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Peru Urban Classes
Between the extremes of wealth and power represented by
the
white upper class and the native caste is the
predominantly
mestizo and cholo population, which largely
comprises the
lower and middle sectors of rural and urban society. These
are
the most numerous and diverse sectors, constituting the
core of
Peruvian national society in culture, behavior, and
identity.
Together, these sectors include a wide range of salaried
workingclass families, persons in business and commercial
occupations,
bureaucrats, teachers, all military personnel (except
those
related to elite families), medical, legal, and academic
professionals, and so forth. In terms of occupation,
residence,
education, wealth, racial, and ethnic considerations, the
population is diverse, with few clear-cut markers
differentiating
one segment from another. Yet, there are obvious
differences
among the regions of the country that combine with those
indicators to suggest a person's social position in
relation to
others. The importance of the regions derives from the
fact that
the urban and rural areas of the Sierra are, as a whole,
measurably poorer than the Costa and Selva, and the
various
occupational groups less well-off in proportion. As in the
case
of the provincial upper class, being middle class in the
regional
context does not necessarily mean the same thing in the
capital,
although being marked as lower class would translate to
the same
category in Lima or Trujillo.
An important study by anthropologist Carlos E. Aramburu
and
his colleagues in 1989 provides a graphic outline of how
levels
of living vary throughout the nation. Analyzing the 1981
census,
they ranked the 153 provinces on the basis of five
variables: the
proportion of households without any modern household
appliance;
the average per capita income; the percentage of
illiterate women
over fifteen years of age; the number of children between
six and
nine years of age who regularly worked; and the rate of
infant
mortality. These indicators were representative of
involvement in
the economy, participation in state-operated institutions,
and
access to health services, each of which is critical for
marking
advances in the level of living from the perspective of
the
modern state. Only 9 of the 100 highland provinces were
represented among those in the top two levels of wealth,
and only
Arequipa was in the top rank. In contrast to the Selva
provinces,
which lacked any rank, eighteen of the twenty-eight
coastal
provinces registered in the top third of provinces
according to
wealth. At the other end of the scale, all but three of
the
poorest fifty-three provinces with 20 percent of the
population
were in the highlands, and none were on the coast. These
data,
when juxtaposed with the distribution of monolingual
Quechua and
Aymara speakers, confirm the poverty status of Peru's
native
population at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.
Thus, the provincial upper classes, with few
exceptions, do
not equate with the Lima-based national elite, whose
socioeconomic position is vastly enhanced by their status
as Lima
residents and, subsequently, by their international
connections.
The same can be said for the other middle and lower
sectors of
the provincial population in comparison to Lima. In a very
real
sense then, Peru has two levels of class structure layered
in
between the national extremes of the oligarchic elites and
the
rural native peasantry: one in the context of Lima's
primacy, the
other with reference to the rest of the nation.
Although the role of racial phenotypes and associated
ethnic
behaviors is clearly seen at the extreme poles of Peruvian
society, it is somewhat obscured in the middle sectors. In
general, the more closely one approximates the ideal of
Euro-American appearance, the greater the social prestige
and
status derived. On the other hand, Peru is a country whose
majority population is darker skinned, with distinctive
facial
and bodily features. The varied shades of meaning attached
to the
designations mestizo and cholo are as much
socioeconomic
and cultural in import as they are racial. Thus, in the
Peruvian
vernacular phrase, "money whitens" one's self-concept and
expectations.
With other non-native groups, such as the Japanese,
Chinese,
and Afro-Peruvians, status and class considerations are
structured somewhat differently, yet exhibit the same
tendencies
toward ethnoracist marking. Just how strongly stereotypes
have
prevailed over facts was witnessed by the 1990
presidential
election of the Japanese-Peruvian Alberto Fujimori, who
was
constantly referred to as el chinito (the little
Chinaman). Racial terms are frequently employed in normal
discourse in ways that many foreigners find uncomfortable.
Afro-Peruvians are referred to as zambos
negritos,
or more politely as morenos (browns). In many
instances,
this terminology implies behavioral expectations and
stereotypes,
and yet in others the same term is simply used as an
impartial
means of description.
Data as of September 1992
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