Indigenous Modernity?

In honor of Human Rights Week, the graphic design students organized a collection of pieces to display in the central courtyard of the university. Even though I still consider myself an outsider to contemporary Peruvian culture, the exhibit's theme was very clear to me; each piece addressed the simultaneous existence of traditional indigenous elements and modern urban society.

One of my favorite pieces was a poster-sized image of a laptop that lay on top of a brightly-colored patterned textile that is typical in Andean areas. The laptop's window was open to "Google," but all of the words were written in quechua. Another image, at first glance, looked like a traditional drawing from the ancient Moche culture that inhabited northern Peru between 100 and 800 AC. However, instead of a scene of ceremonial offerings for an ancient divinity, this drawing depicted a combi, or a small bus that serves as the main mode of transportation in Lima's busy metropolis.

Most of what I have read about Peru's social structure highlights the clash between indigenous and modern cultures-- inferring that the two cultures are constantly struggling to dominate the other. In contrast, the exhibit that my classmates constructed offered a refreshing view that explored the coexistence of cultures to form a new, unique indigenous-modern culture.