One can judge a nation by how it treats the conquered. And, in the Americas, the conquered too often have been indigenous.
In the United States, native people were banished to reservations. In Mexico, impoverished Indians still are battling authorities in the state of Chiapas. In Peru, however, the tables might be turning. Last week, Peruvian voters made Alejandro Toledo their first democratically elected president of Amerindian descent.
Hollywood could not have written a better story. The dark-skinned Toledo, the eighth of 18 children, spent his early years living in shacks in the Peruvian highlands where he helped his father tend sheep. To pitch in, young Alejandro sold newspapers and polished shoes. His work ethic and sunny disposition caught the eye of American Peace Corps workers who eventually helped him earn a scholarship to the University of San Francisco. More goodies followed: a stint at Harvard, a doctorate from Stanford and a post as an adviser to the World Bank.
And while it is not unusual for those who are invited to sit at buffet tables filled with opportunities to forget their way back home, Toledo remembered. He returned to Peru to head up the opposition movement that sent President Alberto K. Fujimori into exile in Japan, his ancestral homeland, amid accusations of corruption and vote-rigging in the 2000 presidential election. Toledo, whose loss to Fujimori in last year’s tainted vote served as his springboard for this year’s run for the presidency, was treated to a barrage of character assaults by entrenched interests loyal to Fujimori. The candidate made himself an inviting target when he was caught in a series of inaccurate statements. Ultimately, Toledo and his Peru Posible party pulled out a victory over his opponent, Alan Garcia, himself a former president whose own tenure had been turbulent.
Peruvians gave Toledo about 52 percent of the valid vote, but they didn’t exactly hand over their trust. On election eve, polls showed that a majority of voters considered both candidates untrustworthy. An estimated 12.5 percent of them registered their disgust with their choices by casting blank ballots.
That public distrust and cynicism is also part of what Toledo now inherits, along with the responsibility of leading a country of 27 million people.
The Toledo victory makes this an excellent time for the most powerful nation in the Americas to practice some humility toward its Latin neighbors. In approaching the new government, U.S. officials would be wise to note that Toledo captured more than 70 percent of the indigenous vote. Though it represents 82 percent of Peru’s population, this segment–impoverished and discriminated against–has little reason to trust either politicians or elections. Yet it believes in Toledo, who sought the indigenous vote and never downplayed his Indian ancestry.
When he takes office, Toledo will undoubtedly serve as an inspiration to other indigenous populations in the Americas, including the Mexican Zapatistas, who have taken up the gun for fairer treatment and greater opportunity. His victory already seems an endorsement of the powerful idea that ballots can get you further than bullets.
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