Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-wb) -- Nearly 500 years after co-habiting with the smoke of volcanoes, successive earthquakes and reconstructions and countless revolutions, the people of Arequipa in Peru have preserved an odd blend of haughty native pride and provincial innocence, where courtly manners, kindness and mood swings are expressed without the slightest problem or contradiction.

The city, which is not a big one as cities go, lies in the middle of some of the prettiest countryside, and yet is solid in its magnificence, good taste and history. Some may feel UNESCO's decision to declare Arequipa a Mankind Heritage Site a little late in coming, as Villa Hermosa de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Arequipa has long been a monument to all things Peruvian.

Rows of recently-built houses receive visitors along a well-kempt avenue. Nothing is particularly striking about the town until visitors come to a superb bridge. The Bolognesi bridge, built during the Republican era, leads directly from the district of Yanahuara to the main square in downtown Arequipa.

The main square is crowned by a beautiful fountain, which in turn features the small bronze statue of the Tuturutu. The arcade-lined plaza, dominated by the imposing Cathedral, teems with businesses and table-lined terraces, while the townsfolk saunter slowly by in a town where time passes slowly. It is a town of Andean countenance, of migrants who are recreating Arequipa once more.



Taking in the city

That night, before meeting the following day with officials from the Municipal Superintendence for the Historic City Center, we decided to roam the city. A few meters from the main square rears a solid squat building which the San Agustín University has turned into a cultural center.

Paintings from the university's art faculty could be spotted through the windows, and as we entered the building, we found ourselves inside an impressive complex of two cloisters, well cared-for and spotlessly clean, crafted from the classic white sillar stone.

It has all the feel of an Andalusian casona. It is then that we learned the building is named after one of the city's bishops, Monsignor Pedro Chávez de la Rosa. Over the years, it has changed from being the bishop's residence to a school, and today a cultural center, doted with a well-stocked bookshop and a cafeteria on the second floor, which affords a view over part of the city. The streetlights illuminate a series of roofs that look as if they were designed to run across them.

The visitor can only wonder what events have occurred on these rooftops, a series of domes, stairways and patios which crop up, one after the other, tracing peculiar geometric shapes, but nevertheless presenting a harmonious appearance overall.

It is a clear night, and leaving the building, we get an immediate sensation of how the heart of the city was first traced. Some of the far ends of the city's core has to twist and turn due to the rolling terrain, before linking up with the district of San Lázaro, which is even older than the city itself, which was founded in 1540 by Don Garci Manuel de Carvajal together with the townsfolk of Camaná -on the orders of Francisco Pizarro- and taking with them the name Villa Hermosa.

San Lázaro, the oldest settlement, inhabited by the natives and the poor, watched impotently as the Spaniards divided up the most fertile stretch of the valley, where potato and corn were planted and where flocks of alpaca grazed.

But this land was also the flattest, and seduced by this dry and healthy climate, at the foot of smoking volcanoes, it was here that the official founders of modern-day Arequipa established the city. It was not to be the last time they would build the city, however. Destiny was to bring on a string of powerful earthquakes, which has led to many rebuilding efforts. The people of Arequipa have a well-earned penchant for revolutions, probably stemming from the custom of battling destiny, unflaggingly setting out to start all over again.

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One of the arches in both extremes before the Arequipa Cathedral's atrium, seen from a peculiar angle which emphasizes a certain European look of the city.

© LivinginPeru

Santa Catalina

It is 9:15 the next morning when we meet up with the people from City Hall. "Santa Catalina first," is the refrain. We set off down a narrow street which at one end is blocked by the simple yet elegant façade of the church of San Francisco. We walk along a cobbled street. It is a lovely stroll that after turning the corner ends up passing through a doorway into another world: the Convent of Santa Catalina. Unlike Dante's verses at the gateway to Hell, it is a passageway to a world of hope, of purity, of meditation.

The sensation is somewhat marred by a private concessionaire which charges visitors around $4 each to get in. Invited, we entered, and found that everything is in its place, unchanged over the centuries. A brief walk through a dark passageway takes visitors to an ochre-colored colonial cloister, where the roofs are a lighter hue. We head left to the locutorio, the window where relatives of the nuns inside could speak to their cloistered relatives. The other side of this window is a place shrouded in secrets.

More than 400 years have gone by, in a mute world that speaks of a bygone age, when it was important to buy four large houses to create a space for the nuns of Santa Catalina de Siena to pray for the city and its inhabitants. Important enough for childless widow Maria de Guzmán to dedicate her life and fortune to be the founder and first abbess.

Santa Catalina, which now features streets named after Spanish cities, is a world of intricate beauty and mystery. In fact, it is a miniature city, where life outside was reflected like a mirror. There are apartments large and small, some with a large kitchen, others with a tiny one, while the most privileged nuns even had quarters for their servants, who were cloistered along with the nuns, whether they had vocation or not.

"Silence" admonishes a sign on an archway, its severe command reflecting the devout faith of the residents of this convent over the centuries. The faith of generations of young girls who took their vows, faith that is imbued in these narrow lanes studded with open doorways, without any notion of earthly things. A life-sized scene of The Last Supper frames the bishop's drawing room. The unmistakable figure of Judas stands to the forefront, clutching a sack full of coins, his face twisted and burnished by the promise of the eternal flames.
 
A series of frescos grab our attention a little further on: one set of paintings called "The Life of the Soul" features superb portraits of the path to perfection, with sentences that provide food for thought. The paintings are a denial of one's senses, the prohibition of the wordly fruits, in exchange for rejoicing in the contemplation of Divinity.

"You have to put yourself in the context of the era," said architect William Palomino. He is right. All the sciences are pagan gods that only serve us to a point. But they are incapable of preventing the Huaynaputina volcano from making the ground tremble.

We continue down straight lanes, while others weave around cells and past dozens of paintings which brighten up the columns, showing the talent of local artists. Hues range from ochre and orange to bright pink and blue, typical of the colonial era, with paintings following one after the other, standing out against the white sillar.

Each of the cells is a veritable discovery. The wooden beds are hard, and the same treatment is given to all. Some cells, however, feature a great deal more space, with their own kitchen, laundry room and other areas at the nun's disposal. But other cells are cramped, austere quarters, suggesting that the daily tasks took up any time that might have been dedicated to contemplation after the convent's less fortunate occupants. The nuns baked pastries for sale to the general public, washed people's clothing in split tubs located in front of the cemetery, where all were inevitably to end up.

The tour of the cells takes us to one which is particularly interesting: that of beatified nun Sor Ana de los Angeles Monteagudo, who is especially venerated amongst the people of Arequipa. The day the worthy nun is made a saint, no doubt even the most hardened atheist of Arequipa will dance for joy. Santa Catalina took us three hours.

More than one way

Modest in its decoration, yet vast in the stillness of its cloisters dedicated even today to meditation, the church of San Francisco, which dates back to the sixteenth century, was our next destination. There are few paintings except for those hung in a large gallery, and which are gradually fading. We come across a set of ancient prayer books and choir music, some of them nearly a yard high and four inches thick, faded but intact, authentic treasures for the color of the paper, the painstaking monkish script, the carefully-embossed decorations and superb taste.

The empty chambers are strangely chilly, and echo to ghostly footsteps behind us. As we step out of the church, we spot a well-tended park filled with laughing young people wearing earrings, long hair and arts and crafts, old books and cassettes of Andean music spread out on blankets before them.

We were still curious to take in several spots, and so we headed off to visit the cloister of La Compañia, which today is a shopping mall. The shade of green that was its natural color is now long gone, but its presence is still imposing. Nothing has marred the tracks of those who once prayed here, its superbly carved columns ebullient with jungle, Iberian and Andean motifs. This was the convent that was to send forth legions of missionaries into the Amazon jungle and as far away as Paraguay.

Architect Lucho Maldonado, head of the technical team at the Town Hall, takes us to one of the classic Arequipa eateries known as a picantería. A long-held dream for the author was about to come true: sublime as a Baroque altar, came a steaming plateful of grille shrimp, a day before the ban on shrimp fishing came into effect. Then it was time for a well-deserved siesta.

The Cathedral…

We should have started here, but instead it is where we end up. There are no words, nor enough space to describe Santo Domingo, San Agustín, the Casa del Moral and other jewels of Arequipa architecture. Instead, four images of the cathedral linger: First, its neo-classical aspect, with two golden medallions at either end.

Then, in the middle of the three naves, an extraordinary chandelier with more than 600 bulbs that came from Seville to light up the main altar. Then there is the Republican pulpit with its unmistakable Gallic carving, the lower section portraying a demon being killed. Finally, the spectacular organ standing nearly ten meters high, which we have sworn to come and hear, in response to the promise by Mayor Guillén, when leading organists will come to play here every week.

Acknowledgments:

Mayor Juan Manuel Guillén and the team at the Arequipa Town Hall Superintendence of the Historic City, represented by architect Luis Maldonado for their kindness. Thanks also to Roxana Chirinos who also accompanied us trying our hand at shrimps and provided part of the bibliography available at the Humanities library at San Agustín University. Thanks also, to our friends in Arequipa for their company and having made our stay a pleasant one.


An interview with the ex-major of Arequipa

Q: What was the deciding factor which made UNESCO name Arequipa as a Mankind Heritage Site?

Juan Manuel Guillén: Well, on the one hand, Arequipa features a unique mestizo brand of architecture, while the material used, the volcanic sillar stone, is only found here and on a Greek Island. Secondly, there's the natural landscape. UNESCO also took into account the plantlife existing in Arequipa is not natural, but planted by Man. The scarce vegetation in the watershed of the Chili River is far inferior to that planted by Man, and this was one of the elements that was appreciated. Of course, there are also the churches and convents, particularly Santa Catalina, Santa Teresa and Santa Rosa, in addition to all the buildings we have in Arequipa, with everything inside them, particularly the Santa Teresa, which is extraordinary. Obviously, the location of Arequipa is also unique, wedged between volcanoes and deserts.

Q: How does Arequipa benefit from this?

Guillén: The designation by UNESCO represents a commitment to cooperate in preserving, conserving and enhancing Arequipa. City Hall has mapped out an objective: Arequipa suffers from the highest unemployment
rate in the country, nearly 16%. As a result, we're trying to use this important UNESCO distinction to promote Arequipa's economic recovery and thus promote the creation of jobs.

Q: How will this be achieved?

Guillén: Three ways: consolidating a vocation in Arequipa linked to a service-based economy. The idea is to boost Arequipa's image as a tourist destination, and not just a gateway to get to Cuzco or the Colca canyon, which is the case today. We want the world to view Arequipa as a cultural capital which can host major sporting, scientific and business events, both Peruvian and international. This will help create jobs. We must coordinate this effort with the town halls in the southern part of the country in a strategic alliance with business sectors, in a way that identifies objectives, proposals and projects in common that consolidate development, not just in Arequipa but across the entire southern heartlands of the country as part of a process aimed at decentralizing the region. Thirdly, we will inject new life into the Program to Recover the Historic Center, which involves laying underground cables, urban river drainage, replacing cement in stone sidewalks, repairing mudbrick where there is asphalt, etc. The idea is to establish the city's hierarchy. We have applied at the Inter-American Development Bank for a US$9 million loan to cover this. Meanwhile, we have already started refurbishing, with a module that covers the main square as far as the San Francisco church.