Extractivism in Iquitos: From Rubber to Ayahuasca Literature

Summary

César Calvo's work examines the Peruvian Amazon through a shamanic lens, highlighting personal adventure while critiquing the violence from external enterprises. He presents ayahuasca as a means to escape colonial ideologies and envision a new future for the Amazon. However, the chapter argues that Calvo's critique may inadvertently mirror the very practices he condemns, linking his narrative to the growing ayahuasca tourism industry in Iquitos.

Study at a glance

Abstract

César Calvo explores the Peruvian Amazon through a shamanic consciousness in his autobiographical Las tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonía . Like the other authors considered here, as Calvo tells a story of personal adventure, he also relates a critical history of the violence caused by outsiders seeking enterprise in Amazonia. Calvo presents the entheogenic plant-based brew known as ayahuasca as a vehicle to escape colonial ideology and forge a different future for the Amazon, but this chapter proposes that Calvo also replicates some of the manoeuvres that he criticizes. Chapter 4 argues that Las tres mitades ’s critique of the material extraction of resources from Amazonia nevertheless becomes an instance of spiritual extraction. I draw connections between the novel and the ayahuasca tourism industry that has expanded throughout the Iquitos region.