Dancing with scissors

You know how you were always told not to run with scissors? 

As a cultural activity, last night my program went to a dinner show featuring various types of dances native to Peru.  Sierran dances (highlands), Afro-peruvian dances, Marinera... though there weren't any from the jungle (which might not have been usual).  It was neat to see the different forms and styles.  Occasionally they pulled an audience member onto stage too, which was particularly amusing during the one that involves candles and trying to set each other on fire and dancing to avoid getting set on fire.  That sounds more dangerous than it is, really.  And the finale was la Danza de las Tijeras.  This is a traditional Andean dance (originated in Ayacucho, I think), where the dancers carry two (separate) pieces of metal which they manipulate to make sound as they dance.  The metallic, bell-like sounds in the video below are made by the scissors. 



This was just at the beginning; they did more complex moves- some more acrobatic, some while on their heads... my camera wasn't doing very well with the low lighting and moving dancers, but you can see in the photo below that they're upside down.  It was pretty impressive.

It was neat to be able to see this because I'd heard about it in my literature class- we read a short story that was about a dancer like this.

D'onofrio: "Close to you"

We have an inside joke about the slogan of an ice cream company called D'onofrio- "Cerca de ti" (near/close to you).  But close to us, D'onofrio is dangerous, because then we want ice cream, especially when it's warm and sunny.  It's pretty common to see the yellow D'onofrio carts with their sellers, also dressed in yellow, near La Católica and elsewhere.  Today when I came home from school, there was one outside my building... cerca de mí... dun dun dunn!!

So I decided I wanted an ice cream.  They're very good.  I like the flavor called "Princesa" (Princess)- the center is peanut-flavored ice cream with a thinner layer of chocolate ice cream surrounding it, covered on the outside by a thin layer of chocolate.  I asked the D'onofrio man if he had Princesa, and he said, "Una Princesa para la princesa," (A "Princess" for the princess), to which I smiled shyly, of course. (He wasn't being creepy at all, by the way.)  Another guy came up to buy ice cream, and the seller was like, "Just a minute, a Princess for the princess!" as he was getting it out.  And the other guy jokingly said, "I want a Princess for the princess (referring to himself) too."  Except he wasn't a princess.  I almost told him that, but I'm too shy to joke with random strangers in a language I'm not fluent in.

Deliciousness.  Though it wasn't until after I happened to see some commercials for D'onofrio that I realized it wasn't D'anafria; as you can see above, it's hard to tell which vowel that is.

Classes at La Católica

Since it's almost time for midterms, I should probably tell you which classes I'm taking.  But first a short word from our sponsors:

My host mom came into my room this afternoon and offered me some gummies.  I'm fairly certain they were Listerine-flavored (as in the mouthwash).  My mouth felt quite fresh afterwards... maybe she's trying to tell me something??

I already talked a bit about the 2-week intensive Spanish class I had before the official semester started.  Then we got to pick our university semester classes.  The foreign students didn't officially register until the second week, so we basically had the first week of classes to check out ones we were interested in- did it look interesting?  How was the workload?  Can you understand the professor?  I was looking at taking chorus, but it wasn't quite how I'd expected it to be, so I didn't.  I needed a literature class, so I'm taking Comtemporary Peruvian Narrative; I'm taking Quechua (an Andean indigenous language); and two CIEE program courses- Peruvian Social Reality and a writing course.

Peruvian Social Reality is the class I've been posting blog assignments for.  This class aims to look at social and cultural issues facing Peru today.  Juan Carlos is a good professor; I've found the class interesting so far.  The writing class is meant to help us improve our writing and grammar skills, and help us with whatever we might have to do for our classes.  Jorge, the professor I had for the 2-week course, teaches it... which means, between the group of students and the professor, it can be a very entertaining class.  It's been a fairly easy class- which is what I was looking for, though this kind of material is always good to review and work more with (like the subjunctive tense).

In my literature class, we're focusing on works by two well-known Peruvian authors:  José María Arguedas and Mario Vargas Llosa (who was the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature winner).  We'll be reading four novels (two by each), plus a lot of supplementary material (critiques and commentaries of the works we're reading).  This packet of supplementary materials- just for the first half of the class- was huge and daunting at the beginning, earning it the title of "Packet of Doom, Death, and Destruction, Complete with Wrath and Pestilence".  It's just a lot of reading, especially because it takes me so much longer to read things in Spanish than in English.  We've finished the first novel, Los ríos profundos ("Deep Rivers") by Arguedas and are now starting the second one, called El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo (something like "The Fox from Above and the Fox from Below").

I have found Quechua interesting so far, though I find languages in general very interesting.  Quechua was the language of the Incan empire and is spoken by 8-10 million people today in South America, with the highest numbers in Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.  Whereas learning Spanish was a little easier because, in many ways, it is structurally and grammatically similar to English, as both have Latin roots.  Quechua, on the other hand, is a language of suffixes and is structured differently (and sounds very different).  I think you can add up to 10 suffixes to one root.  For example, to say "I have a professor", it's Ñuqa yachachiqniyuqmi kani, literally "I am the one who has the one who makes know."  (Though this looks complicated mostly because there's no direct way to say "I have".)  And sentence order is Subject-Object-Verb, like Japanese or kind of like Yoda, though he might put the object first...  Why take Quechua?  Why not?

Both of these direct enrollment courses (quechua and lit.) are four credit courses and meet two days a week, two hours each.  I'm not used to the 2-hour time blocks, so these can be tough to sit through and focus in for the entire time, especially without a break.  Most courses at UW-L are one hour or one and a half. 

I should go to sleep, I decided to take the quechua section that meets at 8am Tuesday and Thursday.  The theory is that after the class, I'm up and awake and can be more productive than I would be if I didn't have something to get up for.  I should to leave around 7:15 to ensure I get there on time- my micros are packed at this time in the morning and a lot don't even stop.  I had to wait 15-20 minutes and 6 or 7 micros once before one stopped.  My rule is that if it stops, I'll get on because I need to get to class... even though we're usually packed like sardines standing in this little bus.

Lima Transportation- Micros

Getting around in a city of 9 million people can sometimes be tough.  I would not want to drive in Lima- traffic is rather chaotic.  Depending where you are and the time of day, there can be a lot of it.  Sometimes you have to take the initiative- "I'm going now, so you need to stop."  Crossing uncontrolled intersections is a test of wills- will oncoming traffic defer to you as you nose out into the intersection, or will they refuse to stop and let you through, forcing you to wait?  Sometimes you have to take the initiative- "I'm going now, so you need to stop."  It can lead to interesting traffic situations.  But the drivers have skills- I haven't seen a lot of accidents (minor or major).

 Both taken from my bus ("micro") on a large main street called La Marina.  In the left one, you'll notice three taxis- there are lots of taxis in Lima.  Not all of them look that nice.

The main system of "public" transportation is the micros (pronounced like "me"-"crow").  These buses come in various sizes and run various routes; I've heard there are over 600 different routes.  There are no set time schedules and no maps.  The lack of maps can make it tough to figure out how to get somewhere, but the main streets are written on the side of the vehicle and you can always ask if a particular micro goes a particular place.  The also tend to be color-coded by route.  When I first heard there weren't set times, I was a little uneasy, but I actually like this a lot.  What it means is that you can go at almost any time- no need to wait until only a certain time or worry about missing the bus.  Another one will come at some point, though some are more frequent than others.  There must be dozens of separate micros that run the route I take to school.  If one's full, I know that within a few minutes another will come.  The next one may be full too if it's before 8am, but that's besides the point.  I think there were three at once this morning (all full, haha... though I got on one anyways).

The buses range in size from really big ones (left) to small ones (right).  The smallest ones, called combis, are what I take most of the time.  A combi can more or less comfortably seat about 16 people... I'm been on combis that have 22, possibly 23 passengers, the extras standing.  Some of them have high enough roofs for me (as a short person) to be able to stand up straight, but some don't, and then even I have to bend over.  And sometimes sitting in the seats, they're close enough together that my back is flat against the seatback and my knees are pressed against the seat in front of me.  Combis are usually not incredibly comfortable for tall people, but I don't mind them.  I kind of like them, actuallly. Unless I'm one of 6 people standing.  It's possible there are sometimes 7 people standing, but I'm never in a position to be able to see to count.

Micros are usually operated by two people- the chofer (driver) and the cobrador.  The cobrador's job is to help watch for people who want to get on, open and close the door, handle route questions, advertise their route by calling out street names, and take fares and give change if needed.  I would never be able to do it.  It's a little demanding physically- up and down, opening and closing the door, sometimes not having a seat- plus, you have to know your routes well and all the streets and major destinations, as well as know how much it costs to go from any Point A to any Point B along the route.  The chofers are pretty skilled drivers- they tend to weave in and out of traffic, having to switch lanes quickly to let someone on or off or just to get around slower vehicles.  Sometimes they drive and turn fast and it's a little scary, but my micros have never hit another vehicle, though occasionally the driver seems to like to see how close he can get.  Yesterday my micro driver didn't want to wait in line at the stoplight, so he moved into the empty left turn lane and just slipped back into the straight lane in front of the other cars once the light turned.

I like the micros though, and am particularly fond of the combis, since I take them all the time.  You can pretty much get anywhere you want to go (as long as you know the routes), at any time, and can more or less get on or off at any point.  It's a little chance for adventure every day- you never know what might happen.  Maybe nothing, maybe you'll get on one that doesn't go where you want it to, maybe you're trying to get somewhere new and don't know the route, maybe the driver or cobrador will be crazy, maybe you'll meet someone (though mostly people don't talk), maybe the cobrador will accidently get left behind, maybe they'll randomly turn down a different street than usual, maybe your friend will happen to get on the same one... the possibilities are endless! :-)  I can't think of any good stories personally right now though...

It usually takes me about half an hour to get to the university from my house.  I take one combi from near my house to the street La Católica is on, then a second one (any size, depends on what's there) to the campus itself.  This is my micro, the "S" Ate-Callao:

There are actually different groups that run this route- they all say "S- Ate-Callao", but the Star group takes a different route through San Isidro.  It took me a few weeks to figure this out- why does it sometimes go a different route??  It doesn't matter to me, but I wanted to know if there was a way to tell beforehand where it would go.  It was really confusing at first.  But routes are for the most part fixed, unless it's Sunday...

I can actually take that same S micro to the church I'm going to here on Sundays, just in the opposite direction from school.  However, I learned that I need to ask if it's going the full route, because sometimes it doesn't on Sundays.  Once I ended up taking two micros and then walking the last two blocks.  "Yes, thank you for dropping me off here, I have a vague idea of where I am..."  The other thing I can't figure out is the flexibility of fares on Sunday.  It might cost me S./ 1.50 (Peruvian currency = sol) to get there but S./ 2.00 to get back, or vice versa.  I think it depends on the cobrador.

Whew, that's enough for now... Sorry that I fail at blogging consistently.  There's so much I haven't blogged about yet.

About advertisements...

Instead of trying to translate my last post, which was in Spanish and for my class, I'm just going to give a more informal overview... or short rant.  Our topic was "Race and Ethnicity", and I think almost all of us wrote about the advertisements, billboards, commercials, etc. that we've seen here in Peru.

WHY IS EVERYONE WHITE??

That's pretty much how we feel about it.  It's true, the vast majority of the people seen on billboards or in commercials is white, or lighter skinned.  Another student and I were walking from the university to the street where we get on the micro, and as we neared the big commercial center, Plaza San Miguel, we noticed this.  We pointed to one advertisement after another, "There's another one!  They're all white!"  A good number of billboard models, particularly for some of the bigger companies or department stores, are blond as well. 

Why does this bother me?  It's not at all representative of the majority of the population of Peru, or of the people it's trying to sell products to.  According to the CIA World Factbook, the demographics of Peru are as follows: 45% indigenous (Amerindian), 37% mestizo (of mixed Spanish and indigenous blood), 15% white, and 3% black, Chinese, Japanese, or other.  That is, 85% of the population is not white.  And people belonging to this 85% majority rarely appear in commercials, on billboards, etc.  It doesn't make sense to me.  (Well... unless you're looking at the history of Europeans in the Americas and how racism still affects the world today... complicated social/economic/ethnic stuff.)

Peru has a long history of ethnic diversity with a great variety of ethnic groups, reflected in the number of languages spoken in Peru today (I believe my professor said 68 languages).  And things got a lot more complicated once the Spanish arrived and conquered in the 16th century.  You know how in the U.S. there's a question on certain kinds of forms about ethnicity, where you mark "Caucasian/white", etc.?  I think my professor said they did away with that a long time ago here... people tended to lie.  Mestizos said they were white and indigenous people said they were mestizo...  And anyways, very few of us "caucasians" are actually from the Caucas region in Georgia (the country), nor are we "white" when compared with, say, a blank piece of paper. 

This is just from my perspective as a foreigner.  Maybe in the U.S. today we're trained to be sensitive to issues like this- we have to represent our diversity (and be politically correct), can't exclude anyone.  Besides, how exactly do you define who's "white" and who isn't- where's the dividing line?  I think it can depend on a lot of individual factors.  Before I came here, I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll learn to speak Spanish so well they'll think I'm Peruvian."  Well, first, I really don't look Peruvian at all.  I'm even a little bit whiter than most white Peruvians, and sometimes people assume I don't speak any Spanish.  Now I wonder if it would be better to be taken as a foreigner or as a white Peruvian.  It probably depends, but I don't know the answer.

Ok... I could talk more, but I think I'm done, for now at least.

Raza y etnicidad (Realidad Social Peruana #2)

[Second blog post for my Peruvian Social Reality class (Spanish).]

El Perú tiene una larga historia de diversidad étnica, con una gran variedad de grupos étnicos indígenas que todavía se ve en el número de lenguas que se hablan en el país hoy.  Pero cuando llegaron los españoles en el siglo XVI, como en todos otros lugares en los Américas que vieron la influencia de los europeos, las cosas se complicaron.  El llegado de la gente y la cultura occidental y la creación de un nuevo gobierno español trajeron una cosmovisión nueva con respeto a la etnicidad y la raza al Perú, y el país fue dividido racialmente entre los españoles, los indios, y los negros.  También se crearon nuevas categorías como el “mestizo”, el “mulato”, y otras.  Cuando se añaden temas como clase social y económica y la política, se ve una mezcla de ideas y percepciones muy compleja sobre diferentes razas y etnicidades que persisten en el Perú de hoy.  Quiero mirar un poco a la representación de esto en la publicidad de compañías y productos en Perú.

Un día, después de las clases en la Católica, caminaba con otra estudiante del programa.  Nos acercábamos a la Plaza San Miguel, y nos fijamos en la publicidad y las carteleras para compañías y productos que rodean el centro comercial.  Señalando una cartelera después de otra, nos preguntamos una a otra, “¿Por qué es toda la gente en estos anuncios blanca o bastante blanca?”  Esto es algo que he notado desde muy temprano en mi tiempo acá.  Las personas en la gran mayoría de publicidad que he visto- en la televisión, las carteleras, en las tiendas, etc.- parecen blancas.  Según el “CIA World Factbook”, la población del Perú consiste de 45% indígena, 37% mestizo, 15% blanco, y 3% negro, chino, japonés, u otro.  Es decir, 85% de toda la gente no es blanca; sin embargo, la mayoría de las personas en los anuncios sí es blanca.  La publicidad de productos y servicios no refleja bien sus consumidores, la gente a quien las compañías quieren vender.  Y esto me ha molestado.  Quería tomar unas fotos para demostrar el punto, pero mi cámara no funciona bien con la televisión y es difícil tomar fotos en lugares públicos sin la gente darse cuenta.  (Y a las tiendas departamentales no les gusta.)

Algunos de estos son compañías grandes, nacionales e internacionales, como Claro, Movistar, Ripley, Saga Falabella, Tottus, Visa, y más.  Se nota este fenómeno especialmente en la publicidad por las grandes cadenas de tiendas departamentales como Ripley y Saga Falabella y su ropa y nuevas modas.  Los modelos que he visto tienen piel más claro, y con cierta frecuencia son rubios, especialmente las mujeres.  En la televisión, a veces se ven a unas personas que son un poco más oscuras (o se puede decir morenas), pero su estilo es más lo que quiere mostrar la vida cotidiana, con familias y gente trabajadora, aunque no siempre es así.  Fue más frecuente en los anuncios políticos para la elección presidencial también.  Pero nunca, o casi nunca, he visto gente negra o indígena en la publicidad.  Creo que una vez había una mujer morena (afro-peruana), pero estos partes de la población- los indígenas, los mestizos más morenos, los negros, los asiáticos- simplemente no están representado.  ¡Y son la mayoría!  Esto no me tiene sentido.

Quizá en los Estados Unidos, con sus temas de la diversidad étnica, el racismo (y la lucha contra él), y la preocupación de ser políticamente correcto en todas maneras, estamos muy sensibles a los asuntos así.  Hay que mostrar o representar la diversidad, especialmente en los medios de comunicación y las cosas semejantes; no se puede excluir a nadie.  Este blog también es de mi percepción como extranjera en el Perú.  Además hay que decir que todo esto- de “blanco” o no- es por mis ojos y cómo yo lo “juzgo”.  ¿Quién es blanco y quién no es?  ¿Dónde está la línea divisoria? Puede ser un poco arbitrario, y creo que depende de muchos factores individuales. 

Es interesante ver cómo las ideas de la raza y la etnicidad se presentan en la cultura y sociedad peruana cotidiana, y cómo la historia afecta el mundo hoy.  Además, mis observaciones son sólo de Lima, y no sé si la publicidad es similar en las otras partes del país, pero no me sorprendería si fuera así.  Como culturalmente, el Perú es bien diverso étnicamente, pero me parece que hay unos "problemas" en esta área de la realidad social peruana también.

Cultural Diversity (Translation)

[We have blog post assignments for my Peruvian Social Reality class; my last post was one of these, and was in Spanish.  I'm going to translate it for you all... hopefully it goes ok, because I'm just translating what I wrote in Spanish, which is probably not exactly how I would have written it if I'd been writing in English.  Sometimes you say things slightly differently, in a way that sounds better in that particular language.]


Peru is a country that has great cultural diversity, with different geographic and ecological zones and a mix of influences from diverse ethnic groups.  It seems to me that there is a connection beween the geography of a region and the culture of the people that inhabit it.  This depends on how the land challenges its inhabitants and how they interact with it.  In Peru, there are three major regions: the coast, the sierra (mountains/highlands), and the jungle/rainforest (la selva).  To find out a bit about the cultural diversity between these zones, I interviewed my Peruvian host mom, who has lived in each of these areas.  She was born in the sierra and her family moved to Lima, but she returned to live in the sierra when she was 10 to 15 years old before returning to the coast.  After she got married, she moved to Iquitos and lived in the jungle for 16 years, until returning to live in Lima again.  And this is what my host mom has to say about the cultural diversity of her country, and what she has experienced during her life.

The first point she made, which I think is a good one to make, is that the cultural diversity of Peru is like that of any other country- each region has its own idiosyncrasies and specific customs.  But here, the regional differences are more marked and less similar than they may be in other countries.  The geography and the climate of the coast, the sierra, and the jungle are very different, and their respective cultures are different as well.  In the sierra, the terrain is difficult and the climate is cold; according to my host mom, the people are hard-working and a little more quiet or introverted.  On the other hand, the people of the jungle are more extroverted and not as hard-working, because the climate is so hot.  It also seemed to her that the women in the jungle are more hard-working than the men.  But she said that there's a lot of happiness and entertainment there, with lots of music and dancing.  And the people are always smiling and laughing.  "Everyone tells their problems laughing," she told me.  Finally, life on the coast is more fast-paced and the people have a lot of responsability.  She also said that the people of the coast look down on the others a little, and there's especially discrimination against the indigenous people, despite the fact that it is (or at least it was) their land.

My host mom classifies her own culture as more coastal, but a little of all three.  She loves the sierra for its landscape and nature and the tranquility of life there, where she could play as a kid without worrying about dangers.  She likes the happiness of the jungle, although at the beginning she clashed with it.  It was difficult for her to adapt culturally in Iquitos.  The characteristics of the culture were completely different from those that she was accustomed to.  The people drank a good amount, and it seemed strange to her that they didn't want to work on Saturdays and Sundays.  And she also had to get used to the slowness of life a little.  When she returned to Lima, she thought, how worried, sad, and stressed the people looked!  But she likes living in Lima, because "everyone comes to Lima", plus it's "her place".  I think that wherever you may go, there will always be something special about the place you consider your own.

I asked her if it seemed to her that there was a general culture of the whole country, but my host mom said no.  Peru is very diverse, with a lot of diversity within Lima itself as well because of all the immigrants that come to live in the city.  And furthermore you can define "culture" in various ways, as it's something very complex and there are many facets of culture, including manners of dress, speech, and thought, food, language, customs, attitudes, etc.  In the U.S., and especially in the universities today, diversity is seen as something desirable and beneficial.  American universities strive to attain more diversity- culturally, ethnically, in thought patterns, in majors, etc.  The train of thought is that diversity enriches the experience of everyone.  (Well, I think that in general it's like that, thought is a much deeper matter.)  I asked my host mom if the cultural diversity of Peru seemed like a good thing, a kind of richness for the country, or something not as good.  She answered in a soft voice that it didn't seem like a good thing to her, because the different forms of thought don't unite.  She said the government doesn't try to satisfy everyone, in general only those with money that helped them win the campaign and not the poor.  So there's resentment towards the government and the country remains divided.

I find Peru's cultural diversity very interesting and I enjoy learning about different cultures, and this answer didn't sit well with me and made me think a lot about cultural diversity in general and the pros and cons of it.  This is a very complicated and complex matter.  I think it will be very interesting to see what the future holds for a country with so much cultural diversity like Peru.


[Ha, I really don't like how a rather direct translation of this sounds in English.  Too bad.  Qué piña.]

Diversidad Cultural- Realidad Social Peruana Blog #1

[This blog post is an assignment for my Peruvian Social Reality class about the cultural diversity of Peru.  Hence it is in Spanish.  I may post an English version later.]

El Perú en un país que contiene una gran diversidad cultural, con diferentes zonas geográficas y ecológicas y una mezcla de influencias de diversos grupos étnicos.  Me parece que existe una conexión entre la geografía de una región y la cultura de la gente que la habita.  Esta depende de cómo la tierra reta a sus habitantes y cómo ellos interactúan con ella.  En el Perú, hay tres regiones mayores: la costa, la sierra, y la selva.  Para descubrir un poco sobre la diversidad cultural entre estas zonas, entrevisté a mi mamá peruana, quien ha vivido en cada de estas áreas.  Ella nació en la sierra y su familia se mudó a Lima, pero volvió a vivir en la sierra cuando tenía 10 hasta 15 años antes de regresar a la costa.  Después de casarse, se mudó a Iquitos y vivía en la selva por 16 años, hasta que volvió a vivir en Lima otra vez.  Y este es lo que mi mamá peruana opina de la diversidad cultural de su país, y lo que ha experimentado durante su vida.

El primer punto que tuvo, que me parece bien dicho, es que la diversidad cultural del Perú es como en cualquier país- cada región tiene sus propias idiosincrasias y costumbres específicas a sí mismo.  Pero acá, las diferencias regionales son más marcadas y menos parejas que sean en otros países.  La geografía y el clima de la costa, la sierra, y la selva son muy diferentes, y sus culturas respetivas se diferencian también.  En la sierra, el terreno es difícil y el clima es frío; según mi mamá, la gente es bien trabajadora y un poco tímida o introvertida.  Por otra parte, la gente de la selva es más extrovertida y ociosa, porque el clima tiene demasiado calor.  También le pareció que las mujeres en la selva son más trabajadoras que los hombres.  Pero dijo que hay mucha alegría y diversión allá, con mucha música y baile.  Y la gente siempre está sonriendo y riendo.  “Toda la gente recuenta sus problemas riéndose,” me dijo.  Finalmente, la vida en la costa es más rápida y la gente tiene mucha responsabilidad.  También dijo que los costeños desprecian un poco a los otros, y especialmente hay discriminación contra los nativos, a pesar de que es (o por lo menos era) su tierra. 

Mi mamá peruana clasifica su propia cultura como más costeña, pero un poco de los tres.  Le encanta la sierra por sus paisajes y naturaleza y la tranquilidad de la vida, donde podía jugar como niña sin peligros.  Le gusta la alegría de la selva, aunque al principio se chocó.  Era difícil para mi mamá adaptarse culturalmente en Iquitos.  Las idiosincrasias eran completamente diferentes de las a que ella estaba acostumbrada.  La gente tomaba bastante, y le pareció raro que la gente no quería trabajar los sábados y los domingos. Y tuvo que adaptarse un poco a la lentitud de la vida también.   Cuando regresó a Lima, pensó ¡qué pálida, preocupada, triste y estresada aparecía la gente!  Pero a ella le gusta vivir en Lima, porque “todos vienen a Lima” y además es “su lugar”.  Me parece que adondequiera que vaya, siempre habrá algo especial sobre el lugar que se considera el tuyo.

Pregunté si le parece que hay una cultura general de todo el país, pero mi mamá peruana dijo que no.  Perú es bien diversa, con mucha diversidad en Lima en sí misma también por todos los inmigrantes que vienen a vivir en la cuidad.  Y además se puede definir “la cultura” en varias maneras, porque es algo muy complejo y hay muchas facetas de la cultura, incluyendo maneras de vestir, hablar y pensar, la comida, la lengua, costumbres, actitudes, etc.  En los Estados Unidos, y especialmente en las universidades hoy día, se ve la diversidad como algo deseable y beneficiosa.  Las universidades estadounidenses luchan por lograr más diversidad- culturalmente, étnicamente, en pensamientos, en especialidades, etc.  La corriente de pensamiento es que la diversidad enriquece la experiencia de todos.  (Pues, pienso que en general es así, aunque es un asunto mucho más profundo.)  Le pregunté a mi mamá si la diversidad cultural del Perú le parece algo bueno, una riqueza para el país, o algo no tan bueno.  Contestó que no le parece bueno, en voz baja, porque las diferentes formas de pensar no se unen.  Dijo que el gobierno no trata de satisfacer a todos, en general sólo a los con plata que les ayudaron a ganar la campaña y no a los pobres.  Entonces hay resentimiento hacia el gobierno y el país se queda dividido. 

A mí me interesa mucho la diversidad cultural que hay en el Perú y me gusta aprender de las culturas diferentes, y esta respuesta me hizo pensar mucho en la diversidad cultural en general y en los pros y los contras de ella.  Esto es una cuestión muy complicada y compleja.  Creo que será muy interesante ver lo que el porvenir contendrá por un país con tanta diversidad cultural como Perú.