Peru 101

I love everything Latin America.  I’m very fortunate to have found this interest and even more fortunate to get to study something I love.  Now that I’ve almost completed a college degree majoring in Latin American Studies I find myself frustrated by North Americans lack of L.A. knowledge.  Here are a few little tidbits I wanted to share and the highlighted fonts are links you can click and read more:

In Latin America this would be the world map:

This upside down or reverse map is a great lesson in how we perceive things.  The most famous photo of the earth from outer space is called “The Blue Marble” and was originally photographed with the south pole at the top of the frame.  It was reversed before being distributed publicly.  That is odd - there is no north or south in outer space is there?  Well there isn’t, but since the dawn of time people have made their own ideas about how the world should be ordered. 

Many of my peers grew up with the “Third World” notion of world order.  “First World” countries such as the U.S. were privileged, rich and comfortable.  “Third World” was Africa, India,and places that were poor and uncomfortable.  Now when I use the words comfortable and uncomfortable, I am not just talking about physical comfort but the uncomfortableness we feel when we encounter the unknown and something not familiar to us.  It is ironic that sometimes we have preconceived ideas about people or things we know nothing about, something that is “unknown”.  Today in my studies we use Core, Semi-Periphery, and Periphery, to describe a nation’s financial status.  This is Wallerstein's World-System Theory .  Peru is a Periphery nation.

A few facts about Peru.  Lima is the capital and was founded by Fernando Pizarro who you might have heard of because he and his brothers are credited with conquering the Incans.  Cusco or Cuzco was the Incan  Empire capital.  The population of Peru today is  around 30 million and Peruvians speak many languages including Spanish, Quechua, Aymara. 

Here is a little quiz question about Peru.  I will put the answer on the next blog entry.

Which of these items was original to Peru and brought back to Europe by the Spanish explorers:

1. Rubber

2. Peanuts

3. Sheep

4. Potato

5. Mussels

I hope today you know a little more about the unknown, Peru, and can carry that with you for future reference.