{"id":162,"date":"2013-01-22T22:16:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-22T22:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.up.edu.pe\/blogs\/csanborn\/Lists\/EntradasDeBlog\/ViewPost.aspx?ID=28"},"modified":"2022-10-13T06:04:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T06:04:13","slug":"race-and-class-prejudice-in-the-lima-recall-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/race-and-class-prejudice-in-the-lima-recall-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Race and Class Prejudice in the Lima Recall Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"\"\"\u200b<\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign to recall Lima mayor Susana Villar\u00e1n has reached a new low, as its promoters accuse her of being too \u201cpituca<\/em>\u201d or upper class to understand the needs of the majority of who inhabit this sprawling city.\u00a0 The main actors supporting her ouster, including the APRA and Solidaridad Nacional parties as well as more obscure operators,\u00a0are positioning themselves as defenders of a popular stereotype — the unruly, informal but enterprising \u201ccholos<\/em>\u201d, migrants of mixed race and custom —\u00a0against the\u00a0efforts of a white elite to impose its own\u00a0social order.1<\/p>\n

Although Villar\u00e1n does come from an elite family whose members are featured in the society pages, she has participated in leftist parties and grassroots social movements for over 30 years, and by all accounts her priorities lie\u00a0with the oppressed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hence her defenders have rightly called this foul play.<\/p>\n

But while it\u00b4s foul, it is also ironic.\u00a0\u00a0Thirty years ago, in the Lima municipal elections of 1983, the tables were turned.\u00a0\u00a0In an effort to moderate its sectarian image, the traditionally populist APRA fielded a candidate identified with the intellectual and social elite, Alfredo Barnechea.\u00a0\u00a0Yet he was criticized as too \u201cpituco<\/em>\u201d for Lima, by supporters of the\u00a0victor,\u00a0Alfonso Barrantes, a lawyer of humble migrant origins and popular appeal.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0fact that Villar\u00e1n collaborated with the Barrantes administration \u2013 indeed, she claims to be a creator\u00a0of the\u00a0Glass of Milk program<\/a>\u00a0launched under his watch\u00a0—\u00a0has not prevented opponents from turning the class argument against her.<\/p>\n

In the elections of 1990 both class and race issues came more strongly into play, as\u00a0Alberto Fujimori and his ticket<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201c<\/em>un chinito y dos cholitos<\/em>\u201d \u2013 won a resounding second-round victory over acclaimed novelist\u00a0Mario Vargas Llosa, whose elite supporters raised explicitly racist arguments against the\u00a0Asian outsider. \u00a0Leftists initially supported Fujimori, though most took distance after his drastic economic reforms and the self-coup of 1992.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The fact that many\u00a0Peruvians still\u00a0remember\u00a0Fujimori fondly,\u00a0has been a source of considerable frustration to the democratic left.<\/p>\n

Today, analysts sympathetic to Villar\u00e1n are also frustrated by her low popularity, and are trying out explanations reminscent of the 1990s.\u00a0\u00a0Yet as articles by political scientist\u00a0Carlos\u00a0Melendez<\/a>\u00a0and civil rights lawyer\u00a0Wilfredo Ardito<\/a>\u00a0point out, this often involves portraying lower income voters in negative stereotyped ways; as either seeped in resentment, or susceptible to paternalistic authoritarianism, or especially prone to be captured by corrupt, clientelistic networks. \u00a0Analysts also group citizens into income-based categories,\u00a0from A to E, for purposes of differentiating their political attitudes, with \u201cD – E\u201d being the lowest in every sense. \u00a0For someone used to seeing this as a public school grade scale, it\u00b4s hard to digest.<\/p>\n

The recall election is not until\u00a0March and Villar\u00e1n still has a decent chance at winning.\u00a0\u00a0Her opponents have plenty of weak spots.\u00a0\u00a0Yet some folks in her camp apparently\u00a0find it hard to accept that Lima residents may have legitimate beefs with a mayor who was elected by a narrow margin, and who has found it difficult to govern effectively and communicate with voters.\u00a0\u00a0It is entirely fair to argue that she needs more time, that she has made progress on difficult issues, and that changing mayors midstream won\u00b4t improve things for Lima.\u00a0\u00a0It is entirely fair to point out that Villar\u00e1n is an honest politician with no hint of corruption in her own history, unlike many of her opponents.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But it is neither fair nor constructive to suggest that the voters who are leaning against her are not rational actors, and political equals worthy of respect.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Public Defender\u00b4s\u00a0<\/a>office\u00a0has called on all candidates to cease using \u201cintolerant or discriminatory language\u201d, and analysts such as\u00a0Eduardo Dargent<\/a>\u00a0have stressed that provoking racialized\u00a0conflict, as the\u00a0Left has also done in the past, is unhealthy for democracy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet as\u00a0recent studies by CIUP<\/a>\u00a0confirm,\u00a0racism and discrimination are daily realities\u00a0in this \u201cmodern\u201d city; in the street,\u00a0on the job,\u00a0and in many public services.These issues are very much on the public agenda, and it is unrealistic to sweep them aside in politics.\u00a0\u00a0What is realistic, is to stop reproducing stereotypes\u00a0and take a closer look at (and listen to) citizens as such; especially if the goal really is turning this election around.\u200b<\/p>\n

————–<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe NO campaign appears so well dressed\u201d<\/em>, says one of the ideologues of the SI (pro-recall) campaign.\u00a0\u00a0\u00ab<\/em>In contrast, the SI is\u00a0<\/em>cholazo<\/em>, disorganized, and this connects with the people\u00bb… \u00abThe SI belongs to the people who see the country grow and grow, but it\u00b4s not working for them. \u00a0They want equal treatment, but what do they get? \u00a0The La Parada (public market relocation), for example, is the imposition of a Western, middle class, Miraflores,\u00a0Villa Maria order. \u00a0Not the order of our popular sectors\u00bb<\/em>. \u00a0Quotes from pro-recall strategists, as reported by\u00a0Marco Sifuentes<\/a>\u00a0in La Republica.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200b The campaign to recall Lima mayor Susana Villar\u00e1n has reached a new low, as its promoters accuse her of being too \u201cpituca\u201d or upper class to understand the needs of the majority of who inhabit this sprawling city.\u00a0 The main actors supporting her ouster, including the APRA and Solidaridad Nacional parties as well as
Leer m\u00e1s…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politica-peruana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.up.edu.pe\/csanborn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}