1942 PERU magazine article, South America, Natives, society, geography etc

Description

Selling is a 1942 magazine article about:
Peru
Title: The Pith of Peru
Author: HENRY ALBERT PHILLIPS
Subtitled “A Journey from Talara to Machu Picchu, with Memorable Stopovers”
Quoting the first page “No other country on the globe presents more surprising contrasts than Peru.
Peru is a composite of the entire South American Continent. She shares nearly everything found within the borders of her sister Republics, from arid desert to luxuriant vegetation, from coastal plain to highest mountains, from dried-up cities, such as Talara, Salaverry, and Mollendo on the west coast, to well-watered Iquitos, over the Andes on the Amaz** (river name blocked by eBay!). Finally, the Andes cut the Republic into two parts, giving it the variety and benefits of three zones of climate.
Similarly in history. Peru represented mother Spain as the Viceregal State, enjoying the highest honors, the most powerful privileges, and the richest perquisites of colonial life. Peru's associations with the Conquest were the most brilliant, the most colorful, and the most harrowing of all. Records and remains of the rise and fall of both the pre-Inca and the Inca Empire are within the boundaries of what is now Peru.
Although I had previously traversed Peru many times, by land, sea, and air, it was not until I settled down and spent some time in Miraflores, that well-named "Behold the Flowers" suburb of Lima, that I could honestly say I was beginning to get under the skin of Peru and feel what it was all about.
In Miraflores I found quarters with a high-caste family. We lived the "patio life" of Old Spain, with that additional touch of Indian civilization that makes for the real Peruvian. Our dwelling was up a quiet side street shaded with pepper and flame trees.
You pulled a bell handle at one side of a fancy grilled gate which permitted an enviable glimpse of our flower-draped patio with its walls and benches and tinkling fountain of genuine Valencian tiles. In due time Florentino would come to the gate, buttoning his white coat on the way. If you looked sharp, you could see Christina peeping through the portiere. Jose would steal halfway down the stairs, broom in hand.
Going into Lima from Miraflores was always an adventure. I never hurried. I have seen cases in which hurry spoiled South America.
I turn the corner into the "Rambla," as I call it, because the shaded promenade is so reminiscent of the Rambla on which I used to stroll to the bird market in Barcelona. I sigh as I glance at the huge ancient ceiba trees at the near-by Circle being cut down to make a two-way motor road.
Like a true Mirafloriano, I sit down appreciatively for a moment, and thus become part of the scene. I catch the spirit of the gathering of helados boys-the "Good Humor" ice-cream peddlers of Peru-who can't seem to make up their minds whether or not to jump aboard their bicycle carts.
'Women pass by on their way from market, their baskets filled with strange fruits and vegetables half smothered in flowers. Indian serrant maids drift about everywhere. They are. distinguishable by the two braids down their back, tied with red ribbon.
At length I reach the corner where the big colonial house stands behind the wall with the candlelit shrine. There pious passers-by may enjoy a prayer through the wrought-iron grill. I have to stand aside while the district irrigation controller regulates the flow of irrigation water released into the district's sluiceway gutters for the daily allotment.
Every property owner has his own little side sluice, left open just long enough to flood his grounds. By this means the flowers and shade trees, all the green boulevards and parks, the golf courses and cricket grounds of a great city originally laid out on an arid plain are watered by the melting snows from distant mountaintops.
I wait at the stop sign until the huge bus comes roaring along. For three cents I enjoy a leather-cushioned four-mile scenic ride into Lima. Shade trees line the boulevards. Spanish-style mansions dot the way with flowers climbing over walls in which majolica shrines are often set. Long vistas of new houses reflect a building boom, the disappearing patio giving way to unwalled balconies.
All roads enter Lima with a grand gesture worthy of the "City of Kings," so-called because it was founded on Epiphany, Feast of the Three Kings. Parks are landscaped tropical…"
7” x 10”, 30 pages, 6 B&W and 29 color photos plus map
These are pages carefully removed from an actual 1942 magazine.
42H2
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