«Somos peruanos y limpios»Discursos y prácticas en torno al monumento «El Ojo que Llora» de Llinque, Apurímac

Abstract

On the 3rd of July 2008, a monument dedicated to the Peruvian internal armed conflict was inaugurated in the peasant community of Llinque (Apurimac). The focus of this article is the way the inhabitants of Llinque refer to and build the past through the monument by drawing on the present. Dealing with the official state history and the critical role of human right movements, how do the peasants try to make their own discursive space and what are the claims they make? We begin with an analysis challenging the way victims are ethnicized through the public monument before analyzing to what extent the construction of the victim’s speech depends both on a painful historical reality and a will to negotiate current relations of power. Moreover, we focus on the way the members of the peasant community are trying to get rid of their stigmatized identities as outsiders and natives in order to be recognized as ordinary Peruvian citizens.

Keywords

• Peru
• internal armed conflict
• war memorial
• war memories
• peasant communities