I have come to love and appreciate both the Peruvian people and their culture. But I have to admit – they are hopelessly romantic. At least several times a day I see or hear something that reminds me of the week before Valentine’s Day, when I can’t turn on the radio or buy a carton of milk without being attacked by love songs and candy hearts.
This lust for romance was originally brought to my attention one hot, sticky day as my class and I worked with some adults in our community garden. Throughout the day, both the kids and adults pestered me to translate into English what they believed to be important phrases. Of the near 30 odd sentences I translated, the vast majority went something like this: ¨Mi amor te quiero.¨ Another big hit was: ¨Tus ojos aparecen tan bonita en la luz de la luna.¨ Meaning, ¨Your eyes look beautiful in the moonlight.¨
Llama giving a beso
After my garden experience, I started to take a good long look around me in order to find out just who or what was to blame for the overly done romanticism. It didn’t take long to find the culprits.
Let’s start with the music, which in my town is broadcast on and off throughout the day thanks to a megaphone strapped to the roof of our local bodega. When you stop to listen to the words, not only is every single song lovesick to a fault, but they are also painfully redundant. Particularly when it comes to the word “corazon,” or heart. This word appears so often that I challenge anyone who disbelieves me to come to Peru and find a song where corazon is not proudly belted out in the main chorus line.
How about television? It’s no secret that the Latin world loves telenovelas. However, the extent to which these soap operas highlight raunchy, ludicrous, revenge-ridden love is insane. I truly worry at times that after the 14 year old girls in my class watch La Mujer en el Espejo, they expect every man in their lives to whisk them off to romantic amusement parks and confess their love, as Marcos so regularly does with Maritza.
Not surprisingly, it’s not just the Latin produced media that’s devoted to portraying love. I guarantee that if you stroll into any one of Peru’s movie theaters you’ll find dubbed or subtitled Hollywood comedies so horribly romantic that even the kids in Dawson’s Creek wouldn’t watch them.
It can’t be denied that love follows you everywhere in Peru. Girls walk around town in tight jeans with hearts sequined on their backsides, taxis tear through streets with huge stickers covering their windshields reading “God is Love,” and in every park young couples walk hand in hand feeding one another ice cream. If you are a long lost hopeless romantic, Peru is definitely your place.
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the people in Peru seem so tranquillo – calm & modest – even on 8 hour bus journeys with no comfort break stops even with a party of schoolchildren on board, all was peaceful, no whining, no complaints, no rowdiness or cheek from the schoolchildren – such a contrast when we got back to Madrid after flight delays – all around were moaning & complaining…………seems to be a default mode for some