Peru’s minorities battle racism [Featured]

The BBC’s Dan Collyns, a British journalist based in Lima who brought significant attention to the racist TV character Negro Mama and helped create some of the pressure to get it banned, tells us more about the struggle of Peru’s minorities to get ahead.

June 14, 2010 | Commentary/Opinion

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A taste of Black Peru with Oscar Villanueva

Take a look at this video of Afro-Peruvian dancing…

April 17, 2009 | Music

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Novalima in London [Featured]

An infectiously danceable mix-up of old slave songs, salsa and dub

IT’S impossible not to dance to Novalima’s music.

Their mesmerising Afro-Peruvian rhythms based on 400-year-old slave songs mixed with Latin salsa and Caribbean dub is perfect music for this city of immigrants.

Cramming into the Cargo club beneath the rail arches where an old east London garment workers’ district meets the glittering steel and glass skyscrapers of the City, the nine musicians who make up Novalima bring the sounds of Peru’s Pacific shore to Britain.

April 9, 2009 | Music

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Eating in Lima – What not to miss – Afro-Peruvian

Part three of what not to miss when eating in Lima.
The line that divides the worlds of Creole and Afro-Peruvian food, music and culture generally are ever more blurred together as the melting pot effect takes hold. Black Peruvians contribute heavily to today’s coastal culture which for convenience is often just called “criollo”. What gastro-tourists in Lima are most concerned with though is what Afro-Peruvians brought to the dinner table, and boy did they deliver.

March 10, 2009 | Lima City Guide, Peruvian Food

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Lima – Weekend Getaways

So, what is the tourist, with more time in Lima then they’d prefer and no interest in a city experience, to do?

The truth is, Peru is such a magical place that you do not need to go too far outside the city of Lima to find attractions that rival those elsewhere in the country. From desert oases, pretty Andean villages and ancient pyramids to hiking trails, white water rafting and horseback riding – here’s the run down of nearby weekend getaways.

January 26, 2009 | Lima City Guide, Nature

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The Afro-Peruvian Struggle [Featured]

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.

April 9, 2008 | History

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El Carmen

The town of El Carmen, in the Chincha region of the department of Ica, is in the center of an area that is home to the majority of Peru’s African descendents. It is here in Ica that the majority of slave-owning haciendas were located and when the slaves were finally freed they set up small towns like this one. Their descendents continued to work at the haciendas until their decline and some still work the land to this day, but now its for their own benefit not anyone else’s.

June 26, 2007 | Ica, Pisco, Nazca Guide

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Anticuchos

Originally an Andean cuisine encountered and recorded in history by the first Spanish Conquistadors, Anticuchos are essentially skewered meat of different possible varieties. In Peru, the most common and most tasty of these meats is the heart of a cow. Anticuchos de Corazon are now firmly associated with Black Peruvian culture, and if your Anticucho [...]

September 22, 2006 | Modern Peru, Peruvian Food

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Perú Negra – Black Peru

Afro-Peruvians contribute significantly to the culture of Peru, particularly in music.

Afro-Peruvians make up about 6% of the population and although settled throughout the country along with the spanish conquistadors, can be found mainly along the costal region.

May 19, 2006 | Modern Peru, Music, Traditions

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