Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections, 2015.196.59.7, Connecticut Historical S ...

Flyer: Semana de la Independencia del Peru

DistributorDistributed by Peruvian American Cultural Association of Connecticut

MediumPaper

ClassificationsInformation Artifacts

Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections

CopyrightIn Copyright

Object number2015.196.59.7

DescriptionFlyer, Peruvian American Community Center, Semana de la Independencia del Peru.

NotesSubject Note: Connecticut is home to a growing community of Peruvian immigrants, the state’s second largest Latino/a group after Puerto Ricans. Approximately 40,000 Peruvians live in Connecticut, and Stamford has Lima, Peru as its sister city. The Peruvian American Community Center has been celebrating the homeland’s Independence in Stamford since 1991. Several Peruvian restaurants across the state serve a variety of regional cuisines, and Peruvian newspapers publish in Connecticut. Peruvian community members work in both service industry and white-collar jobs. The first Peruvian Club in Hartford was formed in 1966, and the Peruvian American Cultural Association was formed in 1992 by musician Armando Zarazu and was active for several years in organizing events such as these depicted. Later a prominent organization that began as a Hartford association of professionals from the Ancash region developed into the Association of Peruvian American Professionals. A long-running Peruvian music show broadcasts on WTRC/Trinity College radio station since 1978. The Peruvian Consulate has established an office in Hartford to provide services to the community. The Consulate has sponsored several cultural activities over the years, including a celebration of Peruvian Independence Day on July 28 with events such as a celebration mass at St. Joseph Cathedral in Hartford and sometimes at performing arts spaces in Hartford. Stamford remains an active base for the Peruvian community and draws artists and audiences from New York.

A notable activity of the Peruvian community in Hartford takes place annually in October. The Brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles (HESMIPERU), a religious fraternity organized locally in 1968, holds a mass and solemn procession through the streets around Our lady of Sorrows Church, carrying its revered statue of the Lord of Miracles. The group, which includes a women’s auxiliary and office holders, organizes social as well as religious events in the community. Their festivals include music, dance, and the special fried cakes called picarones. CCHAP collaborated with WNPR to record the sounds and images of this festival in 2008.

CCHAP has been documenting Peruvian traditional arts activities including folk music and dance, and community festivals such as the Lord of Miracles Procession. We began in 1993 by working with a remarkable Peruvian craftsman, Romulo Chanduvi, whose traditional woodcarving became part of CHAP’s first exhibit, Living Legends: Connecticut Master Traditional Artists. We involved the folk dance group Danzas Peruanas in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program and also encourage the dancers from Peru Folklore group. In 2005 CHAP assisted the Hartford-based group Negrura Peruana to be featured in the Homegrown: Music of America series sponsored by the American Folklife Center, performing at the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.

Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this community

Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.

Status

Not on view