Next to Nothing: More on Pedro Pablo Atusparia

Abstract

I applaud Mark Thurner's and Caceres: Rereading Representations of Peru's Late Nineteenth-Century 'National Problem,' as well as his recent book, which all serious Andeanists and Peruvianists will now need to consult.1 Not only do I accept his corrections of many of the errors of commission and omission in my work, but I have learned much from him that will inform any future work I do on related topics.2 I admire both his perseverance in locating crucial documents and his grasp of nineteenthand twentieth-century Peruvian history. But I am perplexed by several of his statements, such as, for example, that next to . . . is known about Pedro Pablo Atusparia, peasant leader of the Atusparia Revolt and the man who met with General Andres Avelino Caceres in his Lima salon shortly before Caceres became president of Peru. The statement intrigues me, because next to nothing is not Indeed, a whole and infinite universe of meanings may lie in the uncharted territory of next to nothing. Mark Thurner, thus, encourages me to imagine [the] unimagined,3 a task upon which I now enthusiastically embark.