Peruvian CultureNations Report: Part 2

Irving Simpson18 May 2011History 141

Traditional Peruvian Clothing• Peru has a variety of indigenous groups, all with differences in their customary styles of

clothing• Many traditional styles of dress are composites of native and European items of apparel• Women’s skirts, polleras, are variations on European fashion of colonial times and are

brightly decorated with regional designs• Women will wear multiple skirts for the layering effect and up to 15 skirts on special

occasions• Clothes are often produced with contemporary colors and materials with traditional

designs and handcrafting• Two unique items of clothing from Peru and the ancient Andean cultures are popular

around the world: poncho and chullo• The poncho is an outer garment made from a flat piece of fabric with a hole in the middle

for the head and meant to keep the body warm and dry, if waterproof, and double as a blanket or ground cloth

• Traditional Peruvian ponchos are handwoven and decorated with distinctive designs unique to each district and worn for special occasions

• The chullo is a style of hat with earflaps made from vicuña, alpaca, llama or sheep's wool that provides protection from the harsh Andean weather

• Traditional Peruvian clothing is worn to highlight regional differences and foster pride in indigenous heritage

Women's traditional dress in the Ausangate region

José Sabogal• José Sabogal (March 19, 1888 – December 15, 1956) was born in Lima, Peru • Traveled extensively in Europe (particularly Italy) and North Africa from 1908 to 1913• Studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina for five years• Time he spent in Cuzco inspired his interest in the indigenous character of the city and

its inhabitants; the paintings attracted attention at a 1919 exhibition in Lima• Even though Sabogal's heritage was Spanish and not indigenous, he promoted pre-

Columbian culture and esthetics• Sabogal started teaching at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, Lima in 1920 and served as

its director from 1932 to 1943• He became a founding figure of a movement within Peruvian art referred to as

"Indigenismo" which emerged in the 1930’s• “Indigenismo” characterizes a modernizing shift in Peruvian art and a vindication of

Peru’s native heritage and represents an influential social movement throughout Latin America

• Heightened colors, emphatic outlines, and the static figures and shapes of Andean landscapes and people typify Sabogal’s work

• His indigenous subjects caused great commotion among Peruvian artists• Sabogal cofounded the Free Institute of Peruvian Arts and the National Museum of

Peruvian Culture towards the end of his career

Las Llamas by Jose Sabogal

Mario Vargas Llosa• Mario Vargas Llosa was born March 28, 1936 and lived with his mother and her parents

until he was ten; at that time, his mother and father were reunited• Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists and a leading

author of his time• He is associated with the literary movement, the Latin American Boom, a group of

experimental authors dealing with the changing political landscape of Latin America in the 1960’s and reacting to the reverberations of revolution in Cuba

• Critics regard his international impact and worldwide audience as greater than any of the other Latin American Boom writers

• Vargas Llosa has been politically involved throughout his career, having even run for the Peruvian presidency; his political leanings have moved him from left to right, from an affinity with Marxism towards liberalism; he was eventually disillusioned by the Fidel’s Cuba

• Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by his personal experiences of Peru, particularly experiences of his childhood and youth

• As he spent more time abroad, at university in Spain, for example, his range expanded and his themes started to include a concern with other parts of the world

• He divides his time between Spain and Peru and travel widely• Over the course of his career, his focus shifted from the seriousness of literary modernism

to the lighter and more comical spirit of postmodernism• He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2010 "for his cartography of structures of

power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat"

Mario Vargas Llosa in 2010

Sources

• http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2003/12/14/travel/20031214PERU.slideshow_5.html

• http://www.myperu.org/traditional_clothing_peru.html• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollera• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chullo• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poncho• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Sabogal• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenismo• http://www.latinart.com/faview.cfm?id=179• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Vargas_Llosa• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_Boom• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_music

Street band from Peru is performing in Tokyo