paaturuu ‘patrón’, a class of mestizo ‘bosses’ who were active throughout [...]

• • ‘patrón’, a class of mestizo ‘bosses’ who were active throughout Peruvian Amazonia from the late 19th century on, and who, through a combination of violence, intimidation, and economic inducement, monopolized, on the one hand, the extractive labor of indigenous groups, and on the other, the access that these groups had to manufactured goods. They made their appearance in Iquito territory during the Rubber Boom, and gained control over the Iquito people at about the beginning of the 20th century, exploiting them so mercilessly that their descendants regularly refer to that period as one of ‘slavery’. Control via violence and physical indimidation gave way to debt peonage in the 1920s and 1930s, with the ‘patrones’ having gained hegemony over the Iquitos with the effective support of the local state and church. The power of the ‘patrones’ began to wane in the 1950s, as more Iquitos came to have knowledge of mainstream Peruvian society, and from the 1960s on, gained access to education. By the 1980s the ‘patrones’ had lost most of the power they once held. The ‘patrón’ under whom the Iquitos founded the community of San Antonio was Ramón Ampuero, but after his accidental death, his territory was taken over by a neighboring ‘patrón’, Elías Guimack, who subsequently exercised a considerable influence over the Iquito people, together with his son, Eluterio Guimack, who assumed the role of ‘patrón’ when his father became older. In particular, both ‘patrones’ actively sought to suppress Iquito cultural practices, and actively shamed people for their use of the Iquito language