Peru (country)

B

Language and Religion

Spanish, spoken by some 70 percent of the people, was the sole official language of Peru until 1975, when Quechua, one of the principal languages of the Native Americans, also was made an official language. Another Native American language, Aymara, was declared official in 1980. English is also spoken in Peru.

More than 90 percent of Peruvians are Roman Catholic. In 1915 a law was passed that made Roman Catholicism the established religion of the country. However, the constitution of 1979 ended Roman Catholicism’s status as the established religion, although it recognized Catholicism “as an important element in the historical, cultural, and moral formation of Peru.” Other religions are permitted and tolerated, and small numbers of Protestants, Jews, and Muslims live in Peru.

C

Education

School enrollment and the literacy rate in Peru have increased substantially as a result of greater emphasis on education. According to estimates, the adult literate population rose from 42 percent in 1940 to 90 percent in 2007. Public basic education in Peru is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 6 and 16. Many children in rural areas do not attend secondary school, however, because of a lack of facilities. In 2006 some 4 million pupils attended elementary schools, and 2.8 million students were enrolled in secondary and vocational schools.

Peru has more than 45 institutions of higher education, including the National University of San Marcos, in Lima (1551); the National University of Central Peru (1962), in Huancayo; the National University of San Agustín (1828), in Arequipa; the National University of San Antonio Abad (1962), in Cuzco; the National University of La Libertad (1824), in Trujillo; the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (1917), and La Molina National Agrarian University (1902), both in Lima. The National School of Music (1908) is in Lima.

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D

Culture

The Native American heritage of Peru is one of the richest in South America. Although Spain gave Peru its language, religion, and rulers, the civilization of the Inca has left its traces throughout Peruvian culture. Archaeological excavations have uncovered monumental remains of Native American societies. The Inca in particular were skilled in stonework, engineering, weaving, and gold and silver work. The Nazca and Moche people, who inhabited Peru before the Inca, created textiles, pottery, and jewelry. Examples of their art can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum in Lima. Architecture of the Spanish colonial period, a fusion of Spanish and Native American forms, is called Creole. In art, painters known as nativists pointedly interpreted 20th-century Peru in a Native American mode. See also Latin American Architecture; Latin American Literature; Latin American Music; Latin American Painting; Latin American Sculpture.

The descendants of the Quechua and Aymara peoples populate the Andean highlands of Peru. Many do not speak Spanish and have preserved the customs and folklore of their ancestors. Along the coast and in the highland cities, white, mestizo, and black Peruvians live in a modern Western style. In contrast to these settlements are the jungles of eastern Peru, where more isolated groups of Native Americans retain lifestyles similar to those of their ancestors.

D

1

Music

The pentatonic scale used by the ancient peoples of Peru still survives, and instruments whose origins date from the pre-Columbian period (before the arrival of Europeans) are widely used today. They include the reed quena or flute, the antara or panpipes, conch shells, the ocarina, and various percussion devices. The Spaniards brought stringed instruments to Peru. The violin, the harp, the guitar, and the charango, a mandolin-like instrument, are very popular. Among the most popular folksongs and dances are the yariví, a love song; the huayno, a rapid dance of the highlands; the cashua, a circle dance; and the marinera or zamacueca, a handkerchief dance.

Lima has a national music conservatory and a symphony orchestra, the latter organized in 1938 by Austrian-born Theo Buchwald. The orchestra encourages Peruvian composers by performing their compositions. The most distinguished 20th-century Peruvian composer was the Paris-born André Sas, who founded a music school in Lima in 1929. His compositions reflect the influence of native music. Sas was also an authority on folk music.

D

2

Literature and Drama

Peruvian literature began during the 16th century when Garcilaso de la Vega, son of a Spanish conqueror and an Inca princess, wrote his Comentarios reales de los Incas (1609; Royal Commentaries of the Incas, 1869), a vivid historical chronicle about the Inca culture and empire. Another important writer of the colonial period was 17th-century satirist Juan del Valle y Caviedes. The foremost writers of the 19th century were Manuel González Prada, who wrote social criticism, and Ricardo Palma, who composed a collection of historical and legendary tales about Peru’s past.

In the 20th century there was an abundance of poets and prose writers. Among them are Ventura García Calderón, a diplomat who was also an essayist; José Carlos Mariátegui, a Marxist political essayist; and the poets José Santos Chocano, César Vallejo, and José María Eguren. Ciro Alegría, in his famous El Mundo es ancho y ajena (1941; Broad and Alien is the World, 1973), has produced one of the finest novels treating the plight of the indigenous peoples in Latin America. Novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the leading experimental writers in Latin America, has an international reputation.

The theater has played an important role in the cultural life of Peru since 1568, when the first play in the country was presented in the plaza of San Pedro in Lima. During the colonial period, the Jesuits promoted dramatic productions, and 18^th-century viceroy Manuel de Amat was a leading patron of the theater. The country’s leading playhouse and concert hall is Lima’s Municipal Theater. Sebastián Salazar Bondy and Enrique Solari Swayne were the most important 20th-century playwrights.

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