Portland Public Library

The corner of the living, Ayacucho on the eve of the Shining Path insurgency, Miguel La Serna

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrations

index present

non fiction

The corner of the living

bibliography

747331882

Miguel La Serna

First peoples : new directions in indigenous studies

Ayacucho on the eve of the Shining Path insurgency

Peru's indigenous peoples played a key role in the tale of Shining Path guerrillas from the 1960s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. The villagers of Chuschi and Huaychao, high in mountains of the department of Ayacucho, have an iconic place in this violent history. Emphasizing years leading up to the peak period of violence from 1980 to 2000, when 69,000 people lost their lives, Miguel La Serna asks why some Andean peasants chose to embrace Shining Path ideology and others did not. Drawing on archival materials and ethnographic field work, La Serna argues historically rooted and locally specific power relations, social conflicts, and cultural understandings shaped the responses of indigenous peasants to the insurgency. In Chuschi, the guerrillas found indigenous support for the movement and dreamed of sparking a worldwide Maoist revolution. In Huaychao, by contrast, villagers rose up against Shining Path forces, precipitating more violence and feeding an international uproar that took on political significance for Peru during the Cold War. La Serna illuminates both the stark realities of life for the rural poor everywhere and why they may or may not choose to mobilize around a revolutionary cause

To trace the tracks: internal conflict and resolution -- To venture out: intercommunity relations and conflict -- To walk in shoes: race and class -- To cross the river: initial peasant support for Shining Path -- To defend the mountaintop: initial peasant resistance to Shining Path -- To turn the corner: after Shining Path