Moyanooya
y
A Symbol—and Victim—
of Peru’s Transformation
By Minister Carolina Trivelli
aría Elena Moyano was born in
Lima in 1958. Her life spanned
a period of intense change and
upheaval in Peru. And her death
in 1992 at the hands of Sendero
Luminoso symbolically coincided
with the end of that period.
Beginning in the 1960s, Peru’s modernization was
driven by millions of citizens who sought to improve
their lives, moving from rural areas to cities, and
exercise their rights: to a life of dignity, education, a
patch of land—or even some space on the sidewalk to
sell goods. These millions of small decisions built a
new nation, with the dream that everyone would find
a place. Beyond, or rather beneath, politics, a history
of exclusion was transformed and the basis for a
country for all Peruvians was constructed.
María Elena gave a voice to that cause. A woman of
African descent, she came from the “pueblos jóvenes,”
It was in these pueblos jóvenes that people from
all over the country and from all cultural traditions
came together to build schools, houses and public
places. María Elena’s awareness of how women were
excluded even in the poorest settings drove her to
community work. At 25, she was elected sub-secretary
general of the newly-created Federación Popular de
Mujeres de Villa El Salvador and two years later was
elected its president.
Carolina Trivelli is Peru’s minister of
development and social inclusion.
“The community organizations that she and others helped
create and lead changed squa;er wastelands into new cities.”
MARIANA BAZO MB/SV/REU TERS
64
Americas Quarterly SPRING 2012
AMERICASQUARTERLY.ORG
