The People

Society

Population -- Peruvians are predominantly mestizo (of mixed Spanish and indigenous heritage) and Andean Indian, but the population is a true melting pot of ethnic groups. Significant minority groups of Afro-Peruvians (descendants of African slaves, living mainly in the coastal area south of Lima), immigrant Japanese and Chinese populations among the largest in South America, and smaller groups of European immigrants, including Italians and Germans, are among Peru's 28 million people. In the early days of the colony, Peruvian-born offspring of Spaniards were called criollos, though that term today refers mainly to coastal residents and Peruvian cuisine.

After Bolivia and Guatemala, Peru has the largest population by percentage of Amerindians in Latin America. Perhaps half the country lives in the sierra, or highlands, and most of these people, commonly called campesinos (peasants), live in either small villages or rural areas. Descendants of Peru's many Andean indigenous groups in remote rural areas continue to speak the native languages Quechua (made an official language in 1975) and Aymara or other Amerindian tongues, and for the most part, they adhere to traditional regional dress. However, massive peasant migration to cities from rural highland villages has contributed to a dramatic weakening of indigenous traditions and culture across Peru. The new government of Alejandro Toledo, himself a proud cholo, or person of direct Andean Indian roots, has committed itself to a valorization and preservation of native language and traditions.

Nearly two-thirds of Peru is jungle, and the vast Amazon basin that pertains to Peru holds a phenomenal wealth of flora and fauna but a dwindling human presence. Indigenous Amazonian tribes have been greatly reduced by centuries of disease, deforestation, and assimilation. There were once some six million people, 2,000 tribes and/or ethnic groups, and innumerable languages in the Amazon basin; today the indigenous population is less than two million. Still, many traditions and languages have yet to be extinguished, especially deep in the jungle -- though most visitors are unlikely to come into contact with groups of unadulterated, non-Spanish-speaking native peoples.

Religion -- Peruvians are a predominantly Roman Catholic people (more than 90% claim to be Catholic), although Protestant evangelical churches have been winning converts, a fact that is worrisome to the Catholic Church. Animistic religious practices (worship of deities representing nature) inherited from the Incas and others have been incorporated into the daily lives of many Peruvians and can be seen in festivals and small individual rituals such as offerings of food and beverage to Pachamama, or Mother Earth.

Arts & Culture

Music & Dance -- Music and dance are fundamental to the very fabric of Peru, a fact to which the country's innumerable colorful festivals will attest. Music and dance forms, like dress, vary greatly by region. Amerindian -- altiplano and andina (highland) -- music, played on wind instruments such as bamboo panpipes, quena flutes, bright-sounding and guitarlike charangos, and other instruments, is known the world over. It seems that wherever one goes, a Peruvian (or, in some cases, Bolivian or Ecuadorian) band is playing panpipes in public places. I've stumbled upon Peruvian musicians from Krakow to Bali. The classic Andean highland tune El Cóndor Pasa, adapted by Simon & Garfunkel in the 1970s, is world famous. For many visitors, altiplano and highland versions of música folklórica are the very rhythm of Peru, but the country also beats to the sounds of música criolla (creole music based on a mix of European and African forms), bouncy-sounding huayno rhythms played by orquestas típicas, and Afro-Peruvian music, adapted from music brought by African slaves.

There is evidence of music in Peru dating back 10,000 years, and each region has its own distinct sounds and dance. Musical historians have identified more than 1,000 genres of music in Peru. Traditional instruments include pututos (trumpets made from seashells) and many other wind instruments crafted from cane, bone, horns, and precious metals, as well as a wide range of percussion instruments. Exposure to Western cultures has introduced new instruments such as the harp, violin, and guitar to Peruvian music. But Peruvian music can still be identified by its distinctive instruments, and there are many besides the basics of highland music.

The cajón is a classic percussion instrument, typical in música criolla and música negra, as well as marinera. A simple wooden box with a sound hole in the back, the cajón is played by a musician who sits on top and pounds the front like a bongo. The cajón has recently been introduced into flamenco music by none other than the legendary flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía. Another classic Peruvian instrument is the quena, an Andean flute that dates to the pre-Columbian era. The best-known wind instrument in Peru, it's usually made out of bamboo, and it typically has five or six holes. Lengths vary to create different pitches. Another popular wind instrument is the zampoña, which belongs to the panpipe family and varies greatly in size. The zampoña is never absent at festivals in southern Peru, particularly Puno. String instruments are now fundamental in almost all música folklórica. The charango, very popular in the southern Andes, is like a small, high-pitched guitar with 5 or 10 strings. Its resonance box is often crafted from an armadillo or kirkincho shell, although increasingly it's made of wood.

Music on the coast is very different from traditional Andean sounds. Chicha is a relatively new addition to the list of musical genres. A hybrid of sorts of the huayno and Colombian cumbia, chicha is an extremely popular urban dance, especially among the working class. It has spread rapidly across Peru and throughout Latin America. Música criolla mixes African and Spanish rhythms, with a taste of everything from the foxtrot to the tango, while Afro-Peruvian music, especially popular on the coast around Lima, is contemporary black popular music. It originated with African slaves in Peru but was long dormant before being revived in the 1950s and '60s. The music is soulful and powerful, with intoxicating dance rhythms. Nicomedes Santa Cruz, Susana Baca, and Peru Negro are among the style's greatest exponents. Baca, in particular, has made a big ripple in the so-called world-music scene in North America and Europe.

Dances associated with Afro-Peruvian music include lively and sensual festejo dances, in which participants respond to striking of the cajón, one of the Afro-Peruvian music's essential instruments. The alcatraz is an extremely erotic dance. Females enter the dance floor with tissue on their posteriors. The men, meanwhile, dance with lit candles. The not-so-subtle goal on the dance floor is for the man to light the woman's fire (and thus become her partner).

Peruvian tourism authorities produce a guide to festivities, music, and folk art, and it features a diagram of native dances in Peru. Especially up and down the coast, and in the central corridor of the Andes, the map is a bewildering maze of numbers indicating the indigenous dances practiced in given regions. Two dances, though, have become synonymous with Peru, the huayno and marinera.

The huayno is the essential dance in the Andes, with pre-Columbian origins fused with Western influences. Couples dancing the huayno perform sharp turns, hops, and tap-like zapateos to keep time. Huayno music is played on quena, charango, harp, and violin. The marinera, a sleek, sexy, and complex dance of highly coordinated choreography, is derivative of other folkloric dances in Peru, dating back to the 19th century. There are regional variations of the dance, which differs most from the south coast to the northern highlands. Dancers keep time with a handkerchief in one hand. Marinera music in Lima is performed by guitar and cajón, while a marching band is de rigueur in the north. Marinera festivals are held across Peru, but the most celebrated one is in Trujillo in January.

One of the most attention-getting dances in Peru, though, is that performed by scissors dancers. Their danza de las tijeras is an exercise in athleticism and balance. Dancers perform gymnastic leaps and daring stunts to the sounds of harp and violin. The main instrument played to accompany the dance is the pair of scissors, made up of two independent sheets of metal around 25 centimeters long. The best places to see scissors dancers are Ayacucho, Arequipa, and Lima.

Festivals -- Peruvian festivals are some of the most vibrant in the Americas and a highlight of virtually any visit. Though Peruvian festivals have serious foundations -- the honoring of patron saints, fertility rituals, prayer, and celebration for harvests -- festivals in Peru are colorful escapes for many Peruvians, especially in rural areas where life can be extremely difficult and poverty is widespread. Many festivals are solemn processions, but others are marked by intricate handmade costumes (sometimes involving as many as 16 different skirt layers), elaborate masks, and abundant food and alcoholic drinks (usually chicha, beer made from fermented maize), all of which fuel the revelry. A classic feature of many Andean festivals is the appearance of white-stocking-masked jesters called ukukus (bears). Symbolic guardians of apu mountain spirits, ukukus maintain order during religious ceremonies, but they are also playful mischief-makers.

Any of the major festivals would be well worth planning your trip around, but perhaps none as much as Inti Raymi. The Festival of the Sun, the single most important feast of the Incas, is still celebrated on the winter solstice (the solar new year, June 24). The festival, once celebrated across the entire Inca Empire, was suppressed by the Catholic Church after the Spanish conquest. Inti Raymi was revived in the mid-20th century as an expression and valuation of native Indian culture in Peru by a group of intellectuals and artists in Cusco. Today the religious ceremony has taken on colorful, theatrical (and, some would say, touristy) proportions at the site of the Inca ruins of Sacsayhuamán. At the end of the ceremony, two llamas are sacrificed to predict the coming year.

Puno in southern Peru is reputed to be the epicenter of folkloric festivals. Its two most spectacular festivals are Virgen de la Candelaria, held during the first two weeks in February, and Puno Week, held in November.

Peruvian Textiles -- Woven textiles have to be considered among the great traditional arts of Peru. Peru has one of the most ancient and richest weaving traditions in the world; for more than 5,000 years, Peruvian artisans have used fine natural fibers for hand weaving, and the wool produced by alpacas, llamas, and vicuñas is some of the finest in the world, rarer even than cashmere. The most ancient textiles that have been found in Peru come from the Huaca Prieta temple in Chicama and are more than 4,000 years old. In pre-Columbian times, hand-woven textiles, which required extraordinary patience and skill, were prized and extremely valuable; distinctive textiles were indicators of social status and power. They were traded as commodities. Paracas, Huari, and Inca weavings are among the most sophisticated and artful ever produced in Peru. The Paracas designs were stunningly intricate, with detailed animals, human figures, and deities against dark backgrounds. Huari weaving features abstract figures and bold graphics. The Incas favored more minimalist designs, without embroidery. The finest Inca textiles were typically part of ritualistic ceremonies -- many were burned as offerings to spirits.

Whereas pre-Columbian civilizations in Peru had no written language, textiles were loaded with symbolic images that serve as indelible clues to the cultures and beliefs of textile artists. Worship of nature and spiritual clues are frequently represented by motifs in textiles. Many of the finest textiles unearthed were sacred and elaborately embroidered blankets that enveloped mummies in burial sites. Found in tombs in the arid coastal desert, one of the world's driest climates, the textiles are remarkably preserved in many cases.

Contemporary Peruvian artisans continue the traditions, sophisticated designs, and techniques of intricate weaving inherited from pre-Columbian civilizations, often employing the very same instruments used hundreds of years ago and still favoring natural dyes. The drop spindle (weaving done with a stick and spinning wooden wheel), for example, is still used in many regions, and it's not uncommon to see women and young girls spinning the wheel as they tend to animals in the fields. Excellent-quality woven items, the best of which are much more than mere souvenirs, include typical Andean chullo wool or alpaca hats with earflaps, ponchos, scarves, sweaters, and blankets.

Coca Leaves -- Coca leaves have been cultivated for thousands of years in Peru -- their use by pre-Columbian civilizations dates back 4,000 years. The Incas held the coca plant sacred, restricting its use to nobles and priests. Evidence of coca cultivation and societal uses can be found in the ceramics of the Nasca and instruments of the Moche. Although coca leaves have long had important ritualistic uses in Andean society, they have also been widely masticated to lessen the effects of hunger and high altitude. Amerindian laborers who performed backbreaking tasks in post-Conquest Peru usually did so with coca leaves to spur them on (even though the Spaniards pounced on coca as a pagan element of anti-Christian worship and mysticism).

Campesinos in the Andes widely continue to chew coca leaves, mixed with saliva and lime or quinoa (a grain) to form a wad called a llipta and to produce a dulling sensation in the mouth. Travelers routinely drink mate de coca, or coca-leaf tea, to help them deal with the effects of altitude. Coca is as pivotal a component of Andean Peru as tea is in India or Great Britain.

Coca-leaf consumption is not illegal in Peru, though some might expect it to be because coca is the raw material from which cocaine is derived. However, coca leaf contains just 1% of cocaine among its 14 alkaloids. Chemical processing of the leaves turns it into a hard paste (semirefined cocaine). The refined product cocaine, which is illegal in Peru, is a very different animal, producing much different effects on the brain and body.

As the use of cocaine as a narcotic grew in the 1960s and demand in the United States skyrocketed during the '70s and '80s, cultivation of coca grew in Peru, principally on remote slopes of the eastern Andes. For poor farmers, coca was a welcome, revenue-producing crop. Easy to tend and producing as many as a half dozen harvests a year, coca was simply the raw material that others -- in those days, Colombian drug lords -- refined into cocaine and sold in rapidly growing markets in North America and Europe. Coca as an antidote to widespread rural poverty in rural Peru was not lost on either campesinos or the Peruvian government.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, in its celebrated but ineffectual war on drugs, focused its attempts to eradicate coca-growing fields in Peru (which had become the world's largest provider of cocaine raw materials), usually by strong-arming governments into cooperation. Many Peruvians viewed these efforts to destroy the fields of farmers who were growing a legal crop as a blatantly one-sided approach to the problem because it did little to solve the problem of demand for cocaine. Such efforts show emphatic disregard for the traditional, religious, and ritualistic role of coca leaves in Peruvian society, which long predates the recent demand for cocaine in Western society. In neighboring Bolivia, the war on coca was at the heart of peasant revolts that unnerved politicians across the Andes.

And the campaign is fraught with other problems. The United States believed it had an ally in former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori -- himself no stranger to strong-arm tactics -- but it now appears that his government was itself secretly dealing in narco-trafficking, even as it reported its success in eradicating coca-producing fields in the Andes. Fujimori and his cohorts notwithstanding, Peru has never fielded a sophisticated network of drug lords and narco-traffickers, at least not to the extent that Colombia and Mexico have; like Bolivia, it has been much more restricted to a rudimentary role as provider of raw coca leaves. Still, coca was bringing in about $5 billion in annual revenues in Peru in the late 1980s.

Coca continues to serve ritualistic and medicinal purposes in Peru. Every August, villagers make offerings (called pagos or pagapus) to the Earth Mother Pachamama, thanking her for blessing their crops, and the spirits (apus) believed to dwell on mountaintops. Coca remains a sacred plant, one that mediates between the inner, spiritual world and the exterior world inhabited by man. It is a potent symbol of community spirit and respect. Coca leaves are chewed, dispensed from ritualistic pouches during festivals and ceremonies, and spread on blankets to predict the future. Even Pope John Paul II, on a visit to Bolivia, drank coca tea and acknowledged the deeply held respect for it by local peoples. It's one of the best short-term remedies to combat altitude sickness, so drink it liberally, but don't try to take coca leaves back home. Even the leaves are illegal in most North American and European countries, and if you're caught, you'll be treated almost as though you were smuggling cocaine -- no matter how much you struggle to explain the difference.