ABSTRACT

The traveler in Peru frequently has the impression that he is suspended between a summit and an abyss. A voyage into the history of the country produces the same sensation: Peru seems to be on the edge of a precipice, halfway between the heights and the depths. Peru is neither one of the smallest nor one of the largest of the twenty countries of Latin America. In Peru the common characteristics, problems, and hopes appear as if magnified, perhaps because everything there is looked at either from the topmost heights or from the lowest depths. The traveler must make up his mind to go through the museums and palaces-the former offices and residences of the colonial era. The essence of Latin America is brought into focus in Peru. Peru presents a typical case of the symbiosis of an internal oligarchy and foreign capital.