What about the first 50 years of Peru? Those were reached in 1871. Seeing a country that is relatively young gives us the refreshing opportunity to see history with new eyes and reflect on the path taken. Two drawings lay in front of me. These are scenes built with these milestones in mind. Each one has in the background a structure long gone. One has the shape of the triumphal arc at the center of the city, with the phrase God and the King replaced by God and the nation The other one has the shape of the mechanical clock that Peruvian engineer Pedro Ruiz Gallo built for the international exhibition of 1871.

The exhibition took place in an area where not much before were standing the colonial walls of the city before being demolished to allow the new capital to grow on the back of a thriving bonanza in the trade of guano, a natural fertilizer that was the main export of those years. Fertilizers and another chemical elements were sought after. Another one was salpeter, that can be found in the southern deserts of the country.

It was from those deserts that the war will come, and in 1883, amidst the ravaging of the capital, the clock will be destroyed and its structure serve as barrack for soldiers, ending the dreamy era that created it. Pedro Ruiz Gallo also will be a victim of these times, dying while supervising some torpedoes to deploy. The arc I mentioned earlier was also destroyed, and the clock dissapeared slowly, a symbol of the illusion and demise.

From then on, the country would heal and built itself for the upcoming century, looking forward to the next 50 years. When the time arrived, in 1921, however, a fire had destroyed the presidential palace and it has t be replaced with a makeshift structure to receive international delegations. The next iteration would be in 1971, with a military government with leftist leaning pushing forward an agrarian reform according to the times of which a definitive balance has not been done, even now, in 2021, polarisations appear to be the default mode of most sectors of society. The country is still a project in development.

1821,1871,1921,1971. 2021.