Inca Kola and Peruvian Nationalism

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A bottle of Inca Kola with a glass.

 

Es nuestra, La bebida del Perú (It’s ours, the drink of Peru)

– The slogan of Inca Kola in 1990-1995

 

In 1910, an English immigrant couple who went by the name “Lindleys” settled in Rimac, one of the oldest and most traditional district in Lima, Peru. Living closely with local beverage makers who had inherited ancestral drink formulas for generations, Lindleys learned to create beverages of their own, mixing local concoctions with new flavors, ingredients and different levels of carbonation. Lindleys’ experiments went on, until twenty-five years later, in 1935, when they finally created what would be known as Peru’s national drink, Inca Kola. While It came out forty-nine years later than the world-renowned soft drink giant, Coca Cola – officially invented by an American pharmacist and ex-Confederate Civil War veteran John Pemberton – was first officially produced, Inca Kola managed to be one of the few local brands that defeated Coca-Cola in its domestic market. Even to this day Inca Kola still tops the soft drink sale rankings in Peru, and its brand exported throughout the entire South America. One of the key factors behind such great success of Inca Kola was aggressive marketing campaign targeting Peruvian nationalist sentiment.

One of the labels of Inca Kola featuring an Incan man. Photo courtesy of http://imgarcade.com/inca-kola-label.html

Inca Kola label depicting an Incan woman. Photo courtesy of http://imgarcade.com/inca-kola-label.html

Pablo Nano Cortez, the chief economist at Scotiabank Peru, says that ever since Lindleys – who officially chartered their company as  Corporación José R. Lindley S.A in 1928 – started to market Inca Kola as a brand, they constructed a nationalist image of Peru around it: something only Peruvians can offer. Even the name itself invokes the proud heritage of Inca Empire, which is still considered by Peruvians as one of the most significant root of their culture and national identity. The labels of Inca Kola are adorned with Inca symbols, or faces of man and woman from Inca Era. The color of the drink was also designed to be the allusion to well-known stereotype of Inca Civilization – the Inca gold. Even the first delivery trucks exclusively for Inca Kola were said to be painted with national colors of Peru – red and white. Advertisement posters for Inca Cola often featured indigenous Andean women, or non-indigenous women with traditional Peruvian/Andean attire.

Inca Kola advertisement featuring a woman with Andean attire, sitting in front of Inca mural background. Photo courtesy of https://www.pinterest.com/pin/95208979592204617/

The nationalist sentiment behind Inca Kola marketing grew more aggressive when Coca-Cola started to engage total soft drink market warfare in Peru against Inca Kola during the 1970s’. While entering the Peruvian market since 1935, it was not until the 1970s’, when this American soft-drink giant started to prove itself to be a tough challenger to decades-long domination of Inca Kola in Peruvian market. While Inca Kola controlled 38% of the soft drink markets of Peru, it was threatened by Coca-Cola’s well-adjusted localization strategy, which even involved changing its secret formula to be more suitable to Peruvian taste. Lindley Corporation reacted to such strategies by doubling down on its already aggressive nationalist marketing. Peruvian names, ingredients and flavors started to be the central parts of promotion and advertisement of the Inca Kola. Slogans which emphasized Peruvian national identity appeared much more frequent ever before. This trend went on for decades, until 2006. Explicitly nationalist-driven marketing ploy supported by Inca Kola’s own distribution system and sales force which extended throughout the entire country ultimately resulted in long-time domination of Inca Kola within Peruvian market. Until the end of 1990s’ when Coca Cola and Lindley Corporation stroke the deal that established joint-venture business partnership, Inca Kola owned lions’s share of 35% market share, whereas Coca Cola got only 21%.

La bebida del sabor nacional (“The drink with the national flavor”)

Es nuestra, La bebida del Perú (“It’s ours, The drink of Peru”)

De sabor nacional! (“Of the national flavor!”)

As of 2012, it was reported that Inca Cola controlled the total market share of 26% which is narrowly followed by 25.6%, exceptionally out-shining other local brands throughout Latin America where they have not fared well against the total domination of Coca-Cola. Johnny Lindley, the second CEO of Lindley Corporation, stated that Inca Kola remains to be the drink that found a permanent place in Peruvians’ heart.

“Because we knew how to communicate that we felt part of this country. In the days of terrorism we would day that Inca Kola was the flavor that united us, it gave us strength, when the times of pain passed, it became the flavor of joy, the flavor of the party. When confronted with copies [Isaac Kola] we said that Inca Kola was the national flavor. We always made that distinction, we have always felt proud of Peru”.

–Johnny Lindley

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Class Notes 09/13: First Reports

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Reminders/logistics

  • Where to find the Historical Analysis Prep printable on the course website

Essay 

  • Please use the writing center 
  • should we use secondary sources?
    • keep them limited
    • shows we can pick a relevant argument
    • make it appropriate to the subject
    • the currency of the sources used and where the source is from due to relevancy is important

LA culture by William

Coffee, bees, and Climate Change

William’s article that talked about the effect climate change has on the bee population and in turn, has an effect on the coffee production in Latin America. The bee population has been declining for years, which has a wide array of consequences, especially for the farmers that tend to these lands. A big issue is farmers are acquiring land, but it is not being able t produce as much coffee due to it being too hot for bees to pollinate. This put the farmers’ lively hood in danger. However, this is seen as a wild claim because of the different geographical regions in Latin America. This is connected to our discussion of environment that we have in class.

Questions from classmates

  • Are countries helping the bee population?
    • Article list general solutions
  • How is climate change affecting the coffee growth?
    • Article didn’t really touch, but the bees are unable to perform their jobs which hinder the harvesting
  • If this continues what would be the price of coffee?
    • Concern is more on the lives of these farmers, and not the coffee price possible increase. Countries are making sure the workers have a stable life.

Encounter/first reports

Professor Holt poses us with multiple questions to start off today’s lecture.

  • How does the process of European discovery present these places to their rulers?
  • How do they (explorers) describe what they see?
  • How do they make these places a commodity/attractive?
  • Are we following the money?

Before we broke into groups, we discussed the importance of material culture/clothing the Natives, or lack there of, and how “explorers” would retell this back in the old world. How nudity affects the perceptions of Native people. We also discussed the types of primary sources that survived and how that has also shaped our understanding of these communities and the encounter.

Iberia is the center of a commercial network which is an incentive to control trade and the navigation technology. They have also had centuries of coexistence and experience of living with “others.”

Columbus has tons of myths around his voyage. He landed in the Caribbean but thought he had landed in India till his deathbed. His voyage was sort of low-end. He only had 90 men with him. However, his log was one of the best sources of encounter, but we do not have the original and are working from a copy. Professor Holt gave an excerpt of Columbus’ first encounter report from 10/12/1442.

Comments from classmates 

  • Jack- describes as poor due to clothing
  • William- focuses on physical appearance and how he is in awe, visually is barbaric due to nudity and body paint
  • Chris- defending themselves from other islands, not entirely helpless, handsome form
  • hair is compared to horses tails correlates to dehumanizations of Native People
  • Alberto- ages, appear very young, childlike/innocent
  • the bible can’t be wrong so how do we categorize
  • people cling to preconceived ideas
    • explorers

We were then split into groups to discuss HAP.

We then discussed Cabral’s voyage. His sea route to India was by going around Africa.

Cantino Planisphere (1502)

People have been trying to base maps on coast lines. The north/south directions are more accurate than the west/east dimensions. His mission is much more prepared. We then discussed the similarities and differences between Columbus and Cabral first reports back to the motherland. Cabral is selling it and Columbus is more on the fascination of body paint of the Natives. Portugal is interested in sending Jesuits for missionaries and they were interested in Brazil for only a port. Portugal saw Native People as “rulable” and docile. They thought they were doing a good by spreading the one true faith.

German Illustration of Amerigo Vespucci Letter

These were the first wildly circulated of new world people. Is it important to remember the artist has never left Germany and based his illustrations on Vespucci’s letter.

Class Discussion

  • very sexualized drawing of Native women
  • Limbs are on the cutting block to show cannibalism, barbarism, and violence.
  • Posture is a strong motif in the drawing
    • Natives are slouched and Europeans are standing tall
  • Facial expressions seem primitive
  • The depiction of Native Women is a Eurocentric view of women being more prone to sin

We ended the class with a self-evaluation of our class participation.

 

 

Wikipedia Critique: Cacique

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During our class discussions on indigenous people in Latin America, I have been very interested in their systems of government, how their leaders are portrayed, and what duties did these leaders have to fulfill and that is why I chose to read and analyze the cacique article. I believe the article is start-class and a few adjustments have been made by other Wiki users in recent years. The discussion on the talk page is centered around spelling of ‘cacique’ and determining which sources are most credible.

The article’s author attempts to keep a neutral tone but the facts presented appear to give off a Euro-centric perspective. I attribute this to the lack of written primary sources available from the colonial era. Majority of the sources cited are scholarly articles published through American universities. There is also a link to a reading about elite indigenous women but I did not see any women or their role mentioned in the article.

The origins of the cacique pre-colonial contact and the origins of the branch term ‘caciquismo’ are not emphasized in the article. The author quotes Murdo J. Macleod, a Scottish historian, whom states the terms, “either require further scrutiny or, perhaps, they have become so stretched by the diversity of explanations and processes packed into them that they have become somewhat empty generalizations.” The generalization of the terms may be due once again to the lack of primary sources which we have discussed about in class on September 10.

The history section of the article primarily focuses on the relationship between the cacique and colonial rule. Now the recurring theme behind us not knowing traditional ways of past indigenous peoples has been we do not have enough primary sources. My issue is that the indigenous people’s way of life may not be accurately represented in these articles and that a Euro-centric perspective is perceived as absolute.

Coffee, Bees and Climate Change

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Climate change has become more and more of an issue and increasingly prevalent in our lives.  One part that climate change has a drastic impact on is agriculture in various regions of the world, in this case Latin America.  NPR’s article touches on how the coffee beans and the area they grow have been affected.  Aside from the area the beans can grow, the bees that pollenate the plants are also being affected by changes in the climate.  “Researchers [project] that by 2050, climate change could reduce the amount of ground usable to grow coffee in Latin America by up to 88 percent”.

The loss that could occur is much more than the price increase to coffee, but instead it affects the livelihood of the millions of people who work to grow these beans.  While “the researchers project that about 34-51 percent of areas will become less suitable to growing coffee but see more bee diversity, somewhat offsetting farmers’ losses”, some farmers believe that the gain will not be worth the loss.

In regards to how this article portrays Latin America, the beginning of the article does not really distinguish the different parts of Latin America until later on the in the article.  To me, this was another example of Latin American countries being grouped together despite sharing distinct differences aside from just names.  On the other hand, while the article primarily focuses on the findings of a researcher, the author makes sure to add the opinions of farmers who would be affected by these changes.  Overall, I think NPR does a decent job explaining the situation without silencing the voices of Latin Americans.

What drew me to this article was how it related with our recent discussions on how important the environment is to the livelihood of people in Latin America, and how climate change can have a drastic effect on people. The first example that came to mind was the video slideshow we had watched on the Kamayura.  What stuck out the most about their situation was the impact that climate change was having on their life. The most striking aspect was how it affected their diet, as rivers that contained the fish they commonly ate were drying up.  In the case of NPR’s article, the climate change affects the livelihood of people who grow these beans, drawing a direct comparison of how the environment still plays a central role in agriculture today.

Kennedy, Merrit.  “Coffee, Bees and Climate Change Are Linked In Ways You May Not Have Expected.” NPR.  September 11, 2017.  http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/09/11/550169720/coffee-bees-and-climate-change-are-linked-in-ways-you-may-not-have-expected

September 11 Class Notes

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This Monday we passed out our HAPs for Wednesday, September 13. The History department will host a dinner/social gathering event at Bornhuetter pavilion from 5-7 p.m on Wednesday, September 13. Emily presented her LA Culture blog post. Titled “Indigenous woman in politics: a complex proposition”, Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza was an indigenous woman who broke social norms of an indigenous woman running for office in Mexico. Emily connected this to a broad class theme of P.O.V. Eufrosina is viewed as corrupted/unfit for some, but for others she’s a hero. For a long time women and indigenous people are believed to be unfit for leadership roles in their communities, so this woman’s status in her community causes a lot controversy to conservatives in Mexico.

We briefly discussed the massacre in Brazil of an indigenous amazonian group. We have our own biases and when we look at groups like these, we see how we can look at the un-contacted people similarly to the Europeans. We both objectively look at clothing/nudity, as a marker for civilization.

 

 We looked at the first paper guidelines. We are to use a primary source and through our own interpretation we will analyze a secondary source to form an argument on the primary source we were started with. There are 3 available sources.

Paper is due September 22 at noon. We will submit this as a pdf to Moodle and Professor Holt will grade it online as well. Use the writing center. Professor Holt Encourages it.  Use Zotero, all the cool historians use it! Ask library if you need any help. Peer-review is encouraged. Rubrics have been passed out.

We split up into small groups. Discussed our weekly words and talked about the culture and atmosphere of the Caribbean in the late 15th century. Some important statements were about the social structure revolved around various forms of art. The economy is marine based, people from the Caribbean would establish trade relations with main-land people more often than not. We then turned to a big group and discussed the map of the Caribbean and why its geographical location affected the people and culture there. The articles mentioned  ceramics and stones that remained on the island. They also talked about material culture, tools, artifacts and value they placed on them. There seems to be more material culture because written language was not there. Also, because the region is so hot, humid, and wet, many artifacts cannot be preserved. Many storms would destroy vessels and various settlements on the islands. (Look at Hurricane Irma of this past week) We shifted our focus to Brazil and compared the demographics of Native Americans from then to now. We look at the sharp decrease in population sizes after the contact with Europeans. Coastal people were more susceptible to plague and violence because of their relative distance to the shore. That explains why interior people populations did not fall at such a steep decline.

We ended our conversation by touching back on our original theme of the class: European agency thought this era. On these islands we find literal traces of colonialism in DNA records. Many natives of these islands have lineage to Native American women. We remind ourselves that women were subjected to a lot of physical and sexual abuse by European men. We have to account and acknowledge that not only were these white European males colonizing the land, but these use sexual assault as warfare for the women who also resisted.

 

References: 

http://www.funai.gov.br/index.php/indios-no-brasil/quem-sao

Wikipedia Critique: Akab Dzib

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akab_Dzib

The wikipedia article that I chose to look over is Akab Dzib. This is a mayan structure at the Chichen Itza site. Now the reason I chose this was it sounded cool because I never knew that some of the buildings on the site actually had names. When I went to the wikipedia article associated with it, I was kind of disappointed. There are no images of said structure that was mentioned and there are only two refferences. I feel that there would be more sources of information out there that can be used to make this article better. As well as a picture of the building!

Now as for what this article has. It’s pretty neutral for the most part and that is good since going through the Wikipedia training, they really want an emphasis of a neutral opinion. There description it gives of the building in question is pretty bland but overall gives a good idea of what it is. The author(s) describe the building in question well and talk about the various details across the structure.

If I were to improve the quality of this article, I would add a picture of Akab Dzib and try to find more sources from scholars. That would make this article a whole lot better in my opinion.