Understanding racism in Peru

By Wilfredo Ardito Vega

Even a short visit to Peru allows a foreigner to realize how unfair the income distribution is. A frequent question that many foreigners ask is why the majority of Peruvians accept the existence of a small, wealthy and selfish minority.

There are historical reasons: the Independence of 1821 left the Creoles, Peruvians descendant from Spaniards, as rulers of the new country. They had no interest in changing the Colonial regime’s social structure, which based on race. Therefore, indigenous and black slaves were not considered citizens. Different governments decided that indigenous communities should not have legal rights and their lands were given to Creole landlords or terratenientes, who had the support of the police or the army, in case of indigenous uprisings.

Creoles aggressively promoted the European immigration. Italians, French citizens, Germans and even Spaniards were received in Peru as people of a “superior blood” in order to “improve the race.” Many Creoles had indigenous ancestors and were convinced that marrying their daughters with Europeans would benefit Peruvian society.

During last century there were important changes in Peru, despite the rigid social structure. Many peasants escaped from the Andean haciendas and came to the Coast, looking for more opportunities. Most of them moved to Lima and other cities, which experienced massive growth in just twenty years. In 1969, the military government of General Velasco started an extensive land reform program that gave back to the peasants the land the terratenientes had taken from them.

All these processes helped to integrate Peruvians from different backgrounds, giving them common elements of identity. Illiteracy dropped dramatically and higher education became available to many Peruvians. There was soon a new generation of mestizo (mixed race) or indigenous lawyers, physicians and engineers. The Peruvian middle class is now ethnically more heterogeneous.

However, racism is still pervasive in Peru and victims continue to be indigenous and black people. Bank clerks, policemen, schoolteachers and taxi drivers still judge and are judged by others because of their complexion and other physical features. While a white person is treated submissively, an indigenous person has to show a certain level of education or income in order to be respected.

Racism appears in Peruvian media, where white people are shown as symbols of success, family happiness and prestige and indigenous people are showed as destitute and marginal.

Racism in Peru does not only appear at the entrance of a disco or in the selection of a new employee. Racism appears in the difficult conditions in which most indigenous peoples live in the rural areas, without health care, proper education or paved roads. Indigenous people in southern Peru live an average of thirty years less than their more privilege white compatriots.

One of the worst consequences of racism in Peru was the rebellion of the Shining Path movement in 1980. Its leader, Abimael Guzmán, managed to take advantage of the feelings of frustration and rage in many young people of indigenous origin. Senderista groups committed terrible crimes and acted with unbridled cruelty, even against other poor peasants who resisted their ideas.

Regrettably, the response of the Peruvian army showed similar brutality; thousands of peasants were killed just because their indigenous features made them fit the stereotype of a Shining Path member. They were also not considered real Peruvian citizens with human rights. Soldiers were sure that nobody in the judiciary would care about the lives of poor peasants.

As a matter of fact, most upper and middle class Peruvians who live in Lima and other cities on the Coast showed no concern for the violence in the highland. Most of the soldiers and officers involved in those crimes have not been put into trial and continue to live without any restrictions. No one showed concern when, after the conflict, thousands of indigenous women were sterilized without their consent. Nor is there concern when, every winter, hundreds of indigenous children die in the highlands. Their death is not only because of the cold, because there are many countries with more extreme temperatures, but also because of the poverty and discrimination.

Why is there not a social reaction to such an unfair social system? I would say that this is because most Peruvians are still not able to see personal suffering as part of a social situation. They believe there are individual situations that need individual solutions. In many cases, people are used to very basic standards of living: heaters or radiators are more common in Lima than in the highlands, even in modern cities.

National authorities share the same vision and they prioritize the investment in the most affluent zones. However, local authorities do not escape this mentality; it is quite common to find in a village without tap water or sewage a very modern square made of expensive marble. The next mayor prefers to invest the city hall budget in rebuilding the square rather than taking care of social needs such as malnutrition or illiteracy. One of the worse features of Peruvian racism is that most people believe that extreme social differences are “normal.”

With that said, the biggest problem we face is that most victims of racism think this way. Racism is not only a problem of whites that reject other Peruvians, but also a problem of the sufferers who have accepted and interiorized the issue as normal. Many Peruvians of indigenous, mestizo and African origin consider themselves unattractive and tend to distrust those with the same features. In other countries, the discourse against racism promotes tolerance among different groups. In Peru, the emphasis must be given to self-esteem and self-confidence among those who are discriminated against. Most Peruvian still have to learn how to accept those similar to themselves.