Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Peru’s minister of Production declared June 28 of every year National Day of Cebiche, as a way of promoting and disseminating this flagship dish in an effort to boost its consumption nationwide and abroad.

The directive was established through ministerial resolution 708-2008 of the Production ministry, published today in the legal norms bulletin of the official gazette El Peruano.

Seviche – spelled with “s” and “v”- was declared National Cultural Heritage on March 23, 2004, by Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC).

This time, the INC explained that the correct and historic spelling is “seviche” written with “s” and “v”, standing out the language of Moorish influence in the Peruvian food.

The first deduction comes from the Arabic word “Silbech”, which means “acid food”.

It is worth noting that Ricardo Palma and Juan de Arona, founders of the Peruvian Language Academy in 1887, always wrote seviche with “s” and “v”, which demonstrates that this is the historically and documented correct spelling of the dish.

Seviche –or cebiche as it is known- is a Peruvian authentic dish, made with fresh seafood marinated in lemon and seasoned with salt and chili.

It is served with onion, manioc or potato and sweet potato.

News source: ANDINA

The precursor of Latin America's independence, José Gabriel Condorcanqui, Túpac Amaru II, writer Mario Vargas Llosa, the traditionalist writer Ricardo Palma, and the theoretician José Carlos Mariategui, are four of the seven Peruvians who are candidates for the election of the most influential icons of all time in the Latin American culture.

The composer María Isabel Granda Larco, known as Chabuca Granda, master guitarist Raúl García Zárate; and tenor Juan Diego Floréz Salom are the other three recognized Peruvians who integrate the list put together by the International Bureau of Cultural Capitals.

This election is held to celebrate ten years of American Capital of Culture founding, and is promoted by this non-governmental organization and Antena 3 Internacional.

It includes arts, humanities and science icons.

Besides Peru, other Latin American countries with candidatures are Argentina (9); Bolivia (3) Brazil (14); Chile (4); Colombia (9); Costa Rica (2); Cuba (4); Ecuador (4); El Salvador (2); Puerto Rico (3); Guatemala (4); Honduras (2); Mexico (12); Nicaragua (2); Panama (2); Paraguay (2); the Dominican Republic (3); Uruguay (2); Venezuela (6) and others (4).

The voting has two stages. The national one, carried out in each of the Latin American countries, already took place from last April 21 to August 31, 2008.

In the second phase, selected candidates from all Latin American countries are voted for; from this, the final list will come out, organized by the number of votes.

News source: ANDINA

An archeological search of the Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman revealed 19.329 ceremonial objects. These two golden statues were found along with another 18 metal and quartz pieces informed the National Institute of Culture.

The area where the discoveries were made is an extremely popular attraction for Cuzco tourists in which previous excavations had revealed over 6.000 different ceramic objects believed to belong to the Killke culture.

Along with the two statues and other objects thousands of beads made of different materials such as spondylus, human teeth and animals were discovered.

Archeologists also discovered the tomb of a kneeling figure placed by a pot, a ceremonial plate and a small Inca styled jar within the excavated area designated as Cruz Mocco.

The city of Sao Paolo (Brazil) will be host to the exhibition Paracas, new treasures of ancient Peru which will be showcasing 84 different pieces belonging to the Paracas culture. It will be taking place from September 18 until November 10.

The exhibition will be taking place in the Galeria de Arte do SESI, as authorized by the Ministry of Education and will showcase ceramics, metal works and textiles.

The intent behind allowing the pieces to be shown abroad is to try to educate the public on the opulence of the Paracas culture.

The National Institute of Culture (INC) will be responsible for safe keeping the pieces and taking the necessary precautions in order to insure their authenticity and maintenance while they are on display.

Peru's police recovered 690 Incan and pre-Incan original pieces and arrested two alleged ringleaders of a gang involved in illegal trafficking of cultural heritage.

Local police chief Carlos Suárez Garrido said detainees Mauro Alvítez Mendoza and his wife Mercedes Sayre Quispe used the Internet to promote and sell these pre-Inca objects in a half-hour video.

Commander Carlos Suárez explained this video was seen by an international news agency that immediately reported it to Peruvian authorities.

He detailed that one of the detainees, Mauro Alvítez, appears in the video with his face covered offering some artifacts and explaining the illegal practice.

Four police officers, two district attorneys and four archaeologists raided Alvítez's souvenir store located one block from Cusco's Main Square, in front of the Inca Museum.

News source: ANDINA

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

Specialists from Peru's National Institute for Culture (INC) announced on Tuesday they had found two gold statues and thousands of pieces of jewelry at Sacsayhuamán fortress in Cusco.

Among the objects found by INC specialists were two human-shaped gold statues and pieces of metal belonging to hundreds of necklaces.

They are solid gold anthropomorphic effigies sculpted as if they were requesting or begging, said INC representatives, explaining one of the statues was in an upright position while the other was sitting.

It was also reported that 19,309 objects that were part of necklaces had been found, 859 of which were made of seashells and other material found in the sea.

The three 1,300-year-old mummies recently found in Huaca Pucllana ruins (Lima) were examined by X-rays yesterday to take a look inside these funeral bundles before opening and studying them.

Head archaeologist Isabel Flores said X-rays would help determine the position of the human remains without cutting the mummies open.

"The interesting thing about these mummies is that they are the first to be found intact in this archaeological site. The study of these mummies will help us learn more about the burial techniques of the Wari culture," Flores added.

She mentioned that in the same place where these three mummies were unearthed, archaeologists noticed the presence of four more.

It was reported that in the coming months more information would be provided about them.

In addition, Peruvian archaeologist Isabel Flores noted that one of the primary goals was to have an on-site museum where these mummies and artifacts could be displayed.

In that regard, the mayor of Miraflores, Manuel Masias, has pledged to do build one in the medium term.

On Tuesday, August 26, a team of Peruvian archaeologists excavating a pyramid at the Huaca Pucllana site found three 1,300-year old mummies from the Wari culture, including a woman with a mask with striking blue eyes.

Huaca Pucllana is a Pre-Incan temple complex which was used by both the Wari and Lima cultures. It is situated in the midst of the modern Limean district of Miraflores, with an area of five hectares.

The Wari culture flourished in Peru's southern highlands from about 500 to 1000, with the empire stretching from Moquegua in the south to Trujillo in the north.

News source: ANDINA

A team of archaeologists working at the ancient citadel of Caral will present recent research findings including a four-cornered square and a number of geometric structures very similar to those of the Gran Pajatén, an archaological site located in the Andean cloud forests of Peru.

Dr. Ruth Shady, director of the project said these will be two of the major findings to be presented during the anniversary of Caral.

First, the discovery of a four-cornered square (different from Caral's traditional circle squares) and a ceremonial building dating from the formative period, contemporary with the Chavin culture.

In addition, archaeologists have found what is believed to be the world's oldest Quipu. The Quipu was an accounting system that used knotted strings to record numerical data.

The sacred citadel of Caral is located in the Supe Valley on the central northern coast of Peru and is the oldest city of the Americas.

It is five thousand years old and has seven large pyramids.

News source: ANDINA

Living in Peru
Israel J. Ruiz

After being closed to the public for almost four months, Lima's Public Library, which is located on the fourth block of Abancay Avenue, will reopen its doors on September 16.

According to Margarita Martínez, the library's technical head, the first floor, which has been completely remodeled, will be open to the public.

"All twelve chambers at the Abancay branch will be open by the end of the month," said Martínez, explaining that the objective of the work being done was to guarantee the safety of the historic building and improve the service provided to library users.

The project to restore the historic library was approved in March after civil defense authorities found the building to be a dangerous place because of an infrastructure that did not meet technical requirements and a lack of security measures.

Because of this, it was declared that Lima's Public Library would be in a state of emergency for six months (which ends in October).

Structural damage in the library's chambers has been repaired and 70 percent of its electrical installations have been changed.

It was also reported that the library's asbestos ceiling was removed and that new lighting fixtures have been installed.

This is the first phase of the library's development project, said administrator Luis Carpio, explaining that over 650,000 soles had been invested in the building.

The library was granted 1.5 million soles in 2008 for upgrades and is to be given another 4.5 million in 2009.

A scientific expedition, made up of Polish, North American, and Peruvian specialists, discovered tombs, apparently from the Pre-Incan culture, as well as archaeological remains in a virgin zone of the Colca canyon - located in the Peruvian department of Arequipa- during an excursion along the first 20 kilometers of this place.

The travelers departed on August 21 and during ten days, they covered a zone never explored due to its inaccessibility and lack of technology.

The trip allowed scientists to carry out works in the geological, hydrogeological, hydrographical, speleological (study of caves and caverns) ambits, as well as in the electromagnetic field, for which high technology equipment was used to compile exact data on each explored area.

During the expedition, denominated “Colca Cóndor 2008”, specialists took samples of the different rocky formations and water with the aim of analyzing its composition and temperature, data that allowed knowing with accuracy how the initial stretch structure of the canyon is formed, which is the deepest on the planet.

Along the explored zone, the expedition discovered bone remains, some of them with skin and hair remains, in good state of conservation and apparently belonging to the Pre-Incan nobility; as well as a complex of ruins that was denominated Peruvian-Polish Archaeological Complex Sombreroyoc-Pinchollo.

“Now, we do not want to say exactly the place of the discoveries, because we are afraid of the huaqueros (tomb robbers)”, said Jerzy Majcherczyk, leader of the exploration and head of the expedition that visited the canyon in 1981.

After expressing his will to convoke experts in the topic, sponsors, and a greater number of Peruvian adventurers for a next excursion to the zone in 2010, the Polish specialist assured to make an active promotion internationally to the candidature of the Colca canyon as one of the seven natural world wonders.

News source: ANDINA