I come from the Andes, so I am a “serrana”, and to some extent I respond well to the stereotypes assigned to that region. However, as nature abundantly demonstrates, each human being is a product of circumstances created not only by the geography, but by sub-regions and sub-cultures, by our genetic inheritance, and by the way we are raised within a family. My own history is no different. I can proudly tell you that I am a serrana, because I was born in the valley of Cajamarca, in the Northern Andes of Peru; but I also consider myself a “shilica”, because both of my parents were born in two small towns within the same peculiar province, situated east of Cajamarca, called Celendín. Any person who is born in the province of Celendín is known as a shilico (for the men) or shilica (for the women); and of course a shilico also carries its own bundle of stereotypes, a fact revealed by the different nicknames with which other Peruvians have long referred to them: “shilico, pata fria” (cold- or bare-footed shilicos), or “Judios Peruanos” (Peruvian Jews).

There is a good deal of truth in the notion that there is a culture unique to the province of Celendín, for there are certain traits, ways in which we live and behave, that are not so unusually pronounced among the rest of our fellow Peruvians. Car Ac Cleaner SonaxHere are some of them:Yorkies For Sale Toledo Ohio OUR ORIGINS All throughout my life, I was told that almost no indigenous people ever lived in the area of Celendín, and that Celendín was founded and populated by emigrants from Portugal and Spain who arrived by way of the Amazon River. Pet For Adoption In SabahSome believe that the people who came to live in Celendín were Jews expulsed from Portugal and Spain, who found a way to escape persecution by emigrating to South America, and in particular to Brazil.

Some of them stayed in Brazil and others went further, navigating the Amazon until they reached the area of Celendín, an Andean valley that lies close to both the Marañon river and to the “ceja de montana” (the cloud forest). OUR NAMES The people who arrived in Celendín bore typical Portuguese and Spanish surnames: Rodriguez, Zegarra, Chavez, Zamora, Escalante, Horna, Silva, Pereira, Marín, Diaz, Aliaga. These surnames, perpetuated and interconnected by marriage, were and still are complemented with Biblical given names that shilico parents chose to give their children. The shilicos seemed to behave in a manner consistent with their religious heritage, whatever that once may have been: perhaps as children of Iberian Jewish families, who, coming from Portugal and Spain, defied distance and obstacles to eventually settle in Celendín. If you visit Celendín today, you will still find names such as Moises (Moses), Isaias (Isaiah), Jeremias (Jeremiah), Zacarias (Zachary), Emanuel (Emmanuel), José (Joseph), Samuel, Elias, David, Malaquias;

and Esther, Raquel (Rachel), Dalila, Marta, María, Ruth, Magdalena (Magdalene), etc., all of them taken basically from the Old Testament. My father used to say in a funny way that we were direct descendents from the House of David, because it happened that my great-grandfather’s name was David, and my grandfather’s name was José. OUR FAITH AND VALUES I remember grandpa sitting early in the morning on the ”muro” (an adobe bench affixed to a wall of the patio) of his little house reading the Bible. He lived his faith, behaving according to the Good Book. Most of the shilicos were Catholic Christians (perhaps by this time converted) with a strong faith and a strong sense of justice. They loved, praised and memorialized those who were truthful, honest and hard workers. My grandpa hated people who were liars or stealers. He never spoke again to his first cousin, who was found stealing alfalfa from his neighbors. My father became a lawyer, and a good one in terms of honesty, compassion, and love for the truth and justice.

OUR WAY OF LIFE: The people who came to Celendín were not wealthy people; they found a land ready and able for cultivating, enough to sustain themselves, and most of them became farmers. Each of the families had a small piece of land where they cultivated corn, potatoes, legumes, peppers, vegetables, and wheat. All of them had a small “corral” adjacent their house, in which they raised chickens, rabbits, “cuyes” (guinea pigs), and perhaps also a pig, a few sheep and a cow. My father used to say that in his family of eight children, never were they short of milk and eggs. Though in his opinion they were poor, yet he felt they ate like rich people. There was not a house in Celendín without an adobe oven built in the shape of a dome. Each week, a mother’s obligation was to make fresh bread. Lives were simple, and the spirit of sharing and saving was always, always present. They lived in a community where everybody had the same rights, and also the same obligations; nobody was more than the other, and really couldn’t be, because practically everybody was a relative, by blood or by marriage.

OUR ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT AS MERCHANTS It is in the nature of a shilico to think deeply and to travel widely, and to do so without fear of the unknown, ready for and called by the challenges of a life so lived. Once the shilicos established themselves in Celendín, they discovered a profitable craft in the art of making straw hats. The straw they used (and still use) is called “paja toquilla” and it is a special straw of long and resistant fibers, found in the region of Chachapoyas, east of Celendín, on the cusp of the cloud forest. Working with paja toquilla they developed a technique for making what has since become their special craft, a tightly woven marvel of handiwork. Even today Celendin is well known for the quality of its “sombreros de paja” (straw hats). Upon discovering that people payed well for each hat, many shilicos became merchants. They traveled periodically selling hats nearby, but many times journeyed long distances. The probability of selling more hats, and claiming a better price for each, increased with the distance.

The shilico merchants traveled not only through Peru, but through many parts of South America, especially in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia. Some shilicos traveled to Europe, China, Australia, and other parts of the world, certainly to see these distant lands, but also to sell straw hats. They traveled over long periods, leaving as many loyal and hard working women at home, charged with caring for the domestic chores, including the education of their children. There are lots of jokes that illustrate this culture of journeying and trade. One of them mentions that the first astronauts that landed on the moon were received by shilicos who already were waiting for them, ready to sell their straw hats. On one of the walls of his, my great uncle had an old picture in sepia tones showing him with the Prince of Wales during a horse race in England. And there in the picture, the Prince of Wales is wearing a straw hat sold to him by my uncle. My maternal grandfather, together with his brothers and cousins, went to Iquitos in the far northeast of Peru and then to Manaos in Brazil.

They traveled by mule, by boat and on foot, and usually they came home after one or more years, with enough money to build a better way of life. That money served to educate their children, and shilico people love and believe in education! My father used to say that the best investment that parents can make for their children is to give them a good education. With a good education, he said, they will never be poor, neither in body nor spirit. They will have enough food to nourish their bodies and books to nourish their souls. In Peru we associate the Jewish faith with movement and travek, with a way of life, or a matter of fortune, that takes the community constantly from place to place. A shilico merchant also traveled as a way of life, from place to place, and so, in the eyes of the rest of Peruvians, we were and are called “Peruvian Jews”. OUR SPIRIT OF THRIFT There are many jokes related to the way a shilico thinks and behaves. It is well known that if a shilico earns one “sol” (the name of our currency), half of the sol is for saving and the other is for spending.

The shilicos live frugally, save a lot, work industriously to accomplish their goals, and many times are successful. There are many shilicos that emerged from a very modest economic situation to become excellent professionals, with important roles in our society. During their childhood, these same professionals walked in bare feet, and that is why people called them “shilico, pata fria” (cold footed shilico). And there is a familiar joke about a young shilico who one day decided to go from his small village to the capital city of the province. He dressed well, with a pair of new shoes. But since he needed to walk around 10 miles, he decided to save his new shoes and started walking in bare feet. It happened that halfway there he tripped on a stone and injured his toe – his nail was almost gone. But when he stopped in pain and saw the blood, he merely sighed and said to himself, with great relief, “Thank goodness I was not wearing my shoes.” I could continue writing pages;