Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco

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Roots

"I love Peru because it has given me roots"

This statement was made some years ago by Maria Rostworowski de Diez Canseco, Honoris Causa Historian, and probably the most thorough historian of our times.

Maria's mother was a Peruvian lady and her father was Polish, born too early to be called a hippie, yet a hippie he was.

Maria's parents established themselves in France where her father had an estate, she studied with teachers there and received her secondary education in England and Belgium.
She learnt many languages and primed herself with knowledge from many European cultures, while Maria's family stayed in France for many years.
Alas! In France she was not French; not in England, English; not in Spain, Spanish; nor in Poland was she Polish.

At 18 she married a young Pole in Poland. When this early marriage ended she left for Peru.
She arrived in Peru when she was 19 years old and fell in love with this country at first sight when she visited Cusco. Being a clever and very sensitive young woman she was attracted by the mysteries of Peruvian History. Since she had studied in Europe and the Second World War was taking place she could not get the education certificates required to seat for the exams in Peru and enter University.
Porras Barrenechea, the famous Peruvian historian was her mentor and suggested her to attend as many lectures and courses as possible on a free basis. He guided her and introduced her to the most famous researchers from several disciplines; he recommended her comparative bibliographies and he monitored her progress.
Thus Maria Rostworowski became a self-taught historian. With extreme care and enthusiasm she explored the existing paths of our history and probed the Terra Incognita of Pre-Columbian Peru.

In Lima she met and married Alejandro Diez Canseco, her true love and together they lead a very culture-oriented life.
Those were the times of the Indigenismo. The great Sabogal painted what Clorinda Matto de Turner described in her books. Ciro Alegria, Jose Maria Arguedas and Manuel Scorza would soon follow and enrich this trend. Native Peruvians became visible after 400 years of total neglect and ignorance. Their culture was rediscovered for what it was: a miracle that had survived physical decimation, cultural interdiction and religious massacres in the name of evangelization.

In this context of rediscovering the roots of Peru, Maria pledged herself to research and disseminate our rich heritage.
She was granted a scholarship to study the Indies' Archives in Spain and for several years she was cultural attaché to the Peruvian Embassy in Madrid and she systematically and meticulously dug out valuable reports sent to the king of Spain by the first Spaniards in Peru.
Testimonials of Curacas on economic issues; legal red-tape on genealogy and ancient rights of ethnic groups to their lands; legacies of conquerors linked to old Inca families; reports of priests on religious beliefs and practices; comments of soldiers on Inca warfare...... All these papers were written in old Spanish and she taught herself palaeography in order to read them and work with them. She microfilmed these jewels and sorted them by topics and she sketched several future investigations.

Back in Peru she began to work in multidisciplinary teams, with archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, geologists, agronomists, economists, all working together to reach valid explanations for archaeological tombs and 400 year-old reports.
In this way MR contributes to our knowledge of ancient Peruvians, she never assumes a report to be true unless she has crossed information with contemporaneous papers, oral testimonials, all of them scientifically supported. She is firmly convinced of the importance of field work. She would never write about a place if she had not travelled to it before and explored it with the support of local experts.
And what is even more unusual: she is always generous and willing to share what she knows and the microfilms she has, with young and old scholars, never demanding anything for herself.

Thanks to her rigorous approach to history she has revealed the fallacies about 14 Inca rulers and heritage procedures; the ecological wisdom of agriculture practices, the importance of women work in pre-Columbian Peru, the routes for trade that linked Peru with Central America.
All her books are masterpieces of history. In clear, understandable language she shares all her knowledge duly supported by scientific and documented evidence. Her book about the true history of Tahuantinsuyu is the greatest milestone of our times and reflects her thorough knowledge of Andean categories and way of thinking. Her latest book on Pachacamac reflects her love for this country and the contribution from the rich ethnic variety to Peruvian religious beliefs and practices.

When asked if she would leave Peru during the dark years of the crisis and terrorism, her brave reply was:

"It took me too long to lay roots, Peru gave me love and roots, I want to remain here for ever."