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The shifting social relations and national identity practices of a Peruvian

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 6 The shifting social relations and
national identity practices of a Peruvian
migrant in South Africa’s heartland
Luis Escobedo, Alba Gómez-Arias and Julio Castillo

‘Confirmed: Alan García is dead’1

On 17 April 2019 at 6.46 am in Lima, Peru (UTC -05:00), two SUVs hastily drove,
honking, down a narrow avenue. The sky was grey and the morning air stubbornly

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humid with a kick of smoke. A voice with my accent narrated
​​ breaking news that

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officials from the public prosecutor’s office were rushing to the residence of two-
term former president Alan García (1985–1990 and 2006–2011) with a preliminary
arrest warrant in their hands. O
​ nly a few minutes later, and right before his arrest,
García shot himself.
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In Bloemfontein, South Africa, Julio Castillo received the news, almost in real time.
Texts, photographs, videos and voicemails drifted across social media networks​
and messaging services. Supposed x-ray photographs of the politician’s shattered
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skull and confirmations of his death were passed around, creating a battleground
of opinions around his decision to commit suicide in the middle of a corruption
scandal. A mix of emotions and memories invaded Julio. He had to stop what he was
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doing, to process what was happening. After three long hours, the former president
died. García was the first president whose name Julio could properly pronounce as a
child, and the last one to take office before he left Peru indefinitely as a young adult.
While this iconic event momentarily brought Julio into contact with millions of
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other Peruvians around the world, through the exchange of information on the topic,
he soon resumed normal, daily activities. Other Peruvians remained focused on
the event for longer, and some still discuss and continue to feel affected by it today.
However, what those three long hours suggest is that, no matter how much Peruvians
in different parts of the world differ in their understanding of their nationality, they
may still be powerfully connected in multiple ways.
Julio Castillo and Luis Escobedo (the first author of this chapter, also a Peruvian)
met for the first time in Bloemfontein in 2017. Since then, several iconic events,
affecting the lives of many Peruvians, have taken place. Included in these events
was the return of the Peruvian men’s national football team to the FIFA World Cup
after a 36-year long absence from the competition, and the bringing to justice of a
long list of (mostly male) Peruvian politicians, including García, as a result of their
involvement in the Brazilian firm Odebrecht’s corruption scandal, and other crimes.

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 Julio and Luis were both born in 1982, when the Peruvian men’s team played its last
World Cup prior to 2018; both witnessed all those who were elected presidents of
Peru within this period face the law. More recently, they have also observed how a
number of people back in Peru have started reshaping their collective self in front
of Venezuelan migration by, for example, crediting Venezuelans with the spread of
more brutal and physical forms and levels of crime.
According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, in
2019 the migrant population of Venezuelans in Peru amounted to 800 000 people
(UNHCR 2019). Xenophobic attitudes and behaviours towards Venezuelans have
started to entrench themselves in sectors of Peruvian society and travel across social
media networks and messaging services. This gave Julio and Luis much to discuss
from their migrant perspectives. Ever since the two Peruvians met in Bloemfontein,
and partly as a result of how central the topic of national identity has been to Luis’s
research and personal life in 20 years of moving across borders, Julio has found

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himself thinking and speaking about Peru, or doing something associated with it,
more often than he had been doing on his own in the years since his arrival in South
Africa in 2013.
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Since leaving Peru, Julio has certainly connected with Peruvians with whom he
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was acquainted (such as family) and unacquainted (for example, football fans), and
he has done this directly (through visits to Spain2 and Peru) as well as indirectly
(through social media). However, as his own story reveals in this chapter, this
connection with Peruvians has mostly taken place when the appropriate context and
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incentives to ‘think’ or ‘speak’ about Peru, or to ‘do’ something associated with it,
were significantly accessible. Otherwise, his self-identification as part of a national
category such as ‘Peru’, ‘Peruvian’, or ‘Peruvian immigrant’, among others, had not
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been of special importance to him. Moreover, Bloemfontein, being an unpopular

destination for Peruvian migration, has not offered him the above-mentioned
context and incentives to connect with other Peruvian actors, symbols, practices and
occurrences in the same wide-ranging ways and degrees as did his previous location
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in Spain, where he spent seven years before moving to South Africa.

The objective of this chapter is to explore the way in which the national identity of
a single Peruvian migrant like Julio functions in the tension3 between the context
of a changing post-apartheid African city like Bloemfontein, where Peruvian
migration is numerically insignificant, and his role as an individual to whom
national identity is not meaningful unless provided with suitable incentives to think
about it. We continue to question the traditional assumption that nationalism and
national identity are ‘horizontal’ or ‘equalising’ concepts (Anderson 1991). People
sharing the same nationality may differ in their understanding of themselves and
their nationality, depending on the combination of ethnic, linguistic, religious,
age, professional, socio-economic and other groups to which they belong (see, for
example, Paerregaard 2008b). They may differ according to where they are located
within and away from their national territory (see, for example, Evans 2019) or in

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terms of the form of thinking that they engage in. Julio would fit Rosenberg and
Beattie’s (2019) description of ‘sequential thinker’ in their work on the cognitive
structuring of national identity.4 This is someone who is not concerned with
‘self-identification’ or ‘social identity’ and thus does not find national identity to
be ‘personally meaningful or salient’ unless provided with the ‘appropriate social
reinforcement’ or ‘context’ (Rosenberg & Beattie 2019: 365, 368).
Following Rosenberg and Beattie’s analysis, we argue that, while belonging to
a particular national identity may not be meaningful to an individual, their
understanding of national identity can vary with their changing contexts. We
compare Julio’s migration experience in South Africa with his previous experience in
Spain in terms of the ‘fresh contact’ (Mannheim 1952) that he had with each of these
societies, in order to understand how an individual’s social relations shift according
to their exposure to a significantly different context (see Paerregaard 2014a). We
pay attention to how a Peruvian individual like Julio, while not finding his national

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identity particularly meaningful, still thinks of himself as part of Peru and orientates
himself towards it from within the various foreign contexts in which he has lived in
different times of his life.
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In the last two decades Spain has become Peruvian migrants’ primary European
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destination. Consequently, this country offered Julio multiple opportunities to
remain in close contact with his place of origin and with others of his nationality if he
so wished. However, the Peruvians who have been arriving in Spain since the 1990s
have mostly done so in connection to the demand for low-paid unskilled workers
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in labour-intensive sectors of the Spanish economy. Thus, this migrant group, along
with many other South American migrant groups, has been – and to some extent
continues to be – perceived in terms of class. Peruvian (and South American)
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migrants in Spain, therefore, have been subject to social-class stereotyping, and

at times (racial) prejudices and marginalisation, among other social issues. Thus,
for Julio, ‘Peruvianness’ within Spanish society became bound to class distinction,
driving his decision to exclude himself from it. Contrary to Spain, South Africa, and
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Bloemfontein in particular, is an uncommon destination for Peruvian migration.

While this new context has consequently offered Julio less ‘reinforcement’ to ‘think’,
‘speak’, or ‘do’ anything in relation to Peru, within it the category ‘Peruvian’ has so
far not been subject to negative stereotyping, marginalisation or related issues on the
basis of national origin. Instead, ‘Peruvianness’ within South African society became
for Julio bound to a scale of authenticity. Having less contact with anything related
to his country of origin than he had in Spain, even if he no longer felt the need to
exclude himself from his national category, contributed to his self-perception as
missing or having lost the proper markers of being Peruvian, thus becoming in his
own view an ‘unauthentic’ Peruvian.
What Julio’s story reveals, and as we also argue in this chapter, even in a situation
of self-exclusion or distancing from one’s national community or identity during
migration, supported by the fact that national identity may not be meaningful in

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one’s life, individuals like Julio can still enter, in anonymity, a space of simultaneity,
synchrony and unisonality with members of their national community the world
over. We use Anderson’s (1991) understanding of simultaneity as part of his theory
of nationalism in order to shed light on how different means of mass communication
allow Julio to live in parallel with and in relation to other Peruvians around the
world, while thinking of himself as part of the same community. Likewise, we engage
Billig’s (1995) concept of banal nationalism to understand how such a connection
with community is constituted by ideological habits consciously and unconsciously
acquired throughout one’s life.

‘The story of someone’s life’

Peacock and Holland (1993: 368) describe life story as ‘simply the story of someone’s
life’, and differentiate it from life history in that life story ‘does not connote that the

s
narration is true, that the events narrated necessarily happened, or that it matters
whether they did or not’. Drawing upon this idea, Paerregaard (2008b: 28–29)

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engages with the life stories of Peruvian migrants, with an emphasis on how they
construct their lives, where they are heading to, and what their attempts ‘to create
new lives and livelihoods’ are. By telling their stories, he continues, the narrators
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could be aiming to present their ‘past as a coherent life trajectory and to relate
this reconstruction to present and future prospects’ (Paerregaard 2008b: 28–29).
This chapter applies this trajectory approach to Julio’s life story. Furthermore,
inspired by works such as those of Berg (2015) and Paerregaard (2014b), which
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provide a broader picture of Peruvian migration by considering the voice of the

migrants’ families, friends, acquaintances and social environments, this chapter also
acknowledges the voice of Julio’s wife, Alba, who is a Spanish national. Alba’s voice
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has been relevant in bringing our attention to aspects of Julio’s story we would have
otherwise overlooked during the co-construction of his story. She has broadened
the picture of how her husband understands his national identity, in the absence of
the appropriate context and incentives, and how such an understanding has changed
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according to the different contexts he has been exposed to in the time before
they met Luis.
The first interviews took place between October and December 2018 in Julio’s
university campus office. The idea was to record conversations where he and Alba
could tell their stories extensively, openly and flexibly, with the occasional support
of a set of open-ended questions. However, constant interaction between all three
participating parties, beyond the scheduled sessions and the campus office, proved
to be a great complement to these interviews. The more intimate space of the home,
or the multiple activities and interests that they shared, such as listening to music,
cooking or watching football, allowed them to feel freer to tell stories; express
and describe emotions; and speak in ways that were not structured, normative or
standardised. This also allowed for the sharing of stories in visual and other formats,
such as music, photography and cooking. A few months after the first session, the

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couple highlighted the need, value and importance of telling stories and being
listened to. From a capability perspective, this possibility could be understood as
‘narrative capability’ or ‘the real opportunities individuals have to tell their stories’
(Watts 2008: 99–112).
After the first three months of interview sessions, Julio and Alba joined as co-authors.
They were interested in exploring the expanded possibilities that the collective act of
telling, writing, listening to, reading and analysing one’s own story can bring. Ever
since, they have also been engaged in data collection through interviews, written
questionnaires and ethnographic observations, and the analysis and editing of the work
in progress. This participatory exercise has allowed for the expansion of perspectives
on different aspects of Julio’s story. Likewise, it has allowed the co-authors to experience
change. Not only have Julio and Alba, both natural scientists, engaged with topics
traditionally studied as part of the social sciences and humanities, but Julio has also
mentioned that he has learned how national identity functions in different contexts.

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During a presentation of the work in progress in May 2019, which was almost entirely
attended by researchers in higher education and human development who were largely

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engaged with the capability approach, Julio expressed how much he valued being able
to address a new and different audience and how gaining some understanding of the
topic of national identity has brought some ‘peace’ to him. This allows us to think of
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the research space created by the three co-authors also as one where Julio has found
a third way of understanding his national identity and himself, much beyond the
territorial spaces provided by Spain and South Africa during migration.
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National identity and ‘fresh contact’

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People of the same nationality do not think in the same manner, are not uniformly
brought together by their nationality, do not share the characteristics considered
‘national’ in the same way, and are not equally influenced by the process of acquiring
a national habitus (De Cillia et al. 1999; Evans 2019; Rosenberg & Beattie 2019; see
also Bourdieu 1977; Le Hir 2014). National identity is a ‘fluid and dynamic process
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of negotiation and renegotiation’ (Evans 2019: 174), one that individuals work
towards ‘achieving’ (Bond 2006), something that they ‘do’ rather than inherently
‘have’ (Jenkins 2011: 12). As such, nationhood is not only constructed ‘from above’
(for example, state discourses) but also ‘from below’ (for example, diasporic ties)
(Hobsbawm 1990: 10–11), and involves the participation of individuals and groups
living within their national territory and abroad. To be able to understand how an
individual like Julio thinks of himself as part of Peru and sees himself in relation to
his country of origin according to the contexts where he has lived in different times
of his life, we need to first ‘observe’ him and ‘ask’ him about it (Becker 1996).
Social identity exists when its bearers classify themselves as distinct from others and
are recognised as being distinct by significant others (Vasilev 2019: 513–514; see also
Jenkins 2000). Back in Peru, Julio was perceived in terms of his belonging to a particular

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social class, or his personality, for example. He remembers, and Alba highlights, that
he was engaged in activities unpopular among the children in the neighbourhood,
such as staying home and studying, or participating in artistic and social outreach
activities with friends from a youth-driven organisation. However, he cannot recall
ever being classified in terms of his nationality in his natal Chiclayo.5 This was not
the case when Julio moved abroad. In his ‘fresh contact’ (Mannheim 1952) with Spain
and later with South Africa, Julio’s national identity was subject to what a significant
part of these receiving societies ascribed to it, whether he wanted and agreed with it or
not (see Brubaker 2013; Patten 2011). His national identity was also subject to how he
thought of himself as Peruvian within these new contexts at particular times of his life.
According to Mannheim (1952), ‘fresh contact’ is based on a shift on social relations
experienced by a new generation in a context of transformation, such as that of war
or migration, for example. A generation is understood here as ‘a socially constituted
set of people belonging to roughly the same cohort and residing typically within a

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defined geographical area’ (Dyson 2019: 314). As Dyson (2019: 314–315) discusses,
this kind of change reflects a new generation’s relative distance from their inherited

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social and environmental surroundings, prompting their re-examination of ‘their
collective position with respect to historical circumstances in order to develop a set of
shared understandings’. In the ‘fresh contact’ experienced in the context of migration,
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the pre-migration and post-migration experiences stand out, respectively, as moments
of ‘death’ and ‘rebirth’ for the migrant (Paerregaard 2014a: 2133).
Julio’s decision to move to Spain in 2007, like that of many Peruvian migrants
(Paerregaard 2007, 2008b, 2014a), was largely based on the linguistic and cultural
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proximity that the European country has with Peru. By 2000, Peruvians were the
second largest immigrant group in Spain, a group mostly made up of women
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(Escrivá 1997: 54, 2000: 207). Currently, more than 440 000 of the more than three
million Peruvians abroad (INEI et al. 2018: 22, 36–38) live in Spain, out of a total
population of over 31 million (INEI 2018: 13). This country and its capital Madrid
are respectively the European state and city with the highest number of Peruvians
(INEI et al. 2018: 36–38; Tornos et al. 1997: 41). This accounts for the abundance
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of Peru-related actors (for example, associations), symbols (for example, products),

practices (for example, gastronomic festivals) and occurrences (for example, visits of
Peruvian celebrities), among others. Resources for Julio to maintain a close contact
with Peru and other Peruvians were, thus, available. However, it was not in his
interest to make use of them, because neither maintaining relations with Peru and
other Peruvians, nor identifying himself with this migrant group was particularly
meaningful for him.
Alba has emphasised that Julio specifically chose not to ‘spend time with’ members
of a Peruvian migrant-led institution in the city they lived in. Julio suggested that
this might have been due to the ‘realities’, ‘upbringing’, interests (‘we were not finding
anything in common’) and collective behaviour (‘it was not a question of social class,
but of behaviour’) that differentiated them. Paerregaard’s (2014a) use of ‘generational

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units’ and ‘cohorts’ in his study of Peruvian migration could provide some insight
on this matter. ‘Generational units’ grow out of a shared experience of establishing
‘fresh contact’ with both the sending and receiving societies and of using the former
to establish the latter (Paerregaard 2014a). ‘Cohorts’ constitute the aggregate of
individuals, due to the fact that they occupy the same position in the world, ‘whether
as political refugees, undocumented immigrants or low-paid unskilled workers in
the sending society, or as members of the same social class or ethnic group in the
receiving society’ (Paerregaard 2014a: 2134).
Although Peruvian migration is characterised as being ‘extremely heterogeneous’ in
terms of ‘class, ethnicity, education, gender, and age’, besides also being geographically
‘dispersed’ (Paerregaard 2008b: 8–9, 2014a: 2134, 2014b; Takenaka et al. 2010), it ‘is to
a large extent a middle-class project’ (Paerregaard 2014b: 50–51). When leaving Peru
in 2007, Julio was not only part of one of the three highest-earning income groups, to
which more than half of Peru’s emigrants officially belonged, but statistically speaking

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he fitted the profile of the majority of Peruvian emigrants in their pre-migration
phase: he was between 25 and 34 (24.5 per cent), a student (21.9 per cent), single

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(65.2 per cent), and from an urban area (92 per cent) of the coast (67.8 per cent) (INEI
and OIM 2010: 49–50; Paerregaard 2014b: 50–51; INEI et al. 2018: 30–44). Besides
that, 2007 was the year when the percentage of male migrants (51.9) in relation to
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that of female migrants (48.1) peaked (INEI et al. 2018: 30). Additionally, Spanish is
Julio’s first language.6 In his post-migration experience, however, Julio shared less in
common with other Peruvians.
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Since the 1990s, Peruvians arrived in Spain mostly due to the relaxation of migration
policies to meet the demands of the domestic service, manufacturing, agricultural
and construction sectors (Berg 2010: 125; Berg & Paerregaard 2005: 15; Escrivá
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2000: 133, 202; Paerregaard 2003; 2007; 2008b: 46–47, 63–64; 2014b: 182). Being a
numerically visible population of migrants, it was subject to the various discourses
surrounding migration in Spain, some of which included prejudices against Peruvian
immigrants that could also be found in other receiving societies (see Garcés 2014;
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Imilan 2015; Mora & Undurraga 2013; Paerregaard 2005, 2014a, 2014b; Tijoux 2011).
Although Julio was not free from the prejudices affecting Peruvians – ‘identification
by others is often based on stereotypes’ (Patten 2011: 745) – his belongingness to a
particular class group in his post-migration experience allowed him to avoid them,
at least to some extent. Alba recalled some Spanish people’s reactions when finding
out she was in a relationship with Julio:
The image that some of them had was ‘oh no; he is an immigrant without
qualifications who only wants to get married in order to get the visa’...
That is just the concept that people have of any immigrant who moves to
a better country in order to look for an opportunity...‘They are desperate,
and they are going to do anything, even if it is not ethical, in order to get
it’. However, once they get to know him [Julio], they realise that he does
not respond to the stereotype. (Emphasis added.)

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In Spain, Julio was in fact a grant-holding master’s and, later, doctoral student. After
graduation he became a contracted researcher. Throughout this time, his Peruvian,
Latin American and Spanish friends – or one could say ‘cohorts’ – were all university
graduates or well-reputed artists. His post-migration experience, thus, differed from
that of a significant number of Peruvian immigrants in Spain, in terms of level of
education and class. In his study of Welshness in a town in Wales with ‘relatively low
levels of Welsh identity’, Evans (2019: 176, 181–182) discusses that some of the locals
understand ‘proper Welshness’ as mainly ‘a set of embodied behaviours, synonymous
with working-class habitus’, ultimately infusing the nation ‘with the positive and negative
connotations of working classness’. Based on a similar understanding of national identity,
Peruvianness became for Julio bound to class distinction within Spanish society.
Hence, acquiring more visibility as ‘Peruvian’ in a context where he may be subject to
marginalisation and other issues was something from which Julio preferred to exclude
himself. In this process, however, Julio did not seek to create or make use of formally

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established diasporic ties.7 According to Bond (2006), national identity construction
can also involve ‘self-exclusion’. While it may seem that Julio’s intention was to position

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himself as a different kind of Peruvian through self-exclusion, he was, instead, acting
in response to a context that provided him with the ‘appropriate social reinforcement’
(Rosenberg & Beattie 2019: 364–365) to think about his national identity.
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According to Edensor (2002), some places are perceived as being ‘more national’
than others. This idea is normally applied in comparing regions within a national
territory, when considering the different ways and degrees in which nation-building
discourses are present, for example, through the educational system or the media.
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These discourses are also present in migrant communities abroad, coming both
‘from above’, such as through state discourses and policies addressing Peruvians
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abroad (see Berg 2010; Berg & Tamagno 2006; Imilan 2015), and ‘from below’, such
as through Peruvian migrant-organised activities (see Waiting for Miracles, directed
by UD Berg in 2003;8 also Paerregaard 2005, 2007, 2008b, 2014a, 2014b). This
means that the presence of these nation-building discourses can, to some extent,
also depend on the diplomatic ties that the receiving society has with Peru and
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the number of Peruvian migrants already present in that society. If we translated

this onto the map of Peruvian migration, South Africa could figure as being ‘less
national’ for Peruvians than countries where larger numbers of Peruvian migrants
live, such as the United States (30.9 per cent), Argentina (14.5 per cent) or Spain
(14.3 per cent) (INEI et al. 2018: 36–38). By the same token, Bloemfontein would
figure similarly in front of cities like Buenos Aires (10.7 per cent), Santiago de Chile
(9.2 per cent), or Madrid (6.8 per cent) (INEI et al. 2018: 38–39). In fact, Peruvian
migration is rather uncommon in the whole of Africa:9 Oceania and Africa host 0.58
per cent and 0.04 per cent of the Peruvian population living abroad, respectively. In
comparison, America10 hosts 66.4 per cent, Europe hosts 8.8 per cent, and Asia hosts
4.16 per cent (INEI et al. 2018: 22, 36–37). In other words, 15 times more Peruvians
reside in the Japanese prefecture of Aichi than in the whole of Africa (INEI et al.
2018: 38–39). In Alba’s words: ‘We are more connected to Spain than to Peru. And, I

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think, we are less connected to Peru here than when we lived in Spain. At least [then]
it was cheaper and easier to travel to Peru’.
As suggested in conversations held in 2018 with representatives of the embassy of
Peru in South Africa and a Johannesburg-based administrator of social media groups
where Peruvians and Latin Americans in South Africa and Africa in general interact,
Bloemfontein has not hosted Peru-related events partly because it is believed that
the number of migrants is too limited. Those in the conversations were also unable
to recall an activity organised by Peruvian migrants in that city. In the larger cities
of Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria, however, the Peruvian embassy
and a few Peruvian social media groups, businesses (such as catering, hospitality,
entertainment and sport), practitioners (such as architects, researchers, physicians,
coaches and artists), as well as some local people and institutions have certainly
sought to foster relations between Peru and South Africa. Julio admitted to having
been invited to participate in events organised by the Peruvian consulate in Pretoria,

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but having ignored such invitations:

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The consulate always sends e-mails and I never reply to them. They
organise meetings because there is a slightly bigger Peruvian community
in Pretoria. They make Peruvian food and film festivals. It is something
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that I would be interested in doing, but it is too far away from
Bloemfontein. (Emphasis added.)
Taking into consideration the presumed absence or limited presence of Peru-related
actors, symbols, practices and occurrences in Bloemfontein, Julio’s ‘fresh contact’
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with South Africa was certainly different from the one he had had with Spain.
Unlike in his previous experience, in South Africa Julio arrived in a context where
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Peruvian migration was not numerically visible, and also where Peruvians were
not stereotyped or marginalised as a result of their nationality. He was no longer
associated with common prejudices against Peruvians and other aspects, which had
been his post-migration experience in Spain. Additionally, the words ‘foreigner’ or
‘foreign national’ were not applicable to his case in the same way they had been to
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some groups of migrants targeted and victimised by xenophobic violence in the

largest South African cities since 2008.11 In Alba’s words:
The [academic] level of the Peruvians who live in Africa is much higher...
People do not go to a country that is doing worse than theirs and become
an immigrant in order to grow. No. Who are those who come here, then?
Those who find a good job and who have a CV that supports them, as
is your [Luis’] case, as is his [Julio’s] case...There are too many people
starving here, more than in your own country...When he [Julio] says ‘I
come from Peru’, they reply ‘ah’; and the conversation stops right there...
The good side [of this] is that they [the local people] don’t have prejudices
about Peruvians...everybody knows Machu Picchu, but most people do
not know what Peru is.

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It is arguable how much Bloemfontein residents know about Peru and what
they think about the people coming from that country. What we can draw from
Julio’s experience is that, since his move to South Africa, ‘white’, ‘European’, or a
combination of these and related categories have been more commonly used to
refer to him than ‘Peruvian’.12 Together with his position as scientist and other
economic, cultural and social capitals, or the symbolic capital resulting from the
perception and recognition of these capitals as legitimate (Bourdieu 1986, 1989),
these categories have supported the contextualised perception that people have of
Julio as a privileged foreigner. Speaking in terms of ‘fresh contact’, Julio has become
part of a ‘cohort’ of individuals occupying a particular social class, one mostly made
of local and foreign academics or individuals in professions rendered as privileged;
Julio’s foreign friends and colleagues are often Spanish speakers from different
parts of Europe and Latin America. This leads us to think about ‘generational units’
(Paerregaard 2014a). Those foreigners who, like Julio, arrived in South Africa to hold

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academic or other similar positions, often perceived as privileged, share with him a
similar experience of establishing ‘fresh contact’ with the receiving society. While

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they do not all necessarily come from the same country or region, or have officially
formed formal institutions among themselves in the way Peruvians in other parts of
the world have, as in the case of the ‘diasporic ties’ studied by Paerregaard (2008b,
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2014a), they generally have access to professional networks that support them and
others like them in their post-migration experience. For example, Julio has recently
started to discuss with friends and colleagues from when he was a student in Peru
and Spain, and whose academic background is similar to his, about potentially
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joining him in South Africa for collaborative work.

In this context, Julio’s understanding of his national identity has changed. For him,
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Peruvianness is no longer bound to class distinction as it was during his time in

Spain. He has not had to worry about being visible as a ‘Peruvian’ because in South
Africa it has not led to him being marginalised. He has also not had much of the
‘appropriate social reinforcement’ (Rosenberg & Beattie 2019: 364–365) to think
or speak about, or to do something related to Peru or Peruvianness. Nor has this
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become less or more important to him than it was before. In fact, since Julio moved
to Bloemfontein he has become increasingly ‘indifferent’ to nationhood (Fenton
2007), and has started understanding his national identity not as sewn into class
distinction but rather as on a scale of authenticity (Evans 2019). During one of our
first sessions for the purpose of this chapter, Julio stated that the last ‘truly Peruvian’
thing that he had left was his passport, following this up with ‘I feel as if I’m losing
everything...my identity’. He even gave this as an explanation for his previous refusal
to apply for Spanish citizenship, held by both his wife and his daughter. To this Alba
added that since she met Julio in 2008, among other things, his accent, vocabulary
and expressions have changed considerably, and currently more resemble those
associated with Spanish than with Peruvian nationals. In this way, lacking the proper
context or ‘reinforcement’ to reproduce or contest his nationhood, being indifferent
to it, and, from his own perspective, lacking the proper markers of authenticity, Julio

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has distanced himself from Peruvianness and has instead chosen to be associated
with a more cosmopolitan identity.
As previously discussed, according to Rosenberg and Beattie’s (2019: 364–365, 368)
cognitive structuring of national identity, Julio can be described as a ‘sequential
thinker’ – someone for whom ‘self-identification’ or ‘social identity’ are relatively
insignificant or inconstant, and for whom national identity is thus not ‘personally
meaningful or salient’ unless provided with the ‘appropriate social reinforcement’ or
context. According to this understanding, Julio fits the profile of an individual who
is focused on current and immediate experiences, ‘the here and now’ of a sequence of
events, and hence as someone who does not think of himself as part of a category with
characteristic features but rather in terms of his role within these events (Rosenberg
& Beattie 2019: 363, 365). For example, at one time Julio may show concern about
‘losing’ his Peruvian identity, suggesting that he considers it important, but at a
different time he may say that it is not something relevant to him, choosing instead

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to identify himself first as a cosmopolitan individual. This aspect has become more
salient as Julio’s engagement with storytelling has increasingly urged him to think

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and speak about Peru-related topics, as well as to engage in activities that make
constant reference to them, turning his participation in this chapter into a pivotal
moment in his understanding of his own national identity.
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National identity, simultaneity and ideological habits
While Bloemfontein does not provide Julio with the proper context in order to stay
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connected with Peru and other Peruvians, as Spain used to do, and Peruvianness is not
particularly meaningful to him, we argue that when given the proper ‘reinforcement’,
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an individual like him can still anonymously enter a space of simultaneity, synchrony
or unisonality with his national community. Anderson’s (1991) understanding of the
concept of ‘homogeneous, empty time’ sheds some light on how this process takes
place. Drawing on Benjamin (1999), Anderson (1991: 24) explains homogeneous,
empty time as the simultaneity that is ‘transverse, cross-time’, marked by ‘temporal
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coincidence’, and ‘measured by clock and calendar’. In his theory of nationalism,

Anderson (1991: 43, 188) claims that in the time period 1500–1800, print-capitalism,
or ‘the interaction between a system of production and productive relations
(capitalism), a technology of communications (print), and the fatality of human
linguistic diversity’, made it possible for substantial groups of people to think of
themselves as living in parallel to other substantial groups of people, and so they were
able to relate to each other in new ways. Although the members of such a substantial
group of people would never meet, he claims, they were now aware that they were
simultaneously ‘proceeding along the same trajectory’ (Anderson 1991: 188).
The novel and the newspaper were, in Anderson’s (1991: 204) view, the first
instruments set in homogenous, empty time as they presented a historical frame
measured by clocks and calendars, and particular sociological settings. From this

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perspective, both the novel and the newspaper played an important role in the
demarcation of ‘the rising national boundaries’ (Sand 2009: 36). The idea of the
novel being set in homogeneous, empty time could be illustrated in the way its
characters, even when unaware of each other, are still embedded in a particular
sociological setting that relates them to one another. At the same time, these
characters are embedded in the minds of the ‘omniscient’ (Anderson 1991), or
‘omnipresent’ (Howells & Negreiros 2012: 209) – readers who are able to observe
their simultaneous acts within a particular ‘socioscape described in careful, general
detail’ (Anderson 1991: 32, emphasis in original), and which they may or may not
recognise as theirs. Latin American novels such as Payno’s (1888/2003) Los Bandidos
de Río Frío, García Márquez’s (1967/2010) Cien Años de Soledad, or Vargas Llosa’s
(1969/2006) Conversación en la Catedral illustrate this idea well. They involve a great
variety of characters that may not know about each other but are still connected
and Mexican, Colombian and Peruvian readers, respectively, can relate to them and

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the historical and sociological spaces within which the authors have situated them,
whether it be in a land with yet undefined borders (early 19th-century Mexico), a

years (1950s Lima).

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fictional town (Macondo), or a city that has changed considerably in more than 60

As for the newspaper, according to Anderson (1991: 35), the date at the top of the
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page provides the connection within a particular national community, provoking
a sort of daily ‘mass ceremony’ as large numbers of people read it simultaneously
throughout that particular day. Anderson (1991: 62) highlights the role that
newspapers have played in the development of national consciousness among the
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members of the creole states of the American continent before their respective
independences. Anderson indicates that the newspapers in Spanish America were
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characterised by their provinciality, as Americans were aware that if they read

each other’s newspapers they were reading about worlds similar to their own, but
which were not their own, per se. ‘Mexican creoles might learn months later of
developments in Buenos Aires, but it would be through Mexican newspapers, not
those of the Rio de la Plata; and the events would appear as “similar to” rather than
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“part of ” events in Mexico’ (Anderson 1991: 63).

Anderson (1991: 36) refers to this community in anonymity as ‘the hallmark of
modern nations’. The coming of the radio would make this simultaneity even more
pronounced (Soffer 2013: 52); it would make communication more accessible
(Douglas 2004). Later, television (Mihelj 2011; Soffer 2013), films and other
technologies (for the internet, see Soffer 2013) would play a similar role. Susan
Sontag, one of the discussants in an episode of Voices,13 discusses how writing
stories and making films allow us to tell ‘several stories at the same time’ by means of
cross-cutting, or ‘parallel editing’ (Howells & Negreiros 2012: 219). The last scene of
Eastwood’s Invictus,14 where various groups of South Africans are shown supporting
their national rugby team play New Zealand in a Rugby World Cup final, illustrates
this point well. A ‘time-bomb effect’ is introduced in the last minutes of the match,

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where takes of a clock slowly counting down the time to the end of the match
alternate with those of rugby players in action and people watching or listening to
the game at the stadium, at home, at a bar, or on the street, resulting in a padding
out of real time into reel time (Howells & Negreiros 2012: 220). This scene does not
only illustrate Sontag’s point, but also Anderson’s understanding of simultaneity
as it projects the image of a national communion, or mass ceremony occurring in
anonymity and facilitated by modern tools.
The idea of substantial groups of people simultaneously and anonymously ‘proceeding
along the same trajectory’ (Anderson 1991: 188) supported by means of mass
communication has also been suggested in more recent works. Mihelj (2011) and
Postill (2011) speak about the importance of simultaneous or synchronised exposure
to the media in the framing of the national time and calendar. More recent works
on nationalism, such as that of Billig (1995) have gone beyond Anderson’s focus on
the crucial role that the ritual of shared consumption of mass media plays in the

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demarcation of national boundaries, to pay more attention to the importance of the
ideological discourse conveyed in this process (see Soffer 2013: 51). By speaking of

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‘banal nationalism’, Billig relates to the way nations reproduce or construct themselves
by means of ‘ideological habits’ promoted and reinforced by everyday discourses, such
as the one conveyed, for instance, in traditional media. The members of a nation, he
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says, do not need to engage in emblematic or official demonstrations of loyalty to
reproduce or construct their nation, as even ‘the flag hanging unnoticed on the public
building’ (Billig 1995: 6–8) functions as an ideological symbol of nationhood in their
daily lives. This places emphasis on the anonymous participation of national subjects,
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because even those who do not consider themselves nationalist, or for whom national
identity is not particularly meaningful, like Julio, are still conscious of their belonging
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to a nation. This is also because, according to Billig, ‘little’ words are important. They
make national identity memorable through the inclusion of these individuals in the
words ‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘ours’, as opposed to ‘they’, ‘them’ or ‘theirs’.
How Peruvians around the world engage in the simultaneous consumption of mass
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media as well as in day-to-day ideological habits, prompting the demarcation of their

national boundaries, and the reproduction and construction of their nation, has been
illustrated in the literature on Peruvian migration. Berg and Tamagno (2006) show how
Peruvian migrants often ‘invent new forms of belonging’ that challenge state discourses:
‘Migrants continuously revalue “Peruvian culture” and claim “Peruvian identity”
through a variety of cultural practices, including the commemoration of Peruvian
national holidays, consumption of Peruvian food, and circulation and consumption
of Peruvian religious objects and popular culture items’ (Berg & Tamagno 2006: 277).
Altamirano (2000), Paerregaard (2008a, 2008b) and Ruiz-Baia (1999), among others,
recognise the yearly procession honouring the Peruvian Catholic saint Señor de
los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) as one of the most (if not the most) emblematic
displays of Peruvian identity abroad. Similarly, practices around football (Escobedo
& Agbedahin 2019; Paerregaard 2005: 242; 2008b: 19, 118–129; 2014a: 2139;

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2014b: 129–130, 141, 189–190) and more recently, Peruvian gastronomy (Bohardt
2014; Imilan 2015; Paerregaard 2008b: 145; and a documentary15 directed by Cabellos
in 2009) have become crucial elements in Peruvian migrants’ self-representation,
recognition and linking with their communities of origin. Besides these contributions,
the simultaneous practices and ideological habits of Peruvians spread around the
world are also exposed in journalistic works such as those of Mosca (2009) and Pazos
(2015); memoirs like that of Ortiz (2013); and even novels and other literary pieces
like Vargas Llosa’s Travesuras de la Niña Mala (2006). All of this diverse literature is,
however, based to a considerably large extent in countries (for example, United States,
Argentina) and cities (for example, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile) that are home
to the most numerous communities of Peruvian migrants, hence the stories of those
living in unpopular destinations such as South Africa, and Bloemfontein in particular,
have been largely omitted.16 The present chapter, which is based on Julio’s life story,
also aims to provide an ethnographic contribution to this literature.

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Meanwhile, in Bloemfontein

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‘Finally, people who like football. I am up for [the match] Peru versus Argentina.
Also, for playing [football]’, read the first message written by Julio to Luis back in
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September 2017. A few days later they were preparing to watch Peru play Colombia
on the last match day of the South American qualifiers for the Russia 2018 FIFA
(Men’s) World Cup. On that day, both Julio and Luis wore red and white jersey in
simultaneity with masses of Peruvians worldwide, as several texts, photographs,
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videos, notifications and other pieces of information that had been drifting across
social media networks, messaging services, online radio and other media since early
morning could confirm. Just as he would feel compelled to do a year and a half later
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as a consequence of the death of the former President of Peru Alan García, Julio felt
the need to stop what he was doing, as a result of being overwhelmed by a mix of
emotions. This time, however, he was also concerned about being able to purchase
access to live streaming on cable TV in time to watch the match. What began with
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a message in relation to football suddenly also included food. Later that day, the
Peruvians discussed over the phone the different ingredients that each one of them
had in their respective kitchens, to determine what Peruvian dish was doable for
dinner. They agreed that lomo saltado (Chinese-Peruvian stir fried strips of beef
steak, red onions, tomatoes and French fries, typically served with rice) would be
cooked and enjoyed collectively in the company of Julio’s wife and daughter, long
before the start of the match at 01.30 South African Standard Time (UTC+02:00).
Finally, once the match started, Julio sang the anthem, and when Guerrero scored a
goal, he screamed in unison with thousands, or millions, of Peruvians, and shared
with them a collective feeling of joy for his team being one step closer to qualifying
for the World Cup.
Although that evening the lomo was made of ingredients found locally, a little more
than a year later, the lomo, the ají de gallina (Peruvian spicy creamy chicken) –

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Julio’s favourite dish – and even the arroz chaufa (Chinese-Peruvian fried rice) – the
Peruvian dish which both Julio’s and Luis’s families most often cook at home – were
all being made with ají amarillo (yellow chilli pepper). The ají had left Trujillo, Peru,
together with canchita serrana (corn nuts), tamales (corn-based dough filled with
chicken or pork, eggs, olives and chilli pepper, and wrapped in banana leaves), and
chifles (plantain chips), in the suitcase of one of Luis’s relatives in December 2018.
After stopovers in the capitals of Peru, Costa Rica and Romania for a few days each,
the ají reached Julio’s cupboard in Bloemfontein in January 2019. This was probably
the first individual attempt, and so far the only one we know about, to activate a
Peruvian transnational activity from Bloemfontein.17 However, the day of the Peru-
Colombia match was certainly not the first or only time when Julio used various
communication technologies to connect with his national community. Neither was
this the first or only time when he engaged in the reproduction of ideological habits
learned in Peruvian dining and living rooms back in his natal Chiclayo.

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Imilan (2015) indicates that discourses, strategies and campaigns around Peruvian
gastronomy, originally in the hands of the state and the elites, were important in

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reaching out to Peru’s dispersed migrant population through various means of mass
communication (such as documentaries and social media networks), allowing it to
assume this project as its own and in its own way. He describes how this is reflected
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in a gastronomic festival organised by Peruvian migrants in Chile’s capital Santiago:
The migrant population adopts sophisticated aesthetics to present their
stands and dishes. They serve, wear uniforms and explain the dishes as
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if they were professionals from high-end restaurants. These aesthetics

and manners comply with a high global culinary standard, such as the
one constructed by the official Peruvian discourse...Nevertheless, they
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make themselves part of this imaginary of the Peruvian gastronomic

world. What the participants do is appropriate the globalized semantics
of Peruvian cuisine. In these terms, the makers of these celebrations
articulate a sort of popular globalization. (Imilan 2015: 238)
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When Julio first arrived in Spain, he did not know how to cook at all. In fact, he
first learned how to cook Spanish dishes before attempting to cook Peruvian ones.
Currently, not only does Julio know how to cook several Peruvian dishes, but he also
finds in this practice a peculiar relation to his national identity. In Alba’s observation:
I think that cooking or eating that food [Peruvian dishes] is something
very Peruvian. It is something that takes effort to make, even if you
[anybody] can make it. It is something that only Peruvians know how
to make, even if you can teach it to other people. I think it is something
patriotic. A very important part of Peruvian identity is its cuisine.
In fact, Julio’s peculiar relation to Peruvianness through gastronomy is not merely
limited to cooking. Much like Imilan’s (2015) observations of amateur Peruvian
cooks at food festivals in Santiago demonstrate, Julio is careful about the ingredients,

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the preparation, the aesthetics, the stories behind the dishes, and the reproduction
of the context of a Peruvian kitchen. In the presence of guests, he invites them into
the kitchen; asks them to help him cook and serve; and explains the preparation, the
ingredients, the Spanish and South African influences, the personal contribution
and touch that he gives to his dishes, the limitations, and the ideal side dishes to
accompany them. In his words, ‘You don’t find all the ingredients of Peruvian cuisine
[in Bloemfontein], but you manage’. The word he used for ‘manage’ was ingenias, a
word derived from ingenio, Spanish for ingenuity or inventiveness, that speaks to the
way in which Julio articulates meaning, revalues Peruvian identity and contributes
to the construction of nationhood ‘from below’. In one of the last interviews for the
purposes of this chapter, Alba asked Julio what, in his view, united Peruvians besides
the way they relate to their gastronomy, to which he decidedly answered ‘football’.

Conclusion

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The experience of migration involves a sudden shift of social relations that places

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the identity of the migrant amid the tension between the structure of the receiving
society and their own agency within it. In this chapter we have paid attention to how
a specific individual’s understanding of national identity can change, function and
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influence the way he orientates himself towards his nation, when the individual is
confronted by diverse foreign contexts at different times of his life. As we have seen
in Julio’s story, an immigrant’s understanding of national identity can vary through
time, even when belonging to a particular national identity may not be meaningful to
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them. While a context familiar to Peru and Peruvians, like Spain, offers the resources
for an immigrant like Julio to remain in close contact with their nation and their
co-nationals, the implications of Peruvian migration being largely associated with
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low-paid unskilled employment such as marginalisation, made Peruvianness (from

Julio’s perspective) become bound to class distinction. Even if Peruvianness was not
particularly meaningful to him, he did not respond with indifference but mobilised
resources, including privilege, to exclude himself from this established identity.
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However, in a context unfamiliar with Peruvian migration, like South Africa,

where Peruvian actors, symbols, practices or occurrences are largely absent, as are
widespread stereotypes or prejudices about Peruvian migrants, Peruvianness (again
from Julio’s perspective) becomes sewn into a scale of authenticity. Being associated
with circles of privileged foreign professionals and identifying himself primarily as
cosmopolitan, or a less authentic Peruvian, led Julio to approach his national identity
with indifference. However, as we have also observed in Julio’s story, even in contexts
where the appropriate reinforcement for a migrant to ‘think’, ‘speak’ or ‘do’ anything
in relation to their nation is considerably less present, once incentives are presented,
even if briefly, they are still able to enter a space of simultaneity, synchrony or
unisonality with their national community by making use of modern means of
communication and as a result of ideological habitus. As the story shows, even in
a place like Bloemfontein, a Peruvian immigrant like Julio can experience a flow of

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emotions when hearing about an event that affects his nation, when his national
football team scores a goal in a relevant match, when receiving a few bags of ají from
a friend, or when asked about the importance of maintaining one’s Peruvianness in
an interview. Even in a place like this, he can cook, support his team, and live like
other Peruvians do in other parts of the world.
The focus on a single immigrant allows us to see beyond national categories and pay
attention to the individual behind them. We are able to observe that national identity
is not approached in the same way by all members of a particular national community,
but that this community’s universalisation and reduction into a single social category
is largely context dependent. We hope that through our analysis we encourage other
works not to disregard the stories of immigrants living, possibly on their own or among
only a few other co-nationals, in destinations around the world that are unpopular for
their national communities, but to engage with them critically and empathically, as
they can teach us not only about national identity or our place of origin, but also

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about ourselves. Likewise, we hope that our contribution helps to challenge the social
categorisation and reductionism affecting Peruvian or other immigrants, especially in

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societies where they constitute a more numerous and visible group, and particularly in
times when Peru itself is starting, once again, to become a receiving society.
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Endnotes
1 ‘Confirmado falleció Alan García’, in Spanish, read a message sent to a group of former
schoolmates on the cross-platform messaging mobile application WhatsApp to which the
first author of this chapter belongs. The message was sent by one of his former schoolmates
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before the public announcement of the actual death. Not long after that, some of his former
schoolmates left the group following a heated debate around the passing of the political figure.
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2 As we will explain below, Spain is a popular destination for Peruvian migration.

3 We are grateful to Jonatan Kurzwelly, co-editor of this book, for suggesting the use of the term
‘tension’ to refer to the type of relation between agency and structure.
4 The other two types of thinking to which Rosenberg and Beattie refer are linear and systematic.
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5 This case is specific to Julio and to the specific context that he navigated during his childhood
and adolescence. Some other Peruvians living in Peru, however, may in fact be perceived
and labelled by their co-nationals as more or less authentic than others, with the use of
denominations and expressions such as agringado, alienado, autóctono, criollo, del Perú
profundo, de pura cepa, lleva el pasaporte en la cara, etc. Some of these categories are meant
to be derogatory and may carry racist connotations. For reflections on the use of mostly
racial categories in Peru, see Bruce (2007), CVR (2003), De la Cadena (2012), Drinot (2014),
Escobedo (2013, 2015, 2016), Espinosa et al. (2007), Golash-Boza (2011) and Portocarrero
(2009, 2010), among others.
6 In most of Peru, and certainly in Chiclayo and the whole of the Pacific Coast, Spanish is
culturally ‘unmarked’, in Brubaker et al.’s (2006: 211–212) sense of the word, meaning that
Spanish is a reference language taken for granted in most regions of the country. As of 2007,
when Julio left the country, officially more than three million Peruvians spoke Quechua,
more than 400 000 Aymara, close to 68 000 Ashaninka and around 174 000 other native
languages (Ministerio de Cultura del Perú 2014: 19). Spanish enjoys the status of dominant

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public language. Relatedly, those who speak Spanish as a first language also enjoy a more
privileged position. Portocarrero’s view that Peru is still a ‘society where colonialism is very
internalised as a model, or ideal, which shames and corners all that is indigenous’(Portocarrero
2015: 20, our translation), suggests that to a certain degree the system where Peruvians
who speak different first languages co-exist continues to be ‘ranked’, in Horowitz’s (1985)
understanding of the word.
7 For the case of Peruvian migration, Paerregaard (2008b: 229, see also 2014a) describes diasporic
ties as ‘the networks that Peruvians form with their fellow countrymen in other countries and
cities, which they use to achieve social mobility in their new countries of residence and to
distinguish themselves as a national or ethnic group from other minorities in the receiving
society’.
8 Waiting for Miracles (2003) [documentary film] Directed by UD Berg. New York University,
New York City: Program in Culture and Media.
9 However, as a representative of the Embassy of Peru in South Africa mentioned during a
telephone conversation in 2018, the Peruvian mining community of Kitwe, Zambia, is not

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only the most numerous of Africa but it has also been rather actively engaged in the promotion
of Peru-related activities. In the 2016 series Peruanos en el Mundo, Roberto Pazos provides a

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more visual account of this community’s influential role in their receiving society (Peruanos
en Zambia: La Verdadera África!, viewed 26 August 2019, https://www.pazostv.com/2016/11/
peruanos-en-zambia-la-verdadera-africa.html).
10 In the Peruvian educational system ‘America’ is used to refer to the continent otherwise referred
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to as ‘the Americas’, or the conjunction of ‘North’ and ‘South America’, in other systems. In this
chapter we use the term ‘America’, grouping together ‘North’, ‘Central’, and ‘South America’,
and ‘the Caribbean’, according to the understanding most commonly used in Peru.
11 For contributions discussing and exposing how xenophobic attitudes and behaviours have
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affected primarily African migrants, especially those of particular nationalities, social classes,
ethnic groups, phenotypes and other identity markers, see Govinda et al. (2017), Landau and
Pampalone (2018), Matsinhe (2011) and Nyamnjoh (2006, 2010), among others.
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12 As some posters promoting hair salons or products in Bloemfontein often show, the word
‘Peruvian’, like ‘Brazilian’, is usually used to refer to a type of hair extension.
13 Voices: To Tell a Story (1983) Channel 4, [1983].
14 Invictus (2009) [motion picture] Directed by Clint Eastwood. Burbank, CA: Warner Bros.
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15 De Ollas y Sueños (2009) [documentary] Directed by E Cabellos. Lima: Guarango.

16 We must however highlight that journalist Roberto Pazos does engage with the stories of
Peruvians living in less popular destinations, including South Africa and other parts of Africa,
mostly on the different websites and social media that he runs under the title Peruanos en el
Mundo, or ‘Peruvians in the World’.
17 Paerregaard (2008b) discusses how these kinds of transnational activities are undertaken by
Peruvians in other parts of the world.

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