Making Space

At the western edge of the Ecuadorian Amazon, 20 kilometers north of the town of Tena, is the centro matriz, or administrative center, of Mondayacu, a Quichua community of about 1,200 people. Here stand a few dozen houses, most made of rough-hewn boards and tin roofs, though many have been constructed at least in part with split bamboo siding and have roofs of thatch. A handful of stores sell basic foodstuffs, soda, liquor, notebooks, pens and pencils. Women wash their laundry, their children, and themselves in roadside pools fed by water diverted from a distant stream, and children play soccer and basketball next to the community meeting house. Though most homes within 100 meters of the highway are wired for electricity, there are no telephones here, no running water, no sewerage. On a hill overlooking the center are Mondayacu's elementary and bilingual intercultural secondary schools. The concentration of houses and other buildings along the highway represents the first line of defense against the incursions of colonists from the highlands or coast and the first stage in the long process of obtaining legal title to the community's land claims. Away from the road, clearings in the forest for