Ainoko Aesthetics in the Cordillera: Indigenous Ancestrality, Futurism, and Transpacific-Andean connections in Peru and Bolivia

• In Event: Indigenous Migration

Abstract

This presentation examines the role of Japanese mass culture (anime, manga, video games, K-Pop) in shaping a contemporary Andean visual culture that mobilizes discourses critiquing the colonial legacy in the region. To this end, I analyze representative examples of visual culture in Peru and Bolivia where an Ainoko-Andean aesthetic emerges, considering that “Ainoko” (a Japanese term for a bicultural or biracial person) can reframe the category of mestizaje within the context of Japanese migration to the Andes. From this perspective, I will focus on the work of Nikkei artists (Japanese immigrants or descendants of Japanese people born in Andean territories), such as the Peruvian painter Jorge Miyagui. In an Andean context where Japanese popular culture increasingly exerts its influence on architecture, dance, music, and trade networks, I propose that the interaction between the ancestral Quechua and Aymara heritage and the codes of Japanese mass culture generates alternative futures beyond the metanarrative of West-centric progress.

Author

• Victor Quiroz, Santa Clara University