Blogs

In one of our conversations about Andean Lives (I believe it was at the Florencio), Jon mentioned the multiple, distinct forms of abuse that Gregorio and Asunta faced throughout their lives. It is absolutely true that these forms of abuse are intrinsically linked and feed off one another, so I don’t wish to label them […] read full post >>

Finally he told them: ‘When you have reduced these people to our service, you shall maintain them in reason and justice, showing mercy, clemency, and mildness, and always treating them as a merciful father treats his beloved and tender children … I wish you as children of mine to follow this example sent down to […] read full post >>

Finally he told them: ‘When you have reduced these people to our service, you shall maintain them in reason and justice, showing mercy, clemency, and mildness, and always treating them as a merciful father treats his beloved and tender children … I wish you as children of mine to follow this example sent down to […] read full post >>

“And yet a permanence of stone and language/upheld the city raised like a chalice/in all those hands: live, dead, and stilled,/aloft with so much death, a wall, with so much life,/struck with flint petals: the everlasting rose, our home,/ this reef on Andes, its glacial territories” (Neruda 29). This stanza comes from section VII of […] read full post >>

as a feminist (reading blog 7) read full post >>

  Our trip to Amaru was, according to Jon, the most important and culturally significant day of the trip. I feel like in retrospect, this claim was dubious, but that is neither here or nor there. At the beginning of this course back in Lima, Jon told us that we may come out of this course knowing less about indigeneity in the Andes than we knew going into it. I’m gonna be real, I had noooo idea what this was supposed to mean, no idea at all, not an inkling....read more read full post >>

Quote from Andean Lives: “He kept on traveling, and since many people knew I washed clothes, that's how I'd earn a little money for my belly, because he wouldn't give me a single centavo or even let me see the money he earned.” (pg. 117) Hi loves! This quote is from the mere 25 pages of Asunta’s account in Andean Lives. The man she is referring to is her first husband Eusebio. After the death of her first child, her husband became even more absent than before. His job selling merchandise gave him a reason to be continuously on the move. Amidst the tragedy of losing their child, the coping mechanism is distance. Him refusing to share financial accounts with her further adds to the separation of their lives. This sentence introduces financial abuse, which is typically intertwined with intimate partner violence. Asunta and her husband are already living amongst poverty, and her having to work to feed herself goes against the supposed social contract of a marriage where she is the childbearer/caregiver and he is the breadwinner. The use of the word “belly” is interesting to me because she is not only feeding herself but also her growing child once she gets pregnant. Even though her children aren’t surviving infancy, she is still upholding her side of the marriage while her husband isn’t. She makes money doing laundry, which is an extension of household duties. “Womanly” tasks like laundry are typically undervalued so her survival is harder because it’s more difficult to earn adequate compensation. Her already emotionally precarious marriage is further destroyed by financial stress and isolation. read full post >>

I had originally come onto Pablo Neruda’s The Heights of Macchu Picchu with the intention of writing about a quote and what it means. Ultimately, I decided to do that in a slightly different manner than I had initially anticipated. I was not always a fan of Nathaniel Tarn’s translations, and considering that I took […] read full post >>

Well, poetry is not generally my cup of tea, and I have little to no experience analyzing it, but just like the climb up Huayna Picchu yesterday, I am in Peru to challenge myself in new ways. So please have some grace if I am totally off base in my analysis. “Let me forget, colossal […] read full post >>

When we arrived at the community and they started handing out farm equipment I looked around to find a socially acceptable reason to opt out. I did not pay 150 soles just to do manual labour. It seemed a little too eat, pray, love, and that’s not the type of journey I’m on right now. I approached Lian, and we started to play. In a day that was already feeling quite fabricated, I thought hanging with Lian would at least be fun and I’d be able to learn more about the community. We got chatting and I tried to get him to teach me some Quechua. Unfortunately he told me he only spoke Spanish. He is only five and just starting school, but I still found it peculiar that he didn’t speak it with his parents. read full post >>