Artistic Solidarity in Revolutionary Peru (1960–1980)

275 Pages·2017·1.86 MB·English

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Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects CUNY Graduate Center
5-2019
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((11996600––11998800))
Jose R. Chavarry
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
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WORKING LIVES:
ARTISTIC SOLIDARITY IN REVOLUTIONARY PERU (1960-1980)

by

JOSÉ R. CHÁVARRY

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy, The City
University of New York

2019
© 2019
JOSÉ R. CHÁVARRY
All Rights Reserved
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Working Lives:
Artistic Solidarity in Revolutionary Peru (1960-1980)

by
José R. Chávarry

This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty
in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures in satisfaction of the
dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

4/29/19 _____________________________
Fernando Degiovanni
Chair of Examining Committee
4/29/19 _____________________________
Fernando Degiovanni
Executive Officer

Supervisory Committee:
Silvia Dapía
Magdalena Perkowska

THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
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ABSTRACT

Working Lives: Artistic Solidarity in Revolutionary Peru (1960-1980)
by
José R. Chávarry

Adivsor: Fernando Degiovanni

This dissertation examines the discourses and experiences of cultural work as a form of intellectual
and artistic solidarity in Peru during the 1960s and 1970s. Amid the broader Latin American and
global spirit of revolution, anti-imperialism and Third World liberation, in Peru these decades saw
a radical transformation in society where rural and urban masses rose against a traditional political
and socioeconomic system that maintained colonial structures of domination and oppression of
marginalized populations. In an attempt to rein in this desborde popular, as it became known, the
nationalist and populist Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces and a consolidating Left
sought to include these masses into their hegemonic projects. In this context of revolution, a
number of intellectuals and artists (writers, poetic collectives, filmmakers) looked for novel ways
to demonstrate their solidarity with the masses, both by representing work and by performing as
workers. In doing so, these cultural producers sought to close the gap between manual and
intellectual labor, thus creating sites for identification and collaboration with the mobilizing rural
and urban populations. For the likes of novelists José María Arguedas and Manuel Scorza, the
poetic movement Hora Zero, filmmaker Nora de Izcue and peasant activist Saturnino Huillca, the
realm of cultural work became an arena to demonstrate solidarity through physical presence and
affective connections, and to enact the promise of a more just society and a better life.

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Acknowledgements

Writing this dissertation was, at the same time, an individual and a collaborative process.
Individual because I spent many hours, by myself, in front of a computer or going for (very long)
walks to arrange my thoughts, but collective because I never once felt alone. I am incredibly lucky
to have had the opportunities I did and, more importantly, the people that were with every step of
the way. I cannot offer enough thanks to all who helped, mentored and put up with me throughout
these years.
I am thankful to the faculty and staff of the Graduate Center. In the Latin American, Iberian
and Latino Cultures program, José del Valle, for welcoming me into the department, Silvia Dapía
and Magdalena Perkowska, for the invaluable insights they have given me over the years and for
agreeing to form part of my committee. And of course, I am indebted to my dissertation advisor
and mentor Fernando Degiovanni, for helping me develop this project, pushing me constantly and
teaching me how to be a professional in this field. Working alongside with him over the last few
years has been incredibly challenging and rewarding.
Elsewhere at the Graduate Center, I am also thankful to Herman Bennett and the Magnet
Fellowship, for all the academic and financial support they provided me with throughout the
doctorate. Through them, I learned about scholarship opportunities, including the Social Science
Research Council. And, thanks to the SSRC’s Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship I
was able to travel to the Benson Collection in the University of Texas, Austin to conduct archival
research on the Peruvian publications from the sixties and seventies. These form an important part
of my corpus, and most images included in the dissertation come from these sources.
For over ten years, my professors and colleagues at Manhattan College have been an
incredible network of support and friendship. Antonio Córdoba and Laura Redruello were always
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available to talk, whether academic matters or regarding personal decisions, and Marlene Gottlieb
always looked after me, by making sure I had classes to teach and following up on my academic
progress. This journey began with their advice and belief in me.
So many friends and colleagues have helped me grow intellectually and have always been
there for me. At the Graduate Center, Isabel Domínguez Seoane, Charlotte Gartenberg, Kristina
Jacobs, Pablo García Martínez, Laura Pavón and Ines Vañó García have been a constant source of
support and love. Alexis Iparraguirre and Luis Henao have been like brothers to me and have
always been there to discuss difficult concepts after class, to watch soccer or grab a beer. At home,
I could not have done it without Jhojan and Barbi, Matt Flood, Amy and Luis R. In so many ways
they supported me and showed me life outside of classes and conferences. And I am so thankful
to Tania Avilés, for making every day so much better.
A mi papá, mi hincha número uno.
Y a mi mamá, mi héroe.

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Table of Contents

List of images viii
Introduction 1
I. Desborde popular and cultural work: Peruvian modernization
and artistic solidarity 7
II. Cultural work with and for the people 24
i. Work and life 25
ii. Reframing artistic solidarity 30
Chapter 1: Communities of work in José María Arguedas 46
I. Machines and network systems in Todas las sangres 53
i. The immateriality of global capital 54
ii. Indigenous work as local resistance 57
II. Arguedas’s writing machine: intellectual self-fashioning and commitment 60
I. Bodies, machines and writing in El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo 71
i. Arguedas’s anthropological fiction 71
ii. Embodied work 77
iii. Writing at home 84
II. Conclusion 92
Chapter 2: “El trabajo que hacemos por los demás”: Crónica, community and
the performance of solidarity in Manuel Scorza 95

I. The crónica genre 98
i. Theorizations and historical background 98
ii. Scorza’s presence in the peasant mobilizations 106
II. Infinite war and infinite debt in La guerra silenciosa 114
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i. War and community in Redoble por Rancas 114
ii. A journey of debt 121
III. The allure of money 128
IV. Conclusion 136
Chapter 3: RUPTURA TOTAL SIEMPRE: Hora Zero’s performative poetic work 138
I. Latin American and Peruvian contexts of Hora Zero 141
i. Solidarity and youth countercultures in the neo-avant-garde 141
ii. Poetry and work 147
II. Scandal and masculinity in Hora Zero’s performative poetic work 156
i. Insult and virility in the poetic manifesto 157
ii. Cultural guerrilla warfare 161
iii. Poetic duels 165
iv. Orgies of work 168
III. Working for the Revolution 174
IV. Conclusion 180
Chapter 4: The worker onscreen: Nora de Izcue and Saturnino Huillca’s Runan Caycu 185
I. A revolution in Peruvian cinema 188
i. Film workers versus the state 188
ii. Representing workers through film 191
II. Runan Caycu: the work of the peasant actor 196
i. The testimony of the alienated worker 196
ii. Filming Runan Caycu 203
iii. The facial politics of Runan Caycu 209
viii
iv. Depoliticizing Huillca? 219
III. Conclusion 225
Conclusion 229
Bibliography 243

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