Racial Conflict and Identity Crisis in Wartime Peru: Revisiting the Canete Massacre of 1881

This article subjects the historiography and evidence of the massacre of Chinese immigrants in the Canete valley by Afro-Peruvian peasants, led by women during the War of the Pacific, to critical analysis in light of recent discussions of the nexus of race, culture and nation. It validates the motives of the peasants who carried out the massacre by examining the event as an aspect of racial and cultural identity formation. The study highlights the self-serving character of contemporary evaluations, and it gives attention to the cultural tensions and ambiguous meanings present in the massacre which illustrate the character of national identity projects in late nineteenth-century Peru.