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Quechua Language and Identity in Peru

Quechua is an indigenous language spoken by around 8 million people worldwide, primarily in Peru where 3.5 million people speak it. However, the language faces discrimination and is considered endangered. Quechua speakers in Peru experience racial and cultural discrimination that forces them to perform mestizo identities by changing their clothing, lifestyle, and limiting their Quechua language use to avoid exclusion from society and enable socioeconomic mobility. At the same time, Quechua language and culture is also idealized and linked to notions of indigenous authenticity, leading some Quechua speakers to commercially perform exaggerated indigenous stereotypes. As a result, Quechua identity is complex, as speakers face both discrimination but also pressure to perform authentic indigeneity.

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148 views7 pages

Quechua Language and Identity in Peru

Quechua is an indigenous language spoken by around 8 million people worldwide, primarily in Peru where 3.5 million people speak it. However, the language faces discrimination and is considered endangered. Quechua speakers in Peru experience racial and cultural discrimination that forces them to perform mestizo identities by changing their clothing, lifestyle, and limiting their Quechua language use to avoid exclusion from society and enable socioeconomic mobility. At the same time, Quechua language and culture is also idealized and linked to notions of indigenous authenticity, leading some Quechua speakers to commercially perform exaggerated indigenous stereotypes. As a result, Quechua identity is complex, as speakers face both discrimination but also pressure to perform authentic indigeneity.

Uploaded by

Rita
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Quechua Language Use in Modern Peru:

An Investigation of Cultural Authenticity


and Identity Construction
Tess Renker

What is Quechua?

Indigenous language spoken mainly in Andean nations of South America


Language of the Incas
8 million Quechua-speakers worldwide; 3.5 million speakers in Peru alone
Primarily oral language
Considered to be in decline an endangered language

Racial and Cultural Discrimination


Discrimination against Quechua-speakers has as much to do with culture as
it does with race

Quechua language almost impossible to disconnect from indigenous cultures


Quechua associated with ignorance, poverty, and a campesino lifestyle
Use of Quechua almost immediately excludes speakers from Peruvian
society

Performances of Mestizo Identities


Quechua-speakers often forced to perform a mestizo identity to avoid
racial and cultural discrimination

Adapt the clothing, lifestyle, and often language of the hegemonic Peruvian
majority

Forced to limit or cease use of Quechua to achieve socioeconomic mobility


Many prefer not to speak Quechua with their children as a means of
protecting them

Idealization of Quechua Language and Culture


Quechua also linked with an idealized conception of Indigenous peoples
Indexes Machu Picchu, ancestors, forefathers, archeological remains,
etc.

Linked to a certain nostalgia for simpler times and campesino lifestyles


Oversimplification of contemporary indigenous cultures
Designation of indigenous peoples as an exotic other

Performance of Oversimplified
Indigenousness
Indigenousness becomes commoditized
Individuals perform Incan-indigenous stereotypes for economic
advancement

Traits that normally attract discrimination valued for their exoticism


Quechua language use marks one as authentically indigenous or
authentically Incan

Conclusion
Quechua speakers are both victims of racial-cultural discrimination and the
subjects of criticism related to the authenticity of their own indigenousness

Often must adopt or perform an alternate identity as a means of survival

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