Friends and family;
Please don’t panic when I tell you where I am.
Thirty-five years ago, Abimael Guzmán’s up-until-then peaceful Communist Party of Peru – Sendero Luminoso decided that peacefully displaying their views to the remainder of the Peruvian people no longer gave them the political edge that they sought. They decided that the best way to continue about doing business was to migrate to a more “persuasive” means. To put it bluntly, el Sendero Luminoso started killing all of those that decided not to join/support them. Those that died were mostly Quecha speaking peasents that lived in the department of Ayacucho.
The government of the time, in true South American style, intervened by deciding “they’re peasents, of course they’re in league with el Sendero Luminoso,” and starting killing, torturing, raping and dissapearing as many people as they could lay their hands on. Between el Sendero Luminoso, who killed everybody that disagreed with them, and the army, who killed everybody that disagreed with them, it’s hard to tell who really was the most terrible. I won’t quote statistics.
It is estimated that 69,000 people lost their lives.
Ayacucho, and the surrounding department has had a shady reputation ever since.
Ayacucho does not deserve this reputation.
Municipal and regional officials have been trying for years to have countries around the world lift their travel warnings on the region. Touristic campaigns have turned the city into a tourist destination in it of itself that isn’t officially listed, which makes it quite a nice place with not many of us gringos, giving it a very authentic feeling. The city itself is nice, buildings are not rotting and falling down, but rather nicely painted and maintained, and a healthy swath of businesses have moved into the area. One of the more popular destinations in the area is the hotel/restaurant combination of Via Via, which sits right on the central plaza of the city, offering a great view whenever a festival happens to go on.
There just happened to be a festival going on. Some luck eh? (Not really, there are over 400 festivals per year in each city/town respectively.)
I’m still not entirely sure what it was they were celebrating to be completely honest, but it had something to do with the Virgin Fatima. Fireworks were being set off, large structures were being set on fire, firecrackers were going off and students were parading around the central square in full uniform, al holding candles. It was really quite fantastic to see. At one point, a large float being carried by several dozen men and women that (we were told by our very friendly waiter Manuel) weighed around 3000 pounds.
A rogue firework display at one point (a bamboo structure with spinning protrusions with fireworks attached to it) detached from the rest of the structure and flew over the rooftops, firing off in every direction and landing on the rooftop adjacent to the one we happened to be sitting under. Thankfully, terracotta rooves are not flamable. And it was raining.
Ayacucho has offered a very different view of Peru so far. It’s showed an uncanny ability for humanity to rebuild despite being in the shadow of horror. These people were affected, and they haven’t forgotten. El Museo de la Memoria was testimony to that, and despite its small size, it has conveyed a very clear message;
Para que nunca se repite.
So that it may never happen again.
Global Thoroughfare 