Arequipa, founded in 1540 in southern Peru, constitutes an exceptional case of synthesis and mestizaje reflected in both its architecture and urban configuration.
As part of the cycle History and Ibero-American Heritage Cities, next Tuesday at 6 PM in its Simón Bolívar Hall, Casa América presents the conference Arequipa: the persistence of mass and the aesthetics of dispossession as a synthesis of the Ibero-American city.
The presentation will be given by Gonzalo Ríos, an expert in Arequipeña architecture and a principal professor at the Universidad Católica de Santa María. Start
Arequipa, founded in 1540 in southern Peru, constitutes an exceptional case of synthesis and mestizaje reflected in both its architecture and urban configuration. Located in a geography of tensions between volcanoes, desert, and inter-Andean valleys, the city gained relevance during the Viceroyalty of Peru as a confluence of commercial and cultural routes. In this scenario, an exceptional local workforce adapted construction knowledge to the telluric conditions, infusing that same strength into its cultural configuration.
Without the initial political relevance of Cusco or Lima, Arequipa gained prominence from its strategic location and a thorough understanding of its resources. Its population developed very early an identity linked to territorial values and a relative autonomy from external influences. Inserted in a rigid grid of Renaissance influence, its architecture is the result of the persistence of builders who learned to strip away the superfluous to create massive forms capable of withstanding recurrent seismic activity. Thus, the city shapes its physiognomy through intense reconstruction processes, improving its structures and incorporating new stylistic repertoires into an almost unalterable stereotomic matrix.
During the period of American Baroque, Arequipa consolidated itself as one of the main centers of architectural production with a direct radiation over a good part of the Andean south. This process should not be understood solely by its stylistic epidermis, but by a particular way of occupying spaces and inhabiting the territory. Already in the republican era, this scenario of ethnic mestizaje positioned it as a bastion of revolutions and the cradle of decisive thinkers for the political and cultural configuration of Peru, such as the Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa.
Given this compelling way of conceiving architecture from identity and persistence, Arequipa is today a paradigm of the harmonious fusion between the Hispanic and the indigenous. Its churches and mansions remain as inspiring models for the contemporary practice of its own architecture. After its declaration as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in the year 2000, the city today faces the challenge of managing the benefits and dangers of mass tourism and gentrification, reaffirming itself as one of the essential references of Ibero-American urbanism and architecture.
After the welcoming words from Moisés Morera, director of Programming at Casa de América, Gonzalo Ríos, an expert in Arequipeña architecture and a principal professor at the Universidad Católica de Santa María in Arequipa, and Alonso Ruiz Rosas, cultural advisor of the Embassy of Peru, will participate. Free entry until full capacity is reached.