Lima Comes to Peru

Flavio Pantigoso Looks Up

De Peru For Peru Video Wins Major Awards!

When I returned from the Alpha Chi National Convention in San Diego, I thought that I had missed the film crew from Lima about whom someone had contacted me weeks before.

The April 2 article in the Lincoln Journal Star about the sharing of food and music over the weekend reinforced my feeling that I had missed out on a lot of fun, including such antics as a Llama coming out of the Peru Post Office pictured in an article that appeared in the Omaha World Herald on 17 April.

Well, the Tuesday before that latter article, I had spent a couple hours with Cindy Gonzalez, the reporter who penned the 17 April article because I had gotten to know the film crew.

As matters turned out, my colleague Dan Holtz informed me that the Peruvians remained in town.

I had the pleasure of watching and talking to them for most of Monday and a good part of Tuesday. I enjoyed myself thoroughly, for they all made me feel a part of the crew.

And what fun, from world championship tarp surfing in the commuter parking lot to a wrap-up party with Peruvian singers and the national drink at Shooters.

I posted a series of photographs from the visit. Part One takes place on Monday and includes images from sequences filmed on campus and involving students, many of whom earned 50.00 for their involvement in the fun.

And Part Two concludes the visit, concentrating on some tarp surfing and the celebration at Shooters leading to the final "cut."

As these images of shared music and fast friendship underscore, the visit lessened the distance between Lima, Peru, and Peru, Nebraska.

Among other things, the visit included a mock pep rally in the Wheeler Center and the gift of Peruvian literature to the Peru State Library.

I got to take part in the fun, from a bit of zany tarp surfing to a crazy interview with a popular Peruvian actor and comic, all about the location of Machu Picchu in Peru--Nebraska, of course.

I am in touch with directors Flavio Pantigoso and Richardo Maldonado. They will send me soon a video of Peru State and the area, shot from a helicopter (Peruvian red, of course), which will get linked here. And that video is now ready for your enjoyment.

The fifteen-minute video, "De Peru For Peru," made from hours of recordings from their visit will make everyone chuckle and then realize we have some wonderful friends in South America.

A version with English subtitles also got published. The video creates great buzz in Peru, where the crew got a five-minute ovation when they showed the video to government officials.

And, of course now I want to visit Peru, where at least a few people enjoy this blog about our own Peru now known to our friends in South America.

On Sunday, May 8, Cindy Gonzalez, journalist with the Omaha World Herald, wrote a follow-up article after the documentary went viral.

As of this afternoon, 13 May, the video continues to attract considerable attention and has over 600,000 hits. And on 18 may, Flavio sent me word that the most important advertising video-magazine of the world now features De Peru For Peru.

On Tuesday afternoon, May 11, the day before I left the summer with my wife here in Ripon, Wisconsin, I spoke briefly with a television crew from Lima, Peru, in Peru, NE, to check out the source, as it were.

They did not know about my blog and so talked for a bit about Tarp Surfing--but the real attention fell on Logan Merz, who sang on the video and who has become quite a star in Peru.


In fact, his song--with subtitles in English and Spanish--gets featured in this segment of the documentary. And the rising popularity of the tune in Peru finds reflection in this exciting recording of "SOLD," in which Behind the Fire, the band in which Logan plays, performs with a group of Peruvian musicians.

And add this article featured in Now Nebraska about Logan Merz's song and his band Behind the Fire.


A message on Facebook on May 16 took me to a "Behind the Cameras" look of the documentary's creation, including a brief look at my learning to pronounce Machu Picchu with the help of one of Peru's leading comedians, Gonzalo Torres.

And on Sunday, May 15, the following story appeared--Punto Final--on television in Lima after a two-person crew from the station traveled to Peru, NE, for a follow-up story about the popular video:

On June 6, Keven Abourezk of the Lincoln Journal Star wrote another article about the Peruvians' visit, "Peruvian Commercial Filmed in Nebraska Goes Viral." The article includes a couple photographs from my collection.

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