The simultaneous, spontaneous and multitudinous social mobilization is not only against a usurper ruler such as Dina Boluarte, nor only against political corruption, but also against the neoliberal system that impoverishes the great majorities. In the end, these streets full of polychromatic wills express the dream or intuition of new horizons beyond impoverishing developmentalism or colonizing modernity.
We are at the gateway to the idyllic wonder of the world: Machupicchu. Specifically in the town of Ollantaytambo.
Ollantaytambo, hanging Inca city that flourished in pre-colonial times, with the euphoria of the tourism industry promoted by Peru criollo, reflourished as a tourist attraction in the last neoliberal decades.
A Quechua “Rondero” at the entrance of the spiritual Sanctuary. OI
The structure of ownership and control of the tourism industry in Ollantaytambo is the miniature expression of the national and planetary tourism industry. Foreigners monopolize the businesses around the Plaza de Armas. From there they sell online the sights and visits to the sacred (archaeological) sites to visitors thirsty for folkloric tourism.
The natives of Ollantaytambo, with their colorful and colorful costumes, barely “adorn” the cafes as maids, or are herded as porters/carriers of the luggage of “gringo” travelers along the Inca Trail to Machupicchu.
Quechua, in Ollantaytambo’s Plaza de Armas. OI
In these days of national strike promoted by rural and popular sectors of the country, Ollantaytambo, like the rest of the apotheosic tourist destinations of Peru, recovers its presence and millenary personality.
The Sanctuary of Ollantaytambo recovers its silent mystical atmosphere. Without the phagocytized pilgrimage of foreigners looking to consume/possess everything.
Hundreds of Quechuas, coming from the surrounding communities, organized in Rondas Campesinas, impose with their mere presence: “Everything must be closed. We are on national strike”. And indeed, this order decided in a previous assembly is carried out without any resistance from the owners of the tourism businesses.
Quechuas in the streets of Ollantaytambo demanding the closure of the stores. OI
The Quechuas, chicote in hand, roam the narrow cobblestone streets, enforcing the “paro seco”.
We saw how, chicote in hand, and in Quechua, they forced the municipal government managers to leave the sports field where, taking advantage of the strike, they were holding a soccer game.
Here, apparently, everyone suspects that something new is happening in the Peruvian Andes: The legitimate millenarian owners are beginning to regain awareness of their origins and belongings. The centenarian visitors have no choice but to silently accept this phenomenon.
Quechua, weaving at the door of the Ollantaytambo Sanctuary. OI
The strike in southern Peru has been going on for more than three weeks. In the city of Cusco (captive city of the tourism industry), the tourism agencies and the local micro oligarchy tried to confront the mobilized Quechuas from the streets, squandering visceral racism. The Quechuas, from the digital platforms, overwhelmed them and stripped them naked…
It seems that the myth of modernity, via neoliberalism, has not managed to penetrate the spirit of the rural Andean populations. Thus, while some social niches in the cities are still indifferent to the corrupt plundering of the common goods in the territories, the peasants are confronting the main agent of neoliberal plundering: The neoliberal state/business, in force for more than three decades.
View from the Puerta del Sol. OI.
In the end, the simultaneous, spontaneous and multitudinous social mobilization is not only against a usurper ruler such as Dina Boluarte, nor only against political corruption, but also against the neoliberal system that impoverishes the great majorities. Deep down, these streets full of polychromatic wills express the dream or intuition of new horizons beyond impoverishing developmentalism or colonizing modernity.
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