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purportedly Catholic have many layers of meaning. In Puno, for example, the locals host a festival in honor of La Virgen de la Candelaria every February 2 (Candlemas). The Virgin, however, is closely identified with Pachamama, as well as natural elements such as lightning. Moreover, she is often referred to as Mamacha Candelaria and is upheld as a symbol of fertility. The feast can last for up to two weeks, during which time local dancers – dressed in bright outfits and large animal masks – take to the streets in her honor. (Click here for more on Puno’s religious fiestas.)

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WOMEN IN PERU

Women can vote and own property, but the situation remains challenging in a country where the unwritten laws of machismo are widely accepted. For starters, the female illiteracy rate of more than 16% is almost three times that of men. In addition, women, on average, make only 56 cents to every dollar a man earns. Access to health care is limited, especially in the Andes: Peru has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Latin America. In addition, the leading cause of death among women of child-bearing age is breast or gynecological cancer. In the mid ’90s, under Fujimori, a number of civil organizations, including Amnesty International, reported that the government forcibly sterilized tens of thousands of women in poor, rural areas. As a result, a law was passed in 1999 requiring informed consent for any sterilization procedure.

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Award-winning Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa directed the drama Madeinusa – an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 – about an Andean girl’s tragic coming-of-age. It is available internationally on DVD.

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In recent decades, the overall situation has improved. A number of laws barring domestic violence and sexual assault have been passed, and women now make up 28% of the country’s professional class (senior officials, managers and legislators) and almost 30% of congress. In 2006, right-of-center candidate Lourdes Flores ran for the presidency, losing a chance at the final run-off by only 1% of the vote. And, interestingly, Peruvian women have been making great strides in sports (Click here).

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ARTS

Literature

Mario Vargas Llosa (b 1936) is Peru’s most famous writer, hailed alongside 20th-century Latin American luminaries such as Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar and Carlos Fuentes. His novels evoke James Joyce in their complexity, meandering through time and shifting perspectives, demanding alertness through each turn of the page. Beyond his artistry, Vargas Llosa is also a keen social observer, casting a spotlight on the naked corruption of the ruling class and the peculiarities of Peruvian society. (This instinct is what led him to make his failed bid for the presidency in 1989.) Luckily for English-language readers, his more than two dozen novels are available in translation. The best place to start is La ciudad y los perros (The Time of the Hero), based on his experience at a Peruvian military academy. (The soldiers at his old academy responded to the novel by burning it.) Other standouts include La fiesta del chivo (The Feast of the Goat), which takes place in the Dominican Republic, and Historia de Mayta (The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta), a bleak, multifaceted look at the life of a fictional revolutionary.

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Students of Latin American literature can log on to www.peru.info to find free, downloadable brochures (in Spanish) that detail important sites in the lives of Peruvian literary figures. Click on ‘Publicaciones y Folletos.’

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Alfredo Bryce Echenique (b 1939) is another keen observer, particularly of the upper class. His most well-known book, Un mundo para Julius (A World for Julius), published in 1972, tracks a bourgeois child’s relationship to a distant mother and his loyalty to the servants with whom he spends much of his time. In 2002, Echenique won the Planeta literary award, Spain’s most lucrative literary prize, for El huerto de mi amada (My Beloved’s