‘The Eye that Cries’: The Politics of Representing Victims in Contemporary Peru

Authors

  • Katherine Hite Vassar College

Keywords:

Latin American History, Latin American Cultural Studies

Abstract

“The Eye that Cries” exposes a fraught, uneasy politics in Peru regarding the reaches and limits of understanding the trauma of “the other.” The vast majority of those who lived in terror and with terror were indigenous peasants of the Peruvian highlands, physically and socially quite distanced from the dominant Peruvian metropolis of Lima. In many cases, violence emanating from both the military and Sendero destroyed collective organization, tore families apart, and left communities of widows and orphans. When individuals and families displaced by the violence in the Andes descended to Lima, they were often viewed with suspicion and fear. Drawing from both eastern and western philosophy and spirituality, “The Eye that Cries” seeks compassion for the descendants of those who are foundational to Peruvian identity yet who are structurally marginalized from power.

Author Biography

Katherine Hite, Vassar College

Katherine Hite es profesora asociada de Ciencias Políticas y Directora del Programa de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Latinos en Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, Nueva York). Es autora del libro When the Romance Ended: Leaders of the Chilean Left, 1968-1998 (Columbia University Press, 2000), y co-editora de The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America: Rethinking Participation and Representation (Oxford University Press,1997) y Authoritarian Legacies and Democracy in Latin America and Southern Europe (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004). Actualmente trabaja en un proyecto sobre las políticas de la memoria en Argentina, Chile y Perú.

Published

2007-08-01

How to Cite

Hite, K. (2007). ‘The Eye that Cries’: The Politics of Representing Victims in Contemporary Peru. A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 5(1), 108–134. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/354

Issue

Section

Articles / Artículos