19th-century Omagua Social Upheaval and Language Transmission
In response to border tensions with Ecuador and Brazil, in 1853 Peru began to develop the northeasterly cities of Iquitos and Nauta into significant ports, and in 1866 the surrounding region was converted into the Department of Loreto, today approximately the size of Germany, with its capital in Moyobamba. (Moyobamba later became the capital of the Department of San Martín upon its creation in 1897, at which time Iquitos became the capital of Loreto.) This process resulted in the largest influx of settlers from the neighboring highlands and foothills to this area of the lowlands since the arrival of Spanish settlers and Jesuit missionaries in the early 17th century, and it had profound impacts on the social organization of indigenous life, culminating in the disastrous and horrifying upheaval of the Rubber Boom that commenced more or less in 1885. The purpose of this post is to examine some of that upheaval from the perspective of Omagua families resident on the left bank of the Amazon River between Nauta and Iquitos during this period -- who in total probably numbered a few hundred individuals -- made possible by sacramental records held by the Catholic Church and by local oral history.
Perhaps the settler with the greatest impact on Omagua life in the 19th century was Sinforoso Collantes. Collantes, supposedly born in Moyobamba, owned land an approximately fifteen-minute walk upriver of the current center of San Joaquín de Omaguas (SJQ) that came to be known as Moyobambillo and which included, among other things, an aguardiente distillery. Collantes is widely considered to have been the patrón of all Omaguas in the region, a role that placed him at the top of a system of debt peonage that became characteristic of all of lowland Amazonia during this period. The earliest record of a Collantes in the region is the baptism of Ezequiel Collantes Torres, son of Juan and María, born February 5, 1863 and baptized four days later in Nauta by Father Francisco del Águila. The first record in which Sinforoso Collantes appears as a parent (although he may appear earlier as a godparent) is the baptism of his daughter Rosa on November 1, 1877 in Nauta (she had been born the previous year). The following year, one Juan Pablo Collantes and one Doroteo Collantes appear as godfathers to two Omagua girls born at the former site of the Jesuit mission then known as Omaguas (downriver of Nauta). The relation of Ezequiel, Juan Pablo, and Doroteo to Sinforoso is unknown, but it is possible that they were all brothers.
Sinforoso was married at least three times, first to Petrona Loregui (Rosa's mother), then by 1889 to one Juana Loregui, at which time they are recorded as godparents to an Omagua boy from Omaguas, and then by 1899 to María Silveria Ibarán, at which time their daughter Amalia was born (June 14, 1899). M. Silveria was an Omagua woman born in 1879 and baptized at Anexo de Omaguas on January 2, 1880, daughter of Narciso Ibarán and Martina Marino, and in her marriage to Sinforoso Collantes we see a common pattern by which settler families integrated with indigenous families through intermarriage, compadrazgo relations, and the like. By the 1930s, for example, grandchildren of Sinforoso Collantes (and/or perhaps his brothers) were considered well integrated into local life and both Collantes men and women married local Omagua women and men.
Another example comes from the Cabudivo family (variants: Camudivo, Camodivo, Camodihuo, Camovino, Camolvino, Camudilmo). Alberto Cabudivo Atravera, the grandfather of some remaining speakers of Omagua, was born towards the end of 1888 and baptized on February 16, 1889 at Omaguas, son of Dámaso and Francisca. Dámaso's origins are unknown, but the Cabudivo family is said to have originated in Tarapoto, a city some distance away in the Department of San Martín. He is likely the brother of Luís Cabudivo, who married Eusebia Tamani and whose daughter María Eva was baptized the same day as Alberto. If that is correct, then we see here an instance of yet another pattern also exhibited by the Collantes family, namely that by which settlers tended to immigrate into the lowlands in already extant family groups (e.g., groups of siblings). Dámaso's wife Francisca is herself the offspring of the marriage of a settler and an Omagua woman: she was born in August 1870 and baptized September 8 of the same year in Nauta, daughter of Gaspar Atravera and Regina Marapara. The presence of the Atravera family in the region dates at least to 1863, when one Victoria Atravera was the godmother to an Omagua girl baptized at Nauta. Regina Marapara, the mother, may have been the sister of Sebastián Marapara, whose son Narciso was baptized in Nauta on May 16, 1864. And the Marapara surname itself may be in part etymologically related to the designation given to a 16-century Omagua chief Machipara (note Machapana, an apparent variant of Marapara).
The outcome of all of this is that Francisca Atravera (b. 1870) was half Omagua, and almost certainly learned Omagua from her mother, and that her husband was a Spanish-speaking settler. Their son Alberto, then, was a quarter Omagua, with a Spanish-speaking father and a mother who also had probably learned to speak Spanish natively from her own father. And in fact, Alberto today is remembered as one of the few individuals resident in SJQ in the first half of the 20th century who spoke Spanish fluently. However, being born and raised in Omagua communities, he almost certainly would have spoken Omagua, an ability that would have also facilitated communication with his wife Elvira Tuisima Huaní, a woman said to have been dominant in Omagua her entire life. At a time when most interaction with outsiders was conducted in a variety of lowland Quechua, Alberto appears to have often served as an intermediary between Spanish-speaking outsiders and Omagua-speaking locals (e.g., with the famed Augustinian priest Lucas Espinosa).
The last example we will examine comes from the Huanío family (variants: Guaní, Huaní). León Huanío (also known as Leoncio), an Omagua man, was born in March 1869 and baptized on April 7 of the same year at SJQ, son of Marcelo Huanío and Victoria Cahuasa. He had at least three siblings, Candelaria (b. 1867), Faustina (b. 1871) and Lucía (b. 1873). Leoncio was first married to María Tamani, probably a Kokama woman given her surname, and their daughter María Clotilde was born in late 1895 and baptized on January 26, 1896 in Nauta. Sometime near the turn of the century, however, at time at which the Rubber Boom was in full force, he married María Upari, a Kokama woman, and the couple was taken to extract balata, a latex species, on the Algodón River, a right-bank tributary of the Putumayo River ~125 miles from SJQ within traditional Máíhuna territory, an unrelated Tukanoan people. From there they were taken to the Yavarí-Mirim River, a left-bank tributary of the Yavarí ~70 miles from SJQ within traditional Matses territory, an unrelated Panoan people. Raids by isolated Matses groups forced the entire contingent to flee southwards, all the way to the headwaters of the Purús River (~425 miles away!).
Here Leoncio and María's son Clemente was born in either 1910 or 1911, and the family appears to have remained here for some time, most probably until the late 1920s, at which time they fled the region due to violence that had ensued following tensions between two rival patrones, Carlos Palacios and "Sharje" Osambela. Palacios is said to have had a more productive business enterprise than Osambela, and as a result Osambela plotted to murder Palacios, but the latter fled to Iquitos and returned with soldiers who massacred many in the region who had not fled with Osambela. The family had returned to SJQ by July 1933, at which time Clemente married the daughter of Alberto Cabudivo (see above), a native Omagua speaker. However, neither Clemente nor his younger brother Marcelino were speakers of Omagua despite the fact that their father Leoncio was: they had been born and raised on the Purús far removed from any Omagua speech community and likely surrounded by indigenous people who spoke numerous other unrelated languages. Clemente in fact is said to have mocked his wife for the poor command of Spanish she had and her reliance on Omagua in her early life. And Marcelino's wife was one Carmen González, originally from the southerly Department of Madre de Dios, whom he met on the Purús.
In terms of language use, we can note a number of effects resulting from the growing presence of outsiders in Omagua society. In the case of the Collantes, it is not clear that Sinforoso ever learned to speak Omagua, despite some 70 years he spent in the region (i.e., he died circa 1943), and his children with Petrona and Juana Loregui probably never did either. However, his children with M. Silveria Ibarán, an Omagua woman, almost certainly would have. The case of the Cabudivos is much like that of the Collantes Ibarán children: a Spanish-speaking father and an Omagua-speaking mother results in fully bilingual children. In the case of the Huaníos, different factors are at play: marriage was not between a non-indigenous man and an indigenous woman, but rather between an Omagua man and a neighboring indigenous Kokama woman. In principle this would have resulted in children who would have been native speakers of Omagua, or perhaps both Omagua and Kokama, but the removal of their parents to the Purús River resulted in a sudden rupture in the transmission of Omagua. Indeed this latter pattern was presumably repeated thousands of times over during the course of the Rubber Boom, and likely had a more devastating effect on the transmission of indigenous languages than the more permanent residence of settlers in places like Collantes' Moyobambillo.
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| Marañón, Huallaga, and Amazon Rivers between Moyobamba and Iquitos (~300 miles separates the two) |
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| Amazon River between Nauta and Iquitos (~55 miles separates the two) |
Another example comes from the Cabudivo family (variants: Camudivo, Camodivo, Camodihuo, Camovino, Camolvino, Camudilmo). Alberto Cabudivo Atravera, the grandfather of some remaining speakers of Omagua, was born towards the end of 1888 and baptized on February 16, 1889 at Omaguas, son of Dámaso and Francisca. Dámaso's origins are unknown, but the Cabudivo family is said to have originated in Tarapoto, a city some distance away in the Department of San Martín. He is likely the brother of Luís Cabudivo, who married Eusebia Tamani and whose daughter María Eva was baptized the same day as Alberto. If that is correct, then we see here an instance of yet another pattern also exhibited by the Collantes family, namely that by which settlers tended to immigrate into the lowlands in already extant family groups (e.g., groups of siblings). Dámaso's wife Francisca is herself the offspring of the marriage of a settler and an Omagua woman: she was born in August 1870 and baptized September 8 of the same year in Nauta, daughter of Gaspar Atravera and Regina Marapara. The presence of the Atravera family in the region dates at least to 1863, when one Victoria Atravera was the godmother to an Omagua girl baptized at Nauta. Regina Marapara, the mother, may have been the sister of Sebastián Marapara, whose son Narciso was baptized in Nauta on May 16, 1864. And the Marapara surname itself may be in part etymologically related to the designation given to a 16-century Omagua chief Machipara (note Machapana, an apparent variant of Marapara).
The outcome of all of this is that Francisca Atravera (b. 1870) was half Omagua, and almost certainly learned Omagua from her mother, and that her husband was a Spanish-speaking settler. Their son Alberto, then, was a quarter Omagua, with a Spanish-speaking father and a mother who also had probably learned to speak Spanish natively from her own father. And in fact, Alberto today is remembered as one of the few individuals resident in SJQ in the first half of the 20th century who spoke Spanish fluently. However, being born and raised in Omagua communities, he almost certainly would have spoken Omagua, an ability that would have also facilitated communication with his wife Elvira Tuisima Huaní, a woman said to have been dominant in Omagua her entire life. At a time when most interaction with outsiders was conducted in a variety of lowland Quechua, Alberto appears to have often served as an intermediary between Spanish-speaking outsiders and Omagua-speaking locals (e.g., with the famed Augustinian priest Lucas Espinosa).
The last example we will examine comes from the Huanío family (variants: Guaní, Huaní). León Huanío (also known as Leoncio), an Omagua man, was born in March 1869 and baptized on April 7 of the same year at SJQ, son of Marcelo Huanío and Victoria Cahuasa. He had at least three siblings, Candelaria (b. 1867), Faustina (b. 1871) and Lucía (b. 1873). Leoncio was first married to María Tamani, probably a Kokama woman given her surname, and their daughter María Clotilde was born in late 1895 and baptized on January 26, 1896 in Nauta. Sometime near the turn of the century, however, at time at which the Rubber Boom was in full force, he married María Upari, a Kokama woman, and the couple was taken to extract balata, a latex species, on the Algodón River, a right-bank tributary of the Putumayo River ~125 miles from SJQ within traditional Máíhuna territory, an unrelated Tukanoan people. From there they were taken to the Yavarí-Mirim River, a left-bank tributary of the Yavarí ~70 miles from SJQ within traditional Matses territory, an unrelated Panoan people. Raids by isolated Matses groups forced the entire contingent to flee southwards, all the way to the headwaters of the Purús River (~425 miles away!).
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| Huanío Family Residences |
In terms of language use, we can note a number of effects resulting from the growing presence of outsiders in Omagua society. In the case of the Collantes, it is not clear that Sinforoso ever learned to speak Omagua, despite some 70 years he spent in the region (i.e., he died circa 1943), and his children with Petrona and Juana Loregui probably never did either. However, his children with M. Silveria Ibarán, an Omagua woman, almost certainly would have. The case of the Cabudivos is much like that of the Collantes Ibarán children: a Spanish-speaking father and an Omagua-speaking mother results in fully bilingual children. In the case of the Huaníos, different factors are at play: marriage was not between a non-indigenous man and an indigenous woman, but rather between an Omagua man and a neighboring indigenous Kokama woman. In principle this would have resulted in children who would have been native speakers of Omagua, or perhaps both Omagua and Kokama, but the removal of their parents to the Purús River resulted in a sudden rupture in the transmission of Omagua. Indeed this latter pattern was presumably repeated thousands of times over during the course of the Rubber Boom, and likely had a more devastating effect on the transmission of indigenous languages than the more permanent residence of settlers in places like Collantes' Moyobambillo.
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