FSU scholar鈥檚 photography exhibition documents previously unseen threat along Amazon
When Marcos Col贸n, a 糖心vlog postdoctoral scholar and documentary filmmaker, set off on a research trip to the Amazon at the beginning of March 2020, his plan was to finish a documentary in progress about environmental issues in the world鈥檚 most biodiverse location.
What he experienced instead forced him into situations that supplied a previously unseen look at the lives of individuals experiencing food insecurity amidst the bounty of the Amazon. Col贸n documented the experience in photographs, which comprise a new virtual exhibition on view now, 鈥.鈥
鈥淚 will never forget the conversation I had last March with Rafael, a fisherman from the banks of the River Solim玫es, in the small and isolated town of Tabatinga, Brazil,鈥 Col贸n said. 鈥淗is words still haunt me: 鈥業n the Amazon, if COVID-19 doesn鈥檛 kill people, hunger will.鈥欌
The coronavirus pandemic was starting to make headlines around the world. Col贸n was visiting several riverine communities around Iquitos, Peru, when the country鈥檚 president declared a state of emergency and closed the country鈥檚 borders March 15.
Tourists were given fewer than 24 hours to leave Peru. Col贸n, who is Brazilian-American, worked quickly to book tickets and raced to the airport in the small Peruvian town of Caballococha. When the scheduled flight was canceled due to poor weather, he and his cameraman ran to the Iquitos Pier in hopes of catching a boat slated to leave that evening.
鈥淭he main roads were closed by the local police, and the traffic was even more manic than usual,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e arrived at the pier before 7 p.m., but the boat was already full. There were more than 600 people crammed into a boat with a capacity of perhaps 300.鈥
Col贸n sought assistance from the Brazilian consulate in Iquitos and, just three days later, he and a group of fellow Brazilians embarked on a private cargo boat headed for the town of Tabatinga, situated near Brazil鈥檚 border with Peru and Colombia. The boat鈥檚 main mission, however, was the distribution of food supplies to villages along the Amazon River.
鈥淲e stopped in the small 鈥榯owns鈥 of Pebas, Nuevo Pebas, Cochiquinas, Alto Monte, San Isidro, San Pablo, Caballococha and Santa Rosa,鈥 Col贸n said. 鈥淭he Bora, Huitoto, Tikuna, and other ethnic groups inhabit these riverine communities. In all of them, I was able to witness an Amazon that had previously been invisible to me.鈥
Villagers have come to rely on the cargo boat for supplies of everything from rice, beans, flour, eggs, fruits and vegetables, water and soft drinks to building materials, tile, clothing, furniture and more. Beyond the well-known seasonal shortages of regional staples, some products do better only when the Amazon鈥檚 waters recede such as eggs, turtles, watermelons and beach beans.
In addition, the displacement of landless people from the south and southwest into the Amazon 鈥 political refugees from Venezuela and Haiti and those fleeing other catastrophe 鈥 has altered traditional riverine community relationships and introduced varied eating habits, both of which are aggravated by COVID-19.
鈥淭hese populations do not know how to plant and harvest crops in the forest unless it has previously been cleared and burned,鈥 Col贸n said. 鈥淭he cargo boat is greeted by the riverine communities as an abundant supply of everything the forest can no longer give them. One of the captains said to me, 鈥業鈥檝e been doing this for 30 years and these villages aren鈥檛 what they used to be. Now you see the river, but that鈥檚 it; there aren鈥檛 any fish.鈥欌
Market conditions in the deep Amazon are difficult for outsiders to comprehend and reflect a long history of extractivism, the process of extracting natural resources from the Earth to sell on the world market. Fordl芒ndia, the Amazon rubber venture made infamous by Henry Ford, has been supplanted by the soybean industry.
The soybean industry goes beyond Fordl芒ndia鈥檚 productive structure and operates within the global economy, which means stock market impacts bankrupt local initiatives, exclude local competition, and destroy natural resources, Col贸n explained.
Riverine communities in the upper Amazon are unable to produce their own food, largely because they do not have access to land ownership for the means of productive agriculture, and they do not use paper money. The traditional method of preparing land for agriculture 鈥 burning and clearing 鈥 has also been prohibited as a result of environmental legislation.
鈥淥nly the most isolated Indian fishing communities are able to maintain their subsistence way of life,鈥 Col贸n said. 鈥淭he practice of gathering food has also been affected by controls on land use. Hunting, which is seasonal, is also impossible during the period between harvests, due to the river鈥檚 flooding.鈥
Acquiring new food products, primarily chicken, pasta, beans, dried salted meat and rice, has led riverine communities to depend on wholesale and retail trade, which spawns increased boat traffic that puts pressure on native fish populations and increases pollution.
鈥淒ependence is nothing new, but it is increasing with the availability of more goods and regular supply. In other words, traditional activities are replaced with market relations, no longer dependent on nature but on trade routes,鈥 Col贸n said. 鈥淏ut the dependence is magnified by COVID-19鈥檚 threat to the cargo boat鈥檚 operations and its steady flow of supplies to the Amazon鈥檚 villages.鈥
糖心vlog the exhibition
鈥溾 is a collaboration between the 糖心vlog Office of Digital Research and Scholarship and the FSU College of Arts and Sciences.
糖心vlog the artist
Marcos Col贸n earned his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and leads the Portuguese program at the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at 糖心vlog. He is the director of the documentary 鈥.鈥