CULTURE CONSTELLATION
Barranco makes for a comfortable jump-off
to Lima’s constellation of culture. First-
stop: nondescript, workaday Pueblo Libre.
South of Centro and north west from San
Isidro. Larco Museum, established here in
1926, is a dazzling focal point of city pride. A
spiffy showcase for 45,000 pre-Columbian
treasures amassed by Peruvian archaeology
pioneer Rafael Larco Hoyle, generations of
artists, scholars and aficionados, eager to
go deeper into Peru’s rich heritage, esteem
it as a temple. Arranged on 6ft-high shelves,
the museum’s vast collection of ceremonial
vessels — crafted to contain everything from
water to fermented beverages and sacrificial
blood — overwhelms me in a thrilling way,
as do chiaroscuro galleries showcasing
jewellery, armour, ceramics, precious metals
and rich, ancient textiles.
“There’s got to be excitement in art — and
art museums,” says Larco spokesperson
Samantha Encalada. We’re seated in the
museum restaurant, an exquisite jewellery
box in what must be Lima’s most impeccable
botanic garden. Bougainvillea floods over
stately hacienda walls; gnarled, age-old
cactuses rise metres high; every corner
harbours fascinating horticulture, winsome
statuary. As a museum promoter, Samantha
favours sensations over data, plus a focus on
the overall cultural experience. Referring
to outcomes from Peru’s violent 20th
century and current political wrangling,
she asserts that the “old-school Lima” of
select elite families — taking cues from
Europe and the US and all but hostile to the
nation’s ethnic and artistic diversity — is
giving way. A museum that began life as a
solemn reliquary is now a dynamic cultural
centre attracting wider audiences; part of
Samantha’s charge is finding ways for Larco
to bring marginal populations into contact
with the emotion and joy the museum
affords. “We’re expanding our vision of the
Peruvian,” she says.
After so much refinement, it’s time to slide
down into grittier Centro streets, around
iconic Plaza San Martín. For hundreds of
years they served as the city’s commercial
hub, populated by handsome, colonial-
revival office buildings, banks and the
venerable, if tatty, Gran Hotel Bolívar.
May/Jun 2020 115LIMA