Mining Markets, Peasants, and Power in Nineteenth-Century Peru

Abstract

Jauja, rinconcito de mi valle. Andean folk song, Juan Bolívar The military government of General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968-1975) coined the phrase, ¡Campesino, el patrón no comerá más de tu pobreza! (Peasant, the patrón will feed no more on your poverty). Clearly a favorite slogan of the self-described Peruvian Revolution, this saying appeared frequently on posters and in newspaper notices. Although linked to Velasco's agrarian reform program and peasant organizations like the Confederación Nacional Agraria (CNA), which emerged from the plan, this aphorism was said to have originated with José Ga-Mejía, La reforma agraria en el Perú (Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 1980). I take the agrarian reform process into consideration because of its impact on my generation, which experienced all of its effects intensely.