Pobreza, marginalización y distancias sociales (Realidad Social Peruana #3)

Uno de las razones que escogí el Perú como el país hispanohablante en que quería estudiar era que el Perú no es un país del “primer mundo”.  Podría haber ido a España, y me habría gustado, seguro, pero fui influida por dos viajes anteriores que había tomado a la República Dominicana.  Allá vi un mundo que es muy diferente de él a que estoy acostumbrada, pero uno que es la realidad para millones de personas alrededor del mundo, y para millones aquí en el Perú.  Este mundo quizá no tiene acceso al agua potable o a la electricidad (en general o la fiable).  Es posible que no haya casas grandes o bien bonitas con muchos cuartos, un césped o un jardín.  Y la gente que vive allí de repente no tenga buenos trabajos o acceso a un centro de salud o una buena educación, por ejemplo.  Así es la vida cotidiana por mucha gente en Perú que vive en la pobreza, y en particular en muchas partes de los “pueblos jóvenes” de las afueras de la cuidad de Lima.  En el primer mundo, es fácil ser consciente sólo de tu realidad, donde hay mucho que damos por supuesto.  Y yo no quiero olvidar que la vida no es así para todos.

Aquí en Lima vivo en el distrito de Miraflores, un distrito bastante de la clase media.  Es un área bonito, con muchos lugares donde la gente puede divertirse.  Hay caminos y parques hermosos por el malecón donde se puede gozar de la vista del mar y la Costa Verde, y donde los niños, jóvenes, aún adultos y perros pueden jugar.  Y se encuentran varios otros parques por el distrito, que tienen árboles, flores, y céspedes, que se riegan y se limpian regularmente.  Hay centros comerciales, como Larcomar, Óvalo Gutiérrez o el Óvalo de Miraflores, con muchas tiendas grandes y pequeñas donde se puede comprar casi alguna cosa que quiera.  Hay oficinas de negocios y empresas, y muchos edificios altos.  Se puede encontrar una buena variedad de restaurantes, cafés, y mercados.  Las calles son pavimentadas y alumbradas, y tienen aceras.  Muchos turistas vienen aquí también, y por eso hay hoteles, hostales, y mucho más para que ellos disfruten durante su visita.  Miraflores puede ser muchas veces ruidoso, un poco sucio, y abarrotado con gente y tráfico, pero es un distrito bien moderno, “cada día mejor” como dicen algunos letreros.  Vivo en un departamento donde tengo mi propio cuarto, electricidad, agua, Internet inalámbrico… ¿todo lo normal, no? 

Unas flores en Parque Kennedy, Miraflores.

Miraflores desde mi ventana.



El centro comercial Larcomar, con su vista del mar y un "paraglider".



La Costa Verde y Miraflores.

También voy a un voluntariado en otro distrito, Villa El Salvador, donde trabajamos con algunos niños en un programa llamado Deporte y Vida.  Normalmente ayudamos a los niños con su tarea o lo que necesiten, o hablamos y jugamos con ellos.  Este distrito tiene aproximadamente 40 años y era simplemente desierto antes del llegado de migrantes de las áreas rurales del país, buscando una vida mejor en la ciudad.  Aunque hay partes más modernizado, en el barrio donde está Deporte y Vida, que se llama el Oasis, el suelo y las calles son todos de arena.  Las casas son bastante chiquitas y humildes, todas juntas pero algunas de colores bonitos, encima del cerro de arena.  Creo que todos en esta parte tienen un solo piso.  Hay unas bodegas y “restaurantes” pequeñas, pero no tiendas más grandes.  No se va a encontrar oficinas de negocios allí.  Hay electricidad, pero no tan bien planeado o fiable como en Miraflores, y no en todas partes- creo que dentro de la sala de Deporte y Vida no hay luz.  Los niños juegan entre la arena, piedras, y a veces basura.  Afuera hay un grifo de lo cual pueden beber directamente cuando tienen sed.  Nunca he usado los servicios higiénicos allí, pero no creo que haya tubos o un sistema por eso.  Podemos saber que algunos de los niños no han tenido una muy buena educación; saben lo que es su tarea, pero no tienen ninguna idea cómo hacerla, aunque sean bien inteligentes.  Los turistas no vienen aquí- están en el país para disfrutar de sus “riquezas”, no para ver la pobreza.

Parte de Villa El Salvador.  Es difícil encontrar buenas fotos de este distrito, y no me he atrevido a tomar unas cuando estoy con los niños, aunque me gustaría.

Un pueblo joven en Lima (no sé cual).

¡Qué diferencia hay entre estos dos mundos de Miraflores y Villa El Salvador!  Es probable que la vida de la mayoría de la gente en estas zonas sea bien diferente, en términos de trabajo, educación, y lo que (y dónde) compran.  Y no sólo están separados por la economía, pero por diferencias sociales y culturales también.  He leído que un tercio de la población de Lima vive en condiciones parecidas a aquellas en Villa El Salvador.  Y fuera de Lima, en las áreas rurales, hay mucha pobreza también.  Pero sé que la comunidad de Villa El Salvador ha logrado desarrollarse, y continuará mejorándose.

Yo soy una extranjera en el Perú, y han sido tiempos cuando lo siento agudamente, no sólo culturalmente pero socialmente también: soy estadounidense; soy blanca; vivo en Miraflores; asisto a La Católica, una universidad privada.  ¿Qué piensa la gente que paso cada día cuando me ve, que soy de una clase social más alta, que tengo plata, que soy turista y no más?  En estos momentos he sentido una distancia entre yo misma y los peruanos alrededor de mí.  Pero quiero estar consciente de que estas diferencias y la pobreza existen, aunque como extranjera no entienda todo.  Quizá haya alguna pequeña cosa que puedo hacer en vista de esto.

My elevator

So I live on the 6th floor of an apartment building, and as would be expected, we use the elevator.  At first it seemed a little tricky because you have to hold the "stop" button when locking or unlocking the door to the apartment, so the doors don't start closing when you're trying to get the key in the lock.  (The elevator door opens, and then there's a door to get into the apartment too- opens directly into it.) 

It's always a little awkward when there's someone else in the elevator with you, because you might say hi but, in general, no one talks if you don't know each other.  I have experience with awkward elevator rides from Reuter Hall at UW-L.  (Everyone just stands and stares at the door, though one time there was a guy who was standing in the corner like a naughty child.  We're not sure why.)  But I feel like they're more awkward here because this elevator is probably about 1/4 the size of the Reuter ones.  So you're either standing right next to or right across from the other person/people, and everyone looks away from each other so as not to stare.  There's also a mirror on one wall of my elevator here, so that doesn't help.

Today, I came home from school and walked into the elevator as usual.  I pressed the 6 button; the doors closed.  Usually the elevator starts moving right away, but today it didn't.  I pressed the button again.  It didn't move.  I tried again, and tried the 1 button to see if the door would open.  No response from the elevator.  The good news was that I was still on the first floor, so the doorman realized the elevator wasn't working right and came to help.  I ended up having to push the elevator door open, but the second, outside door wouldn't unlock or open.  After the doorman fiddled more with it from outside, tried shutting off and restarting the elevator, etc., they called someone- apparently someone had just been there to do maintenence on it this morning- who came and eventually got the door open.  Then I took the stairs.  I still have never managed to get our stairway door open on my own, but that's another topic.

I was only stuck for about 15 or 20 minutes, and wasn't in any hurry so I was more amused than anything.  But that is my story of an interesting happening in Peru for today.

Look, PENGUINS!!

And that's the kind of mood I'm in right now.  Later I should blog about fun things I've done that I haven't blogged about, like hiking down a canyon when it's dark and rainy, rafting, and swimming with sea lions (and seeing wild penguins).

Sharing Peruvian culture

Well-known Peruvians travel to Peru, Nebraska (population: 569) to share Peruvian culture with the people there.  They're Peruvian... but do they know what that means?  Haha, qué chévere este video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFtmSE5oPDA

A bit about Peruvian politics

Not that I know or really care to know a whole lot about politics, in the States or in Peru, nor do I claim to know a lot about the history of Peruvian politics and government, but...

One month from today, June 5th, will be a very interesting day. 

In early April, Peru held elections for its president, congress, and representatives to the Andean Parliament.  There were campaign signs and posters everywhere.

There really aren't political parties in Peru the way there are in the U.S.  There, we have well-established parties who put forth candidates.  Here, it's more like a candidate decides they want to run and then they form a party of supporters around themselves.  For example, in the orange sign above, the parliamentary candidates are aligning themselves with presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori- I think the party's name is Fuerza 2011- and you can see the party's symbol is an orange circle with a big K in it, for Keiko.  The symbol for Toledo's Perú Posible party was a big T.  I think there were 11 or 14 or some such number of presidential candidates on the ballot.

It seemed to me that there were 5 major presidential candidates- Alejandro Toledo, Keiko Fujimori, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK), Luis Castañeda, and Ollanta Humala.  I feel like I personally saw a lot of support for PPK, who indeed won Lima in the elections.  Overall, though, it turned out Ollanta Humala first, then Keiko Fujimori, PPK, Toledo... I was a little surprised it was Keiko in second instead of PPK or Toledo, just from what I'd seen.

I don't know the story behind this, but somehow PPK became PPKuy (cuy = guinea pig), and some of his supporters would go around in guinea pig mascot suits.  I particularly enjoyed this, especially when I'd see them dancing near busy intersections.
 I think U.S. candidates should have mascots. :-)

We're all about the right to vote in the US- but we also have the right not to vote, I suppose you could say.  Voting is obligatory in Peru.  I was impressed by the television and radio commercials I heard explaining exactly how to fill out the ballots.  The way the Peruvian governmental system works is that each president serves a 5-year term and can be re-elected, though not for a consecutive term.  Also, the candidate has to win a straight-up majority- 50% plus one vote.  If no one gets that majority in the first vote- which I think would be rare- there's a second, run-off vote between the two top presidential candidates.

So right now, there will be a second round of voting on June 5th between Ollanta and Keiko.  Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of a former Peruvian president (Alberto Fujimori, 1990-2000.  Note they're only supposed to be in office for 5 years at a time... he was a dictator who's currently in jail for things like human rights violations.  But he's kind of controversial because he also helped the economy start to improve and stomped out the Shining Path terrorist group.)  Keiko would likely continue things in the way they've been going, as the past few presidents (at least 25 years I think) have been right-wing.  Ollanta is left-wing, and is more socialist and nationalist.  He's been compared to Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, though that's become a controversial topic too.  Peru is still a third-world country, and a large percentage of the population lives below the poverty line.  So Ollanta has a lot of appeal.  He lost in the second round of voting in 2006 to current president Alan Garcia.  I personally think he'll be the winner... People are looking for a change, though whether or not it'll be a change for the better overall is hard to say yet. 

People who didn't vote for either of these two top candidates in the first round may now have a difficult choice to make.  Mario Vargas Llosa, a Peruvian author who won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, put this choice between Ollanta and Keiko as "choosing between AIDS and cancer".  Some people don't like Ollanta but will by no means vote for Keiko, and vice versa.  In these cases it's more voting against someone than voting for someone.  The third option, if you really don't like either candidate, is purposely mis-marking your ballot and having it discounted- because you have to go vote or get fined. 

It's been really interesting to be here in Peru during their elections.  This is a pretty big deal, I think.  It's a bit surprising how much we (me and the other students in my program) care about their elections- we live here now, and we want to see this country continue to move forward along a good path, whatever that may be exactly.  So we'll see what happens June 5th, especially when the preliminary results start to come in.  The new president will take office after I leave- July 28, Peru's Independence Day (from Spain).  Apparently half the country will be celebrating, the other half crying.  You'll hear more from me on this topic around June 5th.

A taste of home...?

McDonald's, Starbucks, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, Domino's, Little Caesar's, Chile's, TGI Friday's...

American food chains are very present here.  I'm possibly missing a few too.

I heard Coca-Cola had a long fight to become the #1 soda company in the country, but the national soft drink of Peru, Inca Kola, kept coming out on top.  So they ended up buying Inca Kola.  Some Americans don't like it and think it kind of tastes like bubble gum, but I like it.

I have yet to try McDonald's and see if it tastes the same.  I rarely eat this kind of fast food in the U.S. anyways.  But my first night here we were free to go find our own dinner, and ended up getting KFC.  Very Peruvian fare.  We did go to Pizza Hut once, and I'm not sure pepperoni existed at this particular one. 

I'd rather go to a small restaurant and have a huge lemonade (technically lime-ade) and a delicious sandwich of shredded chicken, avocado, and shoe-string potato chips.  I'd have had a nice picture of it if my camera hadn't died.  So good. 

This was actually in Arequipa.  Here in Lima, I'd rather go to La Lucha sandwich place for their classic chicken sandwich.  Soooo good!