Polish Influence In Peru

By Author: Gianni Truvianni
Total Articles: 32
Comment this article

As a photographer, there was always something I enjoyed about taking photographs on the street, and I speak not of only monuments or buildings which compose the landscape of a city but of what I would hail as the life of the city. By this it is the people and their activities of going about that I have in mind, for it is there that I see the spirit of the city I happen to be in at the time. This which I speak of is in people going to work, both men and women dressed in their business suits, some attractive while others interesting or the stores or even in the street vendors; always on the make in big cities where capital is everywhere.

It was all this and perhaps more that my camera and I had captured in some of South America's metropolises, such as Buenos Aires, Santiago and even Lima, when going about searching for what my imagination considered worthy of capturing on film. In the search for material to photograph I had also met the acquaintance of many a person, some of whom I went on to base characters for my stories on. In all these people however there was one, particular young lady by the name Marinha, who caught ...
... my attention as she saw me on a bus in Lima, Peru and told me I should not carry my camera around because it might get stolen. Her suggestion or word of advice even reminded me of what a policeman, had told me once in Amsterdam, that with the kind of camera I had on me I should take another street to get to the main train station then the one he had suggested. I do not really know what it was about this young woman, who granted was attractive or that moment but I got in to one of my many talkative moods that saw me explain that I had to carry a camera all the time because I was a photographer. It was not that I had not said this to others who had asked before but I remember carrying on with my explanation by telling her that I took photographs for a magazine in Poland.

Some had been surprised by what I had told them but none as much as I was the moment I heard Marinha ask me do you speak Polish? in Polish. This was almost incredible; for the chances of meeting a Polish speaking person in Peru were almost astronomical. After all, Peru was and probably still is; one of the countries in the world less visited or immigrated for that matter by Polish people and yet there I stood with a Peruvian woman who could speak Polish. True her Polish was not perfect and did have a foreigner's accent to it but she could speak.

Finding such a person in New York or even Buenos Aires would not have surprised me as Argentina has the biggest Polish population on the South American continent. I, naturally upon hearing her question, replied in Polish which started us on a conversation that included her telling me that her mother was Polish, while her mother Peruvian. I; for my part in this conversation informed her that I had no Polish roots in me what so ever but simply that I had gone to Poland and had studied the language, after which I managed to get connected to several Polish magazines, whom I still send some of my material, though mostly what I considered would be of interest to people in Poland.

Marinha told me, her family ran a day care center for children out of her house, where she worked as an instructor. I, Naturally always looking for what could be a chance to get a few interesting shots asked Marinha, if I could get some photos not only of her but of her school and the children in it. Marinha, I could tell at first had doubts but went along with my idea though she did ask me to call her up to make an appointment; so we could meet at her school on another occasion, given that on this one we were both pressed for time. Marinha's words however regarding my camera unfortunately for me would turn out to be prophetic, as it came to pass that I was robbed of my camera, literally at gun point; just a few months later and not as many as two kilometers from where she had given me this warning or advice.

After meeting Marinha, I started thinking how small the world really was and though I had met several Poles or Polish speaking people in Lima. This due to the fact that I had been to the Polish embassy, there was something so spontaneous about our first meeting, her coming out and asking me in Polish if I spoke this language. It was simply something which I would have never expected to hear on a bus on a bus in Lima.

As for the Polish embassy; it was there where I had met a few Polish people, though the reality that had been presented to me was that the Polonia (a Polish word for Poles living outside of Poland) in the whole of Peru, numbered somewhere between 20 to 30 people. I by then had even gotten to know many of these Polish people in Peru, though most were either woman; who were at least 20 years older then myself and married or men who worked at the embassy. Actually, most of these people I got to see once a month, as that is how often the Polish embassy held a reunion, mostly attended by Polish people living in Peru and their usually Peruvian relatives. It was in one of these monthly visits that I met a young secretary, whose boyfriend; just happened to be the Polish ambassador's son and one who discretion prevented me from telling that he would be wise to go on the wagon, as sober was never a state I saw him in.

These monthly meetings were for the most part used for speaking the Polish language and having coffee, cake and tea which sometimes came accompanied by a Polish film. I, even remember on one occasion taking an aunt of mine, living in Lima (Italian descent) to these meetings; who as expected charmed with her grace and elegance all those she came in to contact with. Polish culture or the presentation of which in Peru for the most part however was what these encounters were about and I do recall on one occasion hearing the Polish national anthem for the first time not including a televised football game.

In all this that concerns Polish influence in Peru, apart from Tyminski (presidential candidate of Poland in 1990) having a Peruvian wife, regarding which I heard an interesting though unconfirmed story of how he got her as a present from a shaman in the jungle, there was also the factor of two Polish priests who had made headlines on the day of my arrival in Lima. These for being killed by terrorists while working as missionaries in the mountain city of Ayacucho, which put some freight in to me, who had just arrived in Lima as to how the situation really was in the country. It was later that I even met a Peruvian girl, who did not speak any Polish, what so ever; who told me she not only had heard of these two priests who were killed in late August of 91 but had actually had contact with them. This girl whose name I have forgotten told me the two Polish priests were very nice and really cared to help people but it was this that led to their demise.

Actually the story, I later heard on the matter of these two Polish priests was that they along with an Italian priest were warned by the terrorists who killed them beforehand to leave behind not only their work but the city as well or face execution. This a warning they obviously did not heed, perhaps not believing it would come to pass or that there work in the town was of such consequence that it was worth risking their lives for but regardless of which these two Polish priest, who left a good account of themselves with those who knew them were tragically murdered.

As for Marinha and I, two weeks would go by between our first improvised encounter on the bus and the day of my visit to her children's day care center. It was something, I will never forget seeing Marinha, play with those children, some of whom I got photographs of while they ran around in a patio, or played at their desks or made use of scissors to cut paper dolls, in what Marinha told me was an exercise for their hands. Most of the children did not mind being photographed, though some despite being only four years old or younger did, perhaps it had been their parents who for security reasons concerning terrorism at the time preferred not to have their children's photos published anywhere.

As for the photos, I would take that day which were about a role's worth; these I would send to Marinha, given that I really had not much use for and though I will always remember our encounter on the bus and her words of warning concerning my camera not getting stolen, Marinha and I would never see each other again. This being that I became more involved in other projects concerning photography even after my camera was stolen and she went out of town.

In conclusion, I would say though Peru has very little in the way of Polish influence even for a South American country, it has some that I felt should be mentioned. Naturally Poland's influence in Peru is very small specially when compared with Brazil or Argentina, the later one of these two countries even having its famous tango (at least in part) created by Polish immigrants. As for the other way around, in all my time in Poland I have only met one Peruvian, who was not a musician of the variety of music that comes from the Andes but at least there are some who have made it this far from their country of origin. An example of which being a football player who came to Poland to represent the colors of the team known as Lech Poznan.

My name is Gianni Truvianni, I am an author who writes with the simple aim of sharing his ideas, thoughts and so much more of what I am with those who are interested in perhaps reading something new. I also am the author of the book entitled New York's Opera Society which is now available on Amazon.