Reflecting on diversity and inequality and the problems that these bring has a long tradition in Peru. What does persistent inequality grounded in race, gender, sexuality and class mean for citizen–state relations, for social relationships, and for thinking about violence? Both in history as well as in social science these are essential questions, whatever the topic of interest. But looking at diversity instead of inequality suggests a perspective that aims to rescue the positive aspects of difference, and an objective of understanding processes of inclusion, rather than inequality.
This is certainly the aim of the collection edited by María Eugenia Ulfe and Rocío Trinidad. By focusing on recognition in a Fraserian sense, the editors ask how and why different groups of Peruvians use identity to claim recognition – from the state, or from each other. Considering the high levels of political and economic inequality, and the reproduction of these inequalities through everyday racism and sexism in institutions, on the streets, and in communities, claims for recognition can and should have consequences for distribution and representation.
The book contains ten chapters plus an introduction. By dividing the chapters into four different sections, coherence is maintained – although the link between the first section, on memory, and the last, on strategies, is somewhat lost. The first section, ‘National and Local Memories’, looks at how rural communities and towns mobilise their own memory to frame their political identities. The three chapters, on nineteenth-century republicanism in rural Ayacucho (Nelson Pereyra), on contested history in Canta (Lourdes Hurtado), and on remembering the Shining Path in Huanta (Caroline Yezer), all show the strong connection that rural communities have with the Peruvian state. While they might have been marginalised and treated poorly throughout history, they have not ceased to claim their position, be that through land claims, celebrations of (imagined) battlefield victories, or education and citizenship. These are three strong and detailed contributions that raise the important question of why there is, and has been, so little reciprocity from the state.
The second part looks at ‘Movements and Mobilisations’, with chapters on indigenous Amazon communities (Oscar Espinoza), and on street protests around the transitional year 2000 (Carmen Ilizarbe Pizarro). These are two very different chapters. Espinoza argues that Amazon people want not inclusion, but respect and self-determination. This is, of course, part of a much larger debate about pluri-national states, and would, I believe, have to include a discussion about inequalities within communities, especially with regard to gender and sexuality. Ilizarbe, an anthropologist, takes a political science perspective by quantifying street protest and looking at the different characteristics of counter-hegemonic movements between 1997 and 2003. She concludes that while Peru's diversity is reflected in the strategies and demands across protests and movements, all make a claim on the political class to be seen, to be recognised, and to have ‘the right to have rights’ (p. 160).
The third section discusses contemporary mobilisations around sexuality: Violeta Barrientos writes about LGTBQI struggles, while Ximena Salazar looks at trans women. Barrientos gives a nice overview not only of how an existing movement of and for the rights of mainly homosexuals has changed into a more diverse group to include lesbian, gay, trans, bi, queer and intersexual people, but also of how this modern movement is firmly situated in the urban educated middle classes. The majority of the country relies on the heterosexual nuclear family not only to preserve its conservative morals, but also to sustain its economy. A chapter on women's rights and reproductive labour would have been a good addition to this section. Salazar highlights the difficulties that trans women have in claiming recognition as citizens, affirming that discrimination and rejection are characteristic not only of the state but, indeed, more often than not of the family as well.
The last section in this volume looks at strategies Peruvians deploy to gain visibility and recognition, with a chapter on Amazonian art (Daniel Castillo), on community mental health (Tesania Velázquez and Evelyn Seminario) and personal marketing (Rocío Trinidad). Castillo's chapter is a wonderful account of how Shipibo migrants in a poor urban settlement in Lima make space for themselves and their community, history and culture through their art. And art travels, not only into middle-class households, but also globally.
Velázquez and Seminario look at recognition at an interpersonal level. The authors argue that working on mental health from a community perspective is essential considering the fractured experiences of political violence and the heavy toll this continues to take on community relations. Trinidad looks at the modern self and how it is constructed around racialised and sexualised ideal-types promoted and reproduced through contemporary consumption culture and marketing. In Peru, Trinidad argues, consumption does not make citizenship, but it provides a camouflage under the cover of which Peruvians might be able to live the lives they desire.
En busca de reconocimiento adds an interesting perspective, and great case studies, to the literature on diversity and inequality in Peru. Both its strength and its weakness lie in the range of topics and periods discussed: there is indeed a link between the deployment of the memory of nineteenth-century battles and the failure to reach political recognition for LGTBQI in twenty-first-century Peru. The persistent unwillingness of the state to look, listen and hear, i.e., to meaningfully engage with communities wanting to be seen and recognised, is that link. The book could have discussed the state as the absent recipient of these claims more explicitly. But that should not deter anyone interested in diversity and inclusion from below from reading this book.
