PAMPLONA ALTA, LIMA

Pamplona Alta is part of the San Juan de Miraflores district in the Cono el Sur surrounding the city of Lima. Known unofficially as a “pueblo joven” or young town, the area was settled on uninhabited land in the dry Andean foothills, by people arriving from many parts of Peru. The settlement grew in the 1980s as the violence of Sendero Luminoso increased. People built houses from straw mats, called esteras, and had no access to electricity, water or sewage. Gradually inhabitants of Pamplona Alta and other shantytowns replace their fragile dwellings with regular building materials and gain access to municipal services. Pamplona Alta is noted for the making of cuadros, hand-sewn cloth pictures.