A Love Affair with Peru: The Lure and Power of Place in Writing

A Love Affair with Peru: The Lure and Power of Place in Writing

By Claire Ibarra

I was trekking the Inca trail, and the narrow, dirt path followed alongside the torrential Apurímac River. The switchbacks were jagged, cutting through wild grasses, boulders, and twisted trees. The Salkantay mountain range loomed nearby, and snow-capped peaks and dramatic ridges reminded me of the vastness of the Andes. Soon the trail took our small group of family and friends to a higher elevation, and the river looked like a small snake below. The trail had widened, and the group of chatty and enthusiastic trekkers were at a fair distance from me.

Earlier that day, we had all witnessed a condor flying overhead. The huge bird glided through a stretch of the canyon, against a backdrop of cloudless blue and sun-lit, golden cliffs. It took our breath away. Walking now in silence, thinking back on the majestic condor, I said a prayer for my book. I had finished one of many drafts, and though far from being the final manuscript, a sense of wellbeing and positivity rested in me. I felt sure my book would be published someday. What I didn’t know was that it was still only the beginning of an endeavor that would take over a decade to achieve. 

I had arrived in Peru fifteen years earlier, at the young age of twenty-two, well-traveled, fiercely independent, and recklessly adventurous–having already traveled around the globe, trekked the Himalayas, and worked with an environmental brigade in Nicaragua during the tail end of the Iran-Contra War. When I arrived, it was 1989 and red zones marred the countryside and two terrorists groups, Sendero Luminoso and the MRTA, wreaked havoc.

The economy was in shambles, and there were lines down blocks to buy staples like rice and cooking oil. Yet, the beauty and resiliency of the people captured my heart and imagination in a way I couldn’t have predicted. I was to study at La Católica University in Lima for one year, but to the surprise of everyone back home, I stayed beyond my year of studies to marry and start a family.  

My decision to stay involved a man, the father of my children, who after a twenty-five year marriage, I  have since divorced. What I understand now is at the time, and at that young age, I was falling in love and marrying not a person but a country, a culture, and an extended family. The family was involved in a small silk production enterprise in the Andes. I witnessed the life cycle of silk worms, from worm to moth, and how the silk is produced from the cocoons. This large, boisterous, complicated Peruvian family was my love, and the life and stories they shared with me became a love affair.  

Since that time, I have often asked myself,  did I always want to be a writer, or did living in Peru spark an impulse to explore life, people, and the human condition in that deep and mysterious way that writers do. Perhaps it was because my first daughter was birthed there, so far away from my native homeland, that I so deeply rooted myself to the people and culture. It was now my daughter’s birthplace, her homeland, and I wanted desperately to share it with her.

The stories I heard while living in Peru incited curiosity, but more than that, it stirred my inner-world with romanticism and a sense of magic. Like in A Hundred Years of Solitude, family lineage, history, folktales, mythology, with all the beautiful and the tragic, wove together and created a tapestry in my mind, which I would try to translate into words.

Needless to say, this rich and complex tapestry created a sprawling mess on the page, that spanned five generations and countless vignettes without a cohesive thread. It would take me years to find the story, to find the arc of the narrative and the characters whose voices most needed to be heard. The story became part ghost story, part mystery, part love story, and most surprisingly to me, it became a story about colonization. 

I didn’t set out to write anything political. That’s still not my intention. And yet, it would be impossible to write anything meaningful and honest set in Peru that doesn’t address the reality of the history of Spanish-European colonization and its impact on the indigenous population. It feels like a hot button issue, and I don’t consider myself any kind of expert on history, politics, or sociology.

What I know is from years of immersion in a culture, and my deep connections and relationships, and my honest, conscious-driven observations. I recently read a review in the New York Times, written by Junot Díaz, and I was struck by the title “Colonial Ghosts.” In the review he refers to immigrants and ghosts as gothic subjects. I hadn’t thought of my own work as gothic, but as magical realism. Now I see that my story has gothic themes and elements, with ghosts of the past, injustices and redemption, abuses and heartache, all set against the backdrop of a colonial history. 

Ultimately, I see my work as an homage to Peru and its people, for their generosity of spirit and willingness to find joy and spontaneity in all life’s crazy circumstances. My work is a gift to my daughters, whose ancestry and birthplace is not my own, but is a place I can still share with them in a profound, meaningful way.   

—

Claire is the author of Fragile Saints, a novel published by Adelaide Books in 2021. Claire’s poetry chapbook Vortex of Our Affections was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. She received her MFA in creative writing from Florida International University. Her work can be found in many fine literary journals and anthologies. She currently lives and teaches in Colorado.

FRAGILE SAINTS, Claire Ibarra

Fragile Saints is a novel set in Peru. Elsa is living in California and struggling with loss, betrayal, and her recent divorce. When her dying grandmother requests to see her, she visits Peru. There, Elsa learns she has inherited a country house, near the old family hacienda, which is haunted by a dark secret. Elsa is intrigued with the house, its caretakers, and her new lover Gustavo, yet she encounters disturbing ghostly visitors.
The novel is written primarily from Elsa’s point of view, as she discovers her purpose, but an omniscient narrator is employed as well, taking the reader into the family’s past. Fragile Saints uses magical realism to create a family saga where ancestral mishaps and the natural world influence the characters, making them vulnerable and yet also indomitable.

Debra Dean, author of The Madonnas of Leningrad, writes, “A heartfelt debut, Fragile Saints follows the journey of a woman, bruised by betrayal and divorce, to her father’s ancestral home in Peru. Like the silkworms on the family farm, Elsa emerges from her cocoon transformed and ready to brave a new life. Fans of Isabel Allende will savor this lushly textured romance.”

Claire’s novel was published by Adelaide Books in 2021. Her poetry chapbook Vortex of Our Affections was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. Claire received her MFA in creative writing from Florida International University. Her work can be found in many fine literary journals and anthologies. She currently lives and teaches in Colorado.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips