Personal Narrative: The Population Of Peru

As the first and only child in my family to attend college, I represent “Diversity”. My Hispanic heritage and culture has shaped my life by instilling the strong values and principles that Hispanic families and community’s share. Furthermore, my cultural roots have greatly influenced my current journey and have helped me learn and develop as a leader. The professional, academic, and career opportunities I am learning now is what sets me apart from everyone else, and I believe my strong leadership potential and commitment to my fellow peers are essential to becoming an innovative leader.

The young male I chose for this interview is from Lima Peru. He is a student and an athlete here at SIUe. He came to SIUe to play sports, more specifically football or as we call it here in the United States, soccer. He is enjoying it quite a lot. This student came to the United States in 2013 and feels that each country has something different to offer.

My grandmother was born in Guatemala into a struggling family of seven. In Guatemala, kids are often forced to leave school and start working to help provide for their family´s food and shelter. Similarly, my grandmother was not able to complete her education. Instead, she had to take care of her siblings, providing for their basic needs. As she grew up, she had three kids, including my father, and needed to find a way to give them a better life.

Peru is located in western South America and it shares borders with Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador and the South Pacific Ocean. Peru is about 1.28 million square kilometers. There are three major regions in Peru: a narrow coastal belt, the wide Andean mountains and the Amazon Basin. The coast is mostly a desert, but contains Peru's major cities. The Andes has two main ranges - Cordillera Occidental and Oriental. Oriental includes Peru's highest mountain called Huascaran, it a peaks out at 22,200ft. On the east side is the Amazon Basin, a region of tropical lowland, the water there is carried out by the Maranon and Ucayali rivers.

My Hispanic culture is exceedingly unique contrast to other cultures because we have countless of beliefs, holidays, lifestyles, etc. My world of Hispanic culture raised me to become an independent and determined person because being the first generation of a Hispanic family to attend college has my family beyond thrilled for me to put value to our heritage. Putting value in our heritage is a magnificent emotion because people anticipate Hispanics to fail; but, we prove them wrong when we accomplish our goals. The Hispanic culture’s strength is unbelievably astonishing because we are ambitious of our dreams and we don’t cease until we fulfill our wish. Including the Hispanic culture at University of Washington may open people’s mind that we

“Wow...there is no way you’re Latino. You’re way too white!” was the ignorant remark made by a one of my peers during my school’s annual Latin-American Fest. Initially, hearing this claim made me look into the mirror. I began to stroke my face and examine my physical features. Was this true? Was I not Latino enough? Did the amount of melanin or lack thereof deem me as Latino?

Peru is much smaller in land mass and population and is unique in its culture. The history of the country is interesting; Peru was once part of the Incan Empire, the largest Native American Empire in the world. It started in Peru and made allies with other tribes to get to its massive size. The empire got about eight to ten million people before Francisco Pizarro came with his conquistadores. Francisco Pizarro started his conquest on 1531 and ended it in 1534. On July 28, 1821, Peru proclaimed its independence, but the Spanish were not finally defeated until 1824. The Mexican Native Americans known as the Aztecs were more cruel when expanding. They would raid other tribes and murder or sell off the people. They got to around 5 million inhabitants before Hernandez Cortez came and destroyed the empire with his army of Spaniards .

As a Hispanic American, I have been exposed to the beauty of my ancestors culture, while living in a country with one of its own. Being the first generation to be born in the United States of America, coming from a family whose roots deeply stem from the Dominican Republic, is an interesting dynamic. While my family is well adjusted to living in the States, they still celebrate as if they were back in their birthplace. They eat, drink, and dance as if they were back home. They speak Spanish to each other despite knowing perfect English. They remind us first generation kids, how privileged we are to be born in the States. As an American, my lifestyle and culture is evidently different than that of my family. I, among my Hispanic American millennial

In the United States, the Hispanic race refers to people from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South America, Central American, and other countries of Spanish origin. According to the 2010 Census,

Would you say that life has any sense? Or Is there an answer for everything in life? Three years ago I was completely messed up about this. Gustavo Adolfo Parra Chassaigne that’s how my parents called me and I was born in Maracay a little city next to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. I used to be the first student of all my high school, also one of the first in tennis of my state and everybody said that my family was “perfect”. So, What did happen to me?

The feeling of comfort vanishes as I stand in the middle of an unfamiliar dirt road, choked with the feeling of uncertainty. The air was dusty and so were the people as they inundated me. I turned to a little girl among the cluster of the sun-kissed figures. Her face was as brown as the dirt, but her eyes illuminated with happiness. Longing for a friend, I reached out my hand to give her a teddy bear and asked if she wanted to play. As she took the bear her face filled with confusement. Yearning to win this Peruvian girl over, I pulled yet another toy from my backpack. As I filled the tiny beach ball with air, she became noticeably interested in me. Like a pint-sized thief, she stole the beach ball to indicate she finally accepted me. Once

“I had a dream last night, a tremendous premonition. I saw green fields and flowers. I could smell the grass.” (Read 225) is a quote taken from the book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read. This quote is just one example of the hope generated in the story. Alive is about a Uruguayan Rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountains while on their way to Chile. This story tells of the struggle that the 45 on board attempt to overcome by doing whatever they can to survive for over two months in the freezing mountains. To do this, it takes great determination and cooperation from everyone involved in the crash. Some struggle more than others, mostly with the idea of getting out of the Andes alive, however, it all pays off in the end.

Culture is the aquired knowledge that people use to interpret, experience, and generate social behavior.

“I am a citizen now, but when my parents brought my brother and myself from Ecuador I was not.”

Peruvians enjoy a free government and one of the richest histories in the world. Peru’s history has legendary beginnings and leads to a revolution. Furthermore, the Peruvian government allows civil liberties and freedoms. Come and go back in time to the Incas and lead through until Peru’s founding government.