Interview with Comrade Dante, transcribed by Chief Llabbe

The neocolonial government has continued to fail the Peruvian people by neglecting to support the medical professionals putting their lives in danger. 

126 Peruvian doctors have died from COVID and the government has done nothing to support them. 

The Peruvian Medical Federation (FMP) will be on strike August 26 and 27 demanding more money from the government allocated to hospitals in the form of ventilators, PPE, and salaries. 

The sellout Peruvian government has been handling the pandemic very poorly. Peru has the third most cases in all of South America.

It’s time for the Medical Federation and other worker unions to take control of colonial institutions and provide better working conditions for the sacrificed workers during coronavirus. This has been the case for many neocolonial countries throughout the global south. Their governments are selling their resources to private companies and leaving the people to die with nothing.

So Comrade Dante, what colonized nation are you from? 

I represent the colonized nation of Peru, but really the Indigenous people of Peru. I don’t have such a connection, mostly due to the repression of the culture of Peru. I represent the Aymara people, the Quechua, and the Incan empire. People dislike Indigenous identity due to the colonial stigmas of primitivity.

Once the Spanish conquered them, and the Incan empire fell, and the smaller tribes realized they had to assimilate. There are a great many Indigenous people in Peru, there are also ex-enslaved African people, and there’s also a large Asian diaspora.

Peru is filled with diverse ecosystems with jungles, deserts, mountains, and coastlines. The Indigenous people who are autonomous and unassimilated live as one with Pachamama (Mother Earth). Animals like Condors are very important.

Canyon de Colca, a mountain I hiked on and is the homeland of three tribes: the Cabanas of the eastern region of the Colca river, the Kollawas are of the east of the Colca basin, and the Ccaccatapay lived with the center canyon’s bottom Tapay district, Arequipa.

Because of colonization, it’s hard to learn about pre-colonial history, what do you know of your nation’s history before europe?

The Incan empire was one of the most advanced civilizations before the europeans came. The architecture is so complex and precise. They could withstand earthquakes, which are really common. Machu Pichu, Sacsayhuamán, and other cities are testaments to the advanced building techniques which can withstand the test of time.

The colonial culture tried to wipe away the colonial culture. Still though, even on european churches, there is evidence of the ancient stones that Indigenous parochials used to build with. They built all this superior architecture without european help. They created huge, long-lasting houses without the wheel!

While the Incan empire wasn’t a moral empire, they weren’t trying to commit genocide against the people. They wanted to include smaller tribes into a large economic structure. The western empires had none of the economic distribution of resources back to the parts which were annexed. The Incan empire distributed services and basic necessities to all parts of South America.

Native languages stolen after genocide

Does your nation speak an Indigenous language? Or a creole of the colonizah tongue?

Most Peruvians speak Spanish now. The stigma against Indigenous people made the speaking of Quechua and Aymara languages unpopular.

‘Choclo’ is a word for corn from the Quechua people, but is assimilated into Peruvian Spanish. In Quechua, they don’t have a written language and used knots to communicate.

Cultural aspects of indigeneity are used to segregate rural and city people. The Quechua people come from rural areas to sell stuff.

Public schooling is mostly in the city areas, and so Indigenous people are not given the same opportunity to speak Spanish and assimilate. This marks Indigenous people’s place on the system of forced assimilation. Those colonized languages always create a grading system to organize cultural genocide.

Neocolonialism has really hurt Peru very hard. There is a huge issue of mining, extraction of natural resources, and the destruction of the land. Though the economy was doing better, even with inflation under anti-communist neocolonial president Fujimori, the land is becoming more and more unusable. So this creates short term goals of growth without long term vision. Selling out for those profits will ruin any longterm sustainable growth.

Many of the companies doing the extraction are european or settler-owned, like a mining company in Australia. Peru is a very clear example of neocolonialism where the land is abused for the sake of profits. Lots of the work needed to get this work done are rural people.

What can we do now?

There’s a need to provide for their families with resources and needs, and so many people work in extractive industries that damage the environment.

There are also many Venezuelans coming into Peru, due to the sanctions, and Asian migration was very common during the world war II era.

I want the Peruvian diaspora to realize why we might be living in amerikkka. We are here because of Imperialism and Colonialism! Our common duty is to serve the people of our nation and all our sibling colonized nations.

We must unite all colonized people of South America to get our land back and build our own nations again!

Black Hammer Organization is uniting with all colonized people to build self-determination and end white power’s domination of the world! The Massachusetts/Connecticut Region of Black Hammer is doing outreach in our areas giving out PPE and organizing people around real solutions.

We believe in the masses’ ability to rise up and take back the land that was stolen! This is why we are organizing people to help BuildHammerCity! We’re welcoming feedback from the Indigenous Land Liberators on the constitution of Hammer City.

Hammer city is a place with no cops, no rent, and no coronavirus! This city will be the first of many around the world, and we are announcing it’s location on Facebook Live on August 29 at 1:00 PM ET.

Black Power!

Land Back!