Peru: “Lima Family” 1944 Julien Bryan US Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
more at
“Depicts a day in the lives of the members of an upper class family of Lima, capital of Peru, and points out similarities to a family of the same class in the United States.”
NEW VERSION with improved video & sound:
Public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archive, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima Metropolitan Area. With a population approaching 9 million, Lima is the fourth largest city in the Americas (as defined by “city proper”), behind São Paulo, Mexico City, and New York City. Lima is home to one of the largest financial hubs in Latin America. It has been defined as a beta world city by GaWC international ranking.
Lima was founded by Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro on January 18, 1535, as la Ciudad de los Reyes, or “the City of Kings”. It became the capital and most important city in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. Following the Peruvian War of Independence, it became the capital of the Republic of Peru. Today, around one-third of the Peruvian population lives in the metropolitan area.
Lima is home to one of the oldest higher learning institutions in the New World. The National University of San Marcos, founded on May 12, 1551 during Spanish colonial regime, is the oldest continuously functioning university in the Americas…
The New York Times, December 31, 1858, p.2:
VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA.
Arrival in Callao Bay–Appearance of the Country–
The Peruvians and their Troubles with Ecuador–The Steamer Lines, &c.
From Our Own Correspondent.
CALLAO BAY, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 1858.
– We arrived here this morning at sunrise. After leaving Payta, my last date, an easy day’s steaming brought us to San José, the port of Lambayeque.
– There is no harbor, and in fact scarcely any indentation in the coast line. It is only an open and perilous roadstead. Six vessels lay at anchor, about two miles out. Even whaleboats cannot live in the surf along shore.
– Rafts made of light timber are employed for landing and embarking all goods, baggage or passengers. These carry a sail, and are manned by six or eight Indians, men of medium height and rather stoutly built. The rafts are dangerous affairs. Sometimes they part asunder. Not long ago as many as 49 persons were drowned in this way.
– When the surf is too violent for even these rafts to be used, the only means of communicating with ships, from the shore, is to send off what is called a caballito, or pony, made of rushes; resembling two Carolina potatoes, side by side, bound together by the small ends. On this the Indian sits, and, wet to the skin of course, works his way through the most fearful breakers with impunity.
– The exports of this section of coast are tobacco, in considerable quantities, and sugar. A countryman of ours, named Captain BARNEY, of New-Haven, has a sugar-mill for grinding the cane. This is sent to different points on the coast, in the coarsest form of brown sugar, called Chancaca. Its principal use is the manufacture of rum. Its price, when shipped, is about $3 a cwt. In Lima it sells for $6. The amount of freight shipped on these freighters has increased very much, and is every day augmenting…
