There’s Something About Mao, That Peru Hates
Actress Cameron Diaz made some Peruvian eyebrows raise and mouths drop when she showed up to the Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru wearing an olive green Mao bag with the popular Mao slogan, “serve the people.” Now, while these Mao messenger bags are trendy fashion statements for expats in China and American and Euro hipsters alike, there are some places in the world where Mao paraphernalia just isn’t all that cool. For example, Peru, where in the 1980s and early 90s the Maoist Shining Path insurgency led a campaign of massacres, bombings and assassinations that led to the deaths of over 70,000 Peruvians. Oops. A prominent Peruvian human rights activist said of the fashion faux pas, “It alludes to a concept that did so much damage to Peru, that brought about so many victims. I don’t think she should have used that bag where the followers of that ideology did so much damage.” It seems that Diaz, who is of Cuban ancestry, did not do her homework before making the trip to Peru. Her Cuban-American father might be equally as offended if one of Cameron’s hipster boyfriends showed up to their home in a shirt emblazoned with Che Guevara, the revolutionary who led guerilla attacks in Cuba in the 50s. Some gossip writers have likened Cameron’s fashion crime to wearing a swastika bag at the Wailing Wall. Maybe fashionable travelers should think twice about where they wear their Mao bags.
Update (6/25): Cameron Diaz apologized Sunday to the Peruvian people for wearing a Mao messenger bag in a country that was brutalized by a Maoist insurgency. She issued the following statement to the AP:
I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended. The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China and I did not realize the potentially hurtful nature of the slogan printed on it. I’m sorry for any people’s pain and suffering and it was certainly never my intention to reopen what I now know is a painful wound in this country’s history and wish for their continued healing.
•AP: Diaz’s Fashion Gives Peru Bad Taste