Inequality for Indigenous Groups 1 Peru: Inequality of Education for Indigenous Groups, the Neglected Class

The culture of the indigenous people of Peru, descendants of the Incas, and the creators of an important cultural and social heritage, has been eroded by the politics of exclusion and disintegration. Not only did the colonialization of the Spanish disintegrate the indigenous culture, but Peruvians themselves are neglecting their native roots, excluding them from the educational system. In this paper, I will review the literature on the social inequalities that Peruvian indigenous groups experience in the Andes, and will identify missing gaps that need further study. I begin my analysis with the origins of inequality of the indigenous people and address the definition of “Indian.” Then, the following thematic issues are examined: social discrimination, poverty, access to education, analphabetism, language, gender, economic gaps, political unrest, government representation and dissapointment. I conclude this literature review with reflections on the inequality of education for the neglected class of Peru. Inequality for Indigenous Groups 3 The canon for this paper is the scenario that anthropologist María Elena García poses from her studies at the Andes. In the wake of a fifteen-year civil war in the late 1990s that left thousands dead, most of whom were Quechua-speaking highlanders, Peruvian government and civil society began supporting reforms that recognized the nation's cultural diversity. One such reform required that indigenous school children receive instruction in Quechua as well as Spanish. The idea sounded quite progressive to the country's multicultural advocates. Surprisingly, the bilingual reforms were soundly rejected by Quechua-speaking parents throughout the Peruvian highlands. During the Fifth Latin American Conference of Bilingual Intercultural Education in Lima in August 2002, the document “Multilingual Reality and Intercultural Challenge: Citizenship, Politics, and Education,” was presented and states: Democracy and citizenship in Latin America are aspirations for us all; however, they are still more of a promise than a reality, especially of indigenous peoples. Our societies have not stopped discriminating against certain categories of individuals and peoples ... and they continue to allow intolerance, inequality, and authoritarianism. Broad sectors of the population have no rights; other sectors do not respect the rights of others. Our societies are fragmented and still suffer modes of domination and exclusion. It is for this reason that indigenous people are more vulnerable to injustice, corruption, confrontation, and poverty ... Despite educational reform ... there still have been no adequate responses ... that might allow for a more visible role for indigenous leaders in their own development. The education offered ... to indigenous women and girls, is devoid of quality and of linguistic, cultural, and pedagogical relevance (2002, cited in García, 2005, p. 107). Hence, I will touch upon the aforementioned terms: promise, reality, discrimination, inequality, authoritarianism, exclusion, injustice, corruption, poverty, gender issues and so forth. These will be intertwined with Andean testimonies, an interview with a Peruvian miner, and the evaluation of the centre-periphery theory. Origins of Inequality Peru was the site of the civilization of the Inca Empire which flourished from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. Quechua was the official language of administration in the empire. In order to promote culture homogenization, the empire sent groups to colonize new territories. Quechua groups were sent toward the periphery of the empire and non-Quechua groups were transported to the centre. This assimilation plus the imposition of both religion and taxes were used as vehicles for the empire’s integration. For many, this integration was seen as a political and economic motive (van den Berghe, 1977, pp. 35-36). In terms of social development, the Inca civilization was advanced. The empire was wealthy and had the ability to provide for the welfare of its citizens. It possessed a sophisticated knowledge in a number of fields, including medicine. By 1532, the empire was already vulnerable to Spanish conquest because of the civil wars from within. At this time, the Spanish conqueror Francisco Pizarro arrived and marked the beginning of Spanish rule. Lima was founded in 1535 and became the center of the Spanish colonizers, serving as the Spanish’s political and administrative hub for nearly two centuries. Inca resistance to Spanish domination ended with the execution of Tupac Amarú (the last Inca emperor) in 1571. A combination of European-borne epidemics, warfare, and forced labour devastated the Indian population of the region. Letters and reports from the Viceroys to Spain Inequality for Indigenous Groups 4 lamented that “se están acabando los indios” [“Indians are being finished off”] (van den Berghe, 1977, p. 37). Spaniards accumulated wealth at the cost of the Indians. “Indian miners went down into primitive, unsafe, dark, ill-ventilated shafts to work for six-day shift underground, sustained by roasted corn and working by the light of tallow candles. Mortality through disease, exhaustion, and accidents was frightful” (van den Berghe, p. 41). At the same time, the Church, individual monasteries, and convents became large landowners. They became the biggest exploiters of Indians. The upsurge of many different ethnicities and social classes, led the Spaniards to divide the population of Peru by race and social status. At this instant, the nomenclature of indigenous people began (van den Berghe, p. 43). The country is divided in three regions: the western coastal plain (La Costa), the high and rugged Andes in central area (La Sierra), and the eastern lowland jungle of the Amazon Basin (La Selva). The state distinguished between the highland or Andes populations as campesinos [peasants] or Indian peasants, and the lowland or Amazon (rain forest) populations as nativos [natives], who were presumed to be more authentically Indian. In the Amazon 1 similar patterns of inequality of education were experienced by the indigenous communities but cannot be discussed here due to the scope of this paper. The distinction between peasant and natives was especially marked during the government of Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975), in light of his prohibition of the use of the term indio for highland peoples, as the term campesino was perceived to be more appropriate for being part of the land (García, 2005). The term Indian has two translations in Spanish: indio and indígena [indigenous]. At present indio is most often considered and used as a racial slur. While in some cases this term is appropriated by groups advocating Indian empowerment, it remains mainly a derogatory label. Similarly, terms such as serrano (literally “from the sierra” or “from the mountains”) and cholo (usually referring to a dark-skinned individual with Andean origins, no matter how nebulous those origins may be, in transition to an urban/mestizo lifestyle) are still used as insults by most Peruvians (García, 2005). All of these definitions are used as a yardstick for discrimination. Almost half (47%) of Peru’s population is indigenous, and their level of educational participation is low (Inter-American Development Bank, 2006). According to the 2006 statistics, the population of Peru is 28,302,603 with ethnic groups of 45% Indians, 37% Mestizo (Indian and White), 15% White, Black, Japanese, Chinese, and 3% other (The World Fact Book, 2006). The official languages are Castellano 2 and Quechua. The full extent of Peru’s linguistic diversity is still a debate. It is argued that there are 59 languages including Spanish, which belong to 11 or 12 distinct linguistic groups. Quechua and Aymara are the most commonly spoken languages within indigenous groups (Freeland, 1996). Since the 1940s there has been “a shift from monolingualism in indigenous languages toward bilingualism or even monolingualism in Castellano” (Freeland, 1996, p. 170). Quechua became the dominant culture and lingua franca during two historical events: during the Inca Empire of XIV century, and the indoctrination of the Catholic Church that used the language to predicate religion to the indigenous communities. Religion, economics and political activities fostered the use of Quechua and Aymara in Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina (Varcárcel, 1999). Social discrimination In Peru everyone accepts that social discrimination is pervasive, and almost everybody would explain or even justify such practices in terms of cultural differences. It is argued that “cultural fundamentalism” is the rhetoric of exclusion that is different from racism. Peruvians (intellectuals and nonintellectuals) think their discriminatory practices are not racist because they Inequality for Indigenous Groups 5 do not connote innate biological differences, but cultural ones (de la Cadena, 2000). The country is rooted in a dichotomous view, where indigenous is associated with a primitive, rural condition, poverty, and illiteracy, and non-indigenous with urban manners, economic success, and education. Mestizaje, presupposes the cultural passage from rural to urban, from Quechua to Spanish, from illiterate to literate, from poverty to affluence, thus from Indian to non-Indian (de la Cadena). Quechua language is also “associated with inferior social status, ignorance and barbarity, Spanish ... as the language of the world beyond community... associated with progress and escape from marginalization, but also with cruelty and oppression” (Freeland, 1996, p. 178). Not surprisingly, if an indigenous person achieved higher education and learned English or a computer-literate peasant worked in Lima, they would be called mestizo(a) and exindigenous, which would erode their personal identity (García, 2005). Rural teachers are also subject to the same prejudice. Female teachers who are sent to the highlands or Andes to teach, experience frustration and anger and believe they cannot secure a position in an urban school because of their gender or status. They believe they need money to bribe the educational authorities or have to sleep with the man in charge. Teachers as well make derogatory comments, pointing to indigenous students as dirty, ignorant and unable to learn (García, 2005). These conditions contribute to the discrimination that the indigenous groups experience.