“With the devil on top and other stories”, the book that gives a glimpse of the rural stories of Alto Piura

After collecting anecdotes for more than 40 years, in which she traveled through much of the rural areas of Peru, sociologist Mane Vattuone captured all her memories in the book “With the devil on top and other stories”a compilation of 10 stories inspired by the rural stories of the hamlets of Alto Piura.

“Making this book has to do with my role as a sociologist, but also with my childhood in Piura, where I lived in a place where there was no water, electricity, transportation, sewer or newspaper, but there were stories.“, comments the writer, who entered the world of literature from the age of 12, in conversation with El Comercio.

Breaking certain stereotypes about the stories of rural life, the work proposes to show the other side of the coin. “When we talk about these places, we usually show only poverty and misfortune, but there is more than that, there is also happiness, wonderful customs and a different vision of the world; That is also something that deserves to be told.”comments Vattuone, who narrated the events minimizing the drama and adding a touch of humor. “It is written like this to liven up situations, but in the background there are themes such as isolation, death and many other things that we do not usually read.“, Add.

A tribute

The common thread between all the stories lies in a single person, Prudencia, a 104-year-old woman who met Vattuone on one of her trips and from whom she learned several stories about Alto Piura. “Older people are a source of knowledge, these days we don’t usually see them that way anymore, but they are very important in the towns, where they keep the memory of the entire area“, mentions the writer, who believes that many towns lose their stories due to the lack of printed or digital compilation of what the residents experienced.

Another aspect that the work addresses is the duality between good and evil, often portrayed as witchcraft and quackery, where you can see part of the vision of these regions where magical-religious elements are part of their daily lives. “God and the Devil are very present in people’s daily lives, not in person; It is a combination between the presence of the Catholic Church and its own ways of approaching spirituality. There they decide which one to go to. Sometimes you go to the hospital and other times to the healer”, explains the sociologist, who does not use the word “beliefs” because in these realities they are facts that are confirmed as real, and it would be disrespectful to consider them as superstitions from the perspective of someone who comes from the outside.

Despite integrating these fantastic elements, to corroborate the facts, Vattuone went back in his steps to talk with people who lived the moments that are in the book, in addition to looking for some external sources that could verify that the events had occurred. Then, to portray these stories, the writer had to transform the anecdotes into stories, through a process that went beyond capturing memories, but rather the conversion of exaggerations into realities and the verification of some events that, due to time, They can be found altered in the writer’s memory.

Although this is her first publication, the writer hopes to be able to publish a second book with other stories that occur in the rural areas of Piura. “You have to be sensitive when reading this type of book, in addition to having the intention of looking for the message between the lines that is hidden behind events where pain and joy are shown.”, he concludes.