Introduction
What didn't I like?
Segregation
As a visitor to Peru, one is unlikely to understand the degree of segregation that divides Peruvian society.
Oh yes, one will see some poor districts as you drive in from the airport to Lima, the shanty dwellings from a distance as one travels to Machu Picchu from Cuzco, or from the tourist train from Lima to Huancayo.
In Miraflores or San Isidro in Lima, the people on lower income levels are courteous, polite and eager to please. Of course they are; they want to keep their jobs! Also, you won't see many Amerindians here even though they make up 45% of the population.
The interaction between the "whites" ( * see right) and the rest is a complex one.
There are un-written guidelines that dictate how each group should behave when they interact with each other.
As a minority "white" you are a member of a privileged group and peer pressure is strong. You cross these guidelines at your peril; if you do, you may no longer be welcome in this privileged group and it could well affect your career prospects and "friends". It is protectionism. The longer you stay, the more likely you are to be, at best, unwittingly complicit in these guidelines, and, at worst, actively support them.
I feel that I have expressed some very strong sentiments and that they deserve an explanation. So I will try.
Let me take Margo in France; she is just one example I could relate.
I employed her as a maid. She would clean the Chartreuse at the weekend during the letting period. She would also cook for our clients. She has served me at formal dinners. Yet, we would always greet each other with a kiss on each cheek. We would share stories and discuss life as friends as we smoked our cigs drinking the tea that I had made.
Sometimes we would have lunch together. If we met in town we would chat and enquire about our respective families as you would with any friend.
Nope, she wasn't part of my circle of social friends, but this didn't stop us behaving as friends.
In Lima, this is not the case; one does not normally ** fraternise with the servants. One may approach a friendship in private; but one would certainly not do so in public. Could you imagine going out to a café with your maid in Miraflores, buying her a coffee, laughing and discussing the political situation, as you would with any friend?
**(I say "normally" because there are always exceptions).
In Lima, I behaved the same with everyone. An example is Jorge.
He is a Mestizo, (mixed race), about 27 years old and is the porter/security guard at my late step-mother's block of flats in Miraflores where I stayed for a month whilst I got my act together. I could feel that the other "white" tenants did not like the "natural" way we conversed. I occasionally made it a matter of principal to hold the front gate open for Jorge to pass through in full view of other tenants; small rebel that I am!
I mentioned above that one may become "unwittingly complicit in the guidelines" of the privileged. This is easy. As soon as you are invited to a family with servants, you would be compromising the servant if you were to speak/behave in a "familiar" way. This may even be something as simple as just acknowledging him/her in a friendly manner. The servant himself/herself would certainly not greet you as a friend. So, as you don't want to compromise the servant, you don't treat her "normally". You've already compromised yourself.
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Segregation (contd)
On the other side, the servile attitude by the disadvantaged that inter-react with the privileged becomes entrenched, reinforcing the superiority of the privileged.
For example, I had great difficulty in stopping Pablo from opening the car door for me to get in. He eventually stopped after I went around and opened the door for him every time he did it for me; it took quite a few attempts before he did stop. Even after this there were the occasional relapses on his part, so entrenched was his behaviour.
I got to know Pablo quite well over the 3 weeks. He used to work for my father. I glimpsed his true feelings, and I know that he resented the cards that life had dealt him; he is a proud man.
Pablo's wife, Dominga, is the maid at my step-mother's apartment in Miraflores.
You can imagine the difficulty I had in getting Dominga to eat together; she did!
Before I returned to London I took her to a concert; she had never been. She adores classical music and listened to it on the radio as she cooked or cleaned the apartment. She was the only Amerindian in the audience.
I loved the fact that Dominga cooked for me and washed/ironed my clothes!
(I am a man after all!)
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However, it is the way that one communicates that is the important fact here.
I have no problem with providing a domestic or personal service.
I did this for Harry when I was the Estate Manager in France, and I am certainly not servile!
Harry was a tough millionaire from New York (The Hamptons) who owned a beautiful, if rather rundown, Chartreuse in the Dordogne in France. He felt that money was the only way of achieving his aims and was rather surprised when I turned down his offer of a wage; I wasn't going to bought that cheaply and I had my own income.
We got on quite well and I was befriended by some of his friends in France.
The French are very socialistic. With obvious exceptions, for example in Le Seizième arondissement in Paris, Cap Ferret or in Nice, one does not flaunt ones wealth in public.
Believe me. This is but one example: A man in a bar in the Dordogne being served last because he flaunted his wealth in the expectation of being served quickly. What a mistake he made!
Most of us (older ones) are resistant to change. I am no exception.
I guess this is why the younger generations are so important; they embrace change.
My previous contact/inter-action with disadvantaged Peruvians left me in no doubt that they were un-educated. The majority were un-educated forty years ago!
As a privileged person living in Peru why would you want to change the status-quo; the benefits of cheap labour are evident. One never needs to clean ones house, cook, wash the dishes, clean the car, wash/iron, nor do the shopping. There is a servant to do this at very reasonable rates.
I believe that social change in Peru is inevitable. The real questions are:
"How long will it take?", and, "Will it be achieved democratically?"
"Have the lessons of the brutal internal conflicts in the 1980s been learnt?"
I sincerely hope so. This is why education of the disadvantaged population is so important; they must be given an equal opportunity to participate in Peruvian society and to benefit from the country's wealth.
* end *
Which ethnic groups do you believe have power in the following institutions?
Ethnic groups used by Maritza Paredes as a % of population:
1: White 9% 2: Mestizo 54%
3: Cholo 18% 4: Indigenous/Andean 18%
"Mestizo" is a person of mixed race. "Cholo" is used (usually pejoratively) of somebody of indigenous origin living in the city.
Please use the "Contact Form" on the right to contact me.
Especially if you are interested in supporting this project; to build the first of eleven State of the Art Community Learning/Cultural Centres across Peru specifically for the disadvantaged.
The first is to be located in a disadvantaged district of Lima - Villa María de Triunfo.
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Performing Arts
"Whites"
"Whites" are Peruvians with no Peruvian indigenous blood.
They are predominately, but not exclusively, from Spanish descent.
Picture: Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez; 47th President of Peru, July 28, 2006 - today.
With two exceptions, all the Peruvian Presidents have been "white".
(2001-2006: Alejandro Toledo, nick-named "El Cholo", was of Amerindian descent. 1990-2000: Alberto Fujimori, was of Japanese descent).
"Whites" represent 15% (4M) of the 28M Peruvian population.
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Pablo and I eating anticuchos in Miraflores
Dominga, Pablo's wife
Social Inter-action in France
Harry had asked me to get hold of a cook for 2 or 3 days on one of his infrequent visits.
I caught Margo on the first day as she was making her escape having cooked lunch for Harry. She was crying and very upset at the way Harry had spoken to her and vowed never to come back!
"It's a shame you didn't get on with Margo", I said to Harry later in the day. He didn't understand, and, after I had explained what had happened, he asked me to persuade her to come back; she is a great cook!
The next morning, as Harry came down for breakfast, I was sitting on the worktop in the kitchen chatting with Margo; the following day so was Harry!
(I may have got him to greet her with a kiss on each cheek had I had another week !)
An Amerindian in Soria-Spain
On a visit to Soria-Spain in 2004 I was taken aback when I saw an Amerindian instructing another colleague in the Hostel on how to go about cleaning the rooms.
She was assertive, polite and matter of fact, as she explained to a Polish girl how to clean the rooms.
I had never seen an Amerindian in this role before; instructing a "white"!
I just stood there and smiled in amazement.
It was so good to see!
Given the right education and opportunities, we are all capable of making a positive contribution to society, regardless of our background.
The perception of power being in the hands of the "whites" is striking if one looks at the results of a survey for San Juan de Lurigancho, one of the "New Towns" in Lima. pop: 898,443.
For example: 70% of the people surveyed in San Juan de Lurigancho believe that "whites" have power in "Big Private Firms". 45% of the people surveyed in San Juan de Lurigancho believe that "whites" have power in "Local Government" and "Central Government". This is even higher, 50%, for the police and 60% in the media.
I would suggest that one would find very similar results in all of the "New Towns" in Lima.
Source: "Exploring Ethnicity in Peru" by Maritza Paredes, University of Oxford, England (2007).
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