The Chacobo in Bolivia
1958; Routledge; Volume: 23; Issue: 2-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/00141844.1958.9980851
ISSN1469-588X
Autores Tópico(s)Indigenous Cultures and History
ResumoFrom the very start I seemed dead out of luck insofar as the Chacobo are concerned. For years I had wanted to visit them. In 19j2 everything was set for the great adventure. Then I had an accident that kept me in bed for months. This was my first failure. By January 1953 I had got as far as Natividad, a landing place on Rio Mamore belonging to the Santiago rubber estate owned by the Suarez Company. The estate manager curtly refused me any aid whatever beyond offering to escort me to Porto Siles, the regular little river port some distance upstream. The Chacobo inhabit an area in the opposite direction near the Caimanes estate belonging to the same company. This grossly incooperative attitude on the part of the estate manager seemed suspect, and, in the course of discreet investigations here and there, the following came to light: A short while previously, a Chacobo called Soria, who had been brought up in Caimanes, at the instigation of some whites had murdered a married couple of his own tribe. After the murder, the then manager of the estate had got hold of the couple's children to exploit by way of cheap labour. Again, four or five years prior to my visit, an Austrian painter named Chwatal and his wife had arrived at Caimanes to visit the Chacobo and paint pictures of these interesting Indians. The then manager had conducted the Austrian couple to the banks of nearby Rio Yata, holding out for them the prospect of finding Chacobo there. He came back alone and said that the couple had left with the Chacobo in their canoe in order to pay a visit to their village.
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