The reality behind the exotic façade
In the second of a new series of prize-winning entries in the IOM’s Media and Migration Competition, second place Cristina-Elena Staicu relates the story of Peruvian musician Peter Messa and his difficulty adapting to a new life in Romania
Think of Peru. Think of a young Peruvian boy playing a soothing song with a zampoña (a traditional Peruvian panpipe), wearing a blue poncho and a chupas (a traditional Peruvian bag) in which he carries his flutes.
Picture his figure, with straggly coal-like hair; calm, pitch-black eyes; and an earring with a small silver feather dangling in his ear. Feel the beats of his percussion instrument, the rhythm of the Amazon jungle itself.
Now place this boy in the concrete capital of an East-European country – Romania, to be more precise. Quite a big discrepancy, isn’t it?
Twenty-two-year-old Peter Messa is a young Peruvian musician who came to Romania with his entire family almost three years ago. He is part of the Sin Fronteras (Without Borders) band, alongside his father and uncle, and he is the youngest member of his family.
The Embassy of Peru issued them an invitation to Romania to help promote Peruvian traditional music and handicraft in Bucharest and Mamaia. The band had great success from the beginning, and the handicrafts were very popular. But Peter had a very hard time adjusting to Romania, and he is still struggling to adapt since he came here in the winter of 2008.
Imagine an Eskimo leaving his comfortable igloo and stepping directly on a hot, sunny beach in Miami. He would have the same kind of thermal shock that Peter experienced when he first came to a wintery, ice-cold Romania.
His reaction is understandable. He comes from Trujillo, the Peruvian town known as the City of Eternal Spring, where even on the coldest day of winter, the temperature never falls below 15 degrees Celsius.
It was also the first time that Peter and his family had ever seen snow. “It was quite an interesting experience, but not pleasant at all,” claims the young man.
The transition was one of the hardest things he had to endure physically and he feels he “will never get used to the cold”.
Bureaucracy stands in the way
The climate wasn’t the only obstacle he had to overcome. He and his family had to deal with the bureaucratic process of getting residence and work permits. The process is even more tedious for non-EU countries, such as Peru.
For the Messa family, the situation was even more complicated because in Romania, making handicrafts isn’t considered standardised employment for non-EU citizens.
“It was difficult to obtain documents,” says Peter. “We had to run a lot to get them all. We had help from the embassy, too. We didn’t know what documents we needed.”
The Messas didn’t know anything about this country when they first came here, and sources of information were scarce. The help of the Peruvian Embassy was very valuable for Peter’s family, and eventually they managed to resolve their legal issues. But the legal part can sometimes be the easiest aspect of the integration process, when compared with the challenge of surviving in a new country, without any clue about its customs, people and language.
The language was a difficult hurdle for all the members of the family. It was especially hard for Peter’s mother Lili, and his grandmother, who even now speaks only a few words in Romanian.
There are no Romanian language courses offered for immigrants by the authorities, unless you have an employer to pay for them. So they had to face the ordeal of a job that presupposes communicating with people in a foreign language.
Learning the basics proved easy enough for Peter, as his native tongue of Spanish has many vocabulary similarities with Romanian. The problem was pronunciation.
“It was very hard with the accent and the weird sounds, the words with diacritical marks. It was very hard to pronounce,” says Peter.
Cultural preconceptions
Establishing a bridge of communication wasn’t the only challenge they had to face. There was always the issue of public perception. The family band’s street performances exposed them to the Romanian people in more ways than one. Peter experienced many times the piercing gazes of those who find them derisive. “Some people look at us as if they’re watching circus freaks,” he says.
In the eyes of the public they are the epitome of exotic, a view that leads to many preconceptions and cultural stereotypes. This automatic label of ‘exotic’ prevents people from seeing beyond the coloured costumes and getting to know the real person. The Romanians are fascinated by the Peruvians, but only on a superficial level.
Peru is somewhat unknown in these lands. People know very little about its history, traditions and people. And there’s the additional factor of the Peruvian community in Romania being tiny, so contact between these nationalities is rare.
Yet Romanians don’t view Peruvians as threats, as they tend to see others who are more common here (such as Moldavians, Turkish and Chinese because the latter are the ones who can “steal” their jobs.
Peter feels that he and his family are the only Peruvians in the country. “We haven’t encountered other fellow citizens. We’re the only ones.”
Even though Romanians don’t understand him, Peter says he tries his best to understand them. He has read a lot about Romania’s history, about Dacia and Stephen the Great, and was impressed by it. However, he still felt that Peru’s culture and history are a lot richer and more diverse.
The young man thinks that there are many cultural differences between the two countries, but many similarities as well. In Peter’s opinion, the whole thing “is a matter of opinion. You can choose to think we’re different, or you can choose to think we’re the same.”
Hard work brings success
Peter was pleasantly surprised when he discovered Romanian folklore. For a passionate musician such as himself, it was a true revelation to listen to traditional Romanian music, and play flutes and panpipes similar to his. He was attracted by the cheerful, vivid folkloric music, very different from his country’s traditional softer songs.
Peter learned everything he knows from his family and the music school he attended back in Peru. In his performances with Sin Fronteras, he can play up to five instruments (different kind of flutes, percussion, and mandolin) within one song.
When he’s not on tour with the band, Peter accompanies his mother with the family’s handicrafts stall, which travels throughout Bucharest in order to reach as many people as possible. It is also cheaper to have a mobile stand than a permanent one.
The effort is not in vain. Romanians by and large have been very receptive to Peruvian art. The stand is always surrounded by girls attracted by colorful handmade accessories and alluring music.
Peter is in charge of the musical aspect while his mother Lili deals with the customers, always with a smile on her face. She makes a ritual out of every transaction, trying to make conversation with every person who comes to take a look despite her poor Romanian.
Lili Messa appreciates authenticity and is very determined to keep the traditional values and standards in her family. All the materials she uses are imported from Peru, and all items are hand-made here by the crafty women in the family. The collection includes necklaces made of bones, bracelets made of bamboo, earrings made of seeds and all sorts of rings. The selection of handmade objects is very wide and the prices are accessible for everybody.
Still, things aren’t how they used to be. People admire more than they buy. Even though their financial situation isn’t critical, the Messa family has to make some sacrifices in order to survive. For instance, Peter had to cancel his annual trip to Peru this year, although he was really looking forward to it. He misses his friends from back home as he doesn’t have many friends here. That’s not because he’s unsociable, but because the circumstances aren’t right for him to create new relations. When he’s not working he’s rehearsing, and vice versa.
When asked if he’s happy here, Peter doesn’t ans-wer. He only smiles faintly, with a sad expression on his face. He wants to go back to Peru, no matter what, he says. His big dilemma is that his family wants to obtain permanent residency in Romania.
There are many reasons why moving here was and still is an ordeal for the young Peruvian: the language barrier, the cultural differences, the legal matters and so on.
But the real reason why Peter is still struggling to adapt is the fact that he didn’t come here by choice. He had to follow his family and leave all his dreams at home. The change was too sudden and too abrupt and he had to assume a new identity as a foreigner in a European country. And that can be a heavy cross to bear.
This is an edited version of the second placed entry the International Organization for Migration’s Media Competit-ion, published with the permission of the Migrants in the Spotlight project. For further details visit www.mits-eu.org
