Etnografía de una organización de estudiantes indígenas en la amazonía peruana: las ambivalencias de la protesta

Abstract

The ethnography of an indigenous student organization based in Iquitos, the largest town in Peruvian Amazonia, allows one to examine the experience ofi ts leaders. On the basis of skills acquired through contact with schools and activist organizations, these new leaders are asserting themselves via ever more visible mobilizations. The process of politicization through which students learn to demand their rights on account of an indigenous identity is examined from the point of view of their place in urban spaces of activism. It is in such spaces that definitions of indigenous leadership are developed. These come into conflict with other, more traditional, organizations and contribute to internal tensions within the “indigenous people’s movement.” The networks of mediation in which indigenous students participate —networks that serve as conduits for the messages that local authorities, ecological activists, and oil companies wish to pass on to indigenous communities— underscore the ambivalence of this protest movement.