COLONIAL CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS RACISM IN ANDEAN REGION

CONSEQUENCES TO AYMARA YOUTH

Abstract

Racism in the Andes was built in colonial times, but they do not directly point to colonial religion as one of the means of racial construction. This study aims to determine the influence of beliefs in colonial Catholic religious images of “white race” in the construction of racism in the young people of the Aymara people of Peru. Qualitative research was conducted through active participatory observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups in the different social spaces of the populations of the Aymara people. In addition, data from secondary sources were used. Aymara young, idealize the religious idols represented in Catholic imagery, tend to identify the “sanctity” and “power” of religious idols with their status as white people. For this reason, these
young people are predisposed to consider their fellow earthling’s “sinners” and “weak” because of their status as “dark race”.