That’s what people in Peru says about my city. That it’s the ugliest city in Peru and a stinky hole. I couldn’t say if that’s true because I don’t know every city in Peru. Also is true that I respect the freedom of speech and if some people says that I’m not going to be violent, just I would ask for reasons for that affirmation and I’ll give my reasons what I think that couldn’t be totally true.
I love my city in the Andean Plateau with the stars so close as you can only see at 3,825 metres or 12,549 ft above the sea level; the sacred hills with our Apus with thousands of years of uninterrupted veneration; the clouds so close that you can see ephemeral landscapes in its shapes with the naked eye; the meadows with the blue and yellow flowers exploding in summer; the snow in winter and the hidden rocks and sources of water under their roots.
Of course I dislike the violence of the society, usually from newcomers from the near countryside or criminals from the capital in the coast; and the lack of urban beauty that I guess it’s due to the lack of education and the uses from people that before were in the open fields and don’t understand that to live in the city requires another mind. But also is truth that there is a certain racism from the westerner coast that would like that we were just peasants giving tribute to them so the city is like an offense to their ideas of superiority. I think in the coast as a place freeze in 1920, lol.
In the end I accept that Juliaca is ugly but comparing with the other cities I know I wouldn’t say it’s the ugliest. And it has places that I love. The hills in the photograph are at five minutes walking from my own home with the old forest and the hills now, sadly, with projects of urban development that, I’m sure, aren’t going to be in harmony with the surroundings.
Qhapaq 