Exhibition Essay by Marcos Colón
On the edge of the vast and serpentine rivers of the Amazon live various tight-knit ancestral communities who are isolated from bustling cities and crowded marketplaces. When COVID-19 arrived in South America, leaders initiated social distancing and lockdown measures to keep their populations safe. Small riverine towns, however, experienced the virus differently.
On a journey onboard a cargo ship heading from Iquitos, Peru, to Tabatinga, Brazil, on March 18, 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, I witnessed firsthand a snapshot of the severe problems facing these remote populations. I carefully boarded a cargo ship whose entire deck was loaded with tons of canned goods and countless trays of plastic bottles. The ship glided over dark, silent waters near thick and dense forests, looking like an American neighborhood corner store with its plastic bottle caps and stacked cans shining in the light of the moon.
These types of cargo ships stop at various riverine communities, including Pebas, Nuevo Pebas, Cochiquinas, Alto Monte, San Isidro, San Pablo, Caballococha, and Santa Rosa, serving various ethnic groups, such as the Bora, Huitoto and Tikuna. For centuries riverine communities have been relying on similar form of supply made by the “regatão”. Historically, the Amazon regatão is the small-scale trader who enters rivers and streams with his small vessel laden with offal, offering these products to the inhabitants of the region.
The ships arrive at the towns and are greeted by crowds of villagers who wait for the goods and trade for supplies. Watching this scene repeatedly, day and night for four days, I realized that these communities depend on external goods for survival, but it is important to highlight that they have been reliant for a long time. It was a new vantage point to me to observe the rapidly changes in the lives and the environment of these communities. The deliveries are one of the sources of nourishment since the reduced traditional practices of local farming or fishing have been significantly diminished. Many of these families do not have access to land ownership, nor the means for sustainable agriculture. Nevertheless, this riverine communities usually still produce lots of their food, or some of it, and rely on the boats for staples like sugar, salt, canned foods, and sometimes pay or barter their local products for these.
The ban on slash-and-burn and strict laws regarding fishing and hunting have discouraged the continuation of self-sustaining customs and lifeways, increasing dependence on cargo ships — with negative, potentially catastrophic consequences for the local environment. Dependence on commercial goods (processed /junk foods) means greater waste in the form of plastics, wrappings, and cans, which pollutes the water and shore. The vulnerability of riverine communities, which existed before, has been exacerbated by the pandemic. As one fisherman told me, it is not the virus that will kill these people, but hunger.
The displacement of populations by COVID-19 and the interruption of shipments is especially worrisome for people living in these towns. Away from large cities and far from government eyes, these areas are overlooked by state policies and are prone to poverty and hunger. As I journeyed down the Amazon River, I saw a new side of the Amazon that showed me the true dangers of the pandemic. With disruptions to industries and supply chains, these riverine communities stand to lose their source of food and thus succumb to hunger. What I saw was a snapshot that may or may not be reflective of the long-term trends of dependency in region, but an invitation to further continue to “slow seeing” the regions and its transformations.
The pandemic has shown that hunger is a real problem in the lush and tropical Amazon. COVID-19 is accelerating the loss of ancient customs and social and economic dislocation of these individuals. As an old man sits quietly in his canoe, watching the ships pass by his home, he does not realize that he lives not on the edge of the water, but at the edge of the world.