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Victor
delfin's sculpture "The Lovers" is
being placed in a park in Lima Peru. Public
displays of affection are taboo in Peru, and
the artist once served jail time for kissing
a girl in a public place, which makes the installation
of his sculpture depicting a man and a woman
kissing each other all the mosre interesting.
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The
purpose of my trip to Peru was to research into
Francisco Lombardiıs motion picture In the Wolfıs
Mouth, a film about the dirty war released
in 1988 during the political upheaval. The film
depicts the stateıs chaos, the social consequences
of the military intervention, its methods to fight
terrorism, and the Shining Path. However, the sporadic
and weak representation of this guerrilla group
creates an unbalanced narration and awkward plotting.
Although these miscalculations, the filmmaker develops
a striking story of the military microcosm during
the dirty war, where we observe the return of man
to barbarism. My work, which centers on the representation
of violence during the burst of terrorism, that
is, during the final years of President Garciası administration
to the beginning of President Alberto Fujimoriıs
militarily protected democracy (1988 1992), examines
other genres besides film, among them theatre and
short stories.
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The
National Film Archive in Lima.
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Before
departing to Perú, I had envisioned to gather
as much material as possible for In the Wolfıs
Mouth and also for chapter three and four of
my dissertation. For chapter three, I needed to find
the music used by Yuyachkani in its play No Me
Toquen Este Vals; and for chapter four, I wanted
to collect and select literary texts, short stories.
With all my projects under my arm, I departed to
Lima with my son the 29 of July at 8.30 a.m. for
two weeks.
Things
were going just "swell" until my son and
I arrived to Dallas airport, where we found out that
our flight to Lima was delayed five and a half hours.
Fortunately, we arrived next day at four a.m. at
last. Soon after recovering from my weary flight,
I visited the National Film Archive and collected
data on In the Wolfıs Mouth (newspaper and
journal articles), attended the Fourth Film Latin
American Meeting upheld by the Catholic University,
and saw Francisco Lombardiıs latest film Pantaleón
y las visitadoras, based on Mario Vargas Llosaıs
novel. The film had already received several awards
at the Gramadoı Film Festival in Brasil. Lombardiıs
latest work helped me to better understand his film
language and the Peruvian male idiosyncrasy. I was
also delighted to observe the success of this event;
the audience fully participated in the workshops
offered by directors, playwrights and producers and
attended the film presentations. I was able to do
the second part only because all workshops were sold
out. Among the countries that participated were Argentina,
Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador,
México, Perú, and Venezuela, but also
chipped in Portugal and Spain.
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Early
20th century house in the city of La Punta.
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After
completing my research goal for In the Wolfıs
Mouth, I started looking for the music of No
Me Toquen Ese Vals, however, this project turned
out to be an unexpected major challenge. Although
I had already identified the lyrics and the diverse
periods of production, I did not anticipate that
the traditional Peruvian valses from the 70ıs were
not going to be around in the local music stores.
If obtaining the valses was challenging, trying to
find Spanish song-writer Paco Ibáñezıs
musical adaptation of Rafael Albertiıs, Luis Felipeıs,
Francisco Quevedoıs and Calderónıs poems was
worse. After a week, finally, in Quilca, the best
place to find commercial and non-commercial texts,
music and other materials, I was guided to Orlando,
an expert in troubadours. Orlando knows a lot about
music, but he doesnıt sell much because people are
now into the 21st centuryıs air, chicha
music like "technocumbia", and also because
of the persisting economic crisis.
As
I looked around Quilca for additional texts that
deal with official violence and terrorism, I was
surprised to see that vendors were surprised and
suspicious of my request. Was I being too overt?
After going from one kiosk to the next, quietly I
was directed to a kiosk of a young man. I asked him
the same question. He inspected my mother and I,
who accompanied along my research, from top to button. "Iıll
be back", he said. We waited anxiously. I expected
a terrific and forbidden book as if I were waiting
for my home town fresh bread coming out from the
oven, but only one feeling bothered me "was
I putting my mother at risk?" The young man
came back with Simon Strongıs book Sendero Luminoso; "donıt
worry, itıs just a book", he told us." I
wasnıt worried about that book, I was disappointed!. "I
could have gotten it in Berkeley, but then of course,
I wouldnıt have had so much secrecy and excitement",
I said to myself. Was this underground atmosphere
the result of repression?. How could we explain that
vendors and readers fear being caught selling and
buying texts that should have disappeared with terrorism?
Perhaps the young man was just putting up a show
to sell, but he didnıt care much about my buying
the text, I noticed it when he hand it to me. I thought,
and thought, and thought, and Iım still wondering
about this anecdote. I know that the feeling of repression
and fear existed. Maybe this is the way in which
the Peruvian system forces citizens to forget their
immediate history and those who were victim of the
dirty war. I can only say something for sure, in
this field trip to Peru, I have been able to successfully
accomplished all my goals and be a witness of the
peopleıs poverty and despair. Without the Tinker
Summer Research Grant and the Spanish and Portuguese
Department Summer Grant, and my family support, this
investigation and all the experiences that I lived
would not have taken place.
Lucía
Galleno is a PhD candidate in the Department of Spanish
and Portuguese
