Within the framework of International Human Rights Day, on December 10, 2025, the VII Cardinal Claudio Hummes Chair of the Amazonian University Program (PUAM) opened a space for deep listening and discernment from the Amazonian territory. Under the title Knowledge, Languages, and Culture in the Defense of the Marañón Basin, the session focused on the voice of the Kukama people and their spiritual, cultural, and vital relationship with the Marañón River.
The lecture, moderated by Mauricio López, founding rector of PUAM and Vice President of CEAMA, sparked a lively dialogue between memory, spirituality, and the defense of the territory, reaffirming that there can be no integral ecology without living peoples with identity, voice, and dignity.
The impact of extractivism on life and spirituality
From Nauta (Loreto, Peru), Danna Tello, social anthropologist, activist, and Kukama singer, shared with clarity and pain the impact of extractivism on the daily life of communities, especially women. Oil spills and illegal mining have contaminated the water, affected food supplies, and weakened the community fabric, but they have also struck a deep and invisible chord for many: spirituality.
“If the river is polluted, the banks (healers) cannot heal,” said Danna, recalling that for the Kukama people, the river is not a resource, but a living being, a mother and spirit that accompanies existence.
Pedro Grandez Garcés (Pedro Alca), a Kukama activist, musician, and communicator, elaborated on this view, pointing out that extractivism not only destroys nature but also damages the identity, spirituality, and right to self-determination of peoples. The violence experienced today, he said, has historical roots in the rubber era and is reproduced in new forms of exclusion and neglect.
The figures are eloquent and painful: between 2000 and 2019, more than 470 oil spills were recorded in the Peruvian Amazon, and in recent years more than 60 in the Marañón River. However, beyond the numbers, the damage touches the heart of life: for the Kukama people, before fishing, permission is asked of the river, because life is shared, not taken away.
Language, culture, and resistance: healing words to heal the land
The session also highlighted the community’s drive to revitalize the Kukama language, understood as an act of resistance and healing. Initiatives such as the Iquari school, the Kukama Nucatupi radio program, and intergenerational meetings with elders are reviving the language through songs, stories, and everyday learning: how to fish, how to name fruit, how to walk the river.
“Recovering our words strengthens us as a people,” insisted Danna, emphasizing that language is key to rebuilding identity, norms of coexistence, and respect for life.
This process is linked to the experiences of Kukama peoples in Brazil and Colombia, weaving a network that transcends borders and reaffirms the pan-Amazonian dimension of the struggle for life.
Memory, truth, and justice: without truth there is no future
The dialogue also addressed the urgency of historical memory and reparation. From Nauta, the Tsiuni+ collective is promoting the demand for a Truth Commission to shed light on the crimes committed during the rubber boom. Pedro also presented the SUNI initiative, which demands the right to truth, comprehensive reparation, and a new approach to indigenous peoples in the face of extractive projects.
The defense of territory is thus intertwined with the defense of memory: without truth there is no justice, and without justice there is no peace or possible future.
Communicating to protect life
Drawing on his experience as a communicator and documentary filmmaker, Gonzalo Guevara invited participants to question the “labyrinths of misinformation” that prevail in cities and to open themselves up to respectful listening to the spirituality and worldview of the Amazonian peoples.
This lecture is also part of a narrative documentation process promoted by PUAM, which includes a feature-length documentary and educational short films in partnership with Radio Ucamara, to continue telling the stories of life, resistance, and hope that are born on the banks of the Marañón River.
The broadcast was accompanied by various ecclesial and academic institutions, including CELAM, CEAMA, REPAM, AUSJAL, CLAR, and SIGNIS Ecuador, broadening the reach of a message that springs from the territory and seeks to resonate beyond the Amazon.
For CEAMA, this experience reaffirms a deep conviction: listening to the Amazonian peoples is an act of faith, justice, and care for our Common Home. The cry of the Marañón and the Kukama people is also a call to the whole Church to walk alongside them, defending life in all its forms.