Frank: The Silk Road in Peru

It has taken me a long time to appreciate the scope of Perú's multicultural history. As the American-born daughter of a Peruvian woman, I had primarily long been aware of Perú's Native American and Spanish past, and it's only recently that I've begun to try to understand its twofold African legacy from the Moorish-influenced Spanish conquerors and their west-African slaves. More personal to me, though, is the Asian presence due to a great-grandfather who left China in the late 1800s to open a country store in the Andean mountains. Old family photos and my mother's memories bespeak my Chinese forebears' presence in such highland and coastal towns as Colquipocro, Chimbote, Piura, and Moro. Across continents and over several generations, the tendrils of my Asian legacy touched me as a young girl growing up in California as chifa, Chinese-Peruvian stir-fry, was something often prepared in the kitchen by my mother. Ritmos Anchinos is dedicated to my grandfather, Máximo Cam Velazques (1911-1968).
— Gabriela Lena Frank