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

Abstract

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.