Racism in Peru: locally produced TV presents Indigenous and Black Peruvians through Insulting Characters and promotes White supremacy

Almost all of Peru's television stations, publicity agencies, printed newspapers and film producers are based in Lima and are either owned by white Peruvians or white foreigners. Perhaps that is the reason why the Peruvian TV and most media promote a vicious racism and white supremacy in their every day programming.

Even though most of the programs and publicity included in Peru's TV channels are imported from the worst producers in the United States, and Latin American countries like Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela among others, but the few local productions are proven popular among Peruvians.

However, all of the Peruvian and Latin American television shows are produced by Hispanics and other European descendants, not by Natives or Afro descendants. In Peru this is very contradictory since we Indigenous and Blacks make up about 90% of the country's population, included the mixed communities.

As a result of this racial divide and lack of equal access to the mainstream media, the TV of Lima not only fails to present the cultures of all Peruvians, but they purposely creates shows that always include racist characters that extremely offensive to non-white Peruvians.

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The racist TV of Lima is watched in all Peruvian regions, and it presents insulting characters that make fun of our Indigenous and Afro descendant populations, our traditions and ways of living presented in demeaning ways. These characters are part of TV shows created by racist script writers, and although some of them aren't white but money can buy almost anything in a poor, divided, white folks-loving Peru.

These are some examples of racist characters in the TV produced in Lima:

Paisana Jacinta

This "Country woman Jacinta" is an example of how popular is the mockery of the Andean women in Peru. Jacinta is a poor migrant from the farmland to the big city of Lima, where she always gets involved in complicated situations -due to her "ignorance"- while she is portrayed as ignorant, needy, teeth-less, ugly, unclean, outdated, stupid, naive.

This program has been banned after protests by human-right activists in Peru, but its video are still available online posted by Peruvians!

"Paisana Jacinta" was produced by Frecuencia Latina, a channel owned by an Israel-born Jewish man; and America TV today owned in part by El Comercio (Peru) and El Tiempo (Colombia) newspapers.

In the following image an ignorant Paisana Jacinta confronts an educated librarian, a 'white' woman as part of a "comedy" show in Lima. This sad and offensive character is still celebrated by many Peruvians many of whom are of Indigenous heritage as funny.

Tongo

This character makes fun of the urban Indigenous population that who grew up in Lima, the children of rural migrants. Tongo is what some call "cholo" or a Native man who adopts urban westernized manners. In real life, Tongo is a Chicha singer (Peruvian Cumbia music) but his character was brought to TV by Frecuencia Latina, a channel owned by a Israel-born Jewish man, and by a TV commercial produced for Telefonica, the Hispanic telecommunication corporation.

Tongo became famous also with the support of Jaime Bayly, a racist TV host with programs in Lima and Miami. Especially when Tongo launched a song titled "I'm in live with a Pituca". Pituca are white rich women of Lima and as an Indigenous man, Tongo is presented by Peruvian media as the opposite symbol of the progress of white Peruvians (or Americans). In other words, contemporary progress vs. backwards poverty.

It's common to see "jokes" about Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian media. Tongo is a mixed Indigenous man or "mestizo" but he would never admit it publicly of course.

Negro Mama

A mixed Indigenous actor (Jorge Benavides) of Lima plays this "comedy" character that makes fun of Black Peruvians, in a very, very offensive way.

This character shows an ignorant, slow minded, retarded man who speaks with an exaggerated accent of Afro Peruvians. The "Black Faced" Negro Mama has exaggerated sized lips and nose features, and he opens his eyes widely every time he speaks.

"Negro Mama" was also produced by Frecuencia Latina, created by Benavides and the racist actor Carlos Alvarez, who by not a coincidence is the most popular comedian in Peru. This is explained by the fact that sadly in Peru is also very common to hear jokes about Black people, who are called names like Zambo, Mulato, Betun, Choro, etc. and the media reinforces this racism very often.

Chola Chabuca

"Chola Chabuca" is an example of how accepted is racism in Lima's media. This is a character that makes fun of Andean women, by exaggerating the accent, traditional regalia and physical appearance of our Indigenous women from the Andes region. It's like a white-looking one "Paisana Jacinta".

This celebrated drag performance is presented by Ernesto Pimentel, an openly-gay Peruvian actor who is not Indigenous and tries to white-wash his racist acts by presenting a "Native-friendly" Chabuca.

But "Chola Chabuca" exaggerates everything about the Indigenous women of Peru, from the clothing, shoes, ways of living and speaking. She is basically a clown, and she is loved among Indigenous peoples of Lima.

Ernesto Pimentel is also a popular TV host in Lima and he has been invited to the U.S. to perform as "Chola Chabuca" in Peruvian festivals.

This is another example of how in Peru is common and widely accepted to make fun of women period, but even worse when it comes to Native women, in ways that even urban Native people of Peru accept it as funny.

Al Fondo Hay Sitio

This is a soap-opera produced in Lima, which presents a Native family and a White family as the examples of both extremes of poverty and progress in today's Lima. They are joined by ridiculously silly love stories that could hardly happen in real life.

The Gonzales family (in the photo) migrates from the Andean city of Ayacucho to the capital Lima. Most of Ayacucho population is of Indigenous heritage.

The problem is that the only Indigenous actors in the "provinciana" Gonzales family have dyed their hair blond, or are light-skinned. And they force their "serrano" accent so much that sounds very offensive. Not in Lima though where the children of Indigenous migrants tend to pass as whites.

In the contrary, the Italian-Peruvian family of the Maldinis is presented as a symbol of progress, sophistication and class even if some of their members are evil, arrogant and openly racist. Of course, some of the all-white Maldinis will befriend the Gonzales family with a protective, superior attitude of racism and class division, and even pitty.

At the end, the Gonzales are seeing as the needy, innocent and uneducated "new Limans" while the Maldinis are seeing as the "classic" Lima rich family, who are better-off in every possible way. This happy-end sitcom has become one of the most populars in Lima television. Terribly.

Cholo Cirilo

Cholo is a racist slur that was created by the Hispanics in the XVI century, to classify slaves who descended from Indigenous and Spaniard parents. This character, Cirilo is an Indigenous immigrant who arrives from Cusco to Lima, and he becomes a "acholado" man, which is someone who tries to adapt the manners of urban peoples but he is seeing as a weak, ridiculous man, ready to do anything to make money in the big city.

Although "Cholo Cirilo" is an outdated character in today's Lima TV but he is popular among Indigenous festivals in Peru and in other countries where Peruvian migrants live.


Break them

We know already the consequences of having communities with low self esteem, they end up being conformist, self loathing, divided, passive and oppressed. We know of the role of cultural genocide and imposition that colonial powers have promoted on their slaved populations: this sense of racist superiority has allowed so many injustices in human history. It's happening in Peru today.


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