The Mind Creative March 2014
Waiting to receive us at Peru’s Lima airport was Juan, my friend
from the 1970s. We first met in Moscow through his wife, Pierina,
who was in the same Russian language class as me. The youngest
of their three sons, Rafael, a toddler at the time, now a big man,
considerably bigger than his father, was alongside Juan at the
airport. The very kind and gentle Pierina had stayed home, busy
preparing the best possible lunch for us, assisted by another son
and two indigenous Quechua helpers, specially summoned for the
occasion. What a reunion it was after nearly four decades! Juan is
a journalist, now a dean at a university in Lima, and Pierina a
clinical psychologist who works part-time from home. My last
contact with them was an email exchange many years ago, when
Juan had been forced to live in Argentina to escape persecution
from a rightist junta in Peru.
The first thing that
needs to be said about
Lima is that it never
rains there, only the
occasional drizzle. At
least that is what I
was
told
with
complete assurance
by Juan, when I asked
to take my umbrella
as there was a slight
drizzle. The city was
The San-Martin Square in Lima founded
by
the
Spanish conquistador
Francisco Pizarro in 1535, within a couple of years of subjugating
the Inca emperor. The city center, like all cities under Spanish rule,
is a large square, surrounded by big sandstone buildings on all
sides. No square is complete without a church, which is built to
impress and it is always up a large flight of stairs to enhance its
grandeur.
34