Mario Vargas Llosa’s Life Background
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civilizations, the Incas and the Spaniards, which contributed their inheritances and systems among Peruvian people.
The Incas used to place their capital in ancient Cuzco mostly in high Andean terrain where jungles and high
lands. After the Spaniards‘ coming to Peru, they remained stable dwelling in highlands for the geographical condition could
protect them from Spanish civilization. While the Incas dwelled in high terrain, the Spanish conquerors, who used to place their capital in Lima, occupied coast
areas and lowlands for there were the entrance to this island Garcia, 1985: 402. That historical background brought many impacts for the Peruvian people
nowadays. The Incas seemed to contribute some remains of their civilization in highland. However, they could not cover all areas of the Andean sierra due to its
ruggedness. As a result, there are still many natives Indians that remain living in their traditional ways and far from civilization until now. One of them is
Matsigenka or Machiguenga community that dwells in upper part of Amazon jungle surrounded by Andes Mountains, Urubamba River, and Madre de Dios
River, in Cuzco region, southeastern part of Peru as a result of the Incas civilization and also the Spaniards civilization which disturbed their areas.
However, as time went by, they could be touched by modernization. Some of them nowadays are educated in Pucallpa where Summer Institute of Linguistics
trains literacy to the natives Johnson, 1996. Compared to the Incas who affected the highland natives, the Spaniards
seemed to bring quite big impacts to rest of Peruvian societies nowadays. Their coming had forced other inhabitants to move to the highland for they applied
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what-so-called: caste system. It forced others inhabitants in this land even the natives to work for them as slaves. It is explained in this way.
Having conquered the Incan homeland, the Spaniards proceeded to assault the culture of the people and created a complex, multilayered caste
system —which lasted for four centuries—in which Indians provided what
amounted to slave labor for white masters Garcia, 1985: 402. Although it is not applied anymore among the people, it seems that the
impacts affect Peruvian people nowadays. Peruvian society, conscious or unconsciously, is structured economically into three layers: upper class, middle
class, and lower class. The upper class is a group of landowners and entrepreneurs; the middle class is a group of workers
managing the upper class‘ companies including hiring employees; while the lower class is group of some
workers, farmers, and also rural people including the Indians hired for the upper class‘ companies Garcia, 1985: 412. From this condition, it reflects that caste
system, which was inclined to gave benefits to white masters the Spaniards, has been prolonged into an economic structure which gives burdens especially to the
native Indians nowadays. They are still treated as if they are slaves in Spanish colonialization era.
It is not only the human resources that have been raped by the whites from the Indians but also their culture. To strengthen the economics, the whites even
take the culture as commodities for economic. It is explained in this way. The cultural destruction occurred at an extremely rapid pace: A
magnificent tradition of artistic pottery production, some of it Nazca, Chavin, Chimu, Mochica among the most aesthetically pleasing ever
produced within half a century after conquest to a pitiful, shriveled parody of what it had once been Garcia, 1985: 402-403.
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Not only economic had the Spaniards influenced Peru but also they had made new generation born. A generation of mixture between Indian and Spanish:
mestizos. Although this generation is mixed, mestizos people still had their dominant role like what whites do. They are mostly considered as upper class.
This phenomenon sometimes contributes certain argument that considers that Peruvian nation consists of mestizos while the Indians are only workers. This is
explained in this way. Almost by definition, most Indians work for, but are not a part of, the
Peruvian nation. The vast majority live in the sierra and are employed as farm workers, peasants, or small merchants. The rest of the people are
considered mestizos, or of mixed Indian and Spanish lineage Garcia, 1985: 412.
The fact that Peruvian society is so multicultural precisely reveals the
phenomenon that the people are structured economically. This structure, of course, gives much more benefits to the upper class whites and mestizos. The
rest is inequality for the natives of Peru.