Peruvian Quechua Poetry (1993-2008). Cultural Agency in Central Andes

Authors

  • Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar The Ohio State University

Keywords:

Quechua Poetry, Cultural Agency, Peru, Multiculturalism, Neoliberalism.

Abstract

In this article, I propose that Peruvian Quechua citizens have emphasized their cultural agency in order to organize a political and social movement. For this purpose, they have developed projects with several media (literature, video, music). My article focuses on the study of Quechua poetry as a tool of empowerment for the advancement of their political and social agenda. In the first part, I contextualize the production of Quechua Poetry in global and local flows.  I address issues of the construction of cultural and social identities, the revitalization of the Quechua language, and how both the construction of a Quechua cultural and social identity and the revitalization of their language challenge local and global institutions and organizations. The second part is a reflection on the research of new social Andean movements. Quechua people have already been successful in their struggle for civil rights and have achieved recognition from other Peruvian citizens through cultural agency.

Author Biography

Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar, The Ohio State University

Ulises Juan Zevallos-Aguilar is an Associate professor of Latin American Indigenous Literatures and Cultures at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, The Ohio State University. His major interests involve modern alternatives in the Central Andes and Andean Transnationalism. His current research concerns on the practice of literature as a tool of empowerment for Quechua’s agency. His latest publications include Las provincias contraatacan. Regionalismo y anticentralismo en la literatura peruana del siglo XX (2009); Indigenismo y nación. Desafíos a la representación de la subalternidad quechua y aymara en el Boletín Titikaka (2002) and Movimiento Kloaka: Cultura juvenil urbana de la posmodernidad periférica peruana (2002).

Published

2013-05-31

How to Cite

Zevallos-Aguilar, U. J. (2013). Peruvian Quechua Poetry (1993-2008). Cultural Agency in Central Andes. A Contracorriente: Una Revista De Estudios Latinoamericanos, 10(3), 54–73. Retrieved from https://acontracorriente.chass.ncsu.edu/index.php/acontracorriente/article/view/703

Issue

Section

Dossier on Indigenismo