Historical/Cultural Context

Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)

Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) was formed in the 1960s and 70s through many splits in the Communist Party. As an organization, its ideology is rooted in a combination of Andean mysticism, Maoism, and the world view of its leader and organizer, Abimael Guzman. Guzman called for the abolition of a national market economy, industry, the banking system, all foreign trade, and the use of currency, and for the establishment of a communal, village-oriented economy based on a barter exchange system. Guzman recruited armed supporters among indigenous peoples in the countryside and poor urban districts. By the 1980s, Sendero Luminoso was considered one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere destroying existing Peruvian institutions with bombs and guerilla warfare and replacing them with a communist peasant revolutionary regime. Guzman was captured in 1992, but the movement remains active into the 2000s.

The Catholic Church and Didactic Art 

Retablos are an ancient form of three-dimensional art that combines sculpture and painting to create “boxes” containing mythical or historical scenes. They were originally developed for Catholic churches worldwide to illustrate Biblical scenes for illiterate congregations. Itinerant priest brought retablos to South America. They were a useful missionary teaching tool as they told stories across language barriers. Eventually, native artists adopted this form of storytelling to depict local historical events and culture. 

There was a contemporary revival of retablos in Peru in the 1940s when the Peruvian indigenista movement encouraged the artist Joaquin Lopez Antay to save the artform by transitioning it away from religious purposes to a decoration celebrating everyday life. Today, Peruvian retablos are displayed during cultural ceremonies and rituals, treasured as family heirlooms, and sold as art to collectors.