CULTURE-PERU: By Their Names You Shall Know Them

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Abraham Lama

LIMA, May 6 1998 (IPS) - President Alberto Fujimori would not be able to name his daughter Keiko if she were born today, according to a new regulation that forbids the use of names deemed extravagant, irreverent, contrary to public order, or foreign.

Fujimori, the Peruvian-born son of Japanese immigrants, married another “Nisei” and, like many Peruvians of foreign descent, the couple gave their daughter a name linked to the family’s cultural roots.

Today, howeever, regulations promulgated by the Fujimori government would have precluded him from naming his daughter Keiko, who acts as First Lady of peru since the divorce of her parents.

According to a supreme decree that became effective last week, it is forbidden to register last names (native or foreign) as first names of children or names that encourage gender confusion.

The new regulation has provoked unanticipated debate, both in favor and against, in spheres ranging from esthetics and politics to ideology and human rights.

The new law empowers employees of the National Register of Identification and Marital Status (RENIEC) to decide whether or not to veto the name proposed by a parent when, in the opinion of the registrar, it does not correspond to the social and cultural framework of Peru.

The left-wing parliamentarian Henry Pease (whose name now would not be acceptable to the registrar) announced that he would push for a revision of the decree “because it contradicts principles established by the constitution.”

Similar complaints have come from opposition congressmen Manuel Lajo, Lustenio Morales, Antero Flores Araoz and officials Victor Jow Way and Aurora de Jes#s Torrej”n.

“Regulation of names is absurd and has as its real motive the distraction of public attention from fundamental problems,” affirmed another deputy, Fernando Olivera.

But functionaries of RENIEC and the until now isolated voices of certain legislators and politicians defend the regulation.

“It will prevent parents from giving their children ridiculous names such as the following which we have found in the registers: “Circuncision” (Circumcision), “Degollacion” (Slaughter), and “Neurona H20′ (Neuron H20)”, explained Victor Guevara, an employee of RENIEC and author of the regulation.

Guevara added that registrars will be able to veto names such as “Lenin,” “Carlos Marx,” and “Fidel Castro” “because they have political connotations opposed to the social order.”

“The intention of the regulation is to protect children from parental caprice and to assure they are inscribed in the Civil Register with names appropriate to the social and cultural framework of our country,” he said.

Guevara stated that names of Spanish origin and spelling “would be in accordance with Peruvian culture.” That definition would prohibit the inscription of distinguished Quechuan names such as Atahualpa or Pachacutec, names of more authentic Peruvian lineage than those of Spanish origin.

The regulation “is inspired by similar rules that exist in Argentina and Italy,” stated the ex-Minister of Justice Carlos Fern ndez Sessarego, legal adviser to the RENIEC commission that elaborated the government approved project.

The former social democratic representative Javier Valle Riestra objected to the decision making power awarded to the registrars, who would be able to impose their own particular esthetics, social, or political criterion. But he also emphasized that the rule would have a positive, anti- imperialistic effect.

“By avoiding names of English origin, the language of the potential imperialist dominator, we will protect our cultural identity and avoid the embarrassment of such names as “Freddy Quispe” or Washington Mamani,” he stated.

Also in favor of the regulation is the legislator Martha Hildebrandt, member of the Peruvian Academy of Language (Spanish) who characterized the more than ever frequent custom of registering children with foreign diminutives as being nothing less than ridiculous.

“It is ridiculous that anyone be named ‘Jimmy,’ ‘Freddy,’ or ‘Johnny’ when they could just as easily be called ‘Jaimito,’ ‘Federiquito,’ or ‘Juanito.’ It’s good that they prohibit it,” she exclaimed.

In all likelihood, the way in which the above mentioned legislator writes her own name – with the intermediate “h” corresponding to the English spelling of “Marta” rather than to the Spanish – would not be acceptable to the registrars who now use as a standard the new regulation that she defends.

The Catholic Church, some of whose members refuse to baptize children with names that do not pertain to the Calendar of Saints, has yet to offer an opinion regarding the regulation.