Documentary: "Hugo Blanco, río profundo"

Written by Emilio Salaverry

     Today I watched the documentary on Hugo Blanco. I have heard a lot about Hugo Blanco, but never read or watch anything in-depth. Honestly, I was fascinated by his life and struggle. Blanco was a community leader that organized peasant farmers to fight for their right and take back land from the wealthy. Just to be clear, I do not pretend to be an expert on his life, but I wanted to share some thoughts about his philosophy and ideology. There are four aspects I am going to focus on; his commitment to organization of the people, him being blacklisted by the Peruvian government and Sendero Luminoso, the new language he preached after Mexico and the differences between him and Sendero Luminoso. 

     Blanco believed the path to real change was organizing the farming communities into one powerful unit. In fact, he did not believe in having one person to represent the people or community; he said that men make mistakes and the temptations are vast; however, when grassroots movements are well organized they can make decisions in consensus. He also said that it is much better if the whole unit makes a mistake than an individual. Likewise, he trusted that the communities understood their realities and identified their needs much more than a couple of individuals. Above all, this philosophy had the aim to encourage people to organize collectively so that it can lead to self-government in their communities. For example, all the communities he worked with had assemblies; in these groups all decisions were made jointly. He even goes as far as attributing his freedom to the power of a unified movement that assisted him in getting amnesty from President Juan Velasco Alvarado. Finally, his entire philosophy of how to make a revolutionary change was based on cooperatively organized units of people rather than standing behind an individual leader. 

     Secondly, at one point in Blanco’s life, he was on the government’s and Sendero Luminoso’s blacklist; however this predicament actually saved his life. After spending 8 years in jail, Blanco continued with his efforts to create an agrarian reform and take back lands from the landowners and give it back to the peasant farming community. In fact, he would openly say that there were never landowners in Peru until the Spanish came and took the land from the people. However, this could be debatable, we cannot forget about the Incas dominance and oppressive governing styles, but this is not up for discussion for this post. Meanwhile, Fujimori was elected president, main promoter of Neoliberalism in Peru; as a result, it was only natural to have Blanco on the blacklist of the Peruvian Intelligence Agency which was looking to open up Peru to foregin investments. So, apart from creating opposition to the Fujimori administration, he was also reaching the peasant farmers and created a natural competition between him and Sendero; they both tried to reach the same crowd; nonetheless, with very different methods. Consequently, his work and activism made him a target of the most deadliest terrorist group and the most corrupt and shady government in history; thus it was only a matter of time that Blanco’s life would come to an end. It is important to point out that both the government and Sendero eliminated any and all opposition that would not get in line. Under these circumstances, Blanco voluntarily accepted deportation and went to Mexico with his family. As you can see, jail and deportation actually saved his life. 

     After Mexico, Blanco came back preaching a new gospel; he was influenced by Zapatismo. This new horizon inspired him to think and speak differently. For example, he now believed in building up power, not taking it by force. He says that was Sendero's most costly mistake; they were trying to convince the people with terror and not arguments. Another shift was in how he conducted himself; now he listened more and taught less. It is clear to me that he was not trying to indoctrinate his followers, but he was trying to work cooperatively, identify their real needs and empower communities to demand and fight for their rights. In fact, he emphasized that the assemblies needed to base their necessities in their reality and not try to imitate Europe. With all this in mind, another variation in his philosophy was that of an inner revolution of oneself. People needed to change from the inside to really make a significant change. Finally, this new language reinforced fundamental differences between his ideology and Sendero’s violent thinking. These are some ways Hugo Blanco was inspired by the Zapatismo. 

Retrieved from https://lavozdeperu.com/

     Last but not least, I want to use the next few lines to differentiate Hugo Blanco and Sendero Luminoso. First, Blanco believed that decisions were made democratically in assemblies organized by the communities and not by a political party or even forced by violence. In fact, the assemblies were the governing bodies and not the political party. Another essential difference was the methods; a group of leaders in the Sendero faction decided to use weapons and terrorism to put forth their political agenda, in Blanco’s words “it was a huge mistake done by a few and not the whole unit”. Finally, in my opinion, I think the most theoretical change was that Blanco’s struggle was one of race and racism, but Sendero’s struggle was one of social classes. These are just some of the fundamental differences between Blanco and Sendero Luminoso. 

     In conclusion, Hugo Blanco was at the heart of a fundamental effort for agrarian reform in Peru. He believed that in order to reach a genuine revolution it needed to come from a collectively organized grassroots movement. The people needed to make the decisions and not an individual or political party. Hugo Blanco’s efforts were vital to the organization of peasant farmers in Peru and his methods were undisputedly different from that of terrorism