The Kukama indigenous journalist and environmental advocate Marilez Tello Imaina has made community communication a tool for resistance, memory, and the defense of Peru’s Amazonian peoples. For 17 years, her voice has accompanied the struggles of indigenous communities through Radio Ucamara, a station located in the city of Nauta, in the Peruvian Amazon.
In an interview with ADN Celam, Tello Imaina shared her life story, her path to communication, and the challenges of practicing journalism committed to defending territories, cultural revitalization, and exposing the violence affecting the Amazon.
A vocation born of service
Although she initially dreamed of studying biology, her family’s financial difficulties led her down other paths. After finishing high school, she worked and later studied technical nursing at the Nauta Institute of Technology. However, it was her closeness to the pastoral life of the Catholic Church that would mark the beginning of her journey in communications.
While serving as a catechist in her community, she was invited by the then-parish priest of Nauta—now Bishop Miguel Ángel Cadenas of the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos—to join Radio Ucamara, a station that was being reactivated after a period of closure.
What began as a small health education program aimed at mothers and women eventually evolved into a deep calling toward community communication. Later, she worked on music programs and subsequently moved into the news department, where she discovered the importance of telling the stories of Amazonian communities in their own voices.
“I wanted to talk about what was happening here, about local issues, about the community,” she recalls.
Communication in the Service of Amazonian Peoples
Over the years, Radio Ucamara became a space for listening, speaking out, and supporting indigenous and riverine communities. The station began to shed light on issues related to health, education, state neglect, and especially the impacts of the oil industry in the Amazon.
Marilez recalls growing up watching oil contaminate the rivers while the population lived with that reality as if it were normal. Since then, the radio station has taken on the challenge of documenting oil spills, environmental pollution, and human rights violations.
“Reporting from the field means saying: here we are, and this is happening to us,” she affirms.
Journalistic work has not been without risks. The journalist recounts that they have faced threats, pressure, and attempts at intimidation due to the reports aired by the station. However, she believes that these difficulties further strengthen the commitment of those who defend life and the Amazonian territory.
Revitalizing Indigenous Language and Memory
One of Radio Ucamara’s greatest contributions has been the strengthening of the Kukama people’s cultural identity and the revitalization of their language and ancestral memory.
For Marilez, communication not only informs but also preserves the knowledge of Indigenous peoples and allows the memory of the elders to be passed on to new generations.
“We’ve learned to value things that often don’t appear in the mainstream media,” she notes.
Through the radio, communities can tell their stories, share traditional knowledge, and reaffirm their pride in belonging to the Amazonian indigenous peoples.
“Being indigenous is something to be proud of,” she says.
Amazonian women telling their own stories
As an Indigenous woman and communicator, Marilez also emphasizes the need for Amazonian women to occupy spaces of voice and leadership within communication processes.
“For years, others have spoken for us, but no one knows our reality better than we do,” she affirms.
In this regard, she encourages new generations to use tools such as radio, cell phones, and social media to document the stories of their peoples and denounce the threats facing Amazonian territories.
She also insists on the importance of maintaining cultural authenticity and not sacrificing one’s own identity in order to be heard in other spaces.
The Church and Support for Amazonian Peoples
Marilez acknowledges the historic role the Catholic Church has played in supporting Amazonian indigenous communities, especially in territories where the state remains absent.
“The Church has been walking alongside the people,” she notes, highlighting the pastoral, legal, and humanitarian support provided to communities in the face of extractive companies and illegal actors.
However, she also expressed concerns about the working conditions of many community communicators linked to church media, who often work under precarious conditions and on a volunteer basis.
Despite this, she considers it essential that the Church continue to strengthen the training of Indigenous communicators and support Amazonian community radio stations.
“Not to tell us what we have to do, because we already know what we have to do, but to continue providing tools and spaces to tell our own story,” she concludes.
Marilez Tello Imaina’s experience reflects the essential role of community communication in the Amazon: communication that defends life, protects the memory of peoples, and accompanies the struggle for justice and the care of our Common Home.