…en Perú - Travel Culture History News

^{A street in Arequipa gets repaved for the up-coming APEC conference in the city.}

Peru is hosting a glut of international conferences this year, from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits to the Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union summits. Vast sums of money are being spent renovating the major thoroughfares of cities that will host meetings, such as Lima and Arequipa.

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According to Microsoft, in 2007 the software industry in Peru lost $59 million to piracy. Much is lost of course, but the truth is that S./10 spent on a CD at a market stall is not S./900+ lost to Microsoft or others.

The software industry’s pressure on the Government to crack down on piracy, unlike that from the movie industry, is likely to cause them far deeper losses as customers are forced to discover free alternatives.

News of universities in Peru taking advantage of these free, “open source” alternatives might mean this change is already on the way, potentially saving the Peruvian economy hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Thousands of graduates highly-trained in open source technologies might lead to Peru’s institutions rejecting hard-sold and expensive lock-in agreements with companies such as Microsoft when the same software, often of equal or greater quality, is available for free.

El Comercio reports that universities in Abancay, Arequipa, Ayacucho, Cerro de Pasco, Chiclayo, Huancayo, Lima, Piura, Puno, Tacna and Trujillo, are now giving classes and workshops in open source alternatives.

Christian Palacios, who is organising the Fourth Latin American Festival of Open Source Software that is funding these workshops, laments that this change isn’t happening fast enough. “Indecopi (Peru’s competition and intellectual property department) does not tell users what the alternatives are, they only pressure them into buying proprietary software like Windows.”

Because the alternatives are so little known, Palacios goes on to explain, even colleges implicitly encourage students to buy pirated proprietary software when free alternatives exist.

These students, accustomed to what they have been using, ripple out this dependence into the economy creating huge costs for what is still a very poor country. Despite countries such as Russia, China, even Germany and other European nations taking advantage of free alternative software to lower costs in government and industry, Peru still hasn’t cottoned-on. Hopefully this will soon change.

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A regular tourist stop, the Molino (mill) of Sabandia is located 8km from the city of Arequipa. Built in 1785 in white sillar volcanic stone, its architectural style is very in-keeping with the region.

Stone grinding wheels for wheat processing were restored in 1973 and continue to work well, powered by running water from the nearby river.

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Living on the altiplano – the Andean plateau – are the South American camelids. Llamas and Alpacas have found themselves domesticated by humans and have lived this way for as much as 6000 years. Guanacos and Vicuñas on the other hand still exist in the wild and are heavily protected by law. They are all somehow able to thrive on the tough vegetation and harsh extremes in temperatures that we find at these altitudes. Although these species are distinct, they are close enough to interbreed.

In fact, it’s probably due to the work of ancient humans that the four exist.

Pre-Inca cultures used camelids for food and clothing before beginning to herd them. By the time of the Incas, systemic breeding was taking place. Distinct breeds of llamas and alpacas had come about, and these were separated further into colours and fur lengths.

When the Spanish arrived in Peru, they found civilisations based on textiles. Textiles were used for everything, from clothing, to currency and even bridge construction. Debts, rewards and military salaries were paid in woven textiles with ever more complicated patterns.

To the native peoples, alpacas were considered divine gifts from Pachamama, given on the condition that humans were to care for them and respect them.

The Spanish, however, were only interested in gold. They slaughtered alpacas and llamas in an effort to subjugate the native people, banning their traditional weaving and uses for alpaca fur. It is estimated that as many as 90% of all alpacas and llamas in South America were killed and left to rot. Carefully bred herds, divided by colour and quality were killed or dispersed.

The animals we have today are the descendants of those hidden by natives out of the reaches of the Spanish conquerors.

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Peruvians in the United States are pleased as fellow Peruvian Amparo Alam won a cook-off competition on the show Ultimate Recipe Showdown on The Food Network. In the Chicken category, the 51 year old mother, originally from Lima now living in Utah, entered her dish as “Peruvian Herb-Roasted Chicken”. Citing it as her mothers recipe, something she enjoyed as a birthday treat as a child, the chicken is roasted after being marinated with fresh Peruvian lemons, cumin, basil, garlic and the magical Peruvian chilli, huacatay. Accompanied by fried sweet potatoes, her dish soundly defeated the other eight competitors entries, winning 99 of the possible 100 points available.

The crisp spicy chicken won her $25,000 and her recipe is now on the menus of T.G.I Fridays restaurants across the United States.

“What’s great about this dish is that it just screams ‘Friday’s’,” said Scott Randolph, of T.G.I. Fridays R&D.

“We are very excited to bring America’s greatest recipes to our guests,” said Mike Archer, president of T.G.I. Friday’s USA. “These are real recipes from real people and their creations have inspired menu items that are only available at Friday’s.”

T.G.I. Friday’s have every reason to be ecstatic. Peruvian food makes waves wherever it is introduced.

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Designed by a well known frenchman, Gustave Eiffel of tower fame, the Puente de Fierro (or Bolivar as it is sometimes called) was built in 1882 to be used as a viaduct for the train route to Cusco. At 488m long it was the longest in the world at the time, until some years later it was beaten by a Scottish bridge. Even today, not including suspension bridges, it is still the 7th longest bridge that exists.

The bridge crosses the river Chili in La Arboleda in southern Vallecito, a nice residential area. Photos are, as always, attached.

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The city of Arequipa was founded in 1540 by Garcí Manuel de Carbajal, who in the nearby fertile lands of Huasacache built his mansion. Huasacache, in the valley of the river Socabaya only a short distance from the city, passed through various hands over the years until it was bought by Jesuit missionairies.

The Jesuits made many additions to the home, most notibly several new rooms and an adjoining chapel. It became a place for retreats and meetings. When the Jesuits were expelled from all Spanish territories in 1767, the land and the mansion were confiscated by the local government and sold at auction for 68,965 silver pesos.

After being sold and bought again, the lands and mansion passed into the hands of another famous family, that of Juan Crisóstomo de Goyeneche y Aguerrevere, a captain of the Spanish army. It was a family in which it stayed until 1947 when his descendants parcelled and sold off the land.

In 1978 a group of enthusiasts of Arequipeña architecture bought the mansion, now laying in ruins, and over many months restored all that was lost. It has since been open to the public as a tourist attraction.

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Arequipa’s “Old Bridge” began life on the 11th of June in 1577, but it took until 1608 to be completed at a cost of 150,000 silver pesos. The city was in need of a way across the river Chili from the city’s center, and Spanish architect Juan de Aldaná oversaw the project during all this time.

On the near side, the bridge fuses with the picturesque houses on the river’s edge, from which you can appreciate the bridge’s structure.

In recent decades, the look of the bridge and surrounding area has changed dramatically. The avenue “La Marina” has since been constructed, and the river has lost some of its breadth to make way. The bridge itself has been widened somewhat to incorporate walkways and new railings.

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As the Inca Mayta Capac passed with his soldiers through the valley in which modern Arequipa sits, some asked to stay behind. “Ari quepay”, he said. Yes, stay.

The Spanish, when they arrived in these lands, often pronounced local words badly and named their new city the Villa Hermosa de la Asunción del Valle de Arequipa. Only Arequipa stuck.

Beneath the Misti volcano, the colonial city took on a unique look. Built from the white volcanic rock found in the area, the city quickly grew to be very beautiful. Its splended white colonial buildings are still to be seen around the centre, some painted in Spanish colonial colours.

The photos attached are of the plaza, and surrounding buildings.

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The following article by C. J. Schexnayder, posted on his blog Andean Currents, is available in full here.

The plight of Afro-Peruvians has long been overshadowed by the conflict
between the Spanish and Indian cultures but there is reason to believe
that could be changing.

…

Current estimates put the black population in Peru between 5 and 10
percent of the estimated 28 million residents of the country. By
contrast, between 44 and 70 percent of the population of Brazil – about
200 million – are black.

…

Many of the blacks who were brought to Peru by the Spanish were not originally from Africa but from other colonies.
As a result they had already been assimilated into the Hispanic culture
– a fact that placed them in an uneasy social position above the native
Indian populace.

…

Today, Peru even celebrates Afro-Peruvian Culture Day on June 4, the birthday of famed folklorist Nicomedes Santa Cruz.

A little more about Black Peru here.

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