Lima Peru Research Paper

Lima, Peru: “Where All Arts Merge”

Along with its beautiful scenery, Lima, Peru is home to many different cultures. The wide variety of cultures living in Lima helps the arts flourish, making them a big part of what Lima is portrayed to be. From its founding as a crucial spanish turning point, Lima, Peru is now heavily inspired by the arts including music and architecture and is also home to many different people from a variety of different cultures.

Peru is an extremely large and extremely diverse continent, consisting of Eighty-four of the world’s total one hundred three ecosystems. Of the Eighty-four ecosystems, eleven percent is coast, Twenty-eight percent mountains, and Fifty-nine percent jungle is spread all throughout the total 1,280,000

The diversity can be credited to the Spanish conquistadors, most specifically Francisco Pizarro. The Europeans were exploring and hunting for new land for three main reasons: God, gold, and glory. They wanted to spread Christianity, find gold, and they almost expected fame when they returned home from traveling. In 1527, Francisco Pizarro and his one hundred ten person army collided with the indigenous folks living in Peru. When the Europeans arrived in Peru, they brought guns and other weapons, germs and diseases, and new animals. The introduction of new germs to the indigenous people caused the majority of them to die of smallpox, making the population drop at a ratio of 58 to 1 (Tudor School). After a few years had gone by, the Spanish conquistadors marched on the Cusco route and won over the support of thousands of natives (JabzyJoe). The march lead to the founding of Lima by Francisco Pizarro in 1535. The mix of indigenous folks and new Spanish conquistadors is the basis of the diverse culture in Peru

There are many forms of arts present including sculpting, painting, dance, music, spinning cotton, celebrations, and architecture. Many people sculpt and paint to make money, but also to decorate the town; vases and pots are most common. The vases and pots are often colored with various colors or designs to hold people’s attention, or sometimes to tell an individual’s life story, using colors to describe emotions. Dancing and music are also a big part of the culture in Peru. Along all different parts of the country there are different local dances. Some main instruments used to produce the music include: flute, panpipes, violins, native drums, harps, brass, and wind instruments. Typically, local dances are performed while wearing vibrant colors and tend to be a mix of Spanish and African music. Spinning cotton has become popular in Peru as well. Frequently people spin animal's wool such as llama, sheep, and alpaca wool, turn it into yarn, and use the yarn to hand make their clothing. Similar to the common styles of painting, many colors are used to either show what town or village the piece of clothing came from (Discover Peru). Celebrations and festivals are also extremely important on the roads of Peru. About 3,000 festivals take place each year, the reasons varying from birthdays and holidays, to celebrations of life (JabzyJoe). Lastly, architecture is a big form of art as well. For example, Machu Picchu shows the legacy of