Maritza Paredes

Persistent Inequalities in Education

From the Peruvian peasant to the World Bank, education has been seen as the single most important element to end inequalities and poverty and provide not only true social mobility but also integration. We will show in Chapter 5 how the hope of national integration through education drove the Peruvian government’s social expenditure during the whole twentieth century. This chapter first documents the desire of marginal groups for education and confronts this with the reality: the data show persistent group inequalities in education and its rewards. Then we analyse and document the reasons why, with the aid of a model developed by Adolfo Figueroa. The chapter then concludes and reviews the argument through Chapters 2–4.

The Embedding of Regional Inequality and the Consequences for Group Inequalities: The 1890s to the 1960s

We have signalled how central to the fate of indigenous people was the emergence of Lima as the capital in independent Peru. As the growth path which was to dominate the twentieth century took shape decade by decade, so the domination of the Coast and of Lima was reinforced. A pattern of growth emerged which had no need of modernizing the Sierra, and still less the Selva. At the same time and of equal significance, ‘gamonalismo’ came gradually to dominate the power of state intermediation in the Sierra. Both crucial lines of institutional evolution shaped and reshaped state institutions in various ways. They became part of the infrastructure upon which other less ‘foundational’ institutions, such as major public policies, were constructed.1 One consequence of the pattern of growth was the failure to develop state capacities to understand what was needed to develop the Sierra. A further important consequence was that the state used the traditional intermediaries for the channelling of resources. Indigenous peoples had access to such resources on terms shaped by the clientelistic and discriminating culture which prevailed. The pattern of growth and its institutional consequences led unavoidably to change, and also left a legacy of lack of capacity, weak leadership and norms of discrimination and paternalism that prevented the developments that might have modified the pattern in favour of the indigenous population. This chapter documents these processes.

The Evolving Crisis and Consequences for Group Inequality, 1968–90

We have seen how forces for change in Peru emerged only in incoherent and fragmented form by the 1960s, though there were some constructive signs developing. Not only was political protest around land and labour issues increasingly vigorous, but also with municipal elections introduced in 1963, movement in political HIs seemed possible.

Measuring Group Inequalities

The previous chapter has been devoted to making two points. First, in Peru ethnic identities are complex and fluid, with divergences between subjective and objective perceptions. Second, they matter. They matter, because people find that they matter, as part of identity, but also as a source of disparate life experiences. Prejudice and discrimination are unpopular realities to admit to in Peru, but they do exist.

The Fujimori Years: The Remaking of Political and Economic Exclusion

The last chapter ended with a state of total crisis in both the economy and polity at the end of the 1980s, with negative institutional consequences: overwhelming political fragmentation and anomie, and a sense of ungovernability as inflation and terrorism took off to terrifying heights. This chapter now explores the resolution of crisis. We analyse the institutional consequences both in the economy and the polity, and the results for structures of exclusion, above all for indigenous and cholo people. While in some ways state capacities are increased, there are new elements of exclusion and top-down characteristics to policy, and damage to incentives to organize and participate.

The Complexity and Salience of Ethnic Identity in Peru

The first challenge in reflecting on identity, and in particular ethnic identity, is that every one of us has multiple dimensions to our identity. As Amartya Sen says, ‘The same person can, for example, be a British citizen, of Malaysian origin, with Chinese racial characteristics, a stockbroker, a nonvegetarian, an asthmatic, a linguist, a bodybuilder’ (Sen 2006: 24). And which identity is most important will often depend on the person’s history and context. There may also be a variation between that identity I feel within me, that ascribed to me by others, and that I am prepared to present to the outside world. Identities evolve, and our use of our own or others’ identity can be highly instrumental. Society’s attitudes and prejudices may affect both how we see ourselves and how we try to be seen by others. Discrimination and prejudice are realities, the more difficult to analyse and evaluate because they are often denied.

The Historical Embedding of Group Inequalities: From the Colony to the War with Chile

One hundred years ago, many important characteristics of the ethnic structure and attitudes towards ethnicity were already well-embedded. Where stories need to start is always a difficult matter — inequalities predate the colony, of course — but we consider that the particular shape the ethnic divide and the associated institutions have taken in Peru owes a great deal to the way the Spanish administered their colony and the institutions that were created. And the focus on the Coast and Lima that developed with Independence also laid down fundamental aspects for the polity as well as the economy. First we explore the ambiguities of the Spanish system of indirect rule — through local leaders, whose position became quite two-sided: the precursor of the institution of the ‘gamonal’, or local power broker and boss. We explore how the need for labour drove the creation of a system of control and exploitation that was unrelenting and maintained with vigour. We note the role of religion as part of the ‘cement’. We explore the differences with what was to become Bolivia, differences which centre in the diverging nature of the ‘intermediary’ system. Then we consider how following Independence, new elements developed — in particular the increasing concentration of the polity and economy on Lima and the Coast, compounded by guano.