A taxi driver in Lima recently robbed one of my good friends at gunpoint. Although you need to be cautious, I wouldn’t consider the level of danger in Peru much higher than other Latin American countries. In fact, my post on scary men is an example of the goodness that can always be found and this week’s follow-up guest post by Dr. Vincent Tufano on making the best of a bad situation recounts how lucky breaks factor in as well.
In this guest post, I’m proud to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Dr. Vincent Tufano, author of Empires of Gold, an in-depth historical fiction based in Peru. I wrote about his book in a past post, “Empires of Gold”: Do Good Dictators Exist? Below, Dr. Tufano writes about the perils of walking around in Peru.
“La humildad es lo que hace a uno grande.” [“Humility is what makes a person great.”] — Ramiro Saavedra quoting David Pirner, the lead singer of the American alternative rock band Soul Asylum.
Since his jaw-dropping audition, Ramiro Saavedra has been known and recognized nationally as the Peruvian Kurt Cobain. It was last Friday that Ramiro, hailing from Arequipa, won $25,000 for being voted as the best imitator in Peru on the first season of the hottest singing competition TV show in Peru, “Yo Soy” (translation: “I Am”). He arrived in Huancayo 2 days later for the first official “Yo Soy” concert with the other top contestants on the show.
“Are there a lot of foreigners who come to Pilcomayo to get married?” I ask *Juana who has been working at the municipal building of the tiny town of Pilcomayo for 17 years and has officiated her fair share of weddings. Apparently, she’s seen a lot of Italians who meet their Huancaina wives over the Internet. She’s also officiated weddings for couples who can barely communicate in either English or Spanish. “The Peruvian girl only knows how to say ‘money’ and the white guy takes out his wallet,” Juana recounts.
“I can live in an adobe house with dirt floors without electricity and get mite infections every few months, but I cannot live without hot showers,” I remember saying back in the day.
I’ve traveled from Canada to Peru five times so far and feel like I have the “packing for Peru” bit down now. I try to pack as light as possible when it comes to clothes, the rest of the space goes to gifts, and then there’s the matter of “the hand-carry essentials”…
As much as reading is a passion of mine, books in English are expensive in Peru and I can’t rely on the postal system that has already lost two of my packages in the past. So when my aunt said that she could bring me something on her trip to South America last year, I chose carefully.
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Dr. Vincent Tufano’s book, Empires of Gold!
Last December, I was captivated by what seemed to be a simple story that made headlines in Peru: Ricardo Apaza wasn’t allowed back into the movie theater after taking a second bathroom break and forgetting his ticket. The catch? Ricardo wore traditional Andean clothing, he was visiting from his rural hometown, and this incident happened in Lima, the busy capital of Peru. His enraged friend Pierina Papi called it racism.
On December 18, the very last day I was in Huancayo in 2011, I felt like a real Peruvian for the very first time. No, I didn’t get my Peruvian citizenship (even though I would like to be a legal Peruvian one day). This was even better: a stranger thought I was Peruvian!
“If you don’t have a dream…how you gonna have a dream come true?” — Happy Talk
In a way, I’ve been avoiding 2012. It’s been tapping on my shoulder waiting patiently to put me through the inevitable whoosh of freshness and newness, but I’ve been ignoring it. I’m not ready.
I don’t have any resolutions, and thinking of all that I would love to achieve and change overwhelms me.