http://sprinterlife.com/2011/06/the-door-to-the-andes-the-longest-mountain-range-in-the-world.html
The Andes Mountain Range
The Andes are located on the western side of South America. It crosses Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia.
http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/GCSE/AQA/Restless%20Earth/Andes/Andes%20Case%20study.htm
About 45 million years ago, the Nazca and South American plates collided at a convergent boundary. A convergent boundary is where plates come together and push into each other. As a result of this mountains usually form because the land is pushed upwards. Most of the mountains in the range are volcanic as it is a subduction zone. A subduction zone is where two oceanic plates collide and one is pushed under the other. As the South American plate is newer and less dense than the Nazca, it sits on top.
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/hawaii/220/PRI/PRI_PT_subduction.html
In the 14 and 15 hundreds, the Andes were home to the Incan Empire. Most peasants in current Peru are descendants of the Incas, who's language, Quechua, is now an official language. People in Peru would obviously consider the range important as it is where their ancestors flourished.
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