Peruvians in the UK

(These pages, in part, debate whether or not there is a "community". The previous title prejudged the issue. For that reason the text has been moved to this page "Peruvians in the UK" from "Peruvian Community in the UK" and from the page "Where is the Peruvian "community" in the UK?".

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Where is the Peruvian "community" in the UK?
Talking yesterday to a woman from Peru, resident permanently in the UK, she was lamenting the fact that Peruvians in London seem so divided. She illustrated this by observing that several separate groups have formed all raising money in support of the Peru earthquake victims, yet these groups are not collaborating. "There are just too many events now...", she said, "...and I cannot support them all. I just wish Peruvians would work together to deliver something that is really worth supporting." As if to reinforce this perception, there was a sign posted above the shop counter over which we were talking asking 'latino' patrons to refrain from "bitching" and other negative forms of social behaviour.

So often I hear discussions of there being a Peruvian "community" in London, yet the example above suggests that such a thing does not exist.

Is there really such a thing as a Peruvian community here?

The word "community" implies to me a group of people living together (or in close proximity to each other) having common goals and values; or a group that is, at least, communicating and sharing something similar.

Is this, in fact, happening or are notions that there is a "community" of Peruvians here, in London, a delusion?

If there is a Peruvian Community, where is it?

(DM)

Community, Identity and Culture: add online references for tutors, mentors and students
The questions are simple, but some answers are seemingly unfathomable! Where are Peruvians in the UK? Are there communities? Are we one community? Are the English-Brits a community? Are the English-Brits English or British or multi-rooted? Are Peruvians who have lived in the UK 30 years still "Peruvian"? And our children? Grandchildren? Is there "an" identity any longer - or was there ever? Ironic that just as in the UK we are giving up the idea of having just one identity, the government wants to issue identity cards.

At this point a wiki-watcher should say "citations and references needed"! So here goes: For the Ecuadorians and Bolivians in London - but not yet for Peruvians (¿?) - there are two reports from the Runnymede Trust. Ecuadorians http://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/projects/EcuadorianIdentityCommunity.pdf Bolivianshttp://www.runnymedetrust.org/uploads/file/Com%20Studies%20-%20Bolivian%20(2).pdf. Of the two, that on Bolivians is easier to understand. Just a tad too much vocabulary from cultural theory in the first section of the Ecuadorian report for the general reader, who after all, has an interest in these matters. Imagined communities.. Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Cultural archipelago / transnational community. http://www.brunel.ac.uk/4042/entertext2.2/goulder.pdf. http://www46.homepage.villanova.edu/ulises.zevallosaguilar/jalla/X.html History of a "various or multi heritage" society. Winder, Robert. Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain by Robert Winder. 544pp, Little, Brown, £20. Bloody Foreigners is an unsurprisingly popular book written for the non-academic which of course is not about "bloody" foreigners, but about the "multiple mestizaje" coursing in the bloodstream of the average Brit. It seems there is more migration at the top and at the bottom of the social pile than in the centre. The "difference-gene" in the top layer is : German, Dutch, French rather than Celt, Saxon, Dane. Access: book not online, Meet the author online http://www.meettheauthor.co.uk/bookbites/118.html Book review online. http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/politicsphilosophyandsociety/0,6121,1236774,00.html Anthony Sampson" in the Guardian June 4, 2004 writes that Winder "tells the story vividly, with fascinating contemporary quotations describing the impact of each new group of immigrants, from Jewish moneylenders to Huguenot weavers, from Irish labourers to Indian shopkeepers - until it seems hard to imagine Britain without these stimuli. He contends that we owe much more to immigrants than we think, and he hopes that by understanding the benefits "our own national pride can feel less clenched, less besieged . . . " Anthony Sampson himself is a walking compendium of Britishness. (PG) '''ADD MORE REFERENCES BELOW. . .'''

Understanding what the Peruvian Community feels and needs
(Translation in process of correction - some of these points may be moved to the discussion page.) I noted that Peruvian community is well organised, they start with good ideas and projects but with time these lose unity and continuity. I think the reason is that in our education we miss this sense of community. In the Peruvian community there is a tendency to take advantage of the moment or the situation and and not to focus on the future. Like a Peruvian political organisation when new parties arrive to power, it’s common that they abandon the work or the projects established by the previous administration without examining the advantage to the community. This method of work is unhelpful and even dangerous for every one (whether in the Government or not) and this is in my opinion the first cause why a sense of community is difficult to develop.

Peruvian community before have to recuperate they own unity and needs a reason to do that. We are part of very different social class and is difficult to be solitary each other. For this reason the Peruvian community has lost the interest and trust of its people (and government, political parties and non-governmental organizations).

This kind of disinterest is strong mainly in the young Peruvian group. It’s a shame because I discovered a very well educated young Peruvian community in. A group of them are very well integrated in the English community life. Another group feels in the middle, not Peruvian not English; and they are arrogant with they own countryman and not at the same time they feel not enough to be like the other Europeans.

Peruvian people miss identity, maybe it is because of our origin we have been a colony. Our story is about what the others countries did and destroyed in. Now, the new Peruvian generation is abroad for different reason but with one equal objective: this time to conquest what the life can offer them.

The new generation grow up abroad need an important reason to recuperate this sense of origin, lost and never felt before. (RM)

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