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Title details for We Will Be Jaguars by Nemonte Nenquimo - Available

We Will Be Jaguars

A Memoir of My People

by Nemonte Nenquimo
Mitch Anderson
Audiobook
30 of 30 copies available
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30 of 30 copies available
FROM A FEARLESS, INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed activist comes an impassioned memoir about an Indigenous childhood, a clash of cultures, and the fight to protect the Amazon rainforest.
Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest—one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950s—Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing.
She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. At age fourteen, she left the forest for the first time to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. Eventually, her ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture. She listened.
Two decades later, Nemonte has emerged as one of the most forceful voices in climate-change activism. She has spearheaded the alliance of Indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting more than a half million acres of primary rainforest. Her message is as sharp as a spear—honed by her experiences battling loggers, miners, oil companies, and missionaries. In We Will Be Jaguars, she partners with her partner, Mitch Anderson, founder of Amazon Frontlines, digging into generations of oral history, uprooting centuries of conquest, hacking away at racist notions of Indigenous peoples, and ultimately revealing a life story as rich, harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself.
"Nemonte's writing is as provocative as it is inspiring, a heroine speaking her truth, which is exactly what we need to hear. Had we listened long ago to these voices, we wouldn't be in the eye of the storm now. "—Emma Thompson, actor and writer

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 17, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9798891788688
      • File size: 389787 KB
      • Duration: 13:32:02

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 15, 2024
      In this impassioned autobiography, Nenquimo teams up with her husband, Anderson, to recount her journey from young Indigenous girl to renowned environmental activist. Nenquimo was born in 1985 and grew up in an Ecuadorian rainforest tribe called the Waorani, where she was subject to persistent conversion efforts by Christian missionaries. Though Nenquimo felt attached to Waorani traditions, she succumbed to the proselytizing as a teenager, agreeing to be baptized and moving to a nearby Christian village, where she was sexually abused by her host. After she returned home, Nenquimo was galvanized to protect Waorani ways of life and began organizing against oil companies’ rapidly increasing interest in her tribe’s rainforest land. As Nenquimo builds toward the landmark 2019 Ecuadorian court case she led, which successfully blocked a government plan to develop oil infrastructure on half a million acres of rainforest, she educates readers on Waorani customs—including vividly rendered afternoons spent with her community storyteller—and makes space for moments of profound joy (the birth of her daughter) and sadness (her mother’s relinquishing of Nenquimo’s baby sister to missionaries in hopes they will “teach her the white people’s ways”). This fascinates and inspires.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Christine Anne-Roche uses impressive vocal agility, infusing her voice with strong emotion that matches the powerful message of this audiobook. Nemonte Nenquimo, a member of the Waorani people of Amazonian Ecuador, recounts her path from her childhood in the forest to her present work as a tenacious environmental activist. Listeners follow Nenquimo on her journey from seeking the acceptance of abusive Christian missionaries to embracing her culture and finding the strength to resist powerful oil companies seeking to destroy the forest. Nenquimo recalls moments of beauty and pain as she matures and grows. Anne-Roche narrates with a Hispanic accent, nimbly changing accents when voicing others, such as Nenquimo's American husband, and using Spanish and Waorani words. Anne-Roche gives a moving performance worthy of Nenquimo's story. A.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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