Helenista fabuloso!

¡Te recomiendo que escuches este audio de iVoox! Bernardo Souvirón - El viaje como experiencia vital - Gilgamesh - Odiseo http://www.ivoox.com/1084006

Chomsky y el modelo de la propaganda - Chomsky and the propaganda model

I haven´t wrote for a long time since I was very busy and empty for ideas. But after watching this video (unfortunately only in Spanish), I feel so relieved that a person so great as Chomsky clarifies all my doubts. It makes me feel that I am not wrong about my perception of life.

I hope you can enjoy it if you can Spanish or at least try if you are learning Spanish.

Martin Chambi: A great Peruvian photographer

Currently in Lima there is a great exhibition of a great photographer whose work show us portraits of Andean people in the beginning of the 20th century.

When I visited the exhibition the diverse pictures or portraits touched my heart because I was looking something that maybe it is hard to see today and because I belong to that society. I felt deep emotions and I travelled in the past trying to imagine and see in my mind the gestures of those people in motion. The faces so authentic and real that it seems that they are eternal and, yes, they are eternal thanks to those unique pictures.

This is a short entry because I don´t find the words to describe my feelings. And this entry is my personal tribute to this simple but at the same time great man whose goal was to show us the feelings of his people (my people as well). 

If you want more information about the great and unique Martin Chambi, you can visit the following link:

http://martinchambi.org/en/

Outside from Lima

After a beautiful time in Puno, I am back. I usually say that it is good to be outside Lima for a while. Big cities are nice, but big cities do imply stress, noise and crowd and that is not always healthy. Luckily in Peru there are many places to visit. If I had the chance, I would travel twice a month. But I travel whenever it is possible for me.

I spent over a week in Puno, a lovely city South from Lima. Puno is famous because of the Titicaca lake and what a lake! Blue and I don´t find words to compare its shine. I think the lake was always in competition with the blue sky, because both were always shining. The Lord was more than good to provide Puno with such a landscape. You could feel History, good energy and mistery everywhere. History because of the many ruins there; mistery because many people, including me, where there to visit places full of energy and stories of people living underground -I was astonished when I visited the Aramu Muru door- and mistery because of the legends and stories people tell.

I have to confess I like to travel in Peru because of our diverisity and for me it is a way to get closer and to understand some of our national reality. People speak there Spanish (they were forced to since it is the most important language in Peru), Quechua and Aymara. Unfortunately in Peru, it is not mandatory to learn natives languages at the school or at the university and for me this is a huge mistake. Not to talk a language means not to understand the way of thinking, the way of understanding the world. The Andean people live in other context and their environment is more linked with nature and also with the experience of subjugation and torture by Spanish conquerors and afterwards by abusive landowners (of course there are always exceptions). All of us have traces of our history but there are times when I feel that some require more time to be overcome. However, despite our negative past experience, I have found women wearing their traditional colourful dresses working hard, women with a lovely strong black shiny hair decorated by a unique hat that has become the distinction mark of Puno´s women. I have seen beautiful girls and children with a mestizo sunburned skin. All of them full of life and hopes. I just adored the time there and I am sure I will visit the city again.  Meanwhile I enjoy my life in Lima.

Some travel tips and other data:
- There are always cheap ways to reach the touristic places. The tours I was offered were very expensive, for example, one tour for Tiahuanaco ruins was US$ 190 per person. Luckily I did it on my own and I just spent S/. 180 Soles (Exchange rate: US$ 1 = S/. 3.20 new Soles. Of course, the amount of money depends on how many days you want to stay and what do you want to visit. But, again, my best tip is that you "should always ask for alternative ways". In Peru most of the time there are cheaper ways.
- Tourists usually spend two or three days in Puno. Taquile Islands are the most visited place. Now the trend is to do "immersion tourism". I don´t know the prices for this tour.
- The best restaurant and coffee for me: La Casa del Corregidor. A nice attention and fair prices.
- Visit the Carlos Dreyer museum. I was impressed by the paintings and the well arranged section about periods of history.
- The Hotel Posada Don Giorgio was very good: simple, but very clean.
- About the "Aramu Muru" doorway, there are a couple of stories about its origin. I am the kind of person who believes in other worlds in this world. For me Aramu Muru is the conecction between our ordinary world and the other "hidden" world and this "hidden world" may help us to reach other level of awareness or conciousness. Here I share this interesting link about "Aramu Muru": http://coolinterestingstuff.com/mystery-of-the-aramu-muru-gateway

I share with you some pics of my travel:

I love the long braids.

A coca tee is always good. The coca leaves are not drug.

Chullpas (graves) in Sullastani.



We all share the same roots.

Blue sky and a blue lake through a window-door in Juli, South of Puno. A nice town.

A geougeus painting by the German painter Carlos Dreyer.

A place I wanted to visit for a long time: Tiahuanaco ruins in Bolivia. Here is the Kalasasaya temple.

Lima: children of migrants

According to the Peruvian National Statistical System there are 9 million 752 thousand citizens in Lima and the district of San Juan de Lurigancho is the most populated with over one million inhabitants. In total there are 43 districts of Lima Metropolitana and 6 districts of Callao province. 14 districts of Lima do not appear in the next picture of the five (cinco) Lima and Callao sectors.  Nevertheless, this picture is a good presentation of the present Lima.

As you see Lima is divided in five sectors: Norte (North), Este (East), Sur (South), Moderna (Modern) and Antigua (Ancient). The most traditional districts are located in Lima Antigua and Lima Moderna. As the name implies, Lima Antigua (Ancient Lima) is characterized by its beautiful colonial architecture, republican buildings and some of them with precious balcony.

The popular tourist destination are Lima Antigua, Miraflores, Barranco and San Isidro.

Over the years Lima has changed radically. At the beginnig of the 40s, the migration process started and since then, Lima changed for ever. In 1945 the popoulation in Lima was about 573 6000 inhabitants and the current figure is over 9 million people. This figure provides us a very good idea of how significant migration was. A crisis in agriculture was the trigger of this event.

The current inhabitants of Lima are primarily descendant from Andean people. For example: my dad´s family is from Cajamarca (north of Peru) and my mom´s family is from Ica and Ancash (South and Center of Peru, respectively); so I have a great mix in my blood.



My family: a mix from Spanish and Andean people (my aunt, the woman with glasses says that we also have African blood.)

This huge diversity provides the city with many pictures. Pictures that vary depending on where you live. I remember that during a flight from Europe to Peru, a man from Ecuador, who lived in Rome, told me that most Peruvians in Rome said that they lived in Miraflores. I had to laugh, but it was not true. I guess he was suspicious about my answer. Miraflores is definitely the new "meeting point" in Lima, the "welcome door" for our foreign visitors. The amount of tourits is amazing and every time I walk in Miraflores, I find myself surrounded by people all over the world. Its location next to the Pacific Ocean is a perfect place for running, riding a bike or just for taking a walk. Miraflores is also a business area where middle-class and some wealthy people  live. San Isidro, its neighbouring district, is maybe the most elegant and one of the most wealthy districts. Districts like Surco, La Molina and a little bit Barranco and San Borja are the homes of Lima´s richer families. Here it is expected to see large residences, mansions, luxurious departments and white Peruvian people, some of them of European ancestry.

 

But, in Peru, we are predominantely mestizos (mix-raced), but at the same time our physical features and special entonation are our distinctive marks to recognize our origins in Peru. We are all different. 



With lovely friends, all of us with Andean roots

As I previously said, the migration to Lima started in the 40s and from the 40s to the 70s, districts like El Agustino, San Martin de Porres, San Juan de Miraflores, San Juan de Lurigancho, Comas, Villa El Salvador, among others, appeared. All these "new" districts are populous and some of them are famous for their industrial areas. The district Villa El Salvador, created in 1971, is the most representative example with its industrial zone and its very visited market.

The majority of the population of these "new districts" belong to the middle, lower-middle and lower class. If you were in a bus going through these places, you will find yourself with people of different ages whose travel is anymated by loud vernacular or cumbia music. People going to work, study, to visit someone, people who dream for better life conditions.
Each time I get into the only electric train in Lima, whose route embraces Villa El Salvador (South Lima) to San Juan de Lurigancho (East Lima), I am impressed by the view along the route: urban areas, malls, hills fully crowded, large retailers, big businesses, poverty, dirt, a narrow river (Rimac River) and children, the new hope for change.

The famous Ovalo de Miraflores

A crowded train with children

A part of the huge San Juan de Lurigancho

 

It is also very important to mention the influence of foreigners long settled in Peru, specially in Lima, like the Japanese, Italian and Chinesse colonies, among others. Maybe these three are the most popular in Lima. A Chinese restaurant in Peru is called "Chifa" although the food is a mix of Chinesse and Peruvian food which is hugely appreciated by Limeños. Limeños also love Italian food and in Lima there are some Italian cafes that I enjoy a lot.  Nowadays, the trend is the Japanese food with more Sushi bars in whole Lima. 

Chifas are everywhere in Lima with affordable menus.

Café Gianfranco, a cafe with Italian style in Miraflores

A famous sushi bar in Lima
 

The presence of many cultures is definitely exciting and enriching but, on the other hand, it may lead to a problem of identity resulting in a problem of complex.  Socioeconomic status, appearence and skin color become differentiation features. Unfortunately, this distinction originates discrimination and words like "cholo"* and "serrano"* (refers to the natives from the Andes) are used in disdainful manner to refer to the provincial origin of people living in Lima or to connote "uneducated" or "poor".  In Lima, for a long time there has been a distinction between people born in Lima already settled for a long time and people  from the Highlands whose Spanish is not so well (for them) and seem poor. But according to my experience in overseas, I guess this is an issue in most big multicultural cities caused by historic facts, absence of inclusion policies, poor education, among others. The hope for a better future with more inclusion must always be alive in most of us.

Actually, there is a lot to say about Lima and its people, but my intention was to give an overview about this difficult, but always friendly city where people "of all bloods" (as the title of the famous book by the Peruvian writer José María Arguedas) live.

 

The best attitude!

Thanks for reading me!

* Peruvian cumbia music is a  mix of Andean and jungle rhytms influenced also by Colombian rhytms.)

* Cholo and serrano are words whose meanings are not always pejorative. It depends on the entonation and your relationship to other people (how close you are to them).

* According to the great Peruvian historian Maria Rostworowski, the word "cholo" has its roots in the Moche culture (pre-Inka culture of the north coast of Peru) and it means "boy" or "young man".

Welcome to Lima, a brief overview of a city with over 9 million people ...

I am from Lima, so I think I know my city well enough (I hope so). Anyway, I am writing now about Lima because I am aware of the big change that is taking place here, in Lima.
I was born in the middle of the seventies, so I spent my childhood during the eighties -a decade I love a lot. But it was during this time that the terrorism was at its peak moment. I remember a city with a slightly better order, some days there were explosions in important locations of the city, much more street vendors in Lima downtown, blackouts, English and German classes in the state channel 7, nice Spanish rock, a few tourists, buses (no combis) and Marcon Van Basten (I am his fan). Many years have gone through and Lima has now another face: more buildings, more towers, a lot of personal cars, a lot of universities, more people and much more tourists.
Honestly, the last thing does still impress me. When I was a kid, there were barely tourists, but now I can recognize people from Europe, Asia, America (I mean the whole continent not USA).
Lima is becoming a metropolis and the food is the main cover letter, besides Cuzco with Macchu Picchu.
I have to confess that I have experienced a new city through the eyes of my Spanish students. Since they are from other countries, I have seen another angle of my own city. An interesting angle that have allowed me to understand me and the people who live in Lima (not all of us are born in Lima) much better. We are so diverse, so diverse that maybe the one thing that can unify us is the food, the soccer and the history. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Cuzco were not in Peru? I may sound weird or cold, but everything in Lima has to do with Cuzco. But we are more than Cuzco, we are not just Highlands, we are much more than that. We are people trying to discover ourselves, trying to understand ourselves, trying to accept ourselves. This is a long, a very long process. I don´t know about the actual situation from other Latin American countries, but I guess many of them, special the indigenous ones, might have the same feelings. We are an amazing mix. Well, this is a personal opinion, just mine.

Next: People in Lima ... a rough topic

Street vendors

Traffic at peak hours with street vendors

Business area in Lima (San Isidro district)

The famous mall Larcomar in Miraflores district (the new downtown in Lima)

The beach in Miraflores

Our Superman (he really works in Lima downtown.)

What I love the most: the architecture in Lima downtown

Lovely balcony (I really adore these.)

These are combis (cheap, uncomfortable, but they can reach places that buses sometimes do not; therefore a necessary evil.)

A bus (the other extreme of the transportation system)

A weird Inka with US dollars!!

Lima