Saludos desde Iquitos - capital of Peruvian Amazonia! I arrived here
just over a week ago, but there's already lots of news.
After leaving New Haven last Tuesday, I got into Lima midday on
Wednesday and Iquitos later that afternoon. Unfortunately, my checked
bags didn't come with me from São Paulo to Lima. I was not amused to
learn this, less because I was tired of having worn the same clothes
for two days -- although I was! -- than because I was going to be in
Iquitos for all of 36 hours before leaving for an
information-gathering trip to Estrecho. However, after several
inquisitive phone calls to the Irregularidad de Equipaje desk of my
airline in Lima, all of my suitcases arrived in Iquitos on Thursday
with time to spare for packing for Estrecho.
Besides the business of luggage, my Thursday was dedicated mainly to
meeting some of the other (non-indigenous) people who work with the
Máíhuna communities. These folks include ethnobiologist Michael
Gilmore and several staff from Nature and Culture International, a
conservation NGO. Although Cabeceras has substantial history with
Máíhuna people -- they've been in regular contact since about 2006 --
Michael and NCI have a lot more, about 15 years in Michael's case.
The next day, we arrived at the tiny military airport in Iquitos a few
minutes after 6am. Our 16-seat plane left for Estrecho an hour and a
half later, and we were on the airstrip outside of town at precisely
8:13am.
Our first encounter with the Máíhuna community in Estrecho came less
within 30 minutes of our landing, when a Máíhuna family who had met
Chris at previous years' congresos spotted us walking into town on the
street outside their house. We had to defer visiting them until we had
registered with the police and found a place to stay, but by 10:00 we
were back to the same house and beginning our social rounds.
That was how we spent almost all of that day and the next two: going
from one Máíhuna family's house to another; Chris introducing me to
the household and describing my project; hearing the family's
reactions and thoughts about the language; and making small talk about
farming, health, children's education, and so on. We also held one
community meeting to officially submit my proposal, and were invited
to another, which turned into more of a storytelling session (just as
important as the official meeting, at least for me!).
In the course of the weekend, we learned quite a bit of information
about the Máíhuna community in Estrecho. Here are some of the central
points:
- There are at least 60 ethnically Máíhuna people in Estrecho -- a
significant chunk of the ethnic population (around 400), and probably
the same or even larger than the population of Totoya, the nearest
Máíhuna comunidad nativa to the town.
- Most of the older generation of Máíhuna adults in Estrecho were born
in Totoya, and many of them have lived there for a significant amount
of time. There is still frequent traffic between Estrecho and Totoya,
and a few people have houses in both locations. The primary attraction
of Estrecho is that it has three high schools and a technical school;
most people seemed to have moved there for education.
- All of the Máíhuna adults over 50 that we met appeared to have at
least a passive knowledge of Máíhɨ̃ki. I heard seven people from
Estrecho actually speak the language and was told that another
speaker, who works as a teacher, was out of town. All of the speech
that I heard was clearly the Putumayo/Northern dialect, even though
one of the speakers is originally from the Yanayacu.
- We were repeatedly pointed toward one older man as the most expert
storyteller -- at least in town and possibly anywhere in Máíhuna
territory (since I did not discuss attribution with him I will not use
his name here). This man lives about one hour's walk outside of
Estrecho, but visits his daughter's house in town frequently -- he was
there every day that we were. He told us a vivid personal narrative in
Máíhɨ̃ki on the second occasion that we met him, and several more
traditional stories on the third. This speaker is very wealthy in
verbal skill and traditional knowledge, but less wealthy in teeth, so
I found it hard to understand him at first, but I think that he'll be
an enviable consultant (especially after the summer field season, when
my Máíhɨ̃ki will hopefully be better).
Chris and I also verified that Estrecho has all of the facilities that
we had thought -- hospital, market with acceptably fresh produce,
stores with dry goods, cell phone service, and internet access at the
local boarding school -- although, because of the town's remoteness,
prices are somewhat high for rural Peru. We even found a truly
outstanding hostal for me, located on the second floor above a
dry-goods store, with extra electricity (on from 8 to 3 as well as the
public hours of 6:30 to 10) and access to a kitchen.
All in all, I would appraise it as a long weekend very well spent.
Every Máíhuna family and definitely every speaker in the town has met
me, met Chris, and confirmed that I am a legitimate researcher and (I
hope) a friend to the community. And, I've gotten the financial and
logistical information that I need to be ready to return there, which
-- as I told the speakers and the hostal owner -- I plan to do on
September 1.
But between now and then, I have the team-based summer trip to the
Yanayacu to take care of. We don't have internet access at Nueva Vida,
although I may be able to send a post or two by email in the middle of
July -- so it's ciao for now to the world outside of Máíhuna country.
I'll be back to Iquitos in mid-August with much more to share!
