PETA Gets Catty with Peruvian Gastronomy!

Gastronomy

NOUN:

pl. gas�tron�o�mies

1. The art or science of good eating.
2. A style of cooking, as of a particular region.

Peruvian cuisine may be the best kept secret in the world, and the most delicious! With influences from the Incas (The potato is a native of Peru), to the Chinese and Japanese, to the Spaniards and the Arabs, and of course the African slaves, Peru is home to a unique gastronomic diversity that is the creme de la creme of the Americas!

Year round Peru has multiple gastronomic festivals. During the last week of September 2008 the gastronomic festival “Peru Mucho Gusto” was celebrated Lima, an event that completely SOLD OUT!

It was also during the month of September that another gastronomic festival was held South of Lima in the region of Cañete that had PETA hissing mad! The annual Festival Gastronomico del Gato translated into English as “The gastronomic festival of the cat.” Kitty cuisine is virtually synonymous with Asia, but it’s not the Asian culture that brought Cat eating to Lima!

Cañete historically is the cradle of Afro-Peruvian art. Chincha, is another area close to Cañete and is home to descendents of Afro-Peruvian slaves. When it comes to Comida Criolla (Creole Food) ask any Peruvian where to go and they’ll tell you “Vamos Pa’ Chincha Mi Gente!” (Let’s go to Chincha, my people!)

It is in the regions of Cañete and Chincha where many Africans from the slave trade were forced to work on plantations. One of the most famous plantations is the Castillo Unanue located off of the Cañete river. It was in these plantations that Afro-Peruvian slaves learned to make the most of their limited resources and from this ingenuity and tradition comes the cat based gastronomy.

Afro-Peruvian Saint Martin de Porres.

Afro-Peruvian culture is a rich and highly celebrated culture, it is part of the national identity, whether a Peruvian is actually black or not. So, when an organization like PETA comes along lambasting this gastronomic tradition, it’s a case where harsh words fall on deaf ears.

While PETA is a strong defendant and protester for animal rights, they are also an organization that comes off as intolerant towards foreign cultures and their respective sub-cultures. The Sun quotes a PETA spokesman as saying:

“If Peruvians really eat poor old Moggy because they think his meat cures bronchitis, that’s about as bizarre as it gets, although remember that Asians eat monkey bits thinking that will cure their impotence and even Europeans butcher poor old Bessie the cow or Henny Penny the hen, because they see them as nothing more than a bit of nourishment.”

Peruvians hold on tightly to tradition and superstition. It is believed that eating cat cures bronchial diseases and acts as an aphrodisiac, just as it is equally believed that the Pre-Incan Peruvian hairless dog also holds mystical powers and cures diseases in addition to the Andean Cuy (Guinea pig) that possesses curative properties by passing the cuy over the infirm body. These beliefs are embedded in the Peruvian culture and are near impossible to change.

If PETA wants Peruvians to stop eating cat then they are going to have to go on a crusade comparible to that of the Spanish Inquisition.

As U.S. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said, “Those who shout the loudest are not making the real news in the Americas.”

PETA in this case is not making the news, but rather a loud fuss over a small Puss in Boots gastronomic affair.

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