HVOR GÅR CHOLOS HEN, NÅR DE GÅR UD? Folklore og identitet blandt storbymigranter i Peru

Resumé

Karsten Pærregaard: Where do Cholos go

when They Leave? Folklore and Identity

among Urban Migrants in Peru

An important term in the description of

Peru’s ethnic groups is cholo, a category

indicating urban migrants trying to distance

themselves from their Andean past and

obtain recognition as citizens in the country’s

major cities. Conventionally, cholo has been

considered a transitional status for Peru’s

indigenous population which wants to cast

off its Indian identity and become westemized.

This article argues against such a notion

and suggests that cholofication is a

permanent identity for the majority of Peru’s

rural and urban population. The article draws

on material gathered among migrants whose

origins are in a village in the Southern

highland and analyzes how the migrants use

folklore festivals and parades to change the

negative image the surrounding society

holds of them as cholos. The article concludes

that only when all those regarded as

cholos recognize their status as such and

replace the negative import of the term with a

more positive content, will a new identity be

visible and cholo lose its former meaning in

social and theoretical discourse.