My fifth blog entry before I had a blog (Wednesday 9:30am July 13, 2011)

Wednesday 9:30am July 13, 2011

It’s really interesting for me to see how Christian Peruvian society is. Every restaurant, taxi, and house seems to have images of Jesus, crosses, and virgins.  There are dozens of churches in Huánuco, and especially a lot of Mormon ones, which seems random.  The idea that before the year 1532 when Pizarro conquered Peru, the natives were more or less all Incan in their religious habits. Their religion was the opposite of Christianity–a mummy cult religion, sacrifices of children and llamas, and essentially polytheism with the Sun, Moon and Thunder.  The Christians came and destroyed and looted all of the Incan holy sites, building churches over them, like the holy Incan temple in Cuzco.  Then to fast-forward 500 years and see Peru as a haven of Catholicism where everyone (sans the few Jews in Peru) is obsessed with Jesus is so interesting.  What also fascinates me is the religious syncretism in Peru. Much of the now-evangelized population still participates in certain Inca festivals, in addition to all of the Christian holidays.  Many of them still essentially live “Incan lives” in remote mountains far from society in ayllus (small collective communities similar to a kibbutz) and maintain their traditions of chewing coca leaves, brewing chicha, and belief of Pachamama (mother earth.) Nonetheless, they are devout Catholics. I guess one could argue both that the evangelization worked fantastically (look at 99% of Peru), or that it failed because the native population’s Incan traditions weren’t completely erased.

 

Today, Rolo’s grandma, Carmen, and I went around the city seeing the little there is to see in Huánuco.  There are several old churches, the earliest dating from ~1560.  From one place to another, we took these “mototaxis” (like a combination of a motorcycle 2 seats in the back) that cost 1 Peruvian sol (35 cents) to and from any point in the city.  We toured some of the old churches, visited the soccer stadium and an old pre-Incan ruin near center city.  I also had an interesting experience getting a Peruvian haircut. 4 dollars for a full haircut plus wash.  At one point, he seemed to be putting some weird oil or cream on parts of my head. The next thing I know, the hairdresser basically has a razor blade to my neck and starts shaving in that manner. I’m pretty sure that’s not particularly halachically permissible. Whoops! It was an interesting experience because it seemed pretty primitive.