Upon tasking myself to write about my visit to Comandancia, I found myself at a loss for words. And I’m still struggling to accurately articulate the way I felt - and still feel - about my time there. It became the unexpected highlight of my entire trip to Loreto, Peru, and it’s one I’ll likely never forget.
Comandancia - Spanish for “Command” - is a small community located east of Madre Selva, on the banks of the Rio Oroso. It is an old village, whose inhabitants are indigenous Yagua. Their way of life has changed dramatically over the last several decades due to increased pressure from the outside world. As recently as twenty years ago, all of the community’s members dressed primitively - only covering their bottoms and not their tops, as most other Yagua dressed. They spoke their native Yaguan and hunted and fished in and around the Rio Oroso. Isolation was their norm.
As the region slowly became more populated by mestizos, the Yagua people slowly began to assimilate. Spanish became their primary language. Fewer remained shirtless, and in fact a growing interest in Disney characters helped accelerate the acquisition of kids apparel through outside sources. The Yagua appeared to embrace change.
But with a growing population (particularly in Iquitos, nearly one hundred miles away), came some unwelcome consequences. Overhunting by relative newcomers resulted in less game, such as caiman, river turtles, fish, and mammals for the Yagua. Runoff from the precipitously expanding city of Iquitos ended up in the Amazon River and flowed east toward the many small villages that depended on the waterway for their well-being. Perhaps most impactful was the allure of a technological civilization. Boats from the city were equipped with gas-powered engines. These boats moved so quickly that the ripples they created in their wake would nearly flip an old dugout canoe. Wifi and cell phones virtually give you access to the world - for better or for worse.
People began to leave the small villages for Iquitos. Comandancia was no exception. During our visit, I met dozens of children, but virtually no teenagers. These, I was told, had left their primitive lives behind for city life. I saw no men in Comandancia either, but I figured it was because they were hunting or just weren’t particularly social with annoying gringos with cameras (I wouldn’t blame them one bit). From my very narrow perspective, these villages appear to be dying out.
And then a part of me felt guilty about visiting and bringing candy and Disney-themed clothes for the children. What message was I sending?
The villagers of Comandancia expect two visits from outsiders per year - both sponsored by Project Amazonas, the parent company of MT Expeditions, through whom we organized the trip. Project Amazonas is a non-profit dedicated to humanitarian, conservation, education, and research activities in that part of the country and they offer, among other things, health and dental care for local people. In a region where the exploitation of natural resources such as trees and gold are largely unchecked, it is organizations like Project Amazonas that step in and speak for the indigenous people who otherwise have no voice. And the people of Comandancia are well aware, since they share some of their ancestral lands with the non-profit for research purposes.
When our boat arrived at the banks of Comandancia, my concerns quickly dissipated. A group of children who had heard the sound of the boat motor came running to the grassy crest of the bank with a mix of cautious curiosity and exaltation. Christoph instructed the children to return to the community’s large, modern village pavilion. I trudged up the hill with the few members who decided not to remain at Madre Selva that morning. We joined the Yagua in their pavilion. The adults had set up small tables with handcrafted items to trade for children’s clothes. The children began to line up single-file for candy handouts. For them, this was a very special occasion, since they otherwise do not have access to these treats.
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