Peregrinations of a Pariah

by Flora Tristan, Jean Hawkes (Editor)

English, French (translation)

Genres: Travel, Feminism, Nonfiction, France, Biography, 19th Century, Womens

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1837

About the author

Flore Celestine Thérèse Henriette Tristán y Moscoso better known as Flora Tristan was a French-Peruvian socialist writer and activist. She made important contributions to early feminist theory, and argued that the progress of women's rights was directly related with the progress of the working class. Her theories had a trong influence on Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Charles Fourier. She wrote several works, the best known of which are Peregrinations of a Pariah (1838), Promenades in London (1840), and The Workers' Union (1843).

Tristan was also the grandmother of the painter Paul Gauguin.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is the record of Flora Tristan’s travels to South America in 1833-4. Flora Tristan was a socialist writer, activist and feminist. She was the grandmother of the painter Paul Gaughin. Her father was a colonel in the Spanish navy and her mother French; they were never married. When her father died in 1807, Flora and her mother were left in poverty. Flora’s mother fired her imagination about her wealthy relatives, most of whom lived in Peru. Tristan married young and by 1825 had two children with a third on the way. Leaving the children with her mother Tristan struck out on her own. She coloured lithographs, worked in a confectioners and became a lady’s maid to and English family. She also travelled to England, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and also as far as India. She also wrote to her father’s younger brother in Peru to introduce herself. He sent her a small amount of money and granted her a small annual income. Tristan met a naval captain who had been to Peru and the stories he told fired her imagination. In 1833 she set out on the naval captain’s ship for the Americas; the only woman on board the ship. This book is the story of that trip.
Tristan’s tale is descriptive and she does a good job of describing local conditions, local dress and customs. She makes clear her detestation of slavery and the need for liberation. Her descriptions of the sea voyage is more limited as she spent most of the voyage suffering from seasickness. There are almost two strands running in parallel. One is a description of the progress in relation to her family and the general politics of Peru (which they were heavily involved in). The second is a description of the geography, the conditions of the population, their customs and culture. Tristan is very clear that she is opposed to slavery and oppression and very much in favour of the rights of women. Her comments on the unstable political situation are perceptive. She did not have any success with the inheritance she felt she was entitled to but she does provide good descriptions of the protagonists in what was, at the time a civil war. She also describes a battle that took place near to where she was staying at the time.
Tristan does take note of the conditions and dress of women and of the indigenous peoples. Her gaze is a distinctly European one; whilst she is sympathetic to the plight of the poor she finds their conditions and what she describes as their “odour, ugliness and stupidity” personally repugnant. Tristan does express strong opinions; she does not like the English either and is somewhat ambivalent about the Church, although she does describe the inside of a fair few convents.
Tristan is opinionated and some of her views are unpleasant, but she does tell a good tale and her story is readable and fascinating. Some of her views are very modern and her attitude to women’s rights foreshadows later feminist movements.

[Helynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flora Tristan (1803-1844) is one of the "big four" of 19th-century French women novelists. However, she, Marie d'Agoult, and Hortense Allart, are generally eclipsed by the still brightly burning star of George Sand, who was considerably more prolific. Nevertheless, Tristan is a fascinating persona who endured much trauma in her life, but still managed to strike early blows for feminism and better conditions for the working class in France. Forced into an unhappy marriage by her mother, Tristan had three children, then separated from her husband when her surviving son and daughter were still small. This 1836 memoir describes how she left her children in the care of relatives and friends, then made an unpleasant trip from France to Peru to try to claim the inheritance left by her Peruvian-Spanish father. During her rough crossing to South America,the sea captain and at least one other Frenchman fell in love with her and wished to marry her. (Under the anti-divorce laws of France’s Code Napoléon, which were in place through most of the 19th century, she was never allowed the legal freedom to remarry despite many offers from these men and several others in Peru). Tristan's vivid descriptions of her journey in Peregrinations (which means “wanderings”) of a Pariah (which means “outcast”), show that she saw herself as an instrument to serve mankind, particularly through her compassion for blacks, indigenous South Americans (both races were always slaves, and horrific numbers of them died in sugar refineries), and poor, uneducated whites. (Critics say that Tristan, because of her humanitarian goals, saw herself as a pariah--perhaps more than she really was). Her comments on various aspects of Peruvian society from the frightful lack of education of the common people, to slavery, to the bad tempers of llamas are expressed honestly and boldly. I particularly admired how she ridiculed the hypocrisy of the ruling class as well as the Catholic Church in Peru. “. . . If the[ruling classes:] had really wanted to organize a republic they would have sought to encourage the growth of the civic virtues at every level of society by means of education, but as power, not liberty, is the goal of the bunch of adventurers who take it in turns to exercise authority, the work of despotism proceeds, and in order to keep the oppressed people in a state of submission, they join hands with the priests to perpetuate superstition and prejudice among them.” Throughout her life, Tristan believed in the dignity of honest work (“There is no doubt that intelligent labor is the best human wisdom”) and in women's independence. She shows much sympathy for the nuns who were virtual prisoners in certain Peruvian convents and champions the few who were able to escape. She asserts that women are generally superior in character to men, but that women must "cultivate her intelligence and exercise her self-control" in order to retain this superiority. Finally, she calls the Peruvians lazy, idol, hedonistic gamblers who spend too much money of materials things while neglecting education for the masses. She blames this attitude on the lack of fine arts in and schools in the country, both of which would guide and temper the people's imaginations and vitality. Tristan returned to France in 1835, and although she was not successful in obtaining her inheritance (her Peruvian uncle granted her only a small allowance, which he eventually took away as soon as he read her unflattering portrait of him in this book as a miser), her adventures in Peru show her spunk and determination to make a difference in the world. Another of Tristan’s books, The Workers’ Union, champions the rights of the French workers by promoting the humanitarian ideals of both Christianity and the French Revolution. Another short work Promenades dans Londres (1840) is an indictment of social conditions in England. Her only novel Méphis, ou le proletaire advocates the importance of each person being useful to mankind. Her last book, L'Emancipation de la femme was published posthumously in 1845. The trauma of a bad marriage, the voyage to Peru, and later, a harsh, self-imposed tour of France to promote workers’ rights took its toll on Tristan, and she died of typhoid fever in Bordeaux at age 41. Nevertheless, she left us not only with her bold social views, but also with a more personal legacy. She was the grandmother of the post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin.

[Fiorella Aguirre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro me tomó mucho tiempo leerlo, pero me gusto mucho poder aprender tantos detalles de esa época, la forma en la que está escrito, con las expresiones y gramática del siglo XVIII y sobretodo porque gran parte de la historia está situada aquí en Peru.

Flora Tristan nos cuenta en este diario su viaje desde Francia, su llegada al continente Americano por la costa de Chile, posteriormente a Arequipa y finalmente a Lima desde donde retorna al lugar de su nacimiento luego de una gran aventura llena de desafíos, decepciones pero gratamente sorprendida de todo lo que encontró en el camino y las grandes amistades que forjó.

Creo que justamente por el estilo de narrativa que tiene este libro, se hace un poco lento en algunas partes, pero se compensa con las historias que cuenta la autora, y como describe los hechos por los qué pasa día a día para que parezcan algo sorprendente. Realmente quedo muy feliz al terminar este libro, porque he podido aprender mucha historia y pequeños detalles de las costumbres peruanas que de no haber estado escritas en estas páginas se habrían perdido. Finalmente recalcar los pensamientos igualitarios y feministas que desarrolló Flora Tristán en esta obra, donde están plasmados como si ella misma no se diera cuenta de cómo está comenzando a pensar, pero que es por lo que las mujeres luchamos hasta nuestros días.

[Nina Balmaceda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it in Spanish.

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flora Tristán es un personaje entrañable de la sociedad peruana. Su libro de viajes no es obviamente una obra maestra de la literatura.

Es un cuento de viajes íntimo en el cual cuenta sus peripecias en el Perú en la década de 1830, donde su objetivo fue de reclamar una herencia de su padre en Arequipa. No lo logró lamentablemente pero el legado que dejó Flora fue fascinante.

No tan sólo por sus agudas observaciones y mordaz sentido sino porque fue testigo de grandes acontecimientos para los cuales su obra es un buen testimonio.

Personalmente me encanta la historia de esa época y ella tuvo encuentros con personajes de la talla de la "Mariscala" y del coronel Miguel de San Román.

[Rossana Karunaratna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro que contiene muchísima información desde la mirada de una mujer de dos culturas, en su afán de reclamar justicia. La imagen que construiría de Perú va a colapsar frente a la realidad que encontraría desde lo personal pero también desde lo político. El caos político peruano comprende eventos que no han dejado de ocurrir hasta la actualidad. Interesante entender cómo describe a los peruanos. Me motiva a leer el libro de Vargas Llosa sobre los años siguientes de su vida. Lectura larga, pausada pero muy rica.

[Sebastián Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si bien es un diario de viaje interesante para conocer la historia de esta francesa en Perú y, con ella, la sociedad peruana de la época (1833-34), las descripciones de la sociedad y de las cuestiones políticas a veces se hacen insufribles. Leída entre setiembre y noviembre de 2020.

[Nana Salas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me costó mucho leerlo porque hay muchos capítulos hablando más sobre la historia que sobre la protagonista en si, lo que lo hace un pelín estático, pero es cuestión de gustos.

Es un libro muy bonito, da mucha ternura.

[Oyuky Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si bien ya resulta un discurso decimonónico, en su tiempo fue importantísimo e innovador.

[Mar 🌙 · Rating 4 out of 5]

denso però reflexions precioses i transgressores.
ara a fer tfg

[Manuel Ochoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antes que Marx y Engels, Antes que Simon Beauvoir y rosa luxemburgo. Flora Tristán alzaba la voz sobre el trato a los obreros y la emancipación de la mujer. Este libro es un diario de las diferencias culturales y laborales de los primeros del apogeo de la revolución industrial. Desde su salida de Francia, su paso por Inglaterra y su llegada a Perú, Flora describe el trato que daban a cada clase social y hace una crítica muy dura al sistema laboral (no muy diferente al de hoy en día). Me queda una frace de este libro que resuena cuando un patrón se aprovecha de la situación de un trabajador «por lo menos los esclavos tenían garantizado dos cosas: comida y trabajo. Nada ha mejorado»

[Seca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Me resultó algo aburrido, yo esperaba un relato con más riqueza de detalles y descripciones de la sociedad y cultura peruanas, pero su escritura es algo simple y rudimentaria. Por otro lado, me disgustó mucho que Flora Tristán no sólo actuara como una simple testigo, sino más bien como una juez o como un ser superior que llega a iluminar a los "brutos" y "salvajes" peruanos. Juzga y critica la cultura y sociedad peruanas desde una perspectiva eurocentrista y yo diría que hasta racista. No digo que la sociedad decimononica peruana fuera perfecta, ninguna lo es, pero vamos, que echa pestes a casi todo: a la comida, a las festividades, a las costumbres, al pueblo, a la alta sociedad, a las actividades y lugares de esparcimiento, en fin, a todo. Y para colmo, tergiversa y omite ciertos acontecimientos de importancia histórica con el fin de que su relato coincidiera con la mala opinión que de la sociedad peruana tenía.

[Pablo Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compré este libro en Arequipa, no muy lejos de donde vivió (según dicen) la propia Flora Tristán, a quien conocía por las referencias que de ella da El Paraíso en la otra esquina de Mario Vargas Llosa. Ni Tristán es tan buena escritora como Vargas Llosa (dejando de lado comprensibles cuestiones estilísticas de la época) ni, lamentablemente, tenía Tristán clara en la época de sus Peregrinaciones su postura sobre unos cuantos temas que luego la harían famosa, por lo cual lo que leí en la novela no me preparó en absoluto para lo que se lee aquí. Un editor severo le habría venido muy bien al relato, que en muchas ocasiones se dilata en pormenores insignificantes o prorrumpe en efusiones que suenan exageradas. Naturalmente, ese editor habría transformado el diario de Flora Tristán en algo diferente y quizá inauténtico.

[Erika Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

En esta obra se puede observar las características del costumbrimos por medio de las tradiciones y de artículos de costumbre, siendo bastante críticos y duros con la sociedad del Perú.

Las descripciones, características y situaciones que narra la autora son sorprendentes, no solo por la problemática política de Perú para este período, sino por los comportamientos propios de cada miembro de la sociedad, desde los estratos sociales más altos hasta los bajos, incluso sus propios familiares.

Realiza una fuerte crítica a todas estas personas y a la sociedad peruana en general, además de defender los ideales por los cuales todos deberían luchar y aspirar como miembros de una comunidad (especialmente las mujeres) tales como la educación y el reconocimiento social.

[Leslie Salazar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me costó bastante leer este libro por su extensión y sobre todo el tiempo en el que está escrito. Conocerla a través del libro, peregrinaciones de una paria es una forma de ver su pensamiento y como era tratada ella en el Perú y dicho sea de paso muy diferente al trato en el extranjero. Es interesante como ella narra la forma en como vio los diferentes lugares que conoció y compararlos con lo que ahora son es algo que disfrute del libro. Es que más de 150 años a pasado desde que este libro fue escrito y es muy diferente la sociedad de hoy con la de ese periodo.

[Fernando Yataco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gran libro. Una forma de conocer el Perú de esa época. Un gran viaje.

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This travel diary was first published in France in 1838. The author left Bordeaux in France aboard a ship called "Mexicain" on 7 April 1833. They travelled the North Atlantic Ocean, dropped by Porto Praya at the Cape Verde Islands, down towards the South Atlantic Ocean, had a u-turn at Cape Horn, landed at Valparaiso, sailed again, then reached their destination at Islay in Peru. She was the only woman aboard that ship during those long months of voyage. I believe she became the lover of the ship's captain but this is a woman's diary so she's not telling. However she was young, beautiful and a bit of a flirt and the captain was following her, panting like a dog, when they landed in Peru, so it would not be so difficult to assume that some violent rocking of the "Mexicain" while at sea during those long months of voyage were not due to the waves.

The author Flora Tristan's mother was a French emigre in Spain in 1789 who became the mistress of Don Mariano de Tristan Moscoso, a Spanish nobleman, whose family had long settled in the then Spanish colony of Peru. They were never married. Then Don Mariano died. Flora and her mother were thrown into poverty. Yet her mother never tired out firing up her imagination about her father's wealth and great lineage.

When she was fifteen, to earn some money, she got employed colouring lithographs in the studio of a talented lithographer who was smitten by her charms and beauty. He married her. Two children were born, then in 1825 when she was pregnant with their third child she fled their home and abandoned her husband and two kids. A woman abandoning her family was quite unheard of at that time. Thus, she became a social outcast, a 'pariah."

Away from her family she secretly gave birth to her third child, a girl she named "Aline." This Aline was nineteen when Flora died. Unlike her, Aline had a happy marriage with Clovis Gauguin. They had a daughter Fernande in 1847 and a son, Paul, the next year. Yes, THE Paul Gauguin, the famous painter, who was said to resemble a lot his grandmother Flora in his daring and temperament.

Reading the diary itself is fun because Flora wrote what she saw and perhaps the only thing she could not put on paper with insouciant forthrightness were her bedroom activities. The Philippines was also Spain's colony on or about the same time so the cornucopia of sights and sounds Flora's writings created was like seeing my country also during the Spanish time:


"Their (Arequipans') meals are as follows: breakfast is at nine, and consists of rice with onions (they serve onions, cooked or raw, with everything) and roast mutton, so bad that I could never eat any; then comes the hot chocolate. Dinner is at three o'clock. They first serve an 'olla podrida' (called 'puchero" in Peru), which is a hotch-potch of unrelated foods--beef, bacon, mutton, all boiled with rice, seven or eight different vegetables, together with any fruit they happen to have, such as apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes, etc.; no choir of voices singing out of tune or concert of discordant instruments is more revolting than the sight, smell and taste of this barbaric mixture. This is followed by crayfish, served with tomatoes, rice, raw onions and pimento; meat with grapes, peaches and sugar; fish with pimento; salad with raw onions, eggs and pimento: the latter ingredient is used in profusion in all their dishes, together with a number of other spices--it burns one's mouth; to be able to bear it, the palate must lose its sensitivity. Water is the normal drink. Supper is at eight, and the dishes are the same as those at dinner.

"The service and the table-manners are as lacking in propriety as is the cooking in harmony. Even today, in many houses, there is only ONE GLASS for all the guests. The plates and cutlery are dirty; this cannot entirely be blamed on the dirtiness of the slaves, for the slaves of the English are perfectly clean. It is polite to pass round on the end of a fork a piece of food from one's plate, to any one of the guests whom one wishes to honour. The Europeans find this custom so shocking that it has now fallen into disuse; but it was only a few years ago that pieces of 'olla,' fish, and chicken wings dripping gravy used to circulate round the table, carried by slaves on the end forks."


Of course, it was not all the same in Peru and in the Philippines. For one, we do not have Llamas here (I wonder why the Spaniards diidn't import any from Peru?). Flora described this animal as follows:


"The llama is the beast of burden of the Andes; all transport is by means of this animal, and the Indian uses it to trade with the valleys. This graceful animal is a most interesting study. It is the only domestic animal that man has not succeeded in debasing. The llama does not accept beating or ill-usage; it is wiling to be useful, but only if it is ASKED and not ORDERED. These animals are always in herds, of varying sizes and led by Indians who walk well ahead of them. If the herd feels tired, it stops, and the Indian stops also. If the stop is too long, and the Indian, seeing the sun near setting, becomes anxious, he decides, after taking all sorts of precautions, to request his beasts to set off again. He stands some fifty or sixty yards off, adopts a humble posture, makes an affectionate gesture with his hand, looks at them tenderly, calling out to them at the same time in a gentle voice and with a patience that I always admired: 'ic-ic-ic-ic-ic-ic-ic.' If the llamas feel inclined to resume their journey, they follow the Indian in an orderly manner, steadily and fast, since they have very long legs; but when they are ill-humoured, they do not even turn their heads towards the man who is calling them so lovingly and patiently. They remain still, huddled close to one another, some standing and some lying, gazing at the sky so tenderly, so mournfully, that one wonders if these beasts have a knowledge of the afterlife, a better world. Their long necks, which they carry with such grace and majesty, the long silky wool of their coats, always so clean and glossy, their supple shy movements, all combine to give them an appearance of nobility and sensitivity which commands respect. Respect they certainly deserve, for the llama is the only beast in man's service that he does not strike. If it happens (and it very rarely does) that an Indian loses his temper and tries by force or threats to get the llama to do what it does not want to do, then as soon as the animal hears the rough words or see the rough gestures, it raises its head with dignity, and without attempting to escape from the rough treatment (the llama is never tied up or hobbled), it lies down, and looks up towards the sky; great tears run down from its beautiful eyes, it sighs deeply, and in half or three quarters of an hour it is dead. Fortunate creatures, who can escape so easily from suffering by dying! Fortunate creatures, who seemed to have accepted life only on condition that it is pleasant!xxx"


She could write longingly about animals and the tropics' lovely sunsets, and likewise viciously about people she didn't like.

[Luciana Valverde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi libro favorito, no es el mejor escrito, pero la explicación del nombre es tal cuál todo el libro. Han pasado más de 100 años desde su paso por el Perú y todo sigue igual o peor

[Sunjay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Tristan's adventures in Peru, and her unvarnished take on Peruvian society and institutions. Whilst I do think she was always eager to outline her outsized role in various political machinations, I have no doubt that such an erudite woman was captivating and influential on the relatively backwater society she describes. Undoubtedly an unaccompanied Parisian woman making her way from Arequipa to Lima would be an object of admiration and curiosity by the locals starving for entertainments. Having picked up this copy in Arequipa myself, I really enjoyed reading an account of the city from almost 200 years ago.

[Fernando Fernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gracias a la sensibilidad de la autora, este libro - un clásico de la literatura de viaje - te ofrece una mirada única y reveladora sobre los primeros años de la república peruana. El análisis de la realidad tiene como base los ideales de la Ilustración, acompañados del corazón aventurero y agraviado de Flora.
Su descripción de los personajes y lugares que pudo conocer mientras visitaba la tierra de su padre, representa una ventana excepcional para observar el pasado y sentirse como testigo de la historia.