A tenured lecturer in the Social Anthropology Department at the University of Barcelona since 1995. His areas of interest are Andean ethnography and development anthropology.
Participation in MEDIOS
My research bears the title “New expressions of Andes-phobia: Native Americans, Cholos and mass media in Bolivia and Peru”. This research consists of two main objectives. Firstly, it aims to present a definition and characterisation of the phenomenon we will call “Andes-phobia”. I define this as the complex of discourses and representations surrounding the Quechua-Aymara and Chola population of the Central Andes which present a stereotyped and denigrating vision of such collectives. I reconstruct their historical origin and underline their specificities in comparison with other racist discourses present in Europe and throughout the Americas.
Secondly, I analyse the possible reasons for which Andes-phobia does not seem merely not to have diminished in recent decades in Bolivia and Peru, but rather to have got worse in diverse social spheres. My research dedicates particular attention to the role of the audiovisual communications media. During the last decade, this phenomenon is illustrated by the proliferation on television of programmes or comedy series presenting an essentialist and grotesque image of Andean characters, such as the controversial case of La paisana Jacinta in Peru. Analysis of examples taken from such programmes will help to explain the media construction of the Serrano/Cholo native American based on a series of Andes-phobic stereotypes, as well as the reproductive and amplifying effect that such programmes can have on the socially entrenched prejudices inspiring them.
