Marca Peru: Representations and Exclusions of the Afro-Descendant Population from the Official Narrative of the Peruvian Government

Abstract

The article will examine the representations of Afro-Peruvians in the video “Peru Nebraska,” a documentary produced as part of the launching of the advertising campaign of Marca Peru, a national branding project elaborated by the Peruvian government in 2010. By examining the participation of the Afro-descendant population in this audiovisual piece, the document will relate these representations to the discourses of diversity, race, and citizenship in Peru. The article will also explore the nature of the discourses of ethnic and racial diversity in Peru in the new construction of the national and will evaluate the construction of the social imaginaries to represent Afro-Peruvians and construct blackness in a nation that has maintained mestizaje at the center of its identitarian process. In order to do so, it will focus on examining how Afro-Peruvians (dis) appear in the new narratives of peruanidad and how these images differ with the uprising official discourses of diversity and multiculturalism. By examining the famous short film “Peru, Nebraska,” the article will analyze issues related to citizenship and inclusion of the Afro-Peruvian population, related not only to the acknowledgment of their existence, but also to their position in the construction and development of the national identitarian processes.