Peruvian Americans

Peruvians in the United States: A Brief Historical Overview

Like other South Americans, Peruvians have been coming to the United States since the early 1800s as immigrants, exiles, refugees, temporary visitors, or permanent settlers. During the 1849 gold rush, for example, hundreds of Peruvians, primarily sailors and merchants, joined Mexicans and others in the gold mines of California, eventually marrying and settling permanently in the United States. The largest waves of Peruvians, however, began to arrive during the post-World War II period, when U.S. foreign policy, reinforcing the Peruvian governing elites' economic policies, played a significant role in shaping distinct waves of Peruvian immigration to the United States.

The first significant wave of Peruvian immigration began during the mid-1950s and lasted into the early 1970s. This wave, popularly known as the “brain drain,” was a by-product of President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress program and included a significant number of highly skilled middle- and upper-class professionals. The modernization of the Peruvian economy also pushed many other Peruvians, particularly youth from the lower social and economic sectors, to immigrate to the United States.

A second significant wave of Peruvians arrived during the 1980s, largely due to the country's economic turmoil as well as to the devastation of the 1980–1992 civil war waged between the Peruvian state and the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), first in Peru's Andean region and later in the capital city of Lima. Indeed, a 1989 article in The New York Times, describing the emigration from various Latin American countries to the United States, singled out the Peruvian case as the “most dramatic.” The article title—“Starting Over, the Ex-Peruvian Way”—poignantly captured the despair and loss of a sense of national belonging that resulted from the downward [Page 1043]spiral of poverty for growing numbers of people. Indeed, by the end of the 1980s, abandoning Peru was no longer limited to those who could afford it; rather, it came to be seen as a rational solution by whoever could find the barest means for doing so. By 1990, there were officially 175,035 Peruvians in the United States.

Since the mid-1990s, another significant wave of immigration has increased Peruvians' official numbers by 41.5% to 247,600. (Because of undocumented migration, the actual figure is likely much higher.) Made up chiefly, albeit not exclusively, of highly educated and wealthy professionals and upper-class Peruvians, these immigrants have settled primarily in South Florida.

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