Life In Oil: Cofán Survival In The Petroleum Fields Of Amazonia
University of Texas Press
ISBN13:
9781477315071
$97.40
Oil is one of the worlds most important commodities, but few people know how its extraction affects the residents of petroleum-producing regions. In the 1960s, the Texaco corporation discovered crude in the territory of Ecuadors indigenous Cofán nation. Within a decade, Ecuador had become a member of OPEC, and the Cofán watched as their forests fell, their rivers ran black, and their bodies succumbed to new illnesses. In 1993, they became plaintiffs in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that aims to compensate them for the losses they have suffered. Yet even in the midst of a tragic toxic disaster, the Cofán have refused to be destroyed. While seeking reparations for oils assault on their lives, they remain committed to the survival of their language, culture, and rainforest homeland. Life in Oil presents the compelling, nuanced story of how the Cofán manage to endure at the center of Ecuadorian petroleum extraction. Michael L. Cepek has lived and worked with Cofán people for more than twenty years. In this highly accessible book, he goes well beyond popular and academic accounts of their suffering to share the largely unknown stories that Cofán people themselves createthe ones they tell in their own language, in their own communities, and to one another and the few outsiders they know and trust. Their words reveal that life in oil is a form of slow, confusing violence for some of the earths most marginalized, yet resilient, inhabitants.
- | Author: Michael L. Cepek, Bear Guerra
- | Publisher: University of Texas Press
- | Publication Date: Apr 02, 2018
- | Number of Pages: 302 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Hardcover/Social Science
- | ISBN-10: 1477315071
- | ISBN-13: 9781477315071
- Author:
- Michael L. Cepek, Bear Guerra
- Publisher:
- University of Texas Press
- Publication Date:
- Apr 02, 2018
- Number of pages:
- 302 pages
- Language:
- English
- Binding:
- Hardcover/Social Science
- ISBN-10:
- 1477315071
- ISBN-13:
- 9781477315071