Danzas típicas

Sometimes it's hard to explain the U.S. to Peruvians. For example, one of my students asked me, "why don't you eat cuy there?" I thought about that for a few seconds, and the best answer I could come up with was: "I don't know... people have them as pets, and eating them just isn't something we do." Not particularly logical. But the hardest questions have to do with our cultural traditions: What are America's typical dishes? What are America's traditional dances and music?

When first asked these questions, usually by children, my automatic reaction was to say, "oh, of course!" and start naming off some favorite U.S. foods: hamburgers, pizza, sushi... oh wait, pizza is Italian and sushi's from Japan. Shoot. Ummm, hamburgers? Then you start thinking about typical dances and things get even worse: square-dancing? But only in the south. Foxtrot? I (and likely the majority of my generation) don't even know what that looks like. As for traditional music, we've got a rich musical history that gave birth to jazz, grunge, rap, and a host of other styles, as well as some folk tunes that we think of as classic American, but only the latter comes close to uniting the music tastes of the entire nation.

In contrast, any Peruvian six year-old can roll of a loooong list of platos típicos, and can also name and perform traditional dances (with accompanying musical and clothing styles) from all of Peru's major regions. While America is a country united by our diversity of immigrant backgrounds and by intangible concepts like liberty and justice for all, Peru's national identity stems from more tangible cultural traditions like food and music. While Americans are taught the preamble to the Constitution and the story of the founding fathers, Peruvian schoolchildren learn each region's native dance - and with this fiesta-happy country's many holidays, there are ample opportunities for performances!

Marinera from the northern coast

Kashua from the southern mountains

Wititi from Arequipa

Huayno from Cajamarca