A Revolution of the Distressed

A Revolution of the Distressed

The world today is faced with many obstacles concerning all the peoples of the world. The issues range from globalization to the state of the environment with every political, economic, and human interest lying in between. It is these human interests that will be brought to light by examining the revolutions of the Incan indigenous beginning in the early part of the twentieth century. Running parallel to their North American neighbors, the native peoples of Peru have lived in seriously impecunious conditions as the result of ethno racial discrimination handed them by their colonial occupiers; Spanish speakers. These revolutions, namely Shining Path, would eventually define the gap between the rich and the poor, the 1st and 3rd worlds, and those peoples struggling with the effects of a traditional world falling into the hands of modernity. Unfortunately Shining Path, the dominant revolutionary organization, would be widely regarded as a terrorist organization as opposed to a liberation movement. This negative attitude toward Shining Path can be directly attributed to their misrepresentation of these native peoples and also to their style of warfare which has made Shining Path the great example of an ideology gone astray; leaving the hopes of its followers and the fate of the Peruvian people in the dust and rubble of its destructive wake.

While the constituents of left and right wing political parties would battle each other for both power and affect throughout the first half of the twentieth century, neither end of the ideological spectrum would effectively bring about change in regard to the interests of the native Peruvian peoples. This is due largely in part to the marginalization of left wing parties as a result of their own military weakness and also the outright indifference on the part of conservatives to make serious, or even arbitrary, reforms to early constitutions. The reign of President Augusto B. Leguia came to define the first thirty years of Peruvian politics in the twentieth century. Leguia ruled as a typical right winger; his economic plans overwhelmingly benefited the states oligarchic class, leaving action in the interest of the native Incan populations to a minimum. In fact, treatment of this sector of the population was no more than sub-human in nature. Socially, he made attempts to incorporate in...

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