Jirón Agustín Gamarra is one of the main streets of the district of La Victoria, also forming part of the neighbourhood of

Barrios Altos Barrios Altos is a Peruvian neighbourhood that forms the eastern part of Lima District, part of the historic centre of the city. It owes its name to the fact that, topographically, it is higher than the rest of the old part of the City, due to t ...

, itself part of the

historic centre of Lima The Historic Centre of Lima () is the historic city centre of the city of Lima, the capital of Peru. Located in the city's districts of Lima and Rímac, both in the Rímac Valley, it consists of two areas: the first is the Monumental Zone est ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. Over forty blocks long, it is best known for the Gamarra Commercial Emporium, which houses fashion stores and textile manufacturing workshops.

History

For some 120 years, Gamarra was a residential street in what was then known as

Villa Victoria Villa Victoria is a municipality in Mexico State in Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatema ...

that ran parallel to Aviación Avenue until the 1950s. Commerce in the avenue started in the late 19th century and early 20th century, starting when the Italian Bartolomé Boggio and American Enrique Price founded the Santa Catalina textile factory in 1889, hiring 300 people, among them 160 women, at a time where the Walls of Lima still stood before being replaced by Miguel Grau Avenue. By the 1950s,

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

and

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

families had also established themselves in the area, with some Chinese also moving in later. The shopping centre grew with two different migration waves that reached Lima in the 20th century: in 1948 and in 1970, with the latter immigrants moving into nearby San Cosme hill, which allowed them to reach the area easily. In the 1980s and 1990s, the area became extremely disorganised due to being swearmed with

street vendors A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with costermonger or peddler. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells inexpensive goods, handicrafts, or food items. Whether stationa ...

, influenced by the

crisis A crisis (: crises; : critical) is any event or period that will lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affairs, especially when ...

at the time, only being removed in 1999. The measure, initially successful, was ultimately temporary. The area has also seen its share of crime and

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

, the latter during the

internal conflict in Peru The internal conflict in Peru is an armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path. The conflict's main phase began on 17 May 1980 and ended in December 2000. From 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Rev ...

and the former in the form of

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

ists.

Shopping Centre

Alcalde George Forsyth en Gamarra Moda Plaza

The street is best known for the Gamarra Commercial Emporium (), the largest of its kind in the country. Despite its informality, the emporium is considered an important driving force of the

economy of Peru The economy of Peru is an emerging, mixed economy characterized by a high level of foreign trade and an upper middle income economy as classified by the World Bank. Peru has the forty-seventh largest economy in the world by total GDP and curre ...

, as its employs over 71,000 people, mostly in the textile industry. The

square metre The square metre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square meter ( American spelling) is the unit of area in the International System of Units (SI) with symbol m2. It is the area of a square ...

in the Gamarra area has a value of at least US$8,000, reaching prices of US$20,000 in some places. In 2018, Gamarra Moda Plaza (GAMA), a formal

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

, was opened in the area. The project had been announced four years prior, with retail chains '' Saga Falabella'' and '' Ripley S.A.'' joining the project the same year. In October 2015, Peruvian newspaper ''

Gestión El Comercio Group (GEC) is a Peruvian media conglomerate that owns multiple Newspapers in Peru, newspapers, Television in Peru, television stations and other entities. The largest media conglomerate in Peru and one of the largest in South America ...

'' announced that the project had a cost of S/. 435 million.

References

{{coord, -12.0647, -77.0135, type:landmark_region:PE_dim:2000, display=title Gamarra La Victoria District, Lima Barrios Altos Shopping malls in Lima

History

Shopping Centre

See also

References