Lima Centro y Museo Nacional AFROPeruana

This week's excursion into the the city (or outside of my neighborhood) was to the center of Lima. Technically I don't really think it's the center of Lima anymore but when Lima was a small city it was the hub of all activity. You can definitely tell it's one of the oldest parts. A friend and I started at the Plaza de Armas and just explored then went to the Museo. It's a really busy and beautiful part of the city. It's very crowded and touristy but easy to get to on a micro. The buildings in the Plaza are this bright yellow and all the churches and buildings are so pretty and colonial. It reminded me alot of Cusco, which shouldn't be surprising.

This is my friend Lexie in front of the Museum

These are instruments and a scary festival outfit and mask. It's not meant to be derogatory.

An instrument-cow jaw. The teeth are loose so it makes a rattling sound.

A photo of a "madre de leche" (a wet nurse)

These are all the different mixes of white and black-basically different degrees and categories. Very complicated and interesting. It also applies to the Indian (Andean) people and white. "White" here is most specifically Spaniard.

This is a church...with lots of pigeons.

We had a very delicious lunch for only S/18 (about $6) but this Tres Leches cake was the best I've ever had. I've been dreaming about it ever since!

La Iglesia de Santa Rosa de Lima- It's the church of Santa Rosa of Lima. She's a big deal here. Her holiday was in September I think.

"and until the lions have their own historians, the history will glorify the hunter"
This was in the Afro Peruvian Museum. I think it's kind of...heavy. Good food for thought.

Oh yeah! We got a free tour in the museum (we were the only ones there) so it was personal. We did it in Spanish and I understood most of the guy! I felt really good. I can understand tremendously more than I can speak. Lexie and I also tried to speak more Spanish to each other...it didn't last very long but it helped.

Excursion: Lunahuana

On Saturday and Sunday I went on an excursion with the program to a little town about 3 hours away from Lima. It was an action packed weekend which I am still recovering from. Somehow, I lost my voice on Thursday and it still hasn't come back so even though I was really quiet, I had alot of fun! We went rafting, trekking, horseback riding, swimming, tanning (not me), and ate tons of food.

It was a really beautiful place. Something that I've noticed about Peru is that it has alot of natural beauty but at the same time, poverty runs rampant. Like we stayed in a nice hotel and we had a chartered bus for everything. The restaurant we ate all our meals at was four blocks away and we took the bus there. But looking around, buildings were falling apart and barely existent. Most of the people are farmers and we saw a lot of people working the land. It was just a big, contrasting weekend. And a lot of Peru is like this. It's hard to describe but it just goes to show how big of an industry tourism is...

Museo Larco

This past Friday a few friends and I did something productive and went to Museo Larco. It's one of the best museums here in Lima and it's only 10 minutes away (walking). One of my classmates is an archaeology major and is very well versed in pre-historic Peruvian history and he invited us so it was like going on a personal tour. He was better than any guide we could've paid. He's very passionate about what he talks about and in three hours we didn't completely cover the museum. It's a really great museum and I hope I get the chance to go again before I leave.

Failed by the System

The American educational system has failed me.

As a business major I've never had to take a sociology class. But what I'm having problems with is my history class. In all of my educational career, I have never been taught any Latin American history. ABSOLUTELY NONE. Nada. Zip. Zilch. It leaves me asking myself how I made it this far not having any inkling that the Incas existed or that South America is really considerd th first America. I feel dumb sitting in class because all of this is new to me. Not just Peruvian history, but any Latin American history. Before coming here, I couldn't name a single major leader. I could barely name the president (Alan Garcia).

Everyone speaks English. This is an over damatization but it's too close to being true. In all of the foreign countries I 've ever been to( Europe, China) english was taught as a second language. Children grow up actively speaking 2 langages. At the place I volunteer, there are people from other countries like France and Belgium, so they speak Spanish and a little english, plus maybe a little bit of another language. While I had intermittent spanish classes throughout my career. When I went to Germany, I met another girl who was the same age as me (16 at th time). She spoke German, English, and was going to start spanish classes soon. What is wrong with us as Americans if we can't learn to speak just one other language? Why was I never required to take a foreign language for longer than just a year or two? Why was it optional for me as an American student but required of students everywhere else in the world?

It's not an overdramatization to say that everyone knows American history. Ok. Maybe it is. But my point is, most people know enough American history to put me to shame. Granted, I'm not a history buff, but it's really a problem that the world knows the U.S. better than I do. My host parents keep track of the dollar and watch CNN. A vendor at a market asked me how I felt about Obama so far. I read BBC online everday and American news is covered. Yet the only time Latin American countries make the news in the states is when there's something bad like a natual disaster or miners trapped for 69 days.  So maybe not quite Ameican history, but it's embarrassing when people know what's going on in your country more than you do. And it's not because they want to, it's because they have to. And to me that doesn't make any sense.


How can I be an international business major, or just a world citizen, when all I know is what's right in front of me? I know that I'm not the only person who feels like this. Yes. I blame the educational system for all of this. I've taken more than one World History class and it focused on every continent except Lain America.

We've got to do better.

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*Social Reality: Race and Ethnicity*

Even though I’ve only been here for 2 months, I must admit that before coming to Peru, I was a bit naïve and misinformed. And not just about the city and things that I probably should’ve known. But when I saw the syllabus for my class on “Social Reality” I was really interested in the section on “Race and Ethnicity.” I’m a minority in the states. This should be really easy to relate to right? In the states when race and ethnicity are discussed, there’s really only black and white. There are other struggles with other ethnicities, but in all circles, black-white race relations always come up first.


Before the class discussion, I ignorantly assumed that maybe race relations would be the same. People everywhere are prejudiced against citizens of African descent right? Wrong. Three things I learned very quickly are:

• White skin is still preferred. All Peruvians don’t look the same. Some are lighter or have curlier hair, there really is no exact description. And there shouldn’t be. One would think that because such a large proportion of the population is Andean and speaks Quechua, characteristics like straight, dark hair and darker skin would be accepted. But this isn’t so. Lighter skin and curlier hair are preferred. Europeans looks are still considered a standard of beauty and power.
• Skin color is relative. It was surprising to learn that people are considered “whiter” if they are of a certain social status. So even if a person has darker, Indian skin, if they are successful and richer, they have more power. More power and more money means better, and better means “whiter.”
• Asian immigrants were not welcomed with open arms and smiling faces. This is what I was the most naïve about. For some reason I thought that Asian immigrants were welcomed everywhere. I thought that maybe they left their countries because there was a promise of a better life. Surely there wouldn’t be so many chifa restaurants here if people were prejudiced against them? But the terms that they arrived under (as contracted labor) and the discrimination they endured (bombing entire neighborhoods and name calling) were really surprising to me.

The discussion on Asian immigrants was probably most like the struggle of African Americans in the states. Although they weren’t forced to come and were given small wages, they were not welcomed. Asians were brought here in the same way you would buy a tractor on a farm. The tractor makes things easier so it’s only rational that you pay for maintenance and upkeep. I don’t even remember discussing Afro Peruvians. I’m sure they were and are discriminated against. But the texts that described Asians as horrible and dirty people were eye opening. Asian immigrants never wanted to come here and therefore fiercely resisted against assimilation. They formed their own schools and communities to shelter their culture and language. From what I’ve seen being here in Peru, a few hundred years later, it seems that they’ve assimilated. I need to do some research, but what I want to know now is what happened to both those of both African and Asian descent. Why didn’t the population steadily grow?

La Dama Juana

On Thursday night I had the joy of attending La Dama Juana. It's a completely touristy show but it showcases the different traditional dances of Peru. It's a dinner show so there was also a buffet. And my program paid for it!

It was actually alot of fun to be so touristy. As you can see, I actually surprised myself and allowed myself to be dragged up on stage. I forget the name of the dance but the point is to try to light your partner's butt on fire. Good stuff!