Peruanidadand blackness in national and local perspectives

Popular Literature and Racial Science

Bibliographic Data

ID2178081
AuthorsDan Cozart (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume14
Issue2
Pages194-213
Publication date2019-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLatin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1744-2222 • E-ISSN: 1744-2230
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17442222.2019.1567055
OpenAlexW2912336199
LanguageEN
References cited19

This article examines the constructions of ethno-racial identities in the debates and projects of Peruvian nation building during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The conflicting writings of Lima’s elite authors Ricardo and Clemente Palma contrast with literature from the northern region of Piura, exposing differing regional and local conceptions of peruanidad as well as distinct interpretations of colonial history in the shaping of a national identity. Whereas Ricardo Palma’s tradiciones promoted a somewhat inclusive vision of Peruvian national identity, his son Clemente’s bachelor’s thesis reveals a social structure defined by an emerging vocabulary that established ethnic and racial boundaries. These perspectives, however, were further challenged by Piuran poet and novelist Enrique López Albújar, whose work Matalaché asserted the significance of Afro-Peruvians in the nation’s history and identity. Discursive shifts evident in Clemente Palma’s writings bear similarities to Peru’s leading eugenicist of the 1930s, Roberto MacLean Estrenós, demonstrating the interplay between popular culture and the pseudoscience of race. The analysis shows similarities in discourses of race and nation across the Americas while highlighting diverse perspectives that were ultimately constrained by a dominant discourse of mestizaje

Aesthetics · Art · Colonialism · Elite · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Identity (music · National identity · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Racism · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America · Politics and Society in Latin America

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