Deep Rivers
José María Arguedas

A writer and anthropologist, Arguedas work is moulded by the belief that Peru is divided in two cultures -the Andean of Quechua origin, and the urban of European roots-, that should integrate harmonically in a multicultural society. Born in the Andean city of Andahuaylas, in one of the poorest regions of the country, Arguedas became familiar with both cultures since a very young age. The early loss of his mother and the frequent absences of his father -an itinerant lawyer-, pushed him to look for the company of the indigenous servants. He soon learned the language and internalised the myths and beliefs of the Quechua culture.

Ernesto, the character-narrator of Deep Rivers, is too the son of a wandering lawyer that was brought up by Quechua servants: a child of two worlds. Although Arguedas wrote his novel in Spanish, he used diminutives and occasionally shifted the structure of the sentences to mimic Quechua, in the attempt to characterize the cultural divergence of the country.

Deep Rivers is a profound rapprochement to the mythical universe of the Quechua, their strong attachment to nature, and the persistence of their traditions -in spite of the overwhelming pressure of western culture. It is, moreover, a realistic representation of the deep and invisible undercurrents of native-American culture that flow beneath the evident surface of a much Occidentalised country.

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