Tuesday 06 January 2009
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My friends the Machiguengas
The inhabitants of the forest
Between the rio Alto Madre de Dios and the limit of the zone reserved of the National Park of the Manú live two human establishments of which the territory of jurisdiction separated by the Palotoa rio: it is about the community of Palotoa-Llactapampa, situated on the right strand of the stream, half-caste colonist populated original of the Andes (Puno and Cusco), of a temperament sometimes shy ; and of the community native of Palotoa-Teparo, established on the left strand of the stream and populated of Machiguengas of various source and a welcoming temperament.
Because of their isolation we don't have reliable information on the number of the families machiguengas that lived once in the zone historico-cultural of the National Park of the Manú. Some testimonies of the beginning of the XXth century mentions their presence in the forest of the Manú among other communities: the Piros, the Amawakas, the Machcos and the Huachipaires. But no numeric data is indeed available. A map of the department of Madre de Dios, contemporary to the government of the General Oscar R. Bénavides, indicate a global population of the department estimated to twenty thousand. Today again, the census of the indigenous populations, living in a total isolation, remain practically impossible to establish.
Some shanties, or pangotsis, near the petroglyphs of Pusharo. (Photo : Florence Dugowson/Intipress/Media Prod, August 2001)
Being about the Machiguengases, several groupings were listed in the vicinity of the petroglyphs of Pusharo has about thirty years. They lived in a relatively dispersed habitat and one estimated their number in the beginning of the years '70 to about 150 individuals. Unfortunately, an epidemic of flu propagated itself quickly and nearly decimated the totality of the population. Some times later, when an oil company, the Cities Services Company, achieved various operations of prospectings in the region of the Palotoa, between 1973 and 1976, several survivors migrated toward the mouth of the Palotoa rio, where they formed a new establishment under the direction of Vitaliano Cabrera Morals.
One of the old sages of the community of Palotoa-Teparo. (Photo : Thierry Jamin, August 2006)
The few families who maintained themselves in the zone of Pusharo joined little by little the community of Palotoa-Teparo, so that today no family machiguenga lives henceforth in the immediate zone of the petroglyphs. Some members of a same family, live again to the point of confluence of the Palotoa rio and the Sinkebenia rio, known as Abaroa. This territory is placed however under the jurisdiction of the community of Palotoa.
Since the first years of our expeditions in the National Park of the Manú (1998), we have luck to coast the inhabitants of Palotoa-Teparo and to verify their big kindness and their hospitality every time. I remember the day notably where, after a wreck to the course of which we all had failed to lose life (2001), the inhabitants of Palotoa had collected us and had comforted.
The Machiguengas know neither the good nor the pain. They don't know the property: "If you have something, you must share it. If I have something I share it with the community." It is their philosophy, their manner to live. They learn you to see the world otherwise and make you rediscover less and less widespread values in our modern world: notably the fraternity between the peoples and solidarity.
The community of Palotoa-Teparo and some inhabitants. (Photo: Thierry Jamin, August 2006)
It is the reason for which, since several years, we try to sustain this community.
ATTENTION: we don't bring them our modernity in a forced manner! We only try, to our measure, to answer their occasional demands of help. Because the world is so better with a little solidarity!
You will find, in the following pages, the last operations that we succeeded in going up to the profit of our Machis friends.
After a magnificent operation of exchanges between the children of one primary school of the south of France and the children of the community, now we try to finance to the inhabitants of Palotoa-Teparo the installation of some solar panels to bring them a little electric energy.
The Internauts anxious to bring us their support are naturally the welcome!
In the name of my Machiguengas friends, I thank you infinitely for it.
Thierry Jamin
© Thierry Jamin, 1998-2009