My greatest wish when I was president of CADE two years ago was to introduce into the collective unconscious of the Peruvian citizens the idea that Peru can become a first-world country within thirty years. Many recent positive events confirm and support my optimism. Peru has become an investment magnet and is aggressively incorporating into modernity that great sector of the Peruvian population which lives under an economic, cultural and emotional apartheid. More and more, second and third generation migrants from the provinces see Magaly Solier and the Añaños family as role models rather than Che Guevara and Fidel. Because of this, Peru is on its way to become a more meritocratic society, more integrated and with greater vertical mobility, and a society which believes in a market economy with social responsibility. I envision Magaly Solier’s healthy, successful and self confident image under the flashes of the photographers at the Berlin Film Festival projected to all the country in the near future. I also recall the wisdom of the young Punenian soprano Edith Ramos Guerra, who, in a recent television show, brightly summarized the Andean cosmovision related to nature. With an exceptional tenderness and inner strength, she said her culture was no more and no less than others.

There is a significant change in the emotional wiring of Peruvian citizens. As I mentioned in a speech I gave at a commencement ceremony at the Universidad del Pacífico, Peruvians have had for many years the Paco Yunque syndrome. This famous short story from our great poet César Vallejo promotes victimization and a depressive vision of the world. Regardless of the story’s literary value, I think he had a great impact on our collective unconscious. A very well-known poem from Vallejo begins with the following sentence: “I was born on a day that God was sick.” A successful, harmonious and great country cannot be built on such a spirit. Luckily, today we have a more positive and healthy vision.

According to Mario Vargas Llosa, we are leaving behind that Marxist ideological cancer that proposed a materialistic metaphysics, a dehumanized sociology based on the miracle of sudden transformations and a psychology built on envy and hatred; all of which have caused serious damage to Peru. Today’s Peruvian citizens want to enjoy well being and attain happiness through a vigorous, self confident and socially responsible entrepreneurial culture. In my opinion, this is the way and the attitude to build an important and successful country. Thus, we should welcome Magaly Solier’s optimism and joy, and we must bid farewell to Paco Yunque’s pessimism and existentialist sadness.