Jose Nunez -- Yanamami, Venezuela

Jose Nunez is a Yanomami activist from Venezuela.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I’m from Venezuela and I belong to the Yanomami people. I was born in the community of Ocamo. Since I was little I studied in the community called Esmeraldas, until sixth grade. Thank God I’m here.  I feel very happy about it.

Q: How did you get here?

A: To get here I asked for help from my brothers and my father in law.

Q: How, exactly, did you travel from your community?

A: I left my community for Puerto Ayacucho to arrange the paper work. To get to Puerto Ayacucho, first you have to get from Ocama to Esmeraldas. That takes about five tanks [of gasoline for the canoe]. From there you have to pay for a bush plane to Puerto Ayacucho. They leave on Wednesdays or Thursdays, so we had to wait. On June 2nd I went to Ayacucho. There my teachers told me that I should go to Quito for this course. They themselves paid for the bus to Caracas. We left at 7 at night, traveled all night and arrived at 8:00 or 8:30. It’s far. Then in Caracas we had to wait two weeks because of passport problems. I had to go back to the Amazon to get the passport. With luck, we got the passport and returned again to Caracas.

Q: How many Yanomami are there in Venezuela?

A: Before there were around 15,000. They did a new census but I don’t know how many there are today.

Q: How many have finished high school?

A: At first several Yanomami studied but because of economic problems, they couldn’t continue. Some didn’t want to study. They left school and escaped. The sisters, the Catholics, helped me and brought me to Esmeraldas [to boarding school]. I’m the first Yanomami to get a high school degree.

Q: How did your parents feel when you got your degree?

A: (Smiles) Oh, very happy!

Q: Now you’re a teacher, right?

A: I’m a teacher but I was only working for three weeks.

Q: How do the people in your community live?

A:  They work in the “conoco,” cultivating, fishing, and gathering. “Conoco” is agriculture but on a very small scale. They plant yuca, banana, sugar cane and tobacco. They sell to the Salesian missionaries.

Q: How many families are there in the community?

A: About 15 families.

Q: What are the houses like?

A:  In the old days we lived in a giant house, called a chapono.

Q: Now how many live in a house?

A: Nowadays just one family, there are 10 people in my family.

Q: Do you work on the ‘conoco’?

A: Yes, I always help my father with that.

Q: How do you fish?

A: With arrow, with poison, with a hook, but it’s from the needle of a plant.

Q: What animals do you hunt?

A: We hunt monkey, ocelot, deer, Danto, cachicamo, everything.

Q: How many families are in the community?

A: 15.

Q: Is there any oil, mining or logging activity?

A: No. Nothing.

Q: Why did you come to this course?

A: When I get home to Ocamo, I will share the experience I’ve had here with the adults, elders and young people so they have this information as well.

Q: Would you like to say anything in Yanomami?

A: To all the Ecuadorians that have major problems with pollution, I say that I support you in the name of the Yanomami, as an indigenous person, in your fight to have a better and healthier territory.