Gringa Latina: A Woman of Two Worlds

I liked Armando's comment about the huge historical mistakes made by someone who attended the Santa Ana private school. I guess he is right considering we used to have history class every year since the 6th. grade. I suppose Cristo Rey (the Jesuit school he talks about) always had a better curricula for their students! Back to the book, I guess it is very tough to write about our memories from Tacna or even Peru in general, when this country seems to take away part of our objectivity in just a matter of months. We tend to remember good things as being "great" and bad things as "really bad" perhaps. Tacna is certainly a small city but I have never thought of it as a "village". Perhaps we still don't have a Mc Donald's or a BK there, but that doesn't mean anything really. Although "drugs and fear" have always been present, I highly doubt that they would have made such a great difference during the years the author lived there. Yes, perhaps we continue to fill the news every day with stories about murder, corruption and rape, but that's just what we care to show to the world. I lived in Tacna until 1999, part of one of these Italian families who migrated over there and enjoyed the privileges of having money and building a reputation that now is almost vanished. I won't deny that I tell stories about Tacna all the time, in some cases; these stories are even phrased similarly as to the ones in the book. They excite people. Still, I believe it is mostly because our lack of open minds and the way we managed to carry traditions from one generation to the other. This is the greatest mystery of all I think; we can only see it as such and relate it in such a magical way after going through the major change of leaving that city.

(comment dated June 23rd, 2005) Really, I coudn't stop reading it from the beginning to the end. I was raised in several towns and villages in Peru, and wound up finishing high school in a Jesuit School in Tacna, ran by this "jesuit priest" de Ferrari mentions in a small passage of this book. The book is a delicious reminiscence of the years passed by the author in this small and heroic village in the southern end of Peru, causing a strong wind of nostalgy in those like me who know the town and its wonderful people. I will start talking about some mistakes in the book. In my opinion, she is feeling "too" strange to the people of Tacna. I really don't think so. Even though her parents were Italian, Tacna was populated by many European colonies, all of them outnumbered by the Italian colony, which, even in my times (the 70's), was still composed of several thousand people, including Italians and their descendants, like her. Many of the current most important names in Tacna are still Italians, and tho there has been a social turn in the last 20 years, the Italian immigration to Tacna and Arica in the XIX century (then a part of Peru) is a passage of our history rarely studied. There are some other mistakes in the book, which being a non-fiction book is something I can not help pointing out. The Inca Empire extended from Colombia to the north of Argentina, and de Ferrari claims it extended from north of Venezuela to the Patagonia in the south of Argentina. Hummm. Huge mistake for a girl who was educated in Colegio Santa Ana, the Italian private School of Tacna. A few other historical misunderstandings spot here and there along the book. Her point of view about the birth of the Shining Path is also a common place, but that popular theory (that the Shining Path was some sort of indigenous rebellion) was later discovered untrue, being the SP a urban movement leaded by urban and well educated college teachers who belonged to the "white" class from Ayacucho and other Sierra cities. But, in general, I enjoyed a lot reading the description of the places and especially about the food, which seems an obsession for this woman, congratulations, she really is a gourmet. I am a passionate for those territories and especially for those people, who, like the de Ferrari's, I think compose the best group of people living in a so disfunctional country like mine. The peruvian peoples from Tacna, Arica, and Tarapaca suffered a severe loss in the 1880's when they were forced to change their nationality, but across the border, many ancient families still prevail, keeping a bright peruvian light in their hearts. This is especially true regarding the Italian families, many of whom hold repeated names on both sides of the current border, keeping contact with relatives and families. I still have to read "A Cloud on Sand", but I presume this fiction book must be based in de Ferrari's life in Tacna as a teenager. Congratulations Gabriella, I still wonder how many of your "pais

In Gringa Latina we have a character that his not Peruvian or Hispanic because her family comes from Italy, when she leaves Peru and comes to the states she is a latina because she in not American, and so it goes that she is never fully at home in either culture or though we get a brilliant portrayal of her youth in the South American continent. Excellent book.

I really enjoyed this book. She did such a wonderful job describing Peru and the complexity of her feelings being a "Latina" based on geographic reasons, and "Gringa" according to her ethnicity. I also found it interesting how she was perceived when in America. Reading this book also made me want to see Peru and all it's beauty.

This book beautifuly describes the life of a woman embodying two different cultures.