Peru

Peru is a country in western South America. The official languages are Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara.

Learn more about Peru

Immigration - Peruvians in Portland

• A relatively recent ethnic group , the majority of Peruvian Americans have arrived in the United States after 1990.

• The emigration of Peruvians to the United States has increased over the past decade as a result of political turmoil and economic hardship.

• According to the U.S. census, 25% of all Peruvians over age 25 have college degrees, a prevalence that slightly exceeds the US national average of 24%.

• Immigrants from Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico have come to the Pacific Northwest in search of work, and many have found jobs within the farming industry.

• According to a published statement presented by the Population Research Center at Portland State University's College of Urban and Public Affairs, Peru is one the of twenty leading countries of origin for students enrolled in the Portland, OR schools.

Culture

Religion

• Roman Catholic: 81%

• Seventh-Day Adventist: 1%

• Unspecified or none: 16%

“The ceremonial functions of the state are integrated into the rites of the church, beginning with the inauguration of the president with high mass in the cathedral, Holy Week events, and the observances of major Peruvian saints' days and festivals, such as that of Santa Rosa de Lima (Saint Rose of Lima) and others.”

“The Hispanic conquest of the Incas brought new religious traditions to the Andean area. The Spanish indoctrinated the Indians and spread Roman Catholicism, built hundreds of churches, and held fiestas for patron saints in each village. The people were not strict in their practices, however. Protestant sects proliferated during the 20th century, and the Indians have mixed many pagan beliefs into the Roman Catholic rituals to produce a syncretic religion rich in traditions.”

Family Life

• “The Peruvian family is of course not a homogeneous entity, but rather reflects both ethnic and socioeconomic factors. If there is a generalization to be made, however, it is that families in Peru, no matter what their status, show a high degree of unity, purpose, and integration through generations, as well as in the nuclear unit.”

• For the nation as a whole, the average family size is 5.1 persons per household.

• Contrary to expectations, urban families have slightly more family members per household than the average, and rural families are generally smaller, with an average of 4.9 persons.

• Highland families, which create the majority of rural households, have been decreasing in size due to heavy migration to the cities and coastal farms.

• The following website may serve as a helpful resource about Peruvian family values.

Cultural Considerations

• Because Peruvians tend to have a relatively relaxed concept of time, meetings may not necessarily begin exactly on time.

• Members of the opposite sex shake hands when first introducing themselves.

• Men who are well-acquainted will either shake hands or pat each other on the back.

• Women who know each other well will greet with a kiss on one cheek.

• Friends call each other by first name.

• Elderly individuals are addressed by title and last name.

• One addresses professionals by title and last name, (e.g., Dr. Smith or Mrs. Adams).

• Hand gestures are often used, and Peruvians tend to be animated when they talk.

• Communication partners stand very close to one another, and touching is not uncommon.

• It is important and appropriate to maintain eye contact.

• Peruvians have a tendency to dress up when going into public because it is considered inappropriate to leave one’s house wearing dirty or old clothing.

• Peruvians consider the sign for “okay” (touching your thumb to your finger) a rude gesture.

• Although tardiness of an hour or more is expected when one is invited to a social event, a host that wants his/her guests to arrive more promptly can ask guests to observe hora inglesa (English time).

• Peruvian names, as is common in other Hispanic countries, traditionally consist of three parts: the given name, the father's surname, and the mother's maiden name.

Language

• South American countries were first exposed to Spanish in the 16th century through Spanish colonization.

• Approximately 108 languages are present in Peru, of which 93 are living languages and 15 are extinct.

• Spanish and Quechua are both official languages of Peru. Aymara and many minor Amazonian languages are also spoken.

• Spanish is the language of government, media, education, and commerce. Find more on the Spanish language here: Spanish

• The foremost indigenous language, Quechua, is also widely spoken.

• Quechua and Aymara are spoken by Amerindians who live in the Andean highlands.

• Over the last four decades, the use of Spanish has increased while the knowledge and use of indigenous languages has decreased considerably.

• In 1960s, approximately 39% of the Peruvian population were registered as speakers of indigenous languages, but by the 1990s, only 28% is registered as Quechua-speaking (16% of whom reported being bilingual in Spanish), while the prevalence of Spanish-speakers increased to 72%.

• As of 2005, 80.3% of the population was Spanish speaking, and decreases were reported in many of the other Amerindian languages.

• Of the indigenous languages, Quechua is spoken most often and is used by nearly a third of Peru's total indigenous population.

• 3% of the population is comprised of Aymara-speakers and other indigenous languages, and foreign languages account for the remaining 0.2%.

“The drastic decline in use and knowledge of indigenous languages is largely attributed to the recent demographic factors. The urbanization and assimilation of Peru's Amerindian plurality into the Hispanic-mestizo culture, as well as the new socioeconomic factors associated with class structure have given privilege to the use of Spanish at the expense of the Amerindian languages which were spoken by the majority of the population less than a century ago.”

Spanish

Spanish Dialects

Three dialects of Spanish are spoken within the country:

1. Peruvian Coast Spanish

2. Andes Spanish

3. Amazonian Spanish

Peruvian Coast Spanish

• This dialect has a less strong intonation than that of the rest of the Spanish-speaking world.

• Neither before a vowel nor at the end of a sentence, is there a loss of syllable-final /s/.

• The vibrants /rr/ and /r/ are omitted and are never assigilated in the syllable-final position as in dialects in Chile, Mexico, or the Andes.

• There is no confusion of /r/ with /l/ in syllable-final position as occurs in Chile and some Caribbean countries.

• When 'j' and 'g 'come before 'e' and 'i', they are pronounced as a soft palatal [ç].

• Within the word-final position, /d/ is usually unvoiced or turned into /t/.

• A particular Andalusian trait is heard in the routine velarization of word-final /n/.

Slang terms (Spanish):

• Chevere, Bacan: cool.

• Ya: right, sure

• Bamba: counterfeit goods, bad or illegal products

• Plata: money, (as in silver). Eso cuesta mucha plata = that's expensive.

Quechua

“Quechua is an Amerindian language (language spoken by the indigenous people of the Americas) native to South America and is related to Aymará. It was the official language of the Tawantinsuyu (Inca Empire). Quechua can be heard throughout South America, starting as far north as southern Colombia and Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. In Colombia and Ecuador the dialect is widely different from the main branch and could almost be classified as another language, however it is not.”

Quechua had no written alphabet, but did have an accounting system based on khipu-strings.

“The khipu or quipu (meaning ‘knot’) strings were recording devices used by the Inca Empire. The khipu strings were made of colored cotton cords. On each cord a numeric value was represented by knots. These knots have not yet been fully deciphered, though some believe that the khipu are a primitive written language, and it is known that they were used for a number of purposes including taxes, census taking, and inventory.”

Slang terms (Quechua):

• Que pinya: what bad luck (‘pinya’ in Quechua means 'coraje', the English equivalent of 'infuriating'.)

• tengo una yaya: 'I'm injured' ('yaya' means injury and ‘yawar” means blood in Quechua)

Aymara

“Aymara is the name of a South-American people and their language. The Andes region of Bolivia and Peru is home to the Aymara who were settled there for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.”

Vowels

“Aymara has three phoneme vowels (/a i u/, which distinguish two degrees of length. The high vowels are lowered to mid height before uvular consonants (/i/ → [e], /u/ → [o]).”

Consonants

“As for the consonants, Aymara has phonemic stops at the labial, alveolar, palatal, velar and uvular points of articulation. Stops show no distinction of voice (e.g. there is no phonemic contrast between [p] and [b]), but each stop has three forms: plain (unaspirated), glottalized, and aspirated. Aymara also has a trilled /r/, and an alveolar/palatal contrast for nasals and laterals, as well as two semivowels (/w/ and /j/).”

Aymara has a subject-object-verb word order.

Education

Primary education in Peru is both free and compulsory. The education system is largely controlled by the government and all public school teachers are appointed by the Ministry of Education.

A majority (83%) of students attend public school, while approximately 15% are enrolled in private schools, where tuition is charged. Enrollment in elementary and secondary school is approximately 7.7 million, while 322,000 students (as of 1999) attend Peru’s 74 universities, which are 39% public and 61% private.

The illiteracy rate is estimated to be 12.5% for the general population and 28% in rural areas where Spanish is not spoken. Quechua, the majority language in these areas, has historically been an oral language, and therefore, many speakers of Quechua do not read or write Quechua.