We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People

Activist Nenquimo and her husband, Anderson (founder and director, Amazon Frontlines), offer an extraordinary debut memoir of Nenquimo’s childhood and coming-of-age in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. Nenquimo is a member of the Waorani tribe, a group of Indigenous people who had little experience with the outside world until missionaries from the United States initiated contact in the 1950s. Nenquimo interweaves the history of several tribal subgroups into the gripping story of her upbringing, touching on family dynamics, hunting, and religion. Christine Ann-Roche narrates, tenderly conveying Nenquimo’s vivacity and fierce love for her people, including her grandfather, a legendary Waorani warrior, and her parents, who struggled to balance their connection to the Amazon with the seductive promises of the world outside it. Ann-Roche channels Nenquimo’s eloquence as she describes the corrosive impact of evangelical missionaries, who offered bribes of medicine, sugar, and clothing as they denigrated the tribe’s traditional lifestyle and supported rapacious oil companies and politicians. Ann-Roche lyrically delivers the Waorani words and phrases running throughout the book and Nenquimo’s reflections, without calling too much attention to the performance.