New Discovery

In December, Argentina will be hosting the VIII Latin American Congress of Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE). A few days ago, I worked at the Ministry of Education of Argentina helping out with an important national seminar, where teachers from all over the country got together to discuss the logo and motto of the Congress. I had the opportunity to talk to many indigenous people who are currently working as teachers or are very involved in the process of promoting (or institutionalizing) the IBE.

This exposure make me realized many things. I realized that everything that I have learned about discrimination against the indigenous people in my life, I learned it here in Buenos Aires. I realized that even though I was interested in this topic before, I never made any effort to get involved and learned what was going on in Peru with respect to this topic. Thus, I have no idea what the government, the indigenous people or the civil society are doing to stop discrimination; to form a better Peruvian society where there is respect and equality.

I also realized that before it wasn't a big deal for me to find out whether or not I have indigenous blood. Now it is. All the people I have interviewed so far know about their genealogy, but I don't. So when they ask me if I am from an indigenous community, I don't know what to answer. I don't know for sure that I don't belong to one. Plus, knowing if I have indigenous blood will open many doors to learn more about myself and my cultural and genealogical heritage.

I also experienced an awesome feeling. Before starting the seminar, the people from the Autonomous Educational Council of Indigenous People did an inauguration ceremony: the Pachamama ritual. No words to describe how happy I felt. My feeling of happiness is not exactly because of the ritual. It is because I didn't see this ritual from a paternalistic or superior perspective. I respected and appreciated their culture and our differences. This is a good beginning!

It felt good because it is easy to be paternalistic. I am aware of my biases and my background. I grew up in a society where there are two extremes. You could have paternalistic or derogatory attitudes toward this large sector of the Peruvian population. When I say indigenous people, I am not trying to encapsulate all the indigenous people in one category. That is just not possible.

Most of the indigenous people that migrated to the capital city in the past decades tried to assimilate into the mestizo society. They didn't want to be different, so there was no appreciation of the indigenous culture from the rest of the society or even from the indigenous people themselves. There is no much of a middle ground. Equality is not an option yet. What is worse discrimination is visible because there is a diverse population in Lima. There are white, mestizos and indigenous people as well. So, friction was inevitable. Otherwise, most people from Lima are not very preoccupied with what is happening to the indigenous people; as if the indigenous people were invisible citizens with no rights. This is my view of this complex situation.