Huayhua (2013) Everyday Discrimination in the Southern Andes

7/22/2019 Huayhua (2013) Everyday Discrimination in the Southern Andes

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Huayhua 2013. Everyday Discrimination in the Southern Andes. InPara Qu Serve O Conhocimento seeu No Posso Dividi-Lo? Edited by Birgit Krekeler, Eva Knig, Stefan Neumann, and Hans-Dieterlschleger. Estudios Indiana 5, Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, pp. 49-58


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Rodriguezde Figueroa, Diego[1565J 1910 Relaci6ndel camino e viaje que Diego Rodrigueshizo desde la ciudad del Cuzco a latierrade guerra. Ed. de Richard Pletschrnann, con el titulo Berichr des Diego o ~ i g u e z de

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colonialrecords. En: Dillehay, Tom D. (ed.). Tombsfor theliving.Andean.mortuarypracticesWashington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 315-353.

Sancho de laHoz, Pedro[15341 1962 Relaci6n dela conquista delPerno Traducido por Joaquin Garcia Icaabalceta.Librosespanoles

e hispanoamericanos, 2.Madrid: BibliothecaTenanltla,Sarmiento de Gamboa Pedro

[157211906 Segunda parte de la H is to rt a gener al Hamada Ind ica. Ed . de R icha rd P le ts chmannbaj o e l t it ul o Gesch lcht e des l nkar ei ches . Abhand ungen der Konig/ichen Gesellschaftder Wissenschaften tU G6ttingen, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, N.F. 6(4). Berlin:Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.

Tiru Cuss Yupangui, Diego de Castro[1570J 1992 Ynstrno;1on delyngadon Diegode Castro Titu CussiYupangui paraelmuy ilustre senor l l i ~ n ~ i d o

LopeGarcia de Castro. Ed. de LilianaRegalado de Hurtado. Lima: Pcnttficia UnlversldadCatolica del Peru, Fondo EditoriaL

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1996 La guerra de los Wawqi. Los objetivos y losmecanismos de arivalidaddentro de la elite Inka siglosXV XVI: Quito: Abva-Yala.

48 Kerstin NowackMargarita HuavhuaEveryday discrimination in the Southern Andes

1. IntroductionThis article comes from an investigation of inequality and social exclusion in dailyinteractions in the Southern Andes of Peru. I ask, how are processes ofdiscriminationor social hierarchy internalized, evaded, subverted or transformed in face-to-faceinter,actions among individualswhose maternal language is Quechua or Spanish?

Before examining how discrimination plays out in daily interactions, I would liketo briefly introduce the waysin which Quechua-speaking people have been discussedin socialscience literature. Scholars in the Andes have described how categorical labelssuchas Indian, mestizo crtciio,cholo work within interethnic relationships.These studiesclaim that individuals labeled Indian move from cone category to another: fromIndian to cholo cholo to mestizo and finally from mestizo to erial/a That is, ethnicity isframed as a gradient phenomenonthat is always in progress . Indians become gradually modern by their assimilation to the Euro-westerniaed life of mestizo or criollo,their abandonment of certain practices, and their migration to the cities. Migrationfor manyscholars (seeCannessa 1999) implies a radical change of Indianethnic status.Inotherwords, an Indian going to the citybecomes a cholo (an urbanized Indian), andin the long ru n a mestizo (Cannessa 1999: 72).

This gradualism in interethnic relationships - a concept sharedby many Andeanscholars - was pointed ou t byMason more than 40 years ago (1966). Mason assertedthat bureaucratic employees, intellectuals, and other elites share the idea thatIndiansneed to evolve from their t radi tional to a modem culture. The implication is thatIndians need to d isappear in order to achieve progress because they are a lien tomodernity , as the literary critic Jean Franco points out (2006). Those who speak alanguage other than Spanish have been and are still beingstigmatized, blamed for theunsuccessful or partial modernization of the nation. This ideology, according to Fran,co, derive]s]from a discursive formation that homogenizes and simplifies indigenousidentity without regard to the historical sedimentation of discrimination (Franco2006 176 .

This article isoffered as posthumous homageto Dr. Erwin Frank for his teachingswhile I was hisstudent at the Faculrad Latinoamericanade Cienclas Sociales - Quito (Ecuador).


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50 Margarita Huayhua Everydaydiscrimination in the Southern Andes 51

Department of Cusco, District of Santiago(after and (05.02.2012).

All participants usually laugh, but sometimes women get annoyed and make comments such as

Maypi mankatari hayt anman mankari imanashantaqri.How dareshe k ick the pot ; the po t i snot doing anything to her, isit?(Heldnotes 2009).

3. The villagersUqhupata villagers refuse to be categorized under any racial label (e.g., peasant or runa_ a finding that runs counter to orthodox positions on social identity in the Andes).Villagers emphasize that the runa label refers to a human being without any essential,ethnic overtone. demands that they be recognized no t only as human beings, bu talso on their own term, as persons capable of being accountable and legitimate interloeutors like any non-villager. They want to understand others and to be understoodbyothers, aswas pointed ou t by a villager:

Runama riki kashayku manama alquchu.We are humans. We are not dogs (Interview 4, 2009).

C= AUR SQUEo 3kmHUANOQUITE

The idea that Indians become modern if they become mestizoor rio o impliesthat progress can be achieved only byacculturationor assimilation, i.e., mestizaje. es-rizaje implies blanqueamiento or whitening asSafa translated the word (2005: 311)inwhich the highest model isassumed to be mestizoor erialla Mesnzejewas and still is, insome Latin American count ries , a way to forge a uni f ied and homogenous nationalimage ... and reassert the supremacyof western civilization (2005: 307).

AsMacCormack (2006) points out, mestizajeunderstood asa merging of cultures,races , and languages cannot be the model on whi ch a country becomes a nation,because different groups . .. have thei r own ways of creating and interpreting meaning, ways that remain distinct (MacCormack 2006: 23). That is, in daily cross-culturalinteractions in both less or more formal settings, homes, schools, or health clinics different meanings emerge for different participants. Indigenous people may interpretdifferently relationships they have with other people, as well as with material things,such as land, art , and books (MacCormack 2006: 27).

Below I examinehow processes of discrimination or social hierarchy are displayedin daily interactions in a village 's health facil ity. These processes are then l inked toimages of highlanders circulated by coastalcongress persons.2. A general background2.1 The villageOccopata Uqhupata in Quechua lies on the border between Paruru and Cuzcoprovince, and belongs to the municipality of Santiago, seated in Cuaco. It is underthe charge of the municipality which bigger concerns seem to be that any countrysideQuechua-speakiugvillage like Uqhupata must be developed and lead toward modernity . In this light the mayor of Santiago and his subordinatesconcentrate their effortson modernizing and urbanizing the village.

Agents from the municipality, for example, urge women to organize their households accordingto particularways.They check the organizationof household utensils,and kitchen and bathroom hygiene in their weekly visits. Some villagers like to jokeabout agents visits while having breakfast or a break from farming. One they like totell is the following:

Asuki prisirintiq wasinman risqa. n pipas kasqachu. Hawapi ch Ullumanka chuqarayashasqa.Asukiqa mankata h ayraspa k uchumanraq aparqaripusqa. 2Asuki went to the vil lage president 's home. No one was there . A po t with cooked drypotatoes sat outside the patio. Asuki kicked the pot until i t ended up in the corner of thepatio (Fieldnotes 2009).

2 Quechuaand Spanishare initalicfont;both languagesweretranslatedintoEnglishby theauthor.


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52 MargaritaHuavhua Everyday discrimination in the Southern Andes 534. The health facilityTh e village health facility stands between th e two Uqhupata main streets. was builtduringthe 1970sasa communityhealth center. The Ministry of Health gavethe fundsfor building materials a nd t he villagers contributed with their labor force and adobebricks. is a on e storybuilding with a backyard an d a p atio.

Of th e b ui ld in g s f ive ro om s, t he re a re t hr ee e xa mi ni ng r oo ms . On e storesmedicines, a n d a n ot h er p a ti e nt records, a sterilization chamber, a computer with aprinter, and office supplies. T hese r oom s are distributed around a waiting room alsoused as hallwayto accessthe other rooms).

Th e majority of patients are women and children, some elderly people, an d highschool students. Few me n seek health care; sometimes they bring their ch ild o r co mewith their wife to reg ister their n ewb o rn . Patients arriv e early in t h e m o rn i ng forunscheduled treatment or an appointment. When the waiting room gets crowded,patients wait an d con verse o n the p atio, o r p lay with their child.

Within examiningrooms several types of interaction happen betweenpatients an dgovernment representatives. On e examp le is p ren atal care in the biggest examiningroom. From the door one can see the representative s desk, two chairs, and a metallicshelf with medical records, pregnancy cards, and notebooks. On the desk are theprescription drug forms, infant records cards, a n d p at ie nt medical records. Th erepresentative fills ou t the general database with the previous patient s data. A patient P) enters with her bab y w ra pp ed up i n a n unkhui a woven cloth) and sits facing therepresentative. Th e representative R), after few minutes asks,

R: Niway este-imawan kuydakunki qan .)ah?P: n sinurita kuyrakuymanchuR: {Porque?Oco wawa kanqaP: Umayman sinunta atakawanR: Tenme this-what contraceptivemethod willyoucontrol with .)ah?P: Miss,I won t useanymethod lfacingthe representadvel)R: Why?Youwillhaveanother baby reviewinga sheet ofthe medical record))P: t gives me terrible headaches.

Confronted with th e patient s refusal to u se a con tracep tiv e method, the representariveasserts that the patient does not want to take care of herself. The patient becomes

3 I recorded natural conversations inthe village clinic during fieldwork time20082010). Theyhavebeen transcribed following the system of transcription of Sacks, Schegloff Jefferson 974). Forexample, adot .)indicates a micro pause; words included within double parenthesis ) indicate thetranscriber s comment. The transcription. was translated into English bythe author.

silent and b eg in s to swing he r feet. Ignoring the patient s headaches and insistingon the necessity of using a contraceptive method, mixing Spanish a n d Q ue c hu a , t h er p r s n t t i v ~ adds:

R: ... y despues ashkha wawa kanqa y imaynalla kanqa .) imaynata qan uywakunki .) manawawata aqna animalhinachu kanan .)solowaka . )oveiachunka .)tawa .)pisqacomun la .)qan humano kankiigual nuqa hina . )no cierto?

R: ... and after [that]there willbea lot ofbabiesand whatwouldbe .)howwillyoutakecareof .)babies cannot come into being likean animal .)only cows,sheep have),four, five, ten offspringwithout anycare .)youarehuman like me .)right?The patient does no t utter anything; she hands over her h ealth in su ran ce fo rm an dkeeps silent, holding he r baby on her lap while the representative fills o u t t he attendance form. Th e representative - despite her best intentions an d assumptions that sheis complyingwith herjob requirements - ,revealsa stereotype about Quechua-speakingwomen: Women who deliver more than three children are like animals, which is conveyed by animal hinachu a judgment that iseven moresevere in Quechua than it wouldb e in Sp an ish o r Eng lish. Those who have more than three children resemble cows orsheep: solo wakaovejatawa pisqa chunka comunlla. They are n o t h u ma n beings.

Th e categorization of those wh o refuse to use a contraceptive method as animal incontrast to humans undermines those with a Quechua background e.g., villagers), aswell as puts in question th eir statu s as human beings capable of decisions about theirhealth, well-being, and any other aspect that concerns them. If women have more thanthree children, they are aligned with those who do no t know ho w to control o r caretheir body.

Such racialization appears in other, national level practices as well, such as thoseof congress persons and ministers. I examinebelow the way a coastal congress personcategorizes people from the highlands no t onlyas animals who lack understanding orreasoningcapabilities.


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54 Margarita Huayhua Everyday discrimination in theSouthern Andes 555. Being llama or vicunaAt the beginning of a 2006 interviewwith a prominent coastal politician, a journalistfound himself immediately at an impasse. Arturo Escobar, the journalist was at thePeruvian Parliamentbuilding with congressman?Antero Flores to interview him aboutthe Tratado de Libre Comercio (Free Trade Treaty - FIT with the United States. Thediscussion regarded the congressional vote on a proposal for a referendum aboutwhether or no t the FI T was wor th pursuing as part of a neoliberal governmentapproach. The journalistQ asks the congressman em :

iY ustedctee congresista que debe aprobarse elreferendum sabre el tratadode libre comercio?em Noooo lievasa preguntar a s llamas j vicunassabre el tratadode libre comercio? And do you believe,Congressman, that the referendum on the FT f issueshouldbe approvedby a referendum?Cm: Noaa, areyougoingto ask llamasand vicunas6 about the FTT?

Flores categorically rejects the idea of consulting Peruvians about the FIT. He arguesthat one cannot ask llamas and vicuiias who are closer to nature than to culture (seeCadena 2008: 27).7 Llamas and vicunas do not belong to the cultured milieu of coastalelite dwellers. They belong to the highland, their quintessential geographical space. tis the placefor those who are less human and stagnated in relation to coastal dwellers.Thus, people living in the highland - including Quechua and Spanish speakers - arellamas and vicuiias merely animals who do no t have the brain power to understandthe FIT.

Th e congressman's response also sounds like it presupposes that the interviewershares his point of view. First, he addresses the journalist with the second person, as if

4 Escobar's whole interview can be listened at


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56 Margarita Huayhua Everyday discrimination in the Southern Andes 57sheep) cannot understand anything. Paradoxically the congressman in his utteranceincluded all highlanders, that is, not only those with Quechua background, but alsothose with Spanish background. Whereas the government representative labeled asanimal thewoman who refused to used any contraceptive method.

Although the congressman tries to clarify that he is refer ring to those who areilliterate, there i s no doubt that he implies all highlanders. However, the oppositiondistinguishing literate from non-literate Spanish highlanders can lead us to discussanother social hierarchy, highlanders who dwell in the city and command Spanish asa first language replicate the racism that costal people direct at them. Spanish-literatehighlanders attempt to disassociate themselves from those having a Quechua background, associating them with a lack of reasoning capabilities or intelligence.

The racialization of highlanders as animals informs the face-to-face interactionsof congress people among themselves as well. An event occurred in the Parliamentchamber , in which a bil l under discussion was racistlv dismissed. The bill, proposedby Quechua-speaking congresswomen Sumire CwO and Supa (Cw2), called for thediffusion and preservation of aboriginal languages,'? Their peer, congresswoman Hildebrandt C ~ 3 , considered the bill useless: o sirve paranada ( it is worthless ).When Cw 1 and Cw2 interrupted her vehement argument, she pointed out:

Cw3: iren s modales deestas niiiasquechuahablantes (ltuming her head and pointingwithher indexfingerat Cwl and Cw 2))nome dejan hablarPCw3:Lookat the manners of these Quecliua-speakinggirls(lrurning her head and poin-

ting with her index finger-atCw1and Cw2))theydo not letme talk.Cw1 and Cw2 then contest the argument that Quechua isworthless, Le., that speakersof the language are worthless people. CW312 intends to continue with her allocutionby calling attention to the supposedly bad behavior of the Quechua-speaking congresswomen. The phrase miren losmodales refers to a personwho does no t know howto behave properly in an official and public setting such as the Parliament chamber.The phrase estas niiiasquechuahablantes refers to Cw l and Cw2 as Quechua-speakingchildren. is implied that even though these Quechua-speaking individuals have beenelected as representatives, they are estes, a bunch of undesirable, childlike things (objects), below the social standing of the Cw3.

10 Seedetails atProyectode yparaLaPreservaci6n, UsoyDifuston delasLenguas Aborigenes delPeru (; 12.12.2009). See the full video clip at ;17.04.2008).Thecomments happened on 06.09.2007.12 Hildebrandt hasbeenacongresswoman since the 1990s asa member ofFujimori's political party.

According to this view, childish ideas such as the aboriginal language bill areworthless; its proponents utterances or point of view are also worthless.The implication is that all thosewho speak Quechua cannot succeed in gaining total adulthood;they will alwaysremain children despite being able to speakSpanish13and dealingwithbills and other topics related to legislation within the Parliament.

Cw3 also cla ims a superordinate position by arguing that she is treated unfairlyby their interrupting her, which she signals by no medejanhablar If Quechua-speakingindividualsare regarded aschildren, they are supposed to offer deferenceby concedingthe f loor to Cw3 and allowing her to speakas long asshe wants.6. We are like you ...The congresswoman's contempt toward those who live in the highlands or have aQuechua background is no t peculiar to her. is shared by congressmen, ministersand broadcasters. What is more interesting, is that Cw3's contempt and disgust isfractally played ou t by dwellers in the highland. While highlanders are regarded asanimals lacking reasonby coastal political elites, some city-dwelling, Spanish-speakinghighlanders claim a superordinate position over those who dwell in rural areas andwhose first language isQuechua.As it has been shown in daily face-to-face interactions, racialization happensconstantly and persistently, in which the main highlighted difference is the lack ofreasoningor capacityto understand, andwhose main recipients are usually highlanderswith a Quechua language background. At a national level, coastal elites also includehighlanderswith a Spanishlanguage background in their racist stereotypes.

13 APeruvian business-man picturednorthernfarmers, ellossoncomoninos nosaben quequieten ( theyare like children theydo not know whattheywant ). Seethewhole article ar


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58 Margarita HuayhuaBibliographical referencesCadena Marlsolde la(ed.) 8 Formaciones de indianidad: articulacionesmdales, mestizaje nacion J America Latina. Lima:

Envion.Canessa, Andrew

1999 Marking person, marking difference: Procreation beliefs in Highland Bolivia.In: Loizos,Peter Patrick Heady (eds.). Conceivingpersons: Ethnographies of procreation fertilityngrowth.London/New Brunswick: Athlone Press, 69-87.

Franco, Jean .2006 Aliento modernity:The rationalization ofdiscrimination. JournalofLatinAmericanCulturalSwdies15 2 : 171-181.

Graham Richard(ed.)1990 h ideao/race in Latin America, 18701940. Austin: University of Texas Press.

MacCormack,Sabine2006 On thewindsOftime.Princeton: Universityof Princeton Press.

Mason, Philip1966 Gradualism in Peru: Some impressions on the future of ethnic groups relarions. Race3 1 :43-61.

Quijano Anibal1980 Dominaci6n Cultura: LaCholoy el ConjlicroCulturalenel Pem.Lima: Mosca Azul Edltores.

Sacks, Harvey, EmanuelA. Schegloff Gail Jefferson1974 A s impl es t s yst ema tic s f or the o rg an is at io n of turn-taking for conversation. Languagc50:

696-735.Safa, Helen2005 Cha ll en gi ngmestitaje: A gender perspectiveon Indigenousand Afrodescendantmovements

in latin America. Critiquc of Anthropology 25{3):307-330.Stepan, Nancy1991 The holm of eugenics: Rcce, gender, and nzmon in Latin America Ithaca: Cornell University

Press.

SondraWentzelFrom invisible natives to an irruption ofindigenous identity ?Two decades of change among the Tacana in the northernBolivian Amazon

AI finalnos dlmoscuentatodos que eramosracanasTacana leader 2001,quoted inHerrera 2009: 1).

1. Introduction: The TacanaIn the mid 1980s, a t ime of redemocratization and structural adjustment policiesin Bolivia, consultations about a region suitable for field researchon the si tuationof indigenous peoples in the context of Amazonian development led me to theProvinceof lturralde in the lowlandnorth of the Departmentof LaPaz(Figure 1).Theculture of its indigenous inhabitants, the Tacana, had been documented byGermanresearchers in the early 1950s (Hissink Hahn 1961; 1984). Also, under the mottoLaMarcha al Norte the region was the focus of large infrastructure and agroindustrialprojects which had already stimulated spontaneous colonization,bu t local peoplehad little information about these activities nor support to defend thei r r ight s andinterests. Between 1985 and 1988, I conducted about a year of vil lage level field research in the region, mainly in Tumupasa, an eX-Franci scan mission among theTacana founded in 1713and t ransfe rred to i ts current locat ion around 1770, SantaAna, a mixed communi tyfounded in 1971, and 25 de Mayo, a highland colonis tcooperative whose members had settled between Tumupasa andSantaAna from 1979

Tacana branch of the Pano-Tacanan language family, whose othercurrent members are the AraonaCavineno Ese Ejja, and Reyesano (Maropa). Despite several special expeditions in recentyears, sofar, there i s no proof for the continued existence of the Toromona supposedly the last isolated indigenous group of the Bolivian lowlands. Recently, the official spellinghas been changed to Takana.Since most publications, includingthose byCIPTA, stilt use the spelling Tacana , itwillbe maintained in this article aswelt.

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