Year 187
by Jorge Vargas
187 years ago a dream was promised to a group of colonists who had no strong desire for freedom. By the power of the people and God, however, freedom and liberty were proclaimed in the name of a colony named after a nobleman from the Panamanian province of Biru: Peru.
That dream was corrupted from the beginning by that ancient Latin greed that brought ancient Rome to its knees and the strength of that corruption was further compounded by the deep-seeded racism that the Spanish Empire utilized to control the whole of its colonial holdings for nearly three hundred years. It was corrupted by strongmen who fought one another time and time again in the streets of Lima and the other major cities and towns of the Peruvian Republic.
But the dream was an idea and ideas do not die easily, much less when a people so strong as those of the Peruvian Republic hold it. In 1857, the people fought for that idea when the townsfolk of Callao-Peru fought off a military coup that was being staged from the ports of Callao and that threatened to march a few kilometers to the center of Lima to dethrone President Castilla.
People fought for that same idea in the year 2000 when they took the streets to wash the flag and fight the military members who had been brought out of their quarters to defend an autocratic and outmoded US-sponsored regime, the remnants of which are today being assailed from every front and the leaders of which are today in prison or else awaiting a trial that they will surely lose.
Our Peru provides her citizens with countless reasons to be depressed and to let go of that dream, of that idea that remains so strong for so many but perhaps not for enough. Our Peru has failed often. Our Peru is weakened today and her triumphs are almost all things of yesterday. They belong to a generation that, like our Peru, was undeniably marked by failure in the end.
But not all of her triumphs fall into this category. Our economy is strong. There is peace in our country in the sense that the terrorists that attacked us years ago are now rotting in prison or else starving in the Amazon.
In a poll released last week, 70% of young Peruvians, who now make up the majority of the population, answered that they believe they can improve their personal situation, and thus that of the Republic, through their own will-power and strength. That independent spirit that has long since marked Peru and separated our nation, a child of empires, from the majority of our South American neighbors and friends, and enemies, remains strong and in this age of technological growth and of increased national production and exportation. Our independence may be combined with our strength and such a combination will make Peru a force to be reckoned with in a manner thus far unprecedented.
But much must be done before reaching that point.
There are many who say that it is too late. We are too financially reliant, some say, on other nations, namely the United States, China, Japan, and Chile, which controls most of our large chain stores and corporations. They say that we need to break relations with the rest of the world and retreat into ourselves and make our nation completely self-dependent. There was a time, prior to the War of the Pacific in the 19th century, when that was financially and economically possible.
But today Peru's future lies not in ardent nationalism but rather in somber patriotism and a calculated and careful brotherhood with our American counterparts who are today beginning to embrace South American continentalism and who recognize that Peru, being the historic centre of our great continent, must play a special role in that reinvigorated friendship and love amongst nations. Peru must also embrace that continentalism though it must be ever wary of the Chilean nation that still harbours hateful memories of that long-ago Pacific war in which our greatest ally forever became our worst nightmare.
There is no doubt that Peru has the tools and resources, natural and human, in order to succeed in today's world and to become independent of the whims of that oppressive northern abuser and of the far-eastern giant that is beginning to awaken. There is no doubt that Peru's great citizens are the true gems of our Republic and that they bring more value to our beautiful nation than a million Machu Picchus and a billion ounces of gold because it is through the efforts of every single Peruvian that Peru advances.
Thus, with the dream and ideal of a Peruvian nation that is forever united and that is able to enjoy the riches that so many different flags, from that of Spain to that of the United States, have shamelessly stolen from us, one can proudly name oneself as a citizen of the Peruvian Republic because though our country may have been an ancient empire in times past, it is now a Republic of the future that will follow through on its promise of liberty, security, peace, comfort, and unity.
Those are the five things that every Peruvian most wants and, in some cases, those have been attained, but there is still much left to do and only together can the citizens of the Republic ever come close to attaining it.
ĦQue viva la libertad! ĦQue viva el Peru!
