Andean Lives

<p>Gregorio Condori Mamani and Asunta Quispe Huamán were <i>runakuna</i> a Quechua word that means people and refers to the millions of indigenous inhabitants neglected reviled and silenced by the dominant society in Peru and other Andean countries. For Gregorio and Asunta however that silence was broken when Peruvian anthropologists Ricardo Valderrama Fernández and Carmen Escalante Gutiérrez recorded their life stories. The resulting Spanish-Quechua narrative published in the mid-1970s and since translated into many languages has become a classic introduction to the lives and struggles of the people of the Andes.</p> <p><i>Andean Lives</i> is the first English translation of this important book. Working directly from the Quechua Paul H. Gelles and Gabriela Martínez Escobar have produced an English version that will be easily accessible to general readers and students while retaining the poetic intensity of the original Quechua. It brings to vivid life the words of Gregorio and Asunta giving readers fascinating and sometimes troubling glimpses of life among Cuzco's urban poor with reflections on rural village life factory work haciendas indigenous religion and marriage and family relationships.</p>