The Peru Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Latin America Readers)

Sixteenth-century Spanish soldiers described Peru as a land filled with gold and silver, a place of untold wealth. Nineteenth-century travelers wrote of soaring Andean peaks plunging into luxuriant Amazonian canyons of orchids, pythons, and jaguars. The early-twentieth-century American adventurer Hiram Bingham told of the raging rivers and the wild jungles he traversed on his way to rediscovering the “Lost City of the Incas,” Machu Picchu. Seventy years later, news crews from ABC and CBS traveled to Peru to report on merciless terrorists, starving peasants, and Colombian drug runners in the “white gold” rush of the coca trade. As often as not, Peru has been portrayed in broad extremes: as the land of the richest treasures, the bloodiest conquest, the most poignant ballads, and the most violent revolutionaries. This revised and updated second edition of the bestselling Peru Reader offers a deeper understanding of the complex country that lies behind these claims.

Unparalleled in scope, the volume covers Peru’s history from its extraordinary pre-Columbian civilizations to its citizens’ twenty-first-century struggles to achieve dignity and justice in a multicultural nation where Andean, African, Amazonian, Asian, and European traditions meet. The collection presents a vast array of essays, folklore, historical documents, poetry, songs, short stories, autobiographical accounts, and photographs. Works by contemporary Peruvian intellectuals and politicians appear alongside accounts of those whose voices are less often heard—peasants, street vendors, maids, Amazonian Indians, and African-Peruvians. Including some of the most insightful pieces of Western journalism and scholarship about Peru, the selections provide the traveler and specialist alike with a thorough introduction to the country’s astonishing past and challenging present.

This anthology is "a mixedfield, cross-disciplinary anthology" of literature written by Peruvians and by outsiders who have studied Peru closely.

The first half of the collection contains essays and excerpts from the writings of important historians who have studied Peru, including Garcilaso de la Vega, John Hemming, Ricardo Palma, Steve J. Stern, Alberto Flores Galindo, Florencia Mallon, Luis Valcarcel, and Jose Carlos Mariategui. Each essay deals with major historical events. It also includes a number of historical documents difficult to find elsewhere.

The second half of the book is harder to characterize. The emphasis is on Peru's socio-economic deterioration during the 1980s -- Velasco Alvardo and the military reformist government, the Shining Path and drug traffic. It also includes essays, folklore, poetry, songs, short stories, autobiographical accounts, a menu, a travel account, a death sentence, and photographs. Works by Peruvian intellectuals and politicians appear next to those by peasants, street vendors, maids, Amazonian Indians, and African-Peruvians. Some of the best writing comes from Western journalists.

As a result, the second half of the book is uneven and unbalanced, mixing academic and nonacademic writings in a somewhat confusing way. The emphasis is on culture, history, and politics -- there is very little on Peru's economic history -- the guano and fishing booms, debt problems, increasing poverty and a number of other social issues.

At the end of the day, though, putting together a representative view of Peru must be very difficult. Peru is a complex country with many difficult historical episodes. Despite the many gaps in this complexibility, this is nonetheless a good collection of articles that reveal many aspects of Peru's complex history, culture, and politics.

It should be noted that the second edition from 2005 is worth searching out. There are not a large number of changes from the first, 1995 edition, but some contributions explore more recent developments. I found this a wonderful resource to dip into over several months preparing for a first trip to Peru, and found much to agree with (and disagree with) when I was actually on the ground in that fascinating country.

Robert C. Ross 2008

This is a great book for the history of Peru. The chronological order is perfect. All the essays are wonderful to read. I think I learned more about Peru with this book than any other.

What a wonderfully literate collection of writings which give the traveler (actual or armchair) both the information and flavor he needs to introduce him to this complex country. I started too close to my departure for Peru to read every word, but found myself unable to decide what to skip. What seemed a boring topic turned out to be fascinating! So, start early -- the book is pretty bulky to carry on your trip.

I took this book to Peru on a trip to see the great archeological sites. I was blown awqy by the information I got from this book. Not only was I informed on so many topics but introduced to several brilliant Peruvian authors. The book was so strong I wept deeply over the history of the native peoples, I was amazed at the strength to survive under the most difficult political and cultural situations. The book was so well written that all the history and politics, not my usual reading, soaked in painlesssly, actually joyfully. I wish there were such a great book to take on every trip I go on, it enhanced my trip a million times over.

Perhaps this book's overwhelming for a newcomer. But, if you have a basic knowledge of Peru already, this over 500-page collection of stories, chapters from academic books, poems, folktales, political reportage, popular journalism and interviews, and historical and anthropological coverage satisfies the need in English for a comprehensive starter for further research and reading on many topics.

Organised into chronological order, sections progress from pre-Inca, Inca, Conquest, Post-Conquest, Colonial and Republican periods into the 19c. These intersperse scholarly investigations with narratives. Then, politics, the Shining Path, the drug wars, the urban squatters turning land into new communities, activists among the feminist, evangelical, and gay communities, liberation theology and local leadership, and life among both villages and in Lima add chapters that comprise about half of the total text.

Most rewarding for me were the chronicles by the Incas after the Conquest, John Hemming's chapter on Atahualpa and Pizarro, folktales bookending the text from early and Amazon peoples, Steve J. Stern's analysis of post-Conquest creolisation and its discontents, Manuel Cordova's tale of life a century ago after he was abducted by Amazon indians, and the fascinating account by Catherine J. Allen from her The Hold Life Has all about coca-leaf ritual bonding. Anyone who associates coca only with cola or crack might learn a lot from this anthropological description of how chemicals sustain fellowship, and also force gatherings to acknowledge etiquette and social class distinctions--even under the influence!

The literary offerings, poems, novel excerpts, and stories, are less intriguing, but worthwhile. I sense some of these--as with the Vargas Llosa chapter from his novel Conversations in the Cathedral--were a bit wrenched out of a more rewarding context.
I wish the past ten years, the downfall of Fujimori and the attempt by Toledo to stabilise a tottering state, could have been included in an updated edition, which could also look at the fate of Guzmán and his Shining Path cohorts. Life in the diaspora--a million Peruvians live abroad--would also be enlightening. But, until these hypothetical additions, this is a promising book for anyone curious about Perú. As the back jacket asserts, there's nothing like this in English--or Spanish.

Also recommended: Robin Kirk's The Monkey's Paw for 1980s/early 90s Peru; Gustavo Gorriti's history, translated by Kirk, on the Shining Path, and Vargas Llosa's memoir of running for president, Fish Out of Water; his novelisation of Guzman, The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta; his mystery novel also set in this period, Death in the Andes.