Peruvian Journalist Bárbara d'Achille

by Maria Fixemer

Supervisor: Dr. Ursula Münster

Initially, the aim of my project was to find out more about the traveler and journalist, Bárbara d'Achille. I discovered her in a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa who truthfully, with only slight narrative liberties, narrates the murder of d'Achille by the terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso. Thus, prior to my own narration of d'Achille’s story or history, the project was to collect information. After all, the nature of my project depended on the type of sources and information I could get my hands on. Possible forms of presentation were a radio report, a compilation of interviews and a written article. While I conducted my research in Peru, it became apparent that it was very difficult to find interviewees who can talk about d'Achille and are willing to do so. Research in the archive of El Comercio – the newspaper for which she wrote – bore many fruits, however. A historiographic approach was thus possible. The accessibility of my results, the presentation which is to awaken the curiosity regarding the persona of d'Achille, but especially environmental topics in the most recent past of Peru, where naturally age-old environmental conflicts, as well as practices, can be found, and evidence regarding current questions were of particular importance to me. My project has thus become an online article in order to present information about d'Achille, her work, and the historical (and environmental) context. In order to tell a story, and not simply enumerate facts, I selected a particular place which is closely linked to d'Achille and used it as a starting point of my travel: the ''Reserva Nacional 2 Pampa Galeras Bárbara d'Achille''. I was thus able to provide illustrations by means of photographic material. In order to present a further exhaustive overview of d'Achille's actions and the environmental topics of the 1980s, I created an interactive map in the second part of my project. Numerous places can be found therein, which were described by Bárbara d'Achille in her articles and to which she traveled, at least for the most part. Information and photos relating to several articles, in addition to environmental topics discussed therein, are also provided. 

A historical map of Peru is thus created which does not only precisely depict the working and activities of d'Achille, but also indicates environmental topics relating to particular places. It can, therefore, be used as the starting point for further research as well as travel. My target audiences are students and scholars of all disciplines. I would like to draw their attention to a topic which, until now, has only scarcely been investigated: the contemporary history of the Peruvian environment(alism). My idea was to illustrate this topic through an article and to provide inspiration for further research topics by means of the map. The publication and the map, in particular, are furthermore directed at travelers intending to visit places of particular ecological interest. In order to be able to research a field which combines environmental and social questions by accessing newspaper articles, documents in archives and by visiting places, a combination of different approaches from several disciplines were necessary. My courses in environmental history I had been taking at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vienna were particularly beneficial as were the conversations with my supervisor Ursula Münster, which gave an anthropologic perspective to the topic. Both conversations and courses were crucial for my investigation in Peru. My own discipline provided me with the means to analyze the writings of d'Achille, to find, organize and use multidisciplinary secondary literature and, in the end, to tell my own story of Bárbara d’Achille.

Organizing the research in Peru and integrating the travel into my studies in Munich was very challenging. Since winter in Peru offers the best conditions to be able to travel to all parts of that country, I decided to go at that time, i.e. July and August. The summer months were scheduled for the writing of different essays in my main subject at university, Comparative Literature, which is why I had to „skip“ the whole semester. I, therefore, used that time before traveling to improve my Spanish and do an internship in a publishing house for environmental topics, the oekom Verlag.

In Peru, some of my plans went awry. I had originally planned to make 4-5 interviews with people who had known d’Achille or were active in the environmental movement. But it turned out to be really difficult to get in contact with them. So I decided to change my approach: I focussed on the research in the archive, as described above, and on visiting, places and regions d’Achille wrote about. This later became the basis of my article and map.