Why to root against The Milk of Sorrow’s Oscar nomination

By Rick Vecchio

It was with bemused surprise that I saw Claudia Llosa’s “The Milk of Sorrow” nominated the other day in the category of Best Foreign Language Film for the 82nd Academy Awards. But the slow groan of disbelief didn’t really start rumbling in the back of my throat until the  Oscar nod was hailed by Peru’s government as a huge advance for the country’s image in the world.

“This nomination will bring Peruvian destinations into fashion and will be key to boosting tourism in Peru,” declared Peru’s minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Martin Pérez.

A remarkable statement, if you believe, as I do, that “The Milk of Sorrow” does for Peru and Peruvians what John Boorman’s “Deliverance” did for the Appalachians and the mountain people of Georgia.

The film centers on Fausta, played by Magaly Solier, who suffers from “la teta asustada,” a mythical psychological malady afflicting Andean children whose mothers were raped during Peru’s dirty war between Maoist guerrillas and government security forces in the 1980s.

Fausta’s trauma is not only due to having been weaned on the “scared milk” of her mother’s breast. She also has been raised on her mother’s songs, sung in their native Quechua language, with graphic lyrics describing the brutal rape that occurred while she was gestating in her mother’s womb. Desperate to avoid the same fate, she inserts a potato into her vagina.

Her family has migrated from the epicenter of the insurgency in Peru’s Andean highlands to settle in one of the sprawling shantytowns that ring the coastal desert capital, Lima.

In fact, tens of thousands of Andean Indians did flee to Lima in the 1980s and ’90s to escape political violence. It was the last of three major migrations from Peru’s rural highlands to the cities in the 20th century that helped to shape the rich tapestry of Peru’s culture and form the character of its society.

It is when her mother passes away in present-day Lima that the film begins and Fausta’s story unfolds.

“The Milk of Sorrow” is the tale of a smart, attractive, yet sullen and paranoid young woman who must overcome pathological fears as she struggles to earn enough money to take her mother back to their ancestral homeland in the Andes for burial.

Fausta contends with an evil upper class white woman who takes her on as a maid, and then exploits and betrays her.

And then there is her amiable, yet very bizarre family, which is less concerned with her mother’s interment (her rotting corpse is left under a bed in the house) than throwing parties and saving up for the lavish wedding of her cousin. Over Fausta’s objections, they start to dig a grave in the arid, rocky ground, only to lose interest and instead fill the hole with water to create a makeshift pool to get some relief from the desert heat.

Finally, there are the debilitating infections from a putrid potato, literally sprouting roots from Fausta’s vagina.

The film was a box office smash in Peru last year after winning the Golden Bear award for best film at the 59th Berlin Film Festival, beating “Slumdog Millionaire” in ticket sales during its first week in Lima.

“Milk of Sorrow is a profound film, full of meaning and ultimately optimistic,” wrote Peruvian philosopher Francisco Miró-Quesada in daily newspaper El Comercio after the movie’s wide release last March. “One of the most interesting aspects of Milk of Sorrow is the constant revelation of our social reality as it exists in the shantytowns of the capital.

“What Claudia Llosa does is summon our attention so that we are conscious of the poverty and exclusion that exists in our country,” he wrote.

In contrast, Indigenous rights advocates who populate Peru’s vibrant blogosphere overwhelming blasted the movie as overtly racist, and launched vitriolic attacks against Claudia Llosa, accusing her of taking an elitist cue from her uncle, novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, with whom their movement has long exchanged ideological barbs.

Without question, Claudia Llosa wields immense talent and cinematic skill, offering up technical excellence that most Peruvian films lack. There are shots of Lima’s lunar-like outskirts, where its poorest people live, that are nothing less than stunning cinematography. But the visual intrigue that “Milk of Sorrow” offers cannot make up for its completely off-base allegory.

Llosa’s first feature film, MADEINUSA, released in 2006, was also met  with accusations of racism from similar quarters. In that film, a young geologist from Lima haplessly wanders into a remote Andean village where the residents practice the elaborate — and completely fictitious — custom of abandoning any vestige of morality between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The annual festival of debauchery  is premised on the idea that since God is dead and can’t see what is happening, their sinful conduct will not count against them.

Magaly Solier gives a brilliant performance as Madeinusa, the 14-year-old daughter of the village mayor, whose incestuous plans for her are thwarted by the ill-fated stranger from the big city.

Taken in context, it could at least be argued that MADEINUSA was pure fable, with a timeless setting, making the process of willing suspension of disbelief more palatable.

But only in the most rarefied of Ivory Towers could one point to “Milk of Sorrow” as a “revelation” of Peru’s “social reality as it exists in the shantytowns of the capital.”

On Oscar night, I’m going to be rooting against “Milk of Sorrow.”

Fujimori, Arana, massacres, impunity and immunity

By Paul Goulder ~

In April ex-President Fujimori was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison and the long fight for justice by relatives of those killed at Cantuta and Barrios Altos, and who had absolutely no connection with terrorism, have seen some belated and grim reward. It has been called “un hito jurídico mundial[i]” (an international legal milestone). Read more…

OPINION: State of emergency against Indigenous Amazon tribes

Editorial column from Monday’s Diario La Primera

~ By Roger Rumrill* ~

Dr. Alan Garcia Perez’s government has decreed, as of Saturday, May 9, a state of emergency in almost the entire Amazon territory, out there where the indigenous organizations are protesting with strikes, marches and even blockades of rivers and highways against a package of “perro del hortelano” laws that open the door for the transnationalization of Peru’s Amazonia. Read more…

OPINION: The Innocence of the Guilty

By José Luis Mejía
All politicians are guilty, or almost all of them. If they were judged by a court made up of good men (in the true sense of the word) –as the Spanish poet Antonio Machado would say—nine out of ten would land up, bones and crimes, in jail. Power corrupts and few go through the Government Palace without getting their hands dirty, with money or with blood, which is why they make laws with back doors, enact special rules and weave a legal web that guarantees their impunity. Read more…

La Primera Op-Ed: Obama, global warming and the world war against drugs

Editorial column from Monday’s La Primera

By Roger Rumrill (Director of the Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru)

Although the 10-point advantage over Republican John McCain’s has shortened in the past several days, polls in the United States and the rest of the world show Barack Obama as the winner of tomorrow’s presidential elections, unless one of those unforeseen events happen that sometimes change the course of history.

Politically and ideologically centrist, most of Obama’s proposals with regard to the economy, taxes, health services and education, do not differ much from the policies of previous governments. His plan for universal social care is almost identical to that of Harry S. Truman (1945-1953).

However, the great difference lies in his proposal on climate change, ecology and energy independence. This difference is fundamental in view of the fact that the belief in an inexhaustible planet with an eternal capacity to create wealth has come to an end. Because, as Oswaldo de Rivero says, we have to “replace the mythology of economic growth with the scientific data of planetary plunder.”

This is what makes President Alan Garcia’s address at the closing of the 46th Annual Executives Conference (CADE) sound pathetic, contradicting the world by pontificating that “next year we shall have spectacular growth figures” and that “Peru is in a privileged position to be the country of refuge for production and the world’s capital,” when the environmental cost of this growth, in a primary-export economy, is already taking its toll, according to the United Nations, in 8.2 billion soles per year, 3.9 per cent of the GDP, due to the lax environmental laws and the State’s inability to ensure that the laws are obeyed.

This is why the great issues of today’s economic crisis — which, according to Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize 2008, requires a counter-reform that examines the entire architecture of liberalism and a return to the State’s role as regulator and promoter —  are precisely those of climate change with regard to water supply, energy and food production.

It is possible that with Obama in the White House, the United States may finally sign the Kyoto Protocol, and that the lost “world war on drugs” undergo a change in strategy.

The signing of the Kyoto Protocol and an environmental policy directed by Al Gore, and the change of anti-drug policies that currently have an unequivocal military slant, could be two changes that would have a predictable impact worldwide, including in Peru.

Peru.21 Op-Ed: A black man in the White House, the historic significance of triumph for Barack Obama

Editorial from today’s Peru.21 newspaper:

By Augusto Álvarez Rodrich (Director of Peru.21)

If the poll projections are not mistaken, a historic event should be realized tonight for the cause of fundamental rights of humanity: The arrival for the first time to the U.S. Presidency of a person of the black race to command the destiny of a country where established racism has solid, deep roots.

It is so much so, that the only explanation for Barack Obama not achieving an electoral triumph tonight in spite of the polls would be the existence of a hidden vote, not identified by the opinion surveys, of voters who prefer to hide their intentions at the voting booth in order to rule out the possibility of a black man reaching the White House.

As El Comercio’s correspondent in the United States, Miguel Vivanco, reminds us, this is what happend to Tom Bradley — a black man — when he lost the gobernatorial election for California, in spite of all the polls assuring his triumph. What was demonstrated after the election is that many white voters lied to pollsters, and that in the end they opted to vote for a rival candidate in order to prevent a black from winning the contest. But this occurred in 1982, more than a quarter century ago.

These racist tendencies most likely have waned since then to the point where it is not an obstacle today for Obama to become the first black president in the history of the United States.

This will not only be a historic event for a country that only four decades ago confronted

This will not only be a historical event for a country that barely four decades ago confronted movements to allow black people the right to carry out such simple daily tasks as traveling on a bus in the same seats as white people, use the same bathrooms as white people, or allowing black children to be educated in the same schools as white children.

The message of the probable electoral triumph of Obama is not only for the United States.  Also, it will be of great utility for so many areas of the world where racism is still sadly a stain in need of eradication. For example, in some European soccer stadiums, and, so as to not stray too far from home, in some recreational spots in Peru.

El Comercio Op-Ed: Hoping for Obama

Excerpted editorial from Monday’s El Comercio newspaper:
By Dr. Enrique Bernales Ballesteros (Doctor of Law, constitutionalist, Executive Director of the Andean Jurists Commission)

If, as millions of people hope, Barack Obama is elected President of the United States, his election will imply change of worldwide dimensions.

It will be the first time a man of the black race assumes the presidency of the world’s top power. This advance against racial discrimination will signify a giant step in favor of free democracy and equality for all.

From a human rights perspective and a deep identification with the principle of non-discrimination, it will mean a stimulus for humanity, particularly for a race that historically has been excluded, in spite of the preamble principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Read more…

El Comercio Editorial: Telephone tapping is against democracy

Published in El Comercio Oct.29, 2008

Over the past few days, a terrible sensation has been gradually increasing that the country is literally being blackmailed, by an illegal system of telephone and private communications interception, controlled by some anonymous puppeteer. And that, though it may be redundant to say so, does nothing less than progressively undermine democratic stability and governance.

The issue at stake is particularly serious because the blackmail and scandal involve, day after day, a number of political figures, authorities and the media. Read more…

Apology to Peruvian Times readers for technical glitches on the Web site

This past week, while the world suffered the gyrations of the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, and President Alan Garcia succumbed to a mushrooming oil kickback scandal that forced the ouster of most of his Cabinet, Peruvian Times had some problems of its own.

We  switched our site’s hosting in the United States and, in the process, suffered a perfect storm of technical glitches, deleted news entries and disappearing story archives.

The end result was that our coverage suffered and was lacking, and for that we apologize to our loyal readers.

We are back on keel and will again be delivering the English-language news stories you expect from us.

Best regards,

Rick Vecchio
Managing Editor

El Comercio: Luis Carranza’s legacy for the future

Excerpted editorial from today’s El Comercio newspaper:

Amid the foreign turbulence and the internal pressure, Luis Carranza’s management of the Economy and Finance Ministry has been more than satisfactory. Not only because of his prudent management of fiscal accounts, but also because he put emphasis on increasing public investment, becoming the essential architect of Peru’s economic achievements.

However, it is true that in a country characterized by such a deficit in infrastructure and pending social tasks, what has been achieved is still insufficient and we would like more to be done. But Minister Carranza, in moments so sensitive that the slightest error in spending could pressure the inflation rate, was able to maintain the fiscal accounts and the national economy in a precise equilibrium.

A bid for public works and public investment, in spite of the exasperating slowness, is the best way to lay the foundations of the future. Now that there are resources, as Carranza has said, it is vital to encourage and consolidate competitiveness to generate infrastructure and better the quality of education and public health care.

For such a change, it has been necessary to reduce and contain, as much as possible, common spending, and this is why he has had problems and argued forcefully with his colleagues in the Cabinet, who naturally push for additional funds for their ministries.

Nevertheless, his commitment to policies within perspective has kept him impassive and in favor of readying the country to diversify the economy and not depend only on minerals, which have a fluctuating price. In this respect, he upheld the efficient macroeconomic management established in an outstanding manner by his predecessor, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who is one of those responsible for the blue numbers which marked the end of Toledo’s administration.

Another significant aspect of Carranza’s management was obtaining investment grade rating, which is the best sign of seriousness in the management of the economy. Also the increase in international reserves (now estimated at US$35 billion) with which the country is now better protected from international crisis whose effects cannot be underestimated in the present situation.

We are not in the best of periods. The prices of oil and food are rising, a recession is possible, and the international prices of our products could make things difficult for us. For this reason, Carranza’s successor must be as prudent and calm. He must pay attention to the increase in inflation as well as the internal and external factors that cause it. He must address the pending public investment agenda, especially in the country’s most neglected and backward regions. Today there are resources to interconnect towns with highways, to bring them electricity as well as indispensable sewage and waste management services.

The outgoing minister has shown signs of intelligence and serenity. His successor is organized and there is continuity in the economic model, which must not be affected by politicking or demagoguery. Heterodoxy and populist experiments bring instability, corruption and make the poor poorer.

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