The Heart of Darkest Peru: In the Footstep of Mr Paddington:
The methodology of writing an historical and contemporary novel set in Peru.
By R.J. Champion
A country boy from Devon, England found himself teaching History in Peru. The dry wastes of the Atacama Desert which hug the coast in a thin strip and where it hasn’t rained in over a century; the towns of the high Andes like Cajamarca, Arequipa and Cusco with their stunning colonial architecture and mountain views; and the journeying along the majestic Amazon River from Iquitos, the largest city in the world with no road links. The sheer diversity of this remarkable country infected my soul.
Two near simultaneous events acted as my personal call to the adventure of going from wanting to write a novel to knowing I must write a novel. Firstly, I was selected to play international cricket for Peru in the South American Cricket Championship which was followed by being appointed Manager for the first recognised appearance for Peru in an ICC tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Secondly, one day returning to my apartment I find twelve armed policemen under the erroneous impression that I am a terrorist…
I immersed myself in reading, reading, and more reading investigating more about this fascinating country. Amazon orders for books and toadying to colleagues in order to access JSTOR articles. One of the most interesting discoveries came from one of my students who was researching the role of women in Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path).
In September 1995 an anthropologists discovered the frozen body of a young girl. Nicknamed Momia Juanita (Mummy Joanna) she was aged between 11 – 15 years old when she was sacrificed around 1450 as an offering to the Inca gods. She may have been a victim of the Capacocha Ceremony: the sacrifice of children, normally three, in order to protect the Empire. This sparked my writing.
My readings took me to investigate the two key events in the Spanish Conquest of Peru. The first was the capture, ransom and execution of Atahualpa, the Inca at Cajamarca in 1532-33. This marks the original sin of Peru. A divided indigenous people defeated and controlled by a duplicitous but technologically advanced European oligarchy whose descendants remain in control to this day.
Secondly was the execution of Tupac Amaru II, the last Inca. On May 18 1781 he was killed by beheading following his quartering by horse. At the same time orders were set in motion to wipe out his entire blood line whilst native culture and clothing was banned on pain of death.
This theme is reflected in current news stories. During the 1990s, the government of President Alberto Fujimori (now serving 25 years for murder, kidnaping, torture, and embezzlement) sought to reduce poverty by reducing the birth rate. The result was that hundreds of thousands of poor women in rural areas of Peru were forcibly sterilised, often without their knowledge.
Characters immerged that I would seek to use in my work. These could be friends centred on the local Irish bar Hoolihans or from my research. Chief amongst these was Abimael Guzmán also known by the nom de guerre as Presidente Gonzalo. Guzman was a former Professor of Philosophy at San Cristóbal of Huamanga University. Here, as Head of University Personnel, he established the Faculty of Education with the sole purpose to recruit members for his Maoist terrorist organisation Sendero Luminoso, the Shining Path. The self-styled ‘fourth pillar of Communism’ was arrested and tried in 1992; he is now held at the naval base San Juan de Lurigancho in El Callao.
Ironically one of his fellow inmates is the man who put him behind bars, Vladimiro Ilich Montesinos Torres. Montesinos, known as ‘the Yugoslav’, was the chief of Peru’s intelligence service, the appropriately named SIN Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional and was Alberto Fujimori’s right-hand man. A ‘grade A’ war-criminal, he was responsible for the Grupo Colina para-military death squad responsible for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres.
Based on all this wealth of culture, history and social aspects of Peru, I couldn't help but to find myself drawn to writing a novel set in this wonderful, contradictory country.
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Note: This article is based on a paper first given at the MA English Conference held at the University of Hull in December 2015.