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i i i Preface It was late June in 2008 when my family and I, squeezed into a pickup truck functioning as a taxi, were driving down the last stretch of a muddy dirt road along the outskirts of Puyo, Ecuador. We were closing in on our destination: a partly finished cinderblock house covered with a tin roof—the home of my closest Quechua-speaking friend, Luisa Cadena de Nuñez. It had been two years since our last visit, and I could barely contain my excitement at the thought of seeing the person whose life and words had taught me so much. Although she was not at home when we arrived, we were quickly directed by two of her grandchildren, who hopped in the back of our taxi truck, down a path leading to one of her agricultural fields. Our progress was soon halted by a river surrounded by steep banks. Traversing this short expanse of river was a rope bridge that looked barely functional to us, but which was quickly crossed by Luisa’s grandson, who ran ahead shouting and whistling, to tell her of our arrival. After about ten minutes I spotted her walking toward us, leading a small procession consisting of two of her sisters and an assortment of children and friends. She easily crossed the swaying rope bridge, machete in hand, and as soon as we finished giving each other hugs, she began to tell me her latest saga. There had just been a violent confrontation between members of her community and the police over the very land we were standing on. A number of Quechua-speaking people had been attempting to secure rights to live and grow food on this seemingly free terrain. Luisa’s son Robin, who was out of town at the time, had begun building a house. Only a week earlier, however, the police had arrived at dawn with orders to burn all of the partly completed houses as well as their contents, effectively ousting the would-be residents. The few people who attempted to fight the police order by throwing rocks had been xii Preface jailed. The majority of the people, however, had simply watched traumatized , as they witnessed their hard work going up in smoke and flames. Luisa’s own response was neither violent nor passive. She asked to speak to the official in charge and was allowed to plead with him about her son’s house. She requested permission to take the house apart herself and keep the valuable materials, including the sheet of tin for the roof. Her request was granted and Luisa was obviously proud of having managed to wrest a concession from a colonel. This incident says much about her resilience to the difficulties and crises that have marked her life at various times. It also points to her extraordinary ability to use language persuasively, despite the fact that she has no literacy skills or formal education and, as an indigenous woman, almost no social status in Ecuadorian society. Her verbal skills make her an ideal subject and coarticulator of the ideas that underlie this book. Here is what it’s about. ...

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