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In 1855 Sebastián Lorente, the Spanish-born Dean of Literature and Languages at Peru's then most influential university, Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, wrote about Andean peasants in Pensamientos sobre el Perú:
They are mired in ignorance, they are cowardly, indolent, incapable of recognizing any benefit, they are callous, lazy, thieving, they have no respect for the truth and have no noble feelings, they vegetate in abject poverty and worries, living out drunken days and lewd nights. (Lorente 1980 [1855], p. 117)
A century and a half later, in 2006, Peru voted its first Quechua representatives into Congress: Hilaria Supa and Maria Sumire,1 but controversy ensued. Other members of congress, especially Dr Martha Hildebrandt, former Speaker of the House (1999–2000) and influential Peruvian linguist,2 openly rejected the two members’ wearing traditional garments and addressing Congress in Quechua. There were constant clashes inside and outside of the chamber, notably following a debate in September 2007 about indigenous languages when Hildebrandt and Sumire confronted each other in front of the press:She (Sumire), I don't know what intellectual works she has produced, I have produced around 30 or 40 referenced and translated books, so those are low blows from people who lack both intellectual capacity and university degree … Just imagine, I have been Under Secretary General, not of Peru, but of UNESCO worldwide and she [looking at Sumire] … is going to come here and teach me about education, oh no … each in their place, each in their place … I have sold almost ten thousand copies of La Lengua Culta [Hildebrandt's best known book]; you have probably not read it … [turning back to the cameras] I can talk to my intellectual equals at a conference on linguistics at The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language. I am the only woman in the Academy, but she knows nothing about linguistics … They [Sumire and Supa] are quite frankly laughable.3
One-hundred and fifty-two years separate Lorente and Hildebrandt's statements, but not much seems to have changed. Indigenous peoples have gained visibility in Peruvian politics, but are continuously discriminated against and disregarded by the white elites and by politicians, many of whom view indigenous culture as inferior. In the mainstream media and Limeño