In the 60s, a group of Cusco filmmakers surprised the world with a new cinema: they looked at “their reality” and transmitted it in images of myth and poetry. French specialists called this way of looking “the Cusco school.” One of those filmmakers was a Nikkei, photographer and filmmaker – Eulogio Nishiyama – to whom we dedicate this writing.
In the photo (from left to right) Eulogio “Chino” Nishiyama, Luis “cholo” Grandson, poet and author of the hymn to Cusco, Andrés “Kilku Warak'a” Alencastre, Cusco poet and landowner. Back: Jorge Vignati (Cusco filmmaker) and Lay (Argentine script), in the
Cusco, migratory magnet
The economic resurgence of the City of Cusco at the beginning of the 20th century was due, among other things, to the application of a law that obliged men between 18 and 20 years old and between 50 and 60 years old to serve in the construction and repair of roads. The controversial “road conscription” law of 1920 allowed Cusco to open both to other departments and to its own mountain range territory.
“Cusco becomes a concentration and distribution center for mountain and mountain products. The Cusco commercial houses practically monopolized trade with these areas with branches in Quillabanba. Products such as tea, coffee, coca, and wood are redistributed almost exclusively in Cusco. In 1934, according to Aguilar, the import of construction wood from Canada had decreased significantly... Cusco will also be the point of transformation of several products from the tropical valleys... There are numerous food industries in the city, such as chocolate and rice processing. , coffee and chestnuts. Its wood market extends throughout southern Peru and reaches Lima” 1 .
In addition to being an administrative center that extends to Madre de Dios and Apurímac, Cusco benefits from its status as an obligatory center in commercial exchanges of the coast and mountain agricultural products, thus becoming an important attraction for the migration of Germans, Spanish, Italians, Turks or Arabs and some Japanese.
The needs of a patriarchal and protocol society
It is in this climate of economic renewal that Otomatzu Nishiyama Mío, a Japanese from Wakayama-Ken, arrives in Cusco. Shortly after arriving, he married Jesús Gonzales López from Cusco.
It was not only the economic movement that attracted the few Japanese who settled in Cusco, but also the characteristics of their society, for example: “Japanese and Cusco formalism coincided: In the Cusco city, mayorazgo was also important ( MN Cusco 1990)” 2 . Cusco was a protocol, patriarchal and hacienda society.
The shops and services were intended to satisfy the needs of the estates and landowners. The first business of Otomatzu Nishiyama, better known as Agustín, and his wife Jesús was the “California” restaurant, which was very well received; However, the family's main business would be the bazaar called “La Baratura”, where they sold various household items, imported goods, clothing, toys, musical instruments, porcelain tableware, etc. The quality of their products and their hard work allowed them to raise five sons and be recognized and loved by the inhabitants of the city of Cusco. Along with them, other Japanese would establish commercial houses, such as Saiki, Homura, Motohasi, Kawamura, among others, whose bazaars would be the most successful in Cusco for several decades.
The compadrazgo, a strongly rooted custom even today, strengthened social ties and relationships: “The Issei danced waltzes, fox trot, boleros, huaynos. They had many social commitments, where the main thing was dancing. They had quite a few compadres because they had a lot of friends who named them godfathers. To those from Cusco, the Nisei from Lima seemed very closed because they did not mix with the Peruvians. Here it was more the Creole way and the friends were from Cusco because the Japanese were very few (JO Cusco July 1990)” 3 .
The cultural effervescence
Cusco, in the first third of the 20th century, was not only one of economic renewal but also social and cultural renewal. The San Antonio Abad University of Cusco entered its Golden Age; young Cusco intellectuals, members of the “Cusco Scientific Center”, already in 1909, had the project of developing the region through “the conquest of the jungle” and published the magazine “Sierra”. During that period, the most important institutions of Cusco civil society were also formed, such as the Society of Merchants and Employees, the Chocolate Makers Guild, the Retail Merchants Association, the University Union, the Bar Association, the Artistic Center, the Philharmonic Society. , the Cosq'o Center for Native Art, the Procultura Women's Society, the Shooting Society and the International Shooting Club, among others.
In the editorial and journalistic field "there are around 18 newspapers that are published in Cusco, between 1901 when the first issue of the newspaper 'El Sol' appeared and the years 1930-31 in which the newspaper Avanzada was published, in addition to 'Comercio del Cusco', founded in 1896….The HG Rozas printing press, founded in 1909, stood out in publishing production because it welcomed many titles by Cusco authors.” The field of arts was not relegated either, plastic artists such as Francisco Olazo, Figueroa Aznar, Francisco González Gamarra, were in full exercise, "When José Sabogal arrived for the first time in Cusco in 1918, these artists had been painting the Indian for years with sentimental, romantic and even political” 4 .
Riders of Chumbivilcas, 1957. Photo by E. Nishiyama. http://www.caretas.com.pe/1439/cine/cine.htm
El Germen: the Cusco photographic environment
Photography was in full development, there were several photographic studios in Cusco: Ochoa, Gonzales, Mesa, Chani, Figueroa Aznar and Chambi, and they had a disturbing and active market. In particular, Chambi moved between salons and special occasions, capturing with his lens not only the external appearance but also the contradictions of the society he photographed.
Indigenismo - artistic and political current - takes on meaning and essence in these effervescent times, uniting intellectuals like Uriel García and Luis E. Valcárcel, with no less than a talented indigenous photographer like Chambi.
In this environment of work, prosperity and cultural dynamism, Eulogio, who was born on December 12, 1920, grew up. Eulogio would learn the family business from a very young age, helping his parents in the care of “La Baratura”, after the school classes at the College of Sciences. But his love for images was also very early: “As a child he collected 35 mm frames that were given away in cinemas and he made his first projector with a lens and a candle” 5 .
At that time, Lima was also experiencing a time of journalistic dynamism. Newspapers such as La Prensa and La Crónica, and even El Comercio, had sections under the title “Provinces.” But it was not the daily social, economic or political development of the “provinces” that interested these media, but like now, then too, they exclusively covered disasters, scandals, crimes or the news of extraordinary events. , such as coverage of the first airplane flight: “On May 24, 1921, Enrico Rolandi made the first Lima-Cusco flight. The feat is published four days later, in the newspaper La Crónica. A journalistic record. Some time later, Velasco Astete repeated the feat and became a hero... "With these lines we offer interesting and detailed information that our correspondent in Cusco, Mr. Martín Chambi, has been kind enough to send us" 6 . According to the investigations of photographer Herman Schwarz; One of the most disturbing photos of Martín Chambi, “The Giant of Paruro,” was also journalistic coverage: today we know that: “it was Juan de la Cruz Sihuana, a giant born in Chumbivilcas, then 50 years old, and who was surprising. to the photographer with his two meters and ten centimeters in height and his weight of three hundred pounds...it was published in the magazine Variedades dated October 4, 1925 7 .
A decade after its discovery, Machupichu was already attracting tourism, and this was felt in the “La Baratura” bazaar. The first tourists began to arrive and Don Agustín and Doña Jesús began selling photographic items. Machupicchu also attracted great personalities and among them the “Parisian painter Tsuguharo Fujita, who spent several months in 1935 in Mexico, with the circle of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and who, while passing through Cusco, would put the already teenager Eulogio his first camera 8 .
The decade of the forties, the period of the highest peak of the large estates in the country, would also be the beginning of serious problems in the peasant world, and inflation caused by the paralysis of export and import trade that, according to some historians , was mainly due to the policies that the Prado government applied to the German, Italian and Japanese immigrants on the already famous list. Doña Jesús, who had been widowed, decided to change her children's surname from Nishiyama to Nisiama, in order to avoid reprisals and they stayed in Cusco, unlike other Japanese, like Saiki for example, who had to migrate to other departments. , or others like Kawamura, who chose to enter the jungle of Madre de Dios and Kosñipata. The family business of the now Nisiama, therefore, continued without major shocks.
Photojournalist Nishiyama
But taking care of the family business would not be Eulogio's priority work, nor would the Economic Sciences degree that he studied at the San Antonio Abad University. From very early on he began taking and developing his own photographs, and set up his laboratory in his father's house located on Q'era Street.
As in any society, the hobby of photography was intended for those who could afford its expensive technology. In the 1940s, in Cusco, the Nishiyama brothers combined business and the pleasure of their hobby: “As photography was one of the hobbies that supported my youthful life, I went at least a couple of times a week, to the house of Mrs. Jesús who was located on Q'era Street where my friend Félix who was taking his first steps in photography. When I met Eulogio, he already had a modern laboratory set up with North American Kodak brand equipment; He was the first to do all his photographic capture work in the 35 millimeter format, breaking away from the general trend among photographers of the time who used 'large' formats, in plates and rolls. Resolution in the enlargements was not a problem for him, since he had top-of-the-line modern equipment and the new films came with different gradations of 'grain' and sensitivity, as well as new formulas of developers with which excellent results were obtained; The first camera I saw him use was a 'Kodak-35', he also had a special enlarger for the Kodak 35 mm format; He was one of the first to use modern developing techniques in Daylight tanks” 9 .
By the beginning of the 1950s, Eulogio was no longer just a fan of photography, but had developed a career as a photojournalist and, as such, he would cover the most important event of the 20th century in the city of Cusco: The earthquake of May 21, 1950.
Chambi “who is already sixty years old and is too accustomed to that old area of narrow streets whose size is the pedestrian and not the vehicles, and where the indigenous peasants with their packs of llamas are a natural part of the urban landscape, walks through the scene of the disaster his eyes blurred with tears…. That a sacred city is destroyed is not a mere disaster; It is a universal cataclysm. From there derives his despondency, and probably from his own fatigue, his inability to see that the Temple could be rebuilt, that this earthquake and others, literal and symbolic, could also be the germ of many changes that were not necessarily negative..." 10 .
But for the young Eulogio it was pure adrenaline: Miguel H. Milla, editor and correspondent of the newspaper La Crónica de Lima, in Cusco, recalled: “Eulogio Nishiyama, who worked with me, when the earthquake began, had held his son and with the other the camera, and he ran out taking photos at the same moment that the earthquake happened, obtaining spectacular views of falling stones, especially of the temple of Bethlehem, that same afternoon he told me: 'I have the photographs' and the next day we sent them on the plane” 11 . He was therefore a born photojournalist.
The second modernization of Cusco, that is, the reconstruction stage of the city, was also a stage of violent changes in the rural area. The emergence of political parties, the complicated reality of the peasants and the structure of the hacienda regime was coming to an end. Cusco in the late 50s and early 60s would live in a great political whirlwind. Although the San Antonio Abad University was no longer in its golden age, academically it did have young politicians who, eager to change the social and economic structures, would fight hard to win the votes of their classmates to be elected in the local student fronts and national. The political disputes between Apra, the Communist Party and the Christian Democrats would reach the national press thanks to Nishiyama's lens: “In July 1961, the 'flag incident' occurred...Manuel Seone Yepes, who then lived in Cuco as activist of the independent movements of Pedro Beltrán, and Germán Alatrista, a furious professional anti-communist and correspondent for La Prensa de Lima, had photographs taken of the red-painted banners with the photographer Nishiyama and communicated the news to their masters. The Beltrán Press made a big scandal, published big headlines, stating that the silk pavilion of the university had been violated by the communists” 12 .
The heirs of Chambi: The Photo-Cineclub of Cusco
Otomatzu Nishiyama Mío, his wife Jesús Gonzales and their children Alejandro, César (in arms) and Eulogio in white, on the right. Courtesy of Dora of Nishiyama.
In the Cusco version, the cinema will be testimonial of reality or it will not exist. Except that reality is reduced to the indigenous reality, and this is reduced, in turn, to its festivals, that is, to its most plastic and colorful side, that is, to its photographic side...Heirs of the photographic art of Martín Chambi , 'the school of Cusqueño Cinema', writes the second great chapter in the history of Peruvian Cinema. His legacy included short documentaries and feature-length fiction: Los invincibles Kanas, Lucero de Nieve, Corpus del Cusco, Corrida de toros y condors, KuKuli, Jarawi, etc. Its main animators: Manuel and Victor Chambi, Luis Figueroa, Eulogio Nishiyama, and César Villanueva” 13 .
After the 1960s, Eulogio became famous: his feature films earned him reports in the international press and trips to the main cultural capitals of the world. Later, the time would come to reunite with the land of his ancestors: he would make the return trip that Otomatzu, his father, could not make to his homeland in Wakayama-Ken, Japan. There he will meet Simón, his older brother.
Fair recognition
In the 80s, Cusco would host various study centers and non-governmental organizations interested in the rescue of memory, whether oral or visual. In 1987, Deborah Poole, North American anthropologist, and photographer Fran Antmann arrived at the Bartolomé de las Casas Study Center, and from there they began a commendable work of recovery and discovery of various photographic archives, creating the Andean Photo Library, the most important photographic archive. of the southern Andean. Eulogio, who had already organized the first retrospective exhibition of photography in Cusco in 1968, being director of the American Institute of Art, will also have an important role in supporting the work of the researchers and those who would later take over in the administration and monitoring of the work started: Adelma Benavente. This institution cataloged approximately 80,000 negatives of Nishiyama's work, but was unable to complete their acquisition for purely economic reasons.
In 1990, the Fototeca Andina, the Bartolomé de las Casas Center and the Social Photography Workshop (TAFOS) will pay a special tribute, and during his lifetime, to Eulogio's work and work with a celebratory exhibition: “50 years of sight.” The curatorship was in charge of Adelma Benavente and Carlos Gutiérrez, the people of Cusco attended the event en masse 14 .
For her part, Denisse Okuyama, a young social communicator from the University of Lima, who kept an article from the newspaper “Perú Shimpo” since her childhood, which talked about a Cusco filmmaker of Japanese origin, expresses: “it left me impressed. for all my life. A Japanese who made films from Cusco and in the photography appeared sitting as if among clouds, he seemed to me like Kurosawa.” Already a professional, Denisse fulfilled her wish to meet Eulogio and also organize, together with Juan Tokeshi, Ichi Terukina, Sergio Saito and Rumi Morimoto, the exhibition: “Nishiyama Cusqueño photographer”, held in 1994 at the premises of the Peruvian Cultural Association Japanese 15 .
And we come to the end of our story. Just as Chambi's Cusco disappeared, the social and economic conditions that gave rise to the Cusco Cinema Club and with them Eulogio, “El Chino Nishiyama,” also disappeared. Death overtook him at the age of 76 in 1996 16 .
Bibliography and references:
1. de Azevedo OD, Paulo Cusco. Historic city, continuity and change, Peisa. 1982. Pages. 23 and 24.
2. Fukumoto, Mary Towards a new Sun. Japanese and their descendants in Peru. Page 494
3. Loc cit.
4. Kuon Arce, Elizabeth. The Qosco. Anthropology of the city. In: Cusco in the 1920s. Ministry of Education of Japan and Center for Andean Studies Cuzco, 1992. Pages.53, 54
5. http://www.caretas.com.pe/1439/cine/cine.htm (July-2007)
6. Schwarz, Herman in Caretas Magazine http://www.caretas.com.pe/2000/1650/secciones/cultural.phtml (July-2007)
7. Schwarz, Herman in Caretas Magazine http://www.caretas.com.pe/2000/1650/secciones/cultural.phtml (July-2007)
8. Watanabe, José in Caretas Magazine. http://www.caretas.com.pe/2000/1619/articulos/nikeis.phtml (July-2007)
9. Marín Manga, Raúl. Personal testimony.
10. Huayhuaca del Pino, José Carlos. Men of the Frontier. Essays on cinema, literature and photography. Martín Chambi, Photographer. Editorial Fund of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. 20001.Page 268
11. Marín, Patricia, Diario La República, Cusco Imperial in rubble, June 24, 2007
12. Tamayo Herrera, José. Brief history of a historian (An essay of ego history). Center for Country and Region Studies.1989. Pages 86 and 87
13. Huayhuaca del Pino, José Carlos. The enigma of the Screen, essays on cinema, University of Lima, 1989. Pages 25,26.
14. Benavente, Adelma, personal testimony
15. Okuyama, Denisse, personal testimony.
16. We appreciate the collaboration of Dora de Nishiyama and Honoria Delgado in writing this article.
* This article is published under the Agreement with the San Marcos Foundation of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima – Peru.
© 2007 Patricia Marín
