“The Agrarian Reform was necessary for Peru and was one of the best things that could have ever happened to our country despite the fact that it was poorly managed!” As Professor Diez uttered these words, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
I immediately raised my hand and when he acknowledged me, I replied, “I’m sorry professor, but I don’t agree – this communist act destroyed all of our country’s agro-industry, which is still struggling to recover today.”
Silence fell upon the room. Someone had dared to speak out against Professor Diez, otherwise known as Professor Ten (ten means diez in Spanish) for the few remaining hairs on his bald head. Bearded, bespectacled, and with a prominent beer belly, Professor Diez was known as our school’s task master. A closet socialist with communist tendencies, he had lived during the times of the dictator Velasco (1968-1975), a …show more content…
Family-owned plots of land were overtaken by the government and then divided among the farmers who had worked it. All private media, electric, and water companies were nationalized. School history books were rewritten by the new government, exaggerating Velasco’s accomplishments, diminishing Peru’s failures, and even redrawing the map to make the country look bigger than it actually was.
As for my family, we lost over 1,480 acres of land, forcing my great-grandparents and their children to migrate from the province of Trujillo to Lima, where they had to start all over again. My grandfather, an agricultural engineer, ended up working in a furniture store. Meanwhile, the “campesinos”, who had worked the family land before having it given to them by Velasco, later admitted that their lives had taken a turn for the worse. Unprepared to administer these lands and without enough money to buy farm seeds, they were forced to either sell their lands or abandon them. To this day, the lands remain
I immediately raised my hand and when he acknowledged me, I replied, “I’m sorry professor, but I don’t agree – this communist act destroyed all of our country’s agro-industry, which is still struggling to recover today.”
Silence fell upon the room. Someone had dared to speak out against Professor Diez, otherwise known as Professor Ten (ten means diez in Spanish) for the few remaining hairs on his bald head. Bearded, bespectacled, and with a prominent beer belly, Professor Diez was known as our school’s task master. A closet socialist with communist tendencies, he had lived during the times of the dictator Velasco (1968-1975), a …show more content…
Family-owned plots of land were overtaken by the government and then divided among the farmers who had worked it. All private media, electric, and water companies were nationalized. School history books were rewritten by the new government, exaggerating Velasco’s accomplishments, diminishing Peru’s failures, and even redrawing the map to make the country look bigger than it actually was.
As for my family, we lost over 1,480 acres of land, forcing my great-grandparents and their children to migrate from the province of Trujillo to Lima, where they had to start all over again. My grandfather, an agricultural engineer, ended up working in a furniture store. Meanwhile, the “campesinos”, who had worked the family land before having it given to them by Velasco, later admitted that their lives had taken a turn for the worse. Unprepared to administer these lands and without enough money to buy farm seeds, they were forced to either sell their lands or abandon them. To this day, the lands remain