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The problems here in the Chapare Jungles of central Bolivia are many. Poverty, disease, and malnutrition are obvious obstacles each family faces; however, there is something more that is plaguing the people of the Chapare. There is no community here. Community is something that most take for granted, but the lack of which can cause major problems when trying to live a life of dignity.
Imagine not being able to communicate with your neighbors or the people in your town. Imagine never going to a sporting event, theater, or art museum. Imagine this lasting for decades. It is possible to survive isolated from community and culture, but it is very difficult to live, as the problems of the area demonstrate. In order to understand how people are affected when community does not exist, we must first understand why these people came to the jungles.
The people of the Chapare were miners until the late 1970s. Bolivia is rich in natural resources. The
Andes
Mountains and Altiplano were home to seemingly endless supplies of tin and silver. The supply was, however, endless and when the end came the Bolivian government was faced with thousands of laid-off miners. In an attempt to soften the blow, the government sent the miners to the Amazon Jungle to farm the land. Families were given about five hectares of jungle terrain and left to fend for themselves. The mass migration created an intermingling of people from many different cultural backgrounds. The results of which were that many people in the Chapare didn’t even speak the same language as their neighbors, much less share the same beliefs and practices. Most people speak Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish, but there are many different traditional native dialects as well. Being uneducated, these people hadn’t the tools necessary to learn a new language or way of life.
Try to imagine this life adjustment alone. They were miners living at high altitude in cold weather, and now they are farmers living in the tropical jungle just above sea level. They have no education and no money with which to even begin a farm. They were faced with the unforgiving elements of the jungle. Diseases such as malaria and yellow fever ran rampant, not to mention dangerous encounters with the wildlife. Their only recourse was to utilize the practice of slash and burn deforestation to create land that could be cultivated.
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The coca leaf, which most miners were familiar with, proved to be the only profitable crop to grow. A family could grow bananas, papayas and other fruit, but there was, and still is, virtually no market for these products. Coca, on the other hand, was inexpensive to plant, easy to maintain, and always in demand. The choice was simple: grow coca or starve. However, it was no secret what this coca was being used for: cocaine. It is important to understand that these farmers were NOT creating cocaine, nor were they familiar with the drug. Traditionally, miners chewed coca to ward off hunger, fatigue, and illness. They were merely growing a much demanded crop which, in the hands of foreign mafias, became cocaine.
This went on for over a decade until international forces, in an effort to diminish the supply of cocaine on the world market, began a campaign to eradicate the production of coca. This lead to divisions and secrecy resulting in a life without community or community building. This has left these farmers, once again, in a desperate situation. Now they must try to survive on plots of land that are too small, with technology that is sub standard, in an environment that is harsh, under a corrupt government that has forgotten them. And they must do it all under the eye of international anti drug agencies.
In a twenty year period of time, these people were laid off from the mines, moved to the Chapare, created farms of coca out of the thick jungle, and then had their crops destroyed. During this time, community never developed because of differences in customs, languages and the sensitive nature of the coca production. These people were trying to survive on nothing, while at the same time participating in the cultivation of crops that were highly controversial.
Today, the people of the Chapare find themselves in a more difficult situation than they did when they first arrived. Not only are they poor and growing crops that have no value, but even after thirty years, they still have no community on which to fall back.
Without community, we have no culture.
Without culture, we have no arts.
Without arts, we have no dreams.
Without dreams, we have no idea that tomorrow can be any better than today.
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Independent Catholic Lay Missionaries:Serving Bolivia's impovereshed people