Growing up in a remote corner of the world's largest rainforest, Pio, Maria, and Oita learned to hunt wild pigs and tapirs, gathering Brazil nuts and acai berries from centuries-old trees. Then the first highway pierced through; ranchers, loggers, and prospectors invaded; and they lost their families to terrible new weapons and diseases. Pushed by the government to assimilate, they struggled to figure out their new, capitalist reality, discovering its wonders as well as its horrors. They ended up forging an uneasy symbiosis with their white antagonists—until decades of suppressed trauma erupted into a massacre, an act of retribution that made headlines across the globe.
Powerful ... Revealing ... A riveting and largely seamless tale of approaching disaster, as the poor and illiterate run headlong into success — and fleeting power. Tensions build; a massacre ensues.
Cuadros contributes greatly to ongoing debates about the preservation of the Amazon and the place of native people in democracies besieged by rapacious reactionary forces.
