ABSTRACT

This chapter provides some reflections on the different views of the conquest as an event displayed by Peruvian migrants and artists in present-day Europe. It is based on a comparative inquiry into the ways in which aspects of the conquest and colonization of Peru are remembered and how they are represented and transmitted between different generations of migrants in Italy, Spain and Sweden. The memory of conquest among Peruvian communities in Europe sometimes takes the form of a performance of multi-cultural attachments, with local cosmographies and cultures (Coast, Sierra and Forest) helping to maintain the diversity of national cultures. First-generation migrants tend to recall the pre-colonial period, both Inka and pre-Inka, whereas members of the second generation tend to link their historical vision of Peru with the colonial period because they learn about this aspect of the conquest at school. A legacy that sustains cultural identity in opposition to the conquest is constituted by such ancient languages as Quechua and Aymara, as remembered by people living in Europe. Some lists of words appear to prompt a sense of isolation, but putting them together reveals the efforts made to keep alive this linguistic cultural heritage in the Peruvian diaspora.