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Abstract
This article discusses how, in the aftermath of the Peruvian internal war, people in the community of Chapi refer to themselves as ‘marginal’ when they explain their relations to the Peruvian state. Through an analysis of the category ‘marginal,’ a term originally coined by scholars but commonly applied to rural Quechua people, I explore how these people partially accept subordination, but also express hope that the state will take care of them. Beyond its uses and intentions, labeling rural Quechuas as ‘marginal’ reinscribes and reproduces subordination and the animosity manifested toward them by dominant Peruvian society.
Notes
[1] During the war, local civilians organized themselves militarily in the form of rondas campesinas, also known as comités de autodefensa, arming themselves with white arms such as knives. In contrast with other regions of Peru, like Cajamarca, rondas campesinas did not exist in Chungui before the war.
[2] The community of Chapi was until 1972 one of the biggest haciendas in the region. It had suffered a long history of abuse and exploitation, but had also seen important local rebellions instigated by local leaders who wanted to get rid of the hacienda regime. As a consequence of this rebellion, local leaders (men and women) were sent to jail. A couple of years later, the ELN (National Liberation Army), a Cuban-style guerrilla group, contacted the imprisoned leaders. This established a formal collaboration between hacienda workers and the ELN, which finally killed Miguel and Gonzalo Carrillo in 1965 (for an extended discussion, see Koc-Menard Citation2011).
[3] Within the district of Chungui, there are two major peasant communities: Chungui and Chapi.
[4] Most members of what is now the older generation in the community of Chapi were killed during the war. Thus, the community of Chapi today mainly consists of middle-aged people.
[5] The reasons for this would be an interesting topic for future research.
[6] Fujimori’s Government, wishing to underscore the success of its pacification program and its eradication of the Shining Path, organized caravans in which families formerly displaced by the internal war returned to their communities. This process was well publicized by the national and international media. However, not all returnees had wanted to return, and once the show was over, many returned to the city.
[7] The sierra is the region located in the middle of Peru on the north–south axis, mainly composed of the Andean highlands. Before Pulgar Vidal suggested eight natural regions for Peru (1938), the country had been conceptualized as having three natural regions: costa (coast), sierra (highlands), and selva (Amazon). Each of these traditional regions was associated with a particular race: costa with Creoles, sierra with Indians, selva with ‘chunchos’ (lowland indigenous groups).
[8] In 1969, with the announcement of the agrarian reform by military President Velazco Alvarado, the suppression of the word ‘Indio’ was proclaimed because it was pejorative. From then on, Indios became peasants – in other words, they were owners of their own means of production: the land.
[9] The general term applied to insurrectionary groups like the Shining Path and the MRTA (Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement) was ‘the subversion’ (la subversión).
[10] Today, people tend to mistrust anyone who is doing research on issues related to land and struggles over land. This attitude has mainly been a consequence of the mining boom in Peru, which local families generally oppose. Aware of the land and pollution problems in other regions such as Cajamarca, people in Chungui argue that mining activity would only result in deaths in the district.
[11] In explaining how racial ideologies work, it is important to look at the practices that led to the racialization of particular groups. Even though I am trying to explain how these practices work, the categories revealed through my analysis are not necessarily evident to some readers as race proxies.
[12] After decades of exploitation and abuse by plantation owners, in 1972, agrarian reform was carried out in Chapi. However, this new period accentuated important gaps between families, creating unexpected levels of inequality and accentuating important differences in status and wealth. Some families became richer, while the vast majority became their workers. The egalitarian society that many expected to achieve with the end of the hacienda regime was shattered by a handful of families who had wealth and essentially stepped into the role of the former hacendados.
[13] An example of essentializing Andean inhabitants as backward and ignorant was the case of Uchuraccay in Ayacucho. In 1983, eight journalists were killed by members of the community. A commission, led by writer and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, was called to investigate these events. The Uchuraccay Commission stated that the local population killed the eight journalists after mistaking cameras for guns, and that they were so isolated and backward that they did not know that killing was against the law.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nathalie Koc-Menard
Nathalie Koc-Menard is at the Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima, Perú (Email: [email protected]).