(Photo Credit from Suvi Hoo)
Due to the fact that I had a blog assignment as my homework, I had the chance to exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology’s “the political and social significance of Latin American artistic traditions” section. To be honest, before visiting this expedition, I didn’t know that much about Latin America and Indigenous people of Ayacucho. However, the Latin American arts from the expedition gave me some ideas and some new connection towards the things from ASTU.
From this section, there are numerous stories and folklore from different regions of Latin America, which gives viewers massive references and materials about the political challenges and struggles that these indigenous people are facing.
From different paintings, these works demonstrate stories about social changes and political suppression. From those numerous Latin American Arts, there was a painting that hooked up in my mind called “Infierno en Quechawa”, painted by Venuca Evanan Vivanco. This piece describes the extrajudicial execution of supposed Shining path insurgents, which the mainly executed a bulk of innocent local indigenous people to not be intimidated by the American government. From the picture, the facial expression of the local people is depressed and most of them are confronted towards the authority. Meanwhile, in the top left corner of the picture, some people are trying to climb over the wall to survive, while some soldiers are chasing them. From the details of the picture, I feel sympathetic towards the pain and traumas that these people would face. From the lectures that we had about memory, memory changes as time past, and people have different types of memory. However, from the picture above people who observe the picture and had a similar experience would have common feelings. While this image provides community history and struggles, it is also an evidence of the irrepressible resolve of rural and diasporic people in Latin America resisting domination.
From the paintings, I can also make some connections towards the Japanese colonial era that the Korean peninsula had faced in the early 1900s since the Japanese government tried to oppress the independence move by killing innocent people. However, when Korea got independent, the peace and harmony didn’t go that long. When the Korean war started, the North Korean army killed innocent people to let others conform to the communist government. Right after the Korean war, the intellectuals and youngsters wanted democratization, though the government was obtained by coup de tat and wanted a dictatorship. The government secretly killed these people and created propaganda that they are communists and are spies from the North, which is similar to how the indigenous people get treated.
If viewers are interested and want to know more about it, please go to the Museum of Anthropology.