Besides theliterary excellence and intellectual

evolution of the participants as a group,it is worth mentioning the presence ofthe poet María Fernanda Espinosa,Ecuador’s former Secretary of State.

GUEST OF HONOR

Peru was the Guest of Honor at theLIBER 2007 Book Fair, which was heldfrom October 3rd to 5th in Barcelona,Spain. LIBER was dedicated exclusivelyto works by professional writers and waspromoted by the Spanish Editor’s Guild.It constitutes, without contest, thepremier event in the Spanish publishingindustry. There were approximately 700publishing houses present, along with morethan nine thousand professionals from 50countries, including book vendors,distributors, authors, agents, editors,translators, librarians, journalists, professors,graphic artists, and technicians. Peru’sparticipation included 30 publishinghouses, each with its respective samplesand catalogs, which were on display in astate of the art stand at the fair, wherethere were also round the clock samplesof Peruvian Cuisine. Likewise, there wasa varied cultural program, in which theparticipation of Peruvian authors AlonsoCueto, Carlos Germán Belli, Carmen

Ollé, Arturo Corcuera, SantiagoRoncagliolo, Daniel Alarcón, JorgeEduardo Benavides, Fernando Iwasaki,Isaac Goldemberg, Enrique Planas, ToñoAngulo and Carlos Thorne, wasparticularly distinguished. There werealso two photography exhibits. One wasdedicated to the Catalan mapmaker andgeographer Gonzalo de Reparaz, wholived in Peru for many years and carriedout the first complete surveying of ColcaCanyon. The other was «Peru: WorldHeritage Site», photographs of the tenUNESCO designated World HeritageSites in Peru. In addition there was ascreening of Peruvian filmmakerspresented by the Catholic Universityof Peru’s Film Library. The Peru’sparticipation in the event was coordinatedby a multilateral commission headed bythe Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with theparticipation of the National Institute ofCulture, the National Library, PromPeruand the Peruvian Book Industry’sChamber of Commerce. The generoussupport of San Martin de Porres University,the Spanish Editors’ Guild, the CatholicUniversity of Peru, Air Comet, and theSpanish Embassy’s Cultural Center inPeru made this exhibition possible.

PROMOTING CULTURE

female bands who, being honestoffered very few songs that were trulymemorable, with the exception of oneimportant detail. Both included at onetime or another one of the mosttalented and eccentric shapers of thePeruvian music scene, one whodynamically distinguished herself asa creative engine and generator ofsound mixes. I’m referring, of course,to Magali Luque. And the debt of herlong awaited solo debut, with manyof us demanded silently each time weheard about her latest artisticadventure (she has used her voice andtechnical mastery in the service oftheater projects, as part of theCanatautoras project, etc.) has finallybeen paid with this album, Básica, assuggestive and eclectic as Luque’sown interpretative skill, which here isperhaps slightly exceeded by thepretensions and pressures of a sucha huge personal undertaking.Nevertheless, the result, with its highsand lows, is mostly positive. We arelooking forward to her future albums.(Raúl Cachay).

CHASQUI 12

THE WORLD OF BENDAYÁNÉlida Román

Iquitos born and based artist Christian Bendayán (1973) presents his latest exhibition,entitled XXXIII Bendayán*, where dreams morph into obsessions caused by a colorful

world populated by sirens’ calls.

he world proposed by ChristianBendayán, with its dizzying feast

of colors, has the rare ability to confusethe viewer at first glance, and of showingthe tropical exuberance and the total lossof control that the stereotype of the jungleregion forces any painter of its metropolis,Iquitos, to include in his work. Beyondany contribution to the furthering of folkart and traditional images, through theseposters, walls, art naïf paintings, andspontaneous illustrations the artists seeksthe densest symbolic universe possible,one that explores privilege and longing,anxiety and absence.

His openly insolent, excessively happytransvestites are privileged protagonists,

to transmit something deeper. His workdisturbs and at times bewilders the viewer.At first glance it seems to be pureentertainment and perhaps even banalpraise of its subjects, but it constantlyapproaches the question of its being and itsexistence.

Show without judging and ask for ananswer. Knowing there is none.

* Arequipa: Galería de Arte del Centro CulturalPeruano Norteamericano (June 2007). Lima: SalaLuis Miró Quesada Garland, Miraflores Town HallSeptember- October, 2007). Produced and organizedby: Martha Zegarra.See also: Christian Bendayán: un pintor de la selva(urbana).(Christian Bendayán: an artist from the(urban) Jungle Lima, 2007. 144 pp. Blog:www.33bendayan.blogspot.com

characters that communicate unspokenneeds and non-judgmental relationships.They also allude to forms of social ritesand complex frameworks that seem toknit space together through nothing morethan the warmth and friendliness of theirsympathy, the true robes of their sense ofaffirmation.

To complete this parade of diversity,Bendayán chooses to add the iconographyof myth and legend. The mermaid emergesas a sublime symbol, neither wholly romanticnor wholly frightening.

However, this fishlike being is in itselfthe harbinger of the destruction of its owndesires: its ambiguous body impedes itsability to satisfy physically. And in the old

mermaid, dried up, pathetic, one can findthis nucleus which flows through the entireexposition, a tantric instinct that seems tofeed the flesh and vibration that flowsthrough the bodies portrayed here. Despitethe tenderness we could imagine withinthe couple, this sensation of fragility, ofdelirium, or uncertainty is transmittedthrough each one of these paintings.

This sensation is furthered in thelandscapes used, which are at once popu-lar and recognizable. They exude this samepenchant for excess that bursts off thecanvas. In spite of his youth, Bendayán is amature artist. He digs beyond the surface,highlights the immediacy of the visible andthe unexpected, but also goes beyond these

Yo reinaré. 2004. (I Will Rule) Triptych. Oilon canvas 170 x 300 cm.

Enamorados. 2007 (Couple). Oil on canvas 150 cm Ø.Amazonas. 2007 (Amazons) Triptych. Oil on canvas 220 x 360 cm.

El león. 2007 (The Lion). Oil on canvas 140 x 220 cm.

Orilla. 2007 (Riverbank). Oil on canvas 170 x 220 cm. Madre soltera. 2007 (Single Mother). Oil on canvas120 x 90 cm.

T