Garcilaso de la Vega is venerated as the first Quechua speaker to have settled in Europe. (Mistakenly - A few are said to have preceded him.) Some came as slaves, but most? in a form of semi-slavery. Few came as members of a priviledged class. Thus began the construction of an American population in Europe . . . .Maybe not a community but a population of individuals and fragmented communities - Latin Americans, mestizos, native Americans forming a dispersion or a diaspora in Europe. Fragmented by race, class, national origin but united by language, music, other elements of culture, and a feel about time and space which was different.

We found ourselves out-of-place, marginalised, exploited but also privileged - not usually financially or socially but the 'privileged eye' which looks back on the 'lights of home'. Fast-forward five hundred years to Julio Ramón Ribeyro, Peruvian writer who died as recently as 1994 and wrote in his diary after more than a decade in Paris to which he first came to in 1957: "What am I doing far from my country, in a city where I have only two or three friends, forcing my wife into a life of seclusion, in two rooms with leaks and cockroaches? Who has exiled me and why? What am I looking for?" But he also wrote that the ideal was to be "the eternal foreigner, the eternal apprentice". {Continued in section "An American in Paris: Julio Ramón Ribeyro"}

READING AND LISTENING

We can speculate as to when the first Quechua-speaker learnt English {Ref Luisa the first Quechua speaker in Bradford below - in Quechua} but even before independence and following the Bourbon reforms of the mid-eighteenth century there was some contact between British merchants and Quechua-speaking wool traders . . . Some may well have come to Britain . . . consider the following story {Click for English / Spanish in final version}

"Luisan Qosqo llaqtapi paqarirqan waranqa pusaqpachaq chunka pisqayoy watapi. (Marques Valle Umbrosoq wasimpi). Ancha khuyakusqan turachantan wañuchipurqanku batalla Ayacuchopi. Luisaqa ancha yuyaysapa arte kamarisqanpi.Yuyaychakusqantantaq sapa p'unchaw "diario" nisqapi qhillqan. Waranqa pusaq pachaq kinsa chunka kinsayoq watapi Qosqopitiyaq huq millma qhatoq runawan kasara kurqan. Kasaquskan qhipataqa Luisaqa llank'akullarqan yachasqan artipi. Waranqa pusaq pachaq kinsa chunka tawayoq watapi ñananwan qosanwan kuska Europata rirqanku. Sumaqta pararqanku Arequipanta Islayninta Liverpoolnintaima purispa. Payqa anchata munarqanpayhina artista escritor masinkunawan tupayta.Hinan Arequipa llaqtapi Flora [Tristanwan] riqsinakurqan hinallataq chaymantaqa Emily [Brontewanpas] riqsinakurqan Inglaterra llaqtapi.Parqa Cumbres Borrascosas qhellqaqnin karqan."

Loads on same page	Loads in popup window so you don't lose your way
Listen to the text above in Quechua.
Where did Quechua come from?	Listen to more on Chavin in Spanish from the Seacex website (go to audio expo.)
Too utopian? Write a few lines to your tutor crticising this 'animation' for an Andean education programme

In the main improvement in language will come about through reading and listening to the materials in "The Reader" and through discussion with your tutor or mentor and members of your group.

READING

You may join the pilot session from November 8, 2004 and help the editors improve these pages. You may register now but do not expect readings until these dates. If places are over-subscribed information will be posted on the 'notice board'.

The experience of migration The first readings proposed are taken from "The lights of home: a century of Latin American writers in Paris" (the twentieth century) by Jason Weiss. Contrast the lives of émigré writers at the beginning of the last century with those at the end. And as a further contrast campare this with the life of Gregorio Mamani in "Andean Lives: Gregorio Condori Mamani and Asunta Quispe Huaman" as he went from the countryside to live in Cusco in the Andes. (Readings sent to you following registration on an individual basis - not just a 'carrot' but also a matter of copyright.)

Cultural diaspora A chance to revisit the JALLA keynote address by Juan Zevallos (1999). Find his article on the Ciberayllu on-line journal. This is a veritable mine of online jewells - mostly in Spanish, Quechua . . . and much from the Latin American diaspora. Latino studies at Harvard and diaspora studies in Europe.

History The article "Historiography, Historiographic Identity and Historical Consciousness in Peru" by Paulo Drinot University of Oxford will be the focus of a discussion on whether history can be 'objective'. The article will be sent to you but this reference - thanks to the author and the publishers of the Review of Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe- is on Internet. See if you can find it using an internet search-er such as Google! There will also be a 'taster' of the wide output of historian Alan Gilbert on Britain and the 'Independence of South America'.(Again these will be sent following registration.)

Micro-regional history For an understanding of micro in the sense used here turn to page {network server}. . /yachay/print.htm. The local or regional history you might be interested in simply because you or your 'ancestors' came from there. Most of the reading / viewing in this pilot is about Southern Peru and has been developed in collaboration with the CIU (Centro Inter-Universitario) at Arequipa, Peru, principally with colleagues from the Universities of San Agustin, San Antonio Abad (Cusco)/Escuela de Bellas Artes and la Católica, Arequipa and with other education organisations / NGO's.

Andean and Arguedian. The reading for this is a parallel text Spanish-Quechua-English of Arguedas.J.M. "Rasu-Niti" and a relatively brief passage from Arguedas.J.M. "Rios Profundos" (English edition also available). These sessions will be in honour of the author who died 35 years ago (2/12/69).

Archaeology Two recent works look at the MacPeachew-isation of South American archaeology or the show-casing of iconic sites. Readings scheduled for December plus a visit to the 'perucultural' website. Tribute to John Rowe and an overview of 50 years of Latin American studies at UCBerkeley.

Landscape and ecology. Come parallel-walking with us. One team walks up the 72 degree longitude line (yup - the one that goes through Cuzco) and the other from Norway to Barcelona via London and Paris (Zero degrees -+, one-fifth of the world away). Many will do this 'virtually' but we hope some will do tranches/ stages of the journey in the pure open air. We compare notes - especially the human ecology and other factors which have produced amazing landscapes. See network/parallel_walking/ after registration (of course!)

Development studies. Development economists don't believe they have all the answers but they do think that many countries in Latin America are pursuing the wrong policies. This session looks at the work of development economists of the diaspora and of Latin America.

Virtual Latin America Visiting some of the best informed websites through the available catalogues. LANIC, the Latin American Network Information Centre | REDIAL (Latin American documents) | LAB (European gateway/search) | Copac (research libraries catalogue) | other libraries | Telnet | IHEAL | list of useful sites re Latin America (French) | ILAS.

(note: not all links take you to real content. Try open access journals if the sources you require are locked up in a library you do not have access to or is the other side of Europe. The library in Berlin is said to have the widest collection in Europe.