Patriotism or Pay Up

Fiestas Patrias, Peru’s Independence Day holidays, was two weekends ago, July 28-29. Being in another country for their independence day celebrations was fun and yet another cultural experience to participate in.

At the beginning of July, the city put up eight enormous Peruvian flags at the óvalo a block from our apartment.



After that, Peruvian flags popped up on buildings everywhere. The supermercado Wong wrapped up its large building in a giant red and white ribbon, and the unfortunate male baggers who work there had to wear a ridiculous straw cowboy hat/white poncho getup for the week leading up to the party.

On one of my near-daily trips to our mercado in mid-July, I checked out one of the puestos. This particular vendor changes her puesto’s look constantly, depending on what special occasion is coming up. When I bought yellow underwear from her for New Year’s, her stand was 100% yellow. For July, it was a sea of red and white.

Tacked up in the corner of her puesto was a news article announcing that any building not flying the Peruvian flag for Fiestas Patrias was subject to a fine of S/1800 (about $700). She had the sign up to encourage sales: since you have to buy one somewhere, buy it here!

That explained why Christina and Roberto had hung one on the top of our building, and why Manos Amigas had one flying too. It also explained the flags on construction sites, tiny newspaper stands, even the snack carts on wheels.

I asked Christina about it and she nodded, surprised that I was surprised. “It’s the law for the country. It used to be that you had to paint your house for Fiestas Patrias.” “You had to paint the flag on your house?” I asked, shocked. “No, no, you just had to put a fresh coat of paint on it so it would look nice for Fiestas Patrias.”

Flag waving in the US makes me uneasy, as the flag is a very loaded symbol and I have baggage accompanying it. Here in Peru, I have no similar baggage. So we showed our Peruvian spirit by wearing our Peru shirts and waving our little (free) Peruvian flag during the Fiestas Patrias parade.

I even tacked onto my backpack the Peruvian flag pin that the puesto vendor gave me when she heard we were leaving the country soon. None of those things - wearing a USA shirt, waving a US flag, or wearing a flag pin - am I prone to do at home. I suppose the more you know your country, the more you are apt to have conflicting feelings about it.

Still, I do think it’s kind of nuts to mandate the flag display. I appreciate that, back home, I have a choice whether or not I fly the flag on July 4, and that choice won’t cause me to break the law or my bank account.