Drinking in the campo

Yesterday a socio and I held the first of a series of workshops for the members of a taya (tree with gum-producing pods) growers' association. Using my Peace Corps-learned skills, I was of course in charge of the ice-breaker activities. During one such activity, each participant had to introduce themselves by sharing their name and one fact about themselves (e.g., "I like to travel," or "I live in the valley near the river"). The favorite response was "I like to work growing taya trees"... obvio.  After a few such repetitions, I had to prohibit any further discussion of taya, since everyone in the room could've made that claim to fame. But then came the morning's most original response: "my name is ___, and I like to drink" (audience laughs as this grinning campo man produces his personal bottle of cañazo (a traditional homemade alcoholic brew) from his pocket).

While this incident was somewhat amusing, for the pure gall and mischievousness of this particular participant, it also reflects one of the greatest problems in rural Peruvian society: socially acceptable alcoholism. Campo tradition has made it perfectly normal for a farm-laborer to drink his way through the workday. The logic stems from the idea that since working in the fields is so demanding, having a little buzz makes the days bearable. But unsurprisingly, what starts as a light buzz develops, for many, into daily drunkenness and eventually a near-inescapable life of alcoholism. Rooted in this and other social traditions involving alcohol, Peru's rural regions continue to struggle with the negative affects of such widespread dependency.