On February 11, 2016, the UC Davis Hemispheric Institute on the Americas hosted an international conference on “The Aftermath of the Shining Path: Memory, Violence, and Politics in Peru.”
The conference brought together renowned scholars, archivists, and journalists to discuss the vicious war that stretched from 1980 to 1992 and its aftermath. Led by Abimael Guzmán or Presidente Gonzalo, the Maoist Shining Path began in Ayacucho in the highlands and spread throughout much of the country. Both their tactics as well as the response by the Peruvian military were brutal, resulting in over 70,000 dead and hundreds of thousands forced to flee. Indigenous peasants bore the brunt of this violence and displacement.
Lurgio Gavilán Sánchez and José Carlos Agüero presented in the session titled "From the Inside and Outside: Testimonies & Autobiographies of Exceptional Lives." Gavilán, whose recently published memoirs, "When Rains Became Floods (Memorias de un soldado desconocido)," retell his fascinating life as a child soldier for the Shining Path. Subsequently, he became a soldier, a Franciscan priest, and anthropologist. "When Rains Became Floods (Duke University Press)" is currently being made into a movie.
Agüero recently published "Los rendidos," which explores his childhood as the son of two Shining Path members, both killed. It has been very well received in Peru, prompting broad discussions about the period, memory, and tolerance. Available as an ebook from the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos.
For more about the conference, visit lettersandscie....