The little Peruvian guide to public speaking that conjures up a grandiose world

In Peru, the pirated book market is vast and unhidden, outearning its legitimate counterpart. The intricacies of this not-so-underground culture fascinated the Peruvian American writer Daniel Alarcón when he was living in Lima, and lead to his discovering a curious book titled Discursos y Brindis (or ‘Speeches and Toasts’). The instructional text caught his attention for both its incessant optimism and Peruvian specificity, featuring suggestions for everything from ‘words offered by a member of an institution on the occasion of the inauguration of a radio receiver’ to ‘a sample text for the eulogy of a drowned fisherman’. In this short video for Pop-Up Magazine, Alarcón celebrates the book’s delightful idiosyncrasies before breaking down its deeper and rather earnest purpose – as a guide to access and advancement in Peru’s fragmented society.