The alpaca retail industry and exploitation in Cuzco, Peru
One of the most memorable moments of my trip to Peru wasn’t the bitter cold I felt when I got to Cuzco with hardly any fall clothing or the picturesque mounts of Machu Picchu, but watching the locals in Cuzco protesting the tourism industry tied in with exploitation of natural resources of this beautiful country by powerful mining corporations (some of them, Canadian).
My heart truly went out to those people. In this fairly small tourist town you could really see how big business churned profits and how Cuzco natives got the short end of the stick. Almost all of the merchandise being sold in Cuzco is made of cheap polyesters and acrylics. Poverty stricken older ladies (and sometimes gentlemen) stand around busy intersections, near hotels, motels, and busses – where tourists visit or pass through to get to their destination – with ‘alpaca’ hats, gloves, sweaters, and other trinkets.
The country is rich in natural and very valuable alpaca wool and other quality agricultural, mineral, and metal resources, but you won’t find them on a street corner or a local bazaar. And yes, some locals do knit, embroider, and sew their own goods, but they use polyester thread, because it’s the cheapest and that is all they can afford.
I had a moment of shopping madness in one of these bazaars. A very honest sweet Peruvian lady approached me trying to sell skeptical me a sweater by showing that hers were sewn in a circular fashion with one single thread unlike the factory-made sweaters which had the front and back pieces sewn together (with seams on each side). She even opened her plastic bag with her knitting and pointed to the threat she used that did read ‘Alpaca’ on it. In my naiveté fashion I believed her and bought a couple of things right away, only realizing two hours later what had happened.
You see it is a mirage that’s created by the powers at be. The company that sells the thread was probably named ‘Alpaca’ which is meant to mislead the uneducated locals believe it to be real Alpaca thread, because… Well what chance do they have at figuring out the truth? Even I, a journalist with a first-class education easily fell for this little scam. And the truth is, the people naming their thread ‘Alpaca’ know full well that it is misleading and their intention is exactly that, to MISLEAD. They are banking on the fact that they will churn a profit and will not face any sort of punishment, because proving ill intention in a court of law is pretty much impossible, and really, there isn’t anyone to advocate against this lie anyway. If the tourists figure out what’s going on they chuck it up to a lesson learned and move on and that’s the best-case scenario. What’s worse some might blame the impoverished Peruvians.
And some Peruvians might blame tourists as I later learned. After purchasing a couple of knitted (as I later figured out made out of plastic) items I was almost out of Peruvian soles and still wanted to buy a pair of long pants. Cuzco was a lot colder than I anticipated and I only had one pair of cotton leggings and three quarter length sports pants (I managed to lose my wind breaker pants somehow). As I was coming down from my shopping high, while walking down the street with my friends I stumbled on a store with a very cute pair of leggings on display. The sales lady took them off the mannequin and told me, “Ellos son algodon” (They are cotton), she pointed to the very thick inner lining to indicate how warm they were. At that point I found it very hard to believe that these very stretchy leggings which felt like synthetics had any cottom in them at all, but she accepted about two thirds of the price she originally quoted, because I opened my wallet and showed her I was giving away my last soles.
I figured, at least I’d be warm for the next two days in my synthetic pants, so I was happy (some of you might know how much I hate synthetics in clothing). I walked down less than half a block enjoying the sunshine while chatting with friends, when I suddenly felt someone grab the shopping bag out of my hand, I turned and it was the lady from the store. She gave me my money back and told me in an angry tone “Monedas falsos” (Fake money). I already suspected that a lot of the money exchanging hands daily was fake in Cuzco. It was impossible to not pay with counterfeits, because every business or person gave or accepted fake money (except the banks). I brought real money to spend in Cuzco and it wasn’t my fault that crime was so rampant here and counterfeits so common; nor could I realistically start an argument every time I tried to purchase something and got change in fake money. The other issue here was that a lot of people didn’t have change or small bills, so bargaining to get change in legitimate bills and coins wasn’t very realistic. Anyway, I’m guessing in her fit of anger the sales lady decided that she made a bad deal and maybe felt a little ripped off by a white privileged girl so she didn’t want my fake money.
Of course many of the other locals see the truth clearly without riding on an emotional high or at least they suspect it.
While shopping around near Cuzco’s Ollantaytambo touristy sights I asked what the materials were for a hat I was looking at and was told ‘sintetico’ (synthetic). After the excursion, as we were leaving the cute little town in our rented van I caught a glimpse of the middle men / resellers dumping a mountain of merchandise (likely made in China or India) on the ground near the town entrance, which retailers (working on street corners and bazaars) bought at a wholesale price with the hope of reselling the merchandise on the street for a little bit of profit.
The locals are mostly kind and decent people who do what they can to survive, but the sight of the protestors particularly touched me. It takes real guts to peacefully chant on the street day in and day out without resorting to violence, under the rain, and surprisingly cold climate, despite the overwhelming odds against them.
I hope one day I can do more for them, but for now I console myself with writing this blog to share my experience with you.
I also bought myself an adorable knitted alpaca hat from a gorgeous airport store from a very helpful sales lady for about 350 soles (around 130 Canadian dollars), not bazaar prices of 30 soles (C$13).
By:
✘
𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮,
𝓐𝓙☙
