The book under review examines Peruvian government policy during and after the Velasco years by means of a systematic examination of the Independence Day speeches of five Peruvian presidents: General Juan Velasco Alvarado (1968 – 75), General Fran-cisco Morales Bermúdez (1975 – 80), Fernando Belaúnde Terry (1980 – 85), Alan García (1985 – 90), and Alberto Fujimori (1990 – 2000).
Martín Sánchez creates the framework for his analysis by a methodology that draws heavily on the work of Michel Foucault, Umberto Eco, Claus Offe, and Max Weber. Particularly referencing Foucault’s Archeology of Knowledge and Order of Things, Martín Sánchez focuses on portions of the thirty speeches to determine their relationship to state policy. Quite evident in these speeches was a necessary deference to ritual. The new congress had to be welcomed and an open hand extended to the Catholic Church. But this was not the case with Velasco Alvarado’s...
