Machu Picchu and Susan Sarandon

Photo Reuters. April 1 2010.

Dear Susan Sarandon,

Let me start this by saying that I admire some of your work as an actress, yes I have seeing some of your movies, who hasn't! Also I had followed your activism against war, violence, racism, children abuse, and homophobia, and especially in defense of human rights in the world. Thanks Susan, you rock.

That is why I was really disappointed when I saw the images that went around the world, showing you standing in front of Machu Picchu, surrounded by Indigenous children of Peru. The news said that you went to Cusco for the reopening of Machu Picchu, which was closed to the public for two months after heavy rains destroyed the access from Cusco.

Machu Picchu is a citadel built by the Quechua Indigenous peoples under the rule of Inka Pachacuti in the 15th century. It was created for educational, recreational and mostly religious purposes –not a fortress as some European news agencies are saying.

Firstly, and please Susan don’t take this in the wrong way but to me, it really looked racist to have a European-descendant woman reopening an Indigenous sacred place as Machu Picchu. This is a historical site that was left almost intact because the invader Hispanics never found it.

You see, Peru is a post colonial country created by a European invasion on Native people's land. The process of colonization is still happening today, especially in the lands of Indigenous peoples which are rich in natural resources. I say this not to attack you or any other European descendant person, but to ask you to think carefully about your trip to Peru.

Ask yourself if you did the right thing.

It turns out that you were invited to Machu Picchu by the Peruvian government, through PromPeru its agency for tourism promotion, and of course all expenses were paid, including your stay in luxurious hotels in Lima and Cusco, in rooms that went from $350 to $700 dollars per night, in a country where the minimum wage is about $205 dollars monthly.

This I just confirmed this with PromPeru over the phone.I was told by PromPeru that you also spent money of your own with your family. Seems like you had a good time!

But since you care about equality and human rights, I have no doubt that during your trip to Peru you noticed the offensive and unjustified gap between the rich and the poor, among Peruvians. I’m sure you saw Indigenous and Afro descendant children begging for money in the streets of Lima, Cusco and Puno. Perhaps while being there and I deeply hope so, you noticed how racist Peruvian society is.

In case you didn’t see any of that, let me remind you that last year, Peru’s president Alan Garcia said that Indigenous peoples aren’t first class citizens; he said this while justifying the massacre of hundreds of Amazonian natives in the Bagua region.

Susan Sarandon, please send a check to the government of Peru returning the money spent in your trip, and ask them to use the funds to help the victims of the floods in Cusco, Apurimac, Ayacucho, and Puno; or to build hospitals for the children of the Andes.

Susan, every day in Peru abuses occur and human exploitation are committed against non-White Peruvians, simply because of the color of our skin, our culture, and our ways of living. I have the fortune of living in the U.S., a country that also has many social problems as you know, but it’s still a safer place because there is a wider respect for human rights than in Peru.

So let me ask you some more questions, dear Susan.

How did you feel when you were in Peru with your best friend and family, seeing the extreme level of poverty, the lack of decent housing, roads, schools, and hospitals among the Native communities? Did you see the horrendous inequality in living conditions between the tourist-only areas and the rest of the cities that you visited? Did you look at the immense shanty towns around the cosmopolitan city of Lima, while the plane landed?

Did you know that two days after you officially "reopened" Machu Picchu, the government you represented killed 5 miners and 1 civilian during protests in Chala, in southern Peru?

How would you feel if at the reopening of Ground Zero in your beloved NYC, a foreign artist would be invited to lead the ceremony? Not to promote hatred here but we know that everything has its place and time.

These questions are intended only to remind you Susan Sarandon, of your commitment for social justice. You can’t look the other way and pretend everything is alright in Peru. You cannot deny that such a disparity in opportunities seeing in Peru is only the result of an unfair, racist and discriminatory model of development, economy, and government.

Perhaps you weren’t aware dear Susan of this. Every year hundreds of Indigenous peoples in Peru including children die of cold weather related diseases in the Andean region. These casualties are perfectly preventable. The children you hugged for the pictures, their parents are not allowed in the same train with foreign tourists, because according to British-owned Peru Rail, that way they keep people safer.

Since January this year, thousands of people have lost their homes in Cusco and many towns in southern Peru, due to heavy rain that caused huge floods and mudslides. Most of them are still in need of help.

The same government that invited you to reopen Machu Picchu has done little or nothing to help the victims of these natural disasters in Peru. Same is the scenario for thousands of Peruvians who lost their homes in Chincha Alta and Pisco, after the 2007 earthquake. They are still live in shacks and cabins made of plastic, board and garbage.

The government of Peru and its agency PromPeru say that they invited you –and plan to invite other celebrities- to attract visitors to Cusco. Don’t take offense Susan, but Machu Picchu doesn’t need you to get the international attention and to attract tourists.

Think about Cusco and its people for a moment. Most of the historical sites of that region were mostly by our Indigenous civilizations before the European contact, and they are the biggest attraction for almost 2 million tourists that come to Peru annually.

Guess what, most of those places and all tourism industry around them, are managed or owned by corporations from Lima and foreign countries, especially the U.S. and Europe. Cusco people get the leftovers.

So, in behalf of the people of Cusco and of the children you took pictures with for the international press and in the name of Machu Picchu, Susan Sarandon I’m asking you to consider helping the people of Peru by taking simple, decent and necessary steps:

Please send a check to the government of Peru returning the money spent in your trip, and ask them to use the funds to help the victims of the floods in Cusco, Apurimac, Ayacucho, and Puno; or to build hospitals for the children of the Andes.

Then you can demand the Garcia administration to stop signing special decrees that are opening 73% of the Amazon forest and the Andean mountains to destructive corporations, for extractive industries like mining, oil and natural gas.

You can also demand them to stop racist policies that allow the genocide of poorest Peruvians: Blacks and Natives, while promoting a White supremacist government. It’s not your fault that you were used by the Peruvian government.

Susan Sarandon, I trust your sense of humanity and solidarity. Peruvians who are oppressed and left behind will thank you, you will be really doing some good activism this way.

Oh, in case my letter is not convincing enough, please Susan read what your countryman has to say in a more direct way.

Sincerely, Peruanista.

Susan Sarandon with Peru's Tourism Minister Martin Perez (L) and Machu Picchu Mayor Edgar Miranda (R) arrive in Machu Picchu town, April 1, 2010. Photo Reuters

She should have reopened Machu Picchu
Photo by Juan Franco

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