3: Peru
Our Most Hopeful Country
In my last post, I shared global births per suicide numbers by country. In this and several upcoming posts I’d like to focus on the winners, shown in this table below.
As shown here, several things stand out.
Peru is the most hopeful country by a factor of two.
The two most hopeful countries are also improving rapidly.
Six of the ten most hopeful countries are majority-Latino.
Today I’ll focus on Peru.
To be clear, I’m not an expert on Peru. Because I’m exploring the seldom-measured topic of hopefulness across the entire range of potential causes (including cultural, demographic, spiritual, etc…) , I’m forced to speculate into so many topics it’s simply not practical for me to specialize in them all. The result is that many of my posts will conclude with a suggestion—“maybe this factor is important”—rather than a conclusion.
I can only hope that enough of these explorations will point in similar-enough directions to suggest some experiments for us to do in our own communities.
Demographics
Based on the demographics from Wikipedia, Peru is majority-multiethnic, meaning their hopefulness does not stem from ethnic homogeneity.1
Further, Peru’s multiethnic population is mostly mestizo, a mix of Spanish and Amerindian (mostly Quechua), colonial conquerors and exploited peoples (at times subjected to slavery). In other parts of the world—notably Haiti—this dynamic has led to a strikingly problematic racialized social stratification. But somehow in Peru this never resulted in civil war or widespread conflict.
This ends my knowledge of modern Peruvian demographics and history (I know a bit about the Incas, but don’t see direct relevance). If you have more knowledge, please share that in comments.
So I turn to anecdotal experiences.
Personal Experience
Two good friends have, in recent years, shared with me their experiences of visiting Peru.
First, about ten years ago my friend Elizabeth spent a year in Cuzco studying Spanish. While she talked a lot about the experience, she found the almost-daily parades especially striking. Sometime in the early-afternoon she’d begin to hear far-off drums, followed by singing. As the sounds drew closer she’d begin to see people dancing along the street in colorful clothing, leading one or more people holding poles with a large picture of a Catholic saint.
I grew up in Kenosha, WI a town that held a large parade once a year for the Fourth of July. They still do, but nowadays (especially post-Covid) many towns barely even do that much. Imagine the kind of sustained cultural enthusiasm required to host 100+ parades a year?
Second, another friend Robert spent three weeks hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, staying with local families and led by local guides. When I told him about my finding, he didn’t hesitate but responded definitively: “Their culture is intensely communal. That’s the reason.” According to Robert, the extent to which peoples’ lives overlapped in Peru was profound. He found their pride and identification with “their people”—meaning their region, their ethnic group, and their country—to be deeply felt.
A Narrative Account
In the book A Traveller Toward the Dawn, Milwaukee Jesuit priest John Eagan describes his multi-year assignment to Peru. The experience led him on a political journey to explore ways of opposing the oppressive practices of the local Fincas (basically plantations). But his description of the Quechua people was one of profound gratitude. Despite chronic malnourishment, short life expectancy, and a corrupt government, they were constantly expressing gratitude to God for every aspect of their lives. Their love for each-other was palpable, and the overwhelming enthusiasm they had for him (their sometime-priest) brought him frequently to tears.
He considered trying to remain there indefinitely, until it became apparent that his intestines were not up to the challenge of local parasites.
Peru is not an especially-poor country (their infant mortality is low, which allows their inclusion in this analysis), and living standards have improved since Eagan visited in the 70s. But this kind of intense cultural gratitude lives on.
Conclusion
Of course, I have only scratched the surface and so a conclusion is hardly warranted.
The three pieces of evidence I do have are mostly from the mountainous areas, so may be biased. But they all point to a communal culture of gratitude and celebration—oriented around Catholic religious faith—as a likely contributing factor to Peru’s exceptional hopefulness.
Further, as I first experienced at my cousin Rachel’s wedding, their food culture is second-to-none. Lomo Saltado and Pollo-con-Lomo are my personal favorites.
In a future post I’ll look at ethnic homogeneity correlated to hopefulness, but a first glance at the global data suggests that it’s poorly correlated.