estudiante, escucha! y únete la lucha!

We went to the 'One year anniversary of the violence in Bagua' march yesterday. I would guess there were close to 1000 people there. It was interesting to be able to be a part of our school's contingent and go around to the different facultades for a pre-march rally. It was fairly lively and mostly up-beat despite the nature of the content being addressed. There was also some good wall-decorating done on the fly and plenty of great chants. I loved when this song (Cumbia we know from combis and parties) was played with the lyrics replaced to be:

ya se ha muerto García ayayay

tomando petroleo ayayay

matando nativos ayayay

matando policía ayayay

ole lo li le lo le

There were long long lines of police that accompanied the route, decked out but seemed pretty low-key. I wonder what the recent history of political demonstrations, civil disobedience or other forms of protests is like in Lima. People didn't seem to be all that angry with the officers and some of the chants were kind of aimed at them, mostly focusing on how they should be marching with the protesters instead of in riot gear. Maybe that was just sly taunting? I don't know.

After nearly two hours of marching, we got stuck into a blockaded dead-end. It made the process seem a bit anti-climactic. I was kind of.. not hoping, but anticipating that things would get a bit more wild (on the demonstrators' side obviously). However, at the very end, some police on horses showed and that sobered up my adrenaline rush pretty quickly.

On a brighter note, I finally met the woman who'll be studying abroad (sociology and LGBT studies) in Madison next year. She seems pretty bomb. I'm so stoked about the thought of showing off, critiquing, and explaining Wisconsin to/with someone from Perú :o)

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Don't have any great photos from the march because I didn't want to be parading my camera around, but here are three snapshots:

Different factions and contingents were clearly visible with different propaganda flyers and flags. It seemed like everyone chanted the same things though.