PERU: Racism and Discrimination Plague Mestizo Majority

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Zoraida Portillo

LIMA, Dec 29 1994 (IPS) - A popular Peruvian soap opera and the excessive zeal of presidential candidates to appear in indigenous dress are two symptoms that according to experts demonstrate the racism that underlies Peruvian society, a predominantly mestizo country.

. The popularity of the soap opera “Those from Above and Those from Below” lies in the fact that mestizo actors play the leading characters rather than the typically white-skinned stars that usually crowd the screen, according to its producers. “For the first time the star, Chamochumbi, represents the 80 percent of the population that gets up early and finds a way to avoid dying of hunger,” said the programme’s French director Michel Gomez, interested in what he calls “political Peruvian folklore.” Meanwhile, presidential candidates, including President Alberto Fujimori and former United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, dress in multi-coloured traditional indigenous outfits, dance huayno – a typical Andean dance – and babble a few phrases of Quechua to show they are really “of the people”. Alejandro Toledo, a Harvard-graduated economist of Andean origen, has called himself the “golden mestizo” and thus best fit to govern a country of mestizos. “Peru continues to be a racist country,” according to Federico Dejo Soto, social researcher at the National Agrarian University, showing the results of a survey on racism. The survey shows that mestizos are more discriminated against than blacks; 40 percent of the population has felt discriminated against at some point; and 81 percent has witnessed racial discrimination in workplaces, schools and other public places. “When I read an ad that calls for ‘good presence’ I know I shouldn’t show up. It is as if they had put ‘mestizos: do not apply,” said Vilma Ayamamani. Vilma was born in Lima but her parents are from the Andes – where half of the country’s population is concentrated – and she said that “all her life” she has felt discriminated against. “In school they laughed at my last name, they called me ‘highlander’ and made me cry, but what bothered me most was that they were just as ‘highlander’ as me. “Sometimes when I go shopping I am asked if I want to work (as a servant) and when I apply for a job they ask me if I’ve really studied engineering,” said Vilma, who is now working as a secretary in a construction firm. When people from the interior who have had to flee political violence in the Andean region are asked about what has been most difficult for them living in Lima, they invariably mention discrimination, saying city people make fun of the way they talk, their clothes and their customs, and treat them as if they were inferior. “Peru is the most racist country in Latin America,” said the president of the Movement for the Human Rights of Blacks, Jorge Ramirez, basing his statement on over 100 documented cases. Ramirez himself has suffered from discrimination. He told how several times judges have confused him with his client when he was acting as defence lawyer, and a professor predicted he would never become a judge because of his skin-tone. “An undercover system of apartheid is practiced here, which manifests itself in jokes and nicknames,” Ramirez stated. “I think in general terms mestizos are more discriminated against on a daily level than are blacks: they are left out and scorned, and are the butt of jokes. But if you think about it, blacks are equally despised,” said Jorge Davalos, “black and proud” according to self-definition. “Have you ever even thought of a black admiral?” Davalos asked. Another survey, carried out by Catholic University students in poor areas of Lima, found that racism is a constant that blocks the emergence of an authentic cultural identity. “Blacks make fun of ‘cholos’ (mestizos), who make fun of Indians, who aggressively defend themselves against everyone,” states the report, which implies that whites enjoy the opportunities and choices in Peruvian society. “Peru is a multi-racial country where you can find representatives of any colour. The fact that our President is of Asian origin makes it looks like we are very democratic in terms of racial issues, but that is not true,” said sociologist Sonia Galvan, who is carrying out a study on racism.