Born on May 3rd, 1921, Manuel Llamojha Mitma fought without the use of violence for the land rights and national inclusion of campesinos. Llamojha preferred the term campesinos to Indigenous because it allowed people to feel more connected to their Quechua ancestry and got rid of the labels given to them by the Spanish and higher officials in Peru. His captivating story is organized through Jaymie Patricia Heilman’s own writing using a mixed range methodology including excerpts from documents written by Llamojha, testimonials from Llamojha and his family members, and archival records. Throughout his life, Llamojha recalls the immense struggles faced by him and members of his community including the lack of sufficient, good quality land and the discrimination and mistreatment from hacendados and the Peruvian government. One persistent struggle Llamojha faced was being accused of being part of the Peruvian Communist Party- Shining Path in the 1980s which was responsible for the deaths of 69,000 Peruvians. These accusations forced Llamojha and his family to flee their home and live in the city of Lima for almost two decades. Nevertheless, Llamojha continued his work as an activist. His ability to read and write, which was not common among campesinos at that time placed him in a position of leadership among other campesinos in rural Peru.
Quotes:
“Campesinos have fought so much and suffered so much, during colonial times and republican times, too. We need the future world to know about this, the suffering of the campesinos.”((Jaymie Heilman and Manuel Llamojha Mitma, Now Peru Is Mine: The Life and Times of a Campesino Activist (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016),14.))
“We used to write ‘indigenous campesino community’ because representatives of the high authorities came and said ‘you are an indigenous community.’ So we accepted that and started to write documents and memos, always writing ‘indigenous campesino community.’ But later, we wanted to suspend use of that word. ‘Why should we write that?’ we asked.”((Jaymie Heilman and Manuel Llamojha Mitma, Now Peru Is Mine: The Life and Times of a Campesino Activist (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016),12.))
“Because I was the only boy in the pueblo who knew how to read, no one else, the kids followed me around.”((Jaymie Heilman and Manuel Llamojha Mitma, Now Peru Is Mine: The Life and Times of a Campesino Activist (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016),25.))
“I organized a tenants’ union and we began the struggle. I started to draw up documents. I went with my typewriter. I drew up documents and got peasants to sign them. I always walked around with my typewriter, I wrote petitions, and got all the people to sign.”((Jaymie Heilman and Manuel Llamojha Mitma, Now Peru Is Mine: The Life and Times of a Campesino Activist (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016),49.))
“You have to struggle. You have to organize the masses well and not abandon them. You have to continue the struggle until you attain all the peasantry’s goals, until you attain the goals of the pueblo, which needs to liberate itself from the clutches of tyranny.”((Jaymie Heilman and Manuel Llamojha Mitma, Now Peru Is Mine: The Life and Times of a Campesino Activist (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016),188.))
Timeline:
Published Work:
Now Peru Is Mine: The Life and Times of a Campesino Activist by Jaymie Heilman and Manuel Llamojha Mitma
