The memorialisation of narratives and sites among indigenous women in Ayacucho: resilience in the aftermath of mass violence and atrocities

Abstract

In this article, we explore the intersection between resilience, resistance and gender in post-conflict Peru and the utilisation of memory in these processes. Drawing upon our extensive fieldwork with grass roots associations of indigenous Quechua women in Ayacucho, we examine how this group of women utilises memories of their resistance during the Peruvian armed conflict in order to cope with their current everyday conflicts and to re-affirm their new spaces of political participation in post-conflict struggles. By commemorating particular stories and places, these living memories play an important role in shaping their past, present and future. In particular, these stories shift the emphasis from women’s suffering during conflicts to their resistance and courage.

Keywords:

• Peru
• political violence
• Quechua women
• resilience
• resistance
• memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

Research reported by Eliana Suarez was funded by an International Development Research Centre Doctoral Award (2010), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship (2007–2010) and Wilfrid Laurier University Research Grant (2012). Carla Suarez field research was supported by an International Development Research Centre Research Internship and her current doctoral studies are supported by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, and the SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canadian Graduate Scholarship.

Notes

1. Before the conflict rondas campesinas were civil defence groups that protected villages from abigeos [cattle thieves]. During the armed conflict, the notion of the rondas was expanded and they were created to protect villages from Sendero Luminoso, but also to avoid being associated with the guerrilla group by the army. People participating in these groups are either known as a rondero or ronderos (plural). We use these terms interchangeably within the paper.

2. The studies informing this paper obtained ethics approval of the International Development Research Centre, Research Ethics Boards of the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier University. Data were collected from individual interviews in 2008, 2010 and 2012 as well as four focus groups in 2010 and 2012.

3. ‘Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed in their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories or parts of them’. (Cobo, 1987, p. 35).

4. Personal communication, member of ANFASEP Directorate, Ayacucho, July 23, 2010.

5. Personal communication, ANFASEP founder member, July 22, 2010.

6. Personal communication, ANFASEP founder member, June 23, 2012.

7. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 20, 2012.

8. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 20, 2012.

9. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 19, 2012.

10. Personal communication, ANFASEP member, Ayacucho, July 23, 2010.

11. ANFASEP board member, Ayacucho, June 23, 2012.

12. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 19, 2012.

13. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 20, 2012.

14. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 20, 2012.

15. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 20, 2012.

16. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 19, 2012.

17. Personal communication, ANFASEP member, July 25, 2010.

18. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 19, 2012.

19. Kidron (2009) defines pathologisation as ‘practices that interpret embodied/emotive signs as symptoms of physical or emotional illness whether or not they are “essentially” pathological’ (p 7).

20. Traditionally, in the times of the Incas and before, corpses were often mummified, revered and saved as sacred objects (for more information see MacCormack, 1991).

21. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 19, 2012.

22. Personal communication, ANFASEP member, July 10, 2010.

23. Personal communication, focus group participant, June 19, 2012.