Una Leccióncita Sobre Perú

Lately, toward the end of my daily Spanish lesson, my teacher, Luz, and I take time out to discuss current events, politics, people and places in both Perú and the U.S. This has become my absolute favorite time of my lesson, if not my entire day. Afterall, this is a large part of the reason why I am down here in the first place; to get a different point of view of the world around us.

To be honest, our discussion can probably be more accurately described as Luz telling me about the woes of her country and me answering questions about the U.S. and other places I´ve been. At this point I don´t have 1.) the language skills to describe things exactly as I want; and 2.) the depth of knowledge about Perú to comment much on what Luz is saying. Nevertheless, I try my best and enjoy teaching Luz about the United States, which I assure her to her disbelief has all the same troubles as Perú - poverty, crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, unemployment, etc. - just on a smaller scale.

What really gets to me is how little I know about South America (and Africa, Asia and the Middle East for that matter). Did I miss that day at school? Was it of so little interest to me that I didn´t pay attention? Or were we never taught anything about those regions of the world? When I try to think about what I learned about South America, I´m brought all the way back to Mr. Denison´s 7th grade class, in which he taught us the countries´ capitals... that´s it. At least, that´s all I remember. So I´ve been trying to educate myself about the country that is now my home. Here´s what I have learned so far...

In the early to mid 16th century Peru was invaded by Spain. Already wrecked by civil war, the Quechua speaking Inca empire fell and Peru became one of the two core regions in Spanish America (with Mexico being the other) due to it´s rich silver mines to the north.

The Spaniards spent the next few hundred years imposing their culture and belief system with partial but not total success that has led to the rich Catholic/Indigenous culture that exists today. By 1800 Peru´s population reached approximately one million. According to ¨The History of Latin America¨ by Marshall Eakin, ¨the descendants of the Incas probably accounted for 60 to 65 percent of the population. Mestizos (people of European and Inca decent) probably accounted for about 20 percent and black slaves less than 5 percent. About 10 to 15 percent of the population was white.¨ Currenty, descendants of the Incas still account for 45%, Mestizos 37% and whites 15%. The remaining 3% is composed of people of african decent, asians and the mysterious ¨other¨ group.

Peru did not gain it´s independence back from Spain until July 28, 1821, nearly 300 years after the initial invasion. Since then, according to Eakin, Perú has forcused more on ¨war and maintaining elite control¨ than implementing ¨the political ideals of the founding moment¨ as the United States has done. I believe that this is just one of the many reasons why Peru is what it is today despite its abundant natural resources and potential. Following are current statistics and a quick comparison of Perú to the U.S. sourced from the World Bank´s 2007 database.

Peru is approximately three times the size of California with a population that is equal to Texas and Oklahoma combined (about 28 million). Of the 28 million people who live in Peru approximately 39.3% live below the poverty line, compared to 12.5% of the population in the United States. Peru is considered a developing nation and their gross national income is only $3k per person opposed to the U.S.´s $46k.

Despite Peru´s perpetual poverty, life expectancy is 71 years at birth, just eight years less than U.S. citizens. HIV is slightly less prevelant here at 0.5% than in the U.S. where it is at 0.6%. Furthermore, literacy is at 90% in Peru, much higher than I expected for a country in which micro-finance organizations are so common.

Peru´s GDP (in billions USD) was 107.3 in 2007 with a growth rate of 8.9%. Furthermore, they managed a cash surplus equal to 2% of their GDP. In 2007, the U.S. had a GDP of 13,751.4 with a 2% growth rate.

To give you a little market information, in Peru it takes an average of 72 days to start a business. According to the World Bank it only takes a person in the United States an average of 6 days although that seems ridiculously quick to me. Furthermore, 55% of people in Peru have a cell phone (85% of people in the U.S. have a mobil phone subscription) and a much lower percentage of Peruvians, 27.4%, are internet users in contrast to 73.5% of the population in the United States.

Perú employs a constitutional republic government. Currently in office is the seemingly very unpopular president, Alan García, of the Popular Revolutionary Party Alliance. He was elected in June of 2006 and will be in office for the customary five years. García was also president from 1985 to 1990 and was reelected this term with ¨promises to improve Peru's social condition, balancing economic stability with increased social spending,¨ according to the U.S. State Department. Furthermore, the U.S. State Department goes on to say, ¨During his term, García has overseen a robust macroeconomic performance, including strong GDP growth and declining poverty levels (39.3% of Peruvians were “poor” and 13.7% “extremely poor” in 2007). Despite this broad success, however, global inflation has pushed up prices for basic goods consumed by the poor, causing a steep decline in García’s level of public support.¨

Perú has a long way to go economically and socially but I have high hopes for this country. Never have I ever traveled to a more naturally beautiful and diverse country and one or two more visitors from the United States (hint hint) will most definitely help this economy. For more information on Perú please check out the following links:

http://www.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/p/101838.htm

http://www.worldbank.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru