A confluence of counterhistories: reflections on excavating lost stories through a nation-building novel

During the earliest days of the transatlantic encounter, the nation now called Peru was being formed by the contributions of people from three continents: Europe, South America, and Africa. The imaginary of the Peruvian nation, however, has tended to focus on a dual Inca-Hispanic heritage and bury the stories that lie outside this narrative. In this paper, I reflect on my motivation and practice in writing my novel about the process of nation-building in Peru. This novel, titled The Dust Never Settles, is my attempt to excavate and privilege untold counterhistories and subjugated knowledges and, as I reflect in this essay, could be understood as a performance of my own cultural identity as a Peruvian-British writer.