As Michael Trouillot states, history is the fruit of power, and it is necessary to understand this to examine the ways in which the official history has depicted the Afro-descendant population in Peru. As many activists and civil society members state, there is a deliberate effort to diminish the role that the Afro-descendant population had in the formation of the country, visible in the limited presence that the history of Afro-Peruvians has in the national imaginary.
The presence of the Afro-descendant population in Peru is often understudied. Despite this population has done a significant contribution to the construction of the nation, there are very few scholars who focus on analyzing their historical trajectories and their development…show more content… Written in 2004, this article does a complete exploration of the Afro-descendant presence in Peru, even before the arrival of enslaved people to this territory, by highlighting their personal stories, their struggle and their contributions to the formation of the nation. In this sense, the author examines the presence of Afro-descendants since the conquer of the Inca Empire, by mentioning that during this period there was possible to find enslaved people participating as part of the Spanish forces, controlling the Indians and contributing to the settlement of the conquerors.
By addressing this specific period, the author also analyzes the role of the Spanish empire and the regulations established in the first period of the slave trade, that were later adjusted to the interests of the Spanish Empire. Furthermore, she is able to provide evidence about the particularities of the process of the slave trade that bought more than 3 million Africans to the region, by specifying the requirements and the strategies the traders use to commercialize enslaved people in the newly formed Peruvian vice…show more content… This does not impede the author to highlight the hard conditions that the enslaved endured during this period, since she emphasizes that the owners kept their slaves working long hours, living in sheds, malnourished and hardly punished. Despite during the nineteenth century the conditions of the enslaved work were tremendously violent, the author mentions some relevant efforts to establish regulations in relation to the enslaved work that sought to control the amount of work the enslaved did, attributing minimum living conditions that gave the enslaved a relative sense of human dignity.
In addition to this, Arrelucea documents and specify the different type of occupations that the enslaved had in the colonial society and the possibilities they had to acquire specific abilities and knowledge that will allow them to have less harsh lives. In relation to this she mentions, for instance, the work that the enslaved did in the Jesuit haciendas, in which they encountered better living conditions and a softer treatment ; the day laborer system and other minor jobs that gave them the opportunities to acquire relative benefits that improved their living
