Drums for Rancas
Manuel Scorza

Both a lyrical ballad of protest against exploitation and the chronicle of a real event, Drums for Rancas was an immediate success since its publication in 1970. Set in the central Andes department of Cerro de Pasco, it recreates the uneven fight carried out by the peasant community of Rancas against oppressive landlords, corrupt government officials, and a multinational mining company that illegally appropriates their native land.

Adopting experimental literary techniques -such as fragmentation and frequent jumps in time-, and probably introducing corporate imperialism into the universe of Andean literature, Scorza reports the expropriation of land that the Cerro de Pasco Corporation carried out in the early 60s -simply by raising a wire fence all over the place. The community members watch helplessly the impetuous growth of the fence -which they initially envision as a terrible, mythical monster that devours their land. "How can we fight against the Corporation, father? The police, the judiciary, the rifles: it owns all", wonders one of them before deciding to revolt.

Ironic and tragic, cruel and surreal, Drums for Rancas is the first of a 5-novel cycle, called The Silent War, that denounces the abuses inflicted to central Andes communities by local bosses and the Cerro de Pasco Corporation.

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