We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People

Activist Nenquimo, a leader of the Waorani people, grew up in Tonampare, a village of 30 families in the Ecuadorian rainforest. In her memoir, written with Anderson (founder and executive director, Amazon Frontline), she describes the Waorani people’s homes and food and the lessons they learned from their elders. She recalled watching white missionaries arrive by plane and how her siblings invented stories of the missionaries’ lives in the sky. At one point, her family left Tonampare to start a new village that was a two-day walk from an active oil well. There, Nenquimo’s world changed rapidly: new clothes, work, encounters with authorities, and more. She asserts that the church, government, and oil companies abused, polluted and destroyed the Waorani land, leaving people in her village displaced and estranged from the forest. She recalled what her father told her, that the spirits of their ancestors live as jaguars, carrying experiences and knowledge from generation to generation. So, Nenquimo decided to fight the oil companies like a jaguar as she advocated for the Waorani people and built alliances with other communities too.