Piero Gayozzo and Adrián Núñez on Peruvian Humanism
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/09/16
Piero Gayozzo and Adrián Núñez are a Director and President of Sociedad Secular Humanista del Perú, respectively. Here we get a little insight into Peruvian Humanism.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay, so, today, we are here with Adrian and Piero from Sociedad Secular Humanista del Perú. How did you get started in Humanism? Either can start.
Adrián Núñez: I have been atheist forever. I’ve never been religious at all. I was raised in a secular family. Half of my family were secular Jewish, the others were secular Catholics in Peru. The thing is that I never thought about that until, probably, when I was 27-years-old or 30-years-old. I was playing bass in a rock band. Always after the playing and the jams, and everything, we went to some restaurants. There was a Chinese restaurant near the place. All the guys were Christians and I was the only atheist in the group. So, they were starting to, not attacking me but asking uncomfortable questions and trying to make me change my mind about it.
Jacobsen: What were the more aggressive questions asked to you?
Núñez: They asked me how I could refuse some supposed miracles like stigmas or that kind of stuff. Some typical arguments in favour of religion. First, they couldn’t do anything to change my mind, but what they could do is make me think about what I just said. So, the next day, I was searching the internet about atheism and everything. Because before that, I never was really interested in that topic. I searched about that and found a big group or mailing list from Spain called “Cyberateos” (Cyberatheists). There were like 5,000 atheists in the Spanish language from all over the world. I have slowly been involved with some of the movements of atheism. That was about the time when Richard Dawkins was campaigning (the Out Campaign). In Peru, there were, maybe, 15 or 20 people interested in formalizing an atheist association. So, I was one of them. Finally, only five of us signed the documents to found the Atheists Association of Peru, but informally we were a much larger group. I think that was the first formal atheist association in Peru that succeeded. Because starting in the 20th century in Peru, there was an atheist association, but the founder was persecuted. It was a Dutch guy (Christian Dam) who lived in Peru. He lost his job and everything. But we succeeded! We were not attacked at all (except for some fascist graffiti in a place where we held meetings). Some years before, I was part of the board of the association. Then I left the association because of some conflicts with one of the founders. Maybe 8 or 10 of the members of the association left the atheist association in 2013 (we are friends again). Then we entered into the Secular Humanist Society of Peru (Sociedad Secular Humanista del Perú). I became CEO and right now I am president of this association.
Gayozzo: My name is Piero. In my case, I grew up in a Catholic family. I even sat in Catholic school. I was always like a skeptic. Not in the more formal way, but asking, “Why? Who created God? Why do we exist?” I never decided to be or declared myself to be an atheist. I have always been reading things early on, maybe 11 or 12 years old. I started to read about Luciferian philosophy.
Jacobsen: [Laughing].
Gayozzo: Yes, Satanism, the left-handed path and… why do you have to follow the rules of God? Follow your own rules, try to be a kind of good person, but always thinking in your own interest, do not be under the pressure of something else. Those were some of my favourite readings. But it was in the university that I met a friend, he is a very close friend now, who talked to me about transhumanism. I was, because of my own interest, close to science; I really liked biological sciences. Sometimes, I read about it as a hobby. Transhumanism was an application of that knowledge to humanity, to directly improve human beings, to transcend. It started to open me up to a lot of doors about this philosophy. It was following the arguments that I had taken into account: Why don’t we talk about this in Peru? It seemed a little far away, like sci-fi, but it will not be soon. So, I started to take a look at the internet if there was a Peruvian transhumanist movement, association or people who wanted to talk about it. That is how I met Víctor García-Belaunde Velarde. He was the founder of the secular humanist society of Peru. He wrote a book about this topic, about: Why should we enhance human beings through genetic engineering? We stay in touch. We become friends. We try to unite more people to talk about this topic. This was my door to Enlightenment philosophy, Secular Humanism, to atheism. During that time, I was an agnostic, not believing exactly – or not deciding to believe or not believe because I didn’t care about God or supernatural beings. But reading more about these things, I decided, with reasonable arguments, to declare myself an atheist. The chance for beings like us to exist are very short… the point is I decided to declare myself an atheist. Then I met Adrian, the other activists, the secular humanist community. We begin to work together and discuss Humanism and Enlightenment philosophy, and the points of the movement. Then I met Henry Llanos who is the President of the Peruvian association of atheists. It has been 5 or 6 years that we are together working for a secular state, for science communication, for transhumanist values, for LGBT rights. We have our internal differences, but we always try to be together when we are facing, maybe, the things that are against common values. That’s my story.
Jacobsen: Regarding the organizations, what are the core objectives and activities?
Núñez: The core is, in fact, one: Promoting Secular Humanism in Peru. It is very simple. Apart from that, we have some other objectives, not that main point, but different types of communication, e.g., science communication. We had a FM radio program. We have two magazines created by Piero. We have a humanist magazine and a transhumanist magazine, ‘Future Now’. Sometimes we promote some seminars and conferences. Now, with the pandemic, we started doing them online. Before that, all were face-to-face. Now we have an educational centre that offers online asynchronous courses. They are free for everyone who wants to learn certain things in philosophy or science. If people want, they could pay a little bit of money to obtain a certificate, but that is not mandatory.
Gayozzo: I should add. Most of them were part of a working team. But with Humanists International, we create and are working in. A big part of the work that we do, like the staff and members of the secular humanist society of Peru; it couldn’t have been a reality without the financial support that Humanists International gave us.
Jacobsen: This is one of the grants, typically, provided.
Gayozzo: Yes. We have been keeping in touch with Humanists International. We had a radio show, which Adrian was a part of. The first skeptical radio show in Peru. It was supported for many years by Humanists International, so we are very thankful for that. It is a collaborative work.
Núñez: We also have a publishing label. How many books have we published?
Gayozzo: 4.
Núñez: 3 paper books and 1 ebook. It is small, but with a future.
Jacobsen: For individuals who would want to donate money or time or skills, how can they get in contact? What are projects that they can get involved in?
Núñez: The webpage is https://ssh.org.pe/. I think everything is connected on that page. We are on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter or “X”. We are creating a group that will offer humanist ceremonies in Peru (weddings and funerals). We are receiving training and help from Norway thanks to Tale Pleym. Right now, there are no humanist ceremonies in the countries of our region, so if someone wants to collaborate with this project (for example, we need money to print brochures and advertising material), they can contact us.
Gayozzo: Instagram, Twitter.
Jacobsen: No Tik Tok!
Gayozzo: It could be something new.
Jacobsen: You’re welcome for the idea! [Laughing]
Núñez: A good option.
Jacobsen: I know it’s a short interview, but I hope it gives people some context.
Núñez: No, thank you.
Gayozzo: No, thanks to you.
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