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migration and close to Huancayo) organized to get different groups fromhis municipality living and working in Milan, Los Angeles, and Lima, tocommit themselves to raising funds for public works. In August 2000, thegroups were visiting the pueblo to take part in the annual celebrations of thedistrict’s Patron Saint (Santo Domingo de Guzmán).The mayor invited theleaders of each migrant club to attend a special meeting at the municipalityto discuss ideas for local development projects and to suggest particularprojects for which each group would be responsible. The interest was greatand many of the leaders and key “movers” from the three migrant groupsarrived with ideas for priority projects. However, in putting forward theirpriorities, each revealed their own ideas of what “development” entailed.All showed interest in maintaining links and strengthening their owninternal solidarity as migrant clubs, but in the end their ideas for localprojects diverged strikingly. The Italian group opted to fund an up-to-datetelecommunications center in Huachac with a central telephone exchangeand internet booths for public use. This they saw as a practical way ofstrengthening their ties with family and friends back home, thus making iteasier for family members to make calls or send emails from the village.The American “Huacquinos” chose the idea of building a commercialcenter modeled on some U.S. type of mall or gallery of shops and servicecenters, including restaurants, grocers, and stationery shops. And thosefrom Lima argued for an Instituto Superior that would fill a major gapin the provision of educational courses and vocational training for theyoung of the municipality. This, they argued, would better prepare themfor obtaining skilled and professional jobs. The argument was of coursepremised on the notion that it was principally through education that oneachieved social mobility, just as they themselves had done in the 1960s and1970s. Yet, in arguing this in 2000, they chose to ignore the fact that, inthe 1980s and 1990s, most professionals in Peru had in fact suffered a realdecline in their incomes and purchasing power.54As Tamagno shows, these contrasting development narratives expose theself-images of each group and how they envisage the needs of the village. Atthe end of the meeting, each migrant group was required to pledge itself tocollect a certain sum of money earmarked for a specific local developmentproject. These offers were then recorded formally in the Libro del Oro(the village financial ledger) as a way of sealing the agreements. Some 50persons from outside (from Lima, Spain, Italy and the U.S.) attended thismeeting and witnessed the commitments made. In addition, Andres, a keyleader in the Italian group, boasted that he had already raised, from relativesand friends in Italy, some US$3000 towards the costs of this year’s fiestaand had himself donated an additional sum of US$7,500.