Manuel Córdova-Rios (November 22, 1887 – November 22, 1978) was a vegetalista (herbalist) of the upper Amazon, and the subject of several popular books.
As a teenage mestizo of Iquitos he joined a company's work party to set up camp in the neighboring Amazon forest. They commercially cut rubber trees. He was, however, captured by a native tribe, and apparently lived among them for seven years. The elderly chief taught him in intensive private sessions traditional tribal knowledge: medicinal plants of the jungle, and ways of leadership. The small tribe knew skills for hunting in the jungle, which he learned well, acquiring the name Ino Moxo (black jaguar). The chief also led night-long group sessions under the influence of ayahuasca to sharpen prowess in the hunt. After the chief's death, Córdova was acknowledged as leader of the tribe for some years.
He then returned to local Peruvian life, married and raised a family. Eventually he became well known in the upper Amazon for his success as a curandero (healer), due to his knowledge and use of the chief's herbal teachings. Also he regularly sent medicinal plants to New York.
In the early 1960s he met an American forester, Bruce Lamb (1913–1993), a veteran of many years in the Amazon. Lamb then wrote Córdoba's life story in Wizard of the Upper Amazon (1971), and about his healing arts in Rio Tigre and Beyond (1985). Both books sold well and drew academic interest, acclaim, and some controversy. Later, a Peruvian poet-novelist and an American poet each published literary works focused on Córdova.
Early years
Amazon youth and caucho
Until the age of twelve Manuel Córdova-Ríos attended schools in Iquitos his birthplace. The major Peruvian city on the Amazon, it then had perhaps 40,000 inhabitants.Cf., Huxley and Capa (1964) at 225 (history of the city of Iquitos).Smith (2021) pp. 146-147: "Inquitos was a small river town of a few hundred residents... in 1859. ... By 1900, more than 10,00 people lived in the growing city," which was "a key port for rubber export" and later capital of Loreto Region. His Uru mother came from Moyobamba, a town west of Iquitos in the Andes foothills between the Río Marañón and Río Huallaga. His father worked in the surrounding forest as a tapper (; ) or cutter of wild rubber trees. His origins lay near Arequipa (a provincial capital near the ocean and far to the south).Lamb (1985) at 88 (Moyobamba); at 38 (Iberian ancestry).Calvo (1981; 1995) at 152 (Uru), 155 (Arequipa), 163 (Uru, Arequipa). Calvo's poetic work here is a specie of creative nonfiction.Besides Calvo above, Córdova is described as a mestizo by Ott (1993) at 242, and by Beyer (2009) at 159, 175, 198, 302, 329.
The thriving Amazon trade in rubber (Sp: caucho) had come upriver to Iquitos circa 1880 from Brazil. Eventually his mother let him go with his elder sister Mariana and her husband Lino Vela into the hinterland to learn the booming rubber business. In the small town of Iberia on the Río Tapiche the couple's trading post served rubber tappers, who would bring in their harvest of latex to sell, as well as to buy gear and supplies. Before long young Manuel went further into the bush, by boat with a company of four others under Roque to a remote, makeshift caucho camp by the Río Juruá near the Peru–Brazil border. From here they could fan out into the unexploited forest in search of wild rubber trees.Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) at 3, 4, 6–7; map at xxi.Lamb and Córdova-Ríos (1994) at 1–8, 154–155; map at vi.
Captured by a forest tribe On a day when it was Manuel's turn to cook and clean camp, he was alone while the others hunted for rubber. Surprised suddenly by the deft appearance of a group of forest natives (about 15 in number), Manuel was quickly seized and nearby weapons removed. With hands bound, he was required to run at an accelerated pace along with the silent tribal party, through the forest southward for several days and nights, stopping only briefly. Exhausted and disoriented, he surmised that his fellow caucheros had been killed; he later noticed his captors with their weapons. After about nine days on foot, they reached a small village in a jungle clearing (called Xanadá he later learned) located near the Peruvian headwaters of the Río Purús. It was about 250 km. from the caucho camp.Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) at xxi (map: route taken by Huni Kui party from caucho camp southward to village Xanadá by source of Río Purús).Cf., Huxley and Capa (1964) at –: map of upper Amazon, with greater detail showing headwaters of the Río Purús. An elderly chief greeted him and expressed kindness toward him. His name was Xumu Nawa. Manuel was naturally apprehensive. Eventually the village came to accept him, and slowly Manuel began to be reconciled to his new situation; ceremonies were held. Village children became casual and friendly, and the chief started to teach him the tribal language.Lamb (1971, 3d ed. 1974) at 3–23: 8–9 (capture); 14–15 (meets chief); 19–22 (ceremonies); 23, 40, 65 (language ability). Based on Córdova's reckoning (made later in June 1910), the date of his capture probably falls in the last months of 1907. Cf., Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) at 109.Lamb (1985) at 7–12; "Great chief, Xuma Nawa, Dominator of all the Spirits, leader of the Huni Kui" at 39.Lamb and Córdova-Ríos (1994) at 9–23: capture at 12; fellow caucheros at 13–14, 16, 17; children at 20; language at 22.Calvo (1981; 1995) re capture and tribal ceremonies: at 162–64, 172–73; cf., 154–55.Caveat: A challenge has been made regarding the veracity of parts of the story told by Córdoba. See section below.
Life in Huni Kui village Being young Manuel Córdova-Ríos, after adjustments, quickly took to the tribal ways of the Huni Kui ["real people" or "true, genuine people", also "chosen people"].Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) p. 23, n (HK name)."Huni Kuin (Kaxinawá)", identification, in Fany Pantaleoni Ricardo, Povos Indígenas no Brasil, per June 29, 2015. The name retains an ambiguity. A readily apparent difference was that the Huni Kui for the most part went naked. Their home was the tropical rainforest, which Córdoba had only known from a Peruvian perspective. He learned their language and their hunting styles, ate the diet of cultivated vegetables, wild fruits and game meat, lived their village life, and went without clothes. He retained inwardly, however, a submerged but unresolved conflict, due to the supposed harm caused by his initial capture.Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) at 9, 14, 23, 103 (naked); at 9, 78, 153–54, 178, 184 (conflicted).Lamb (1985) at 16 (name); at 11, (naked); at 8, 12, 15–16 (conflicted).Lamb and Córdova-Ríos (1994) at 25 (name, language, diet, naked); 17, 88 (naked); at 13–14, 70, 123–24, 146 (conflicted). The chief Xumu taught Manuel Córdova-Rios much traditional knowledge of the tribe, which constituted valuable lessons enriching Manuel's entire life. Here Xumu Nawa might be further described as a shaman, or as a curaca, a title for leaders used among tribes of the upper Amazon.Schultes and Raffauf (1992) at 277: curaca as "the name for a payé or medicine man".Cf., Huxley and Capa (1964) at 123–124, 129–130 (curaca used in Panoan, i.e., by Amahuaca living by source of the Río Purús, but as meaning "chief").
Ayahuasca and hunting
A major occupation of the men was hunting, which provided a substantial part of the Huni Kui diet. Xumu the elderly chief would, periodically, lead the hunters in secluded, group sessions calculated to renew and improve their hunting skills. The preparation usually required, e.g., a purge of the bowels, followed by taking only selected foods, and sexual abstinence. In a clearing away from the village a dark-green drink was made mostly from vines of ayahuasca [HK: nixi honi] and chacruna leaves, boiled slowly over a low fire. It was poured into small palm-nut cups and given to the hunters, who sat encircling the fire. Accompanied softly by the others, the chief would begin singing his peculiar chants. At his discretion he'd employ the songs to alter the atmosphere of the gathering or modify the pace of the group.Lamb (1971, 3d ed. 1974) at 24–27.Ott (1993) at 199–273. Ott provides an extensive review of the literature and history, and of the pharmacology, concerning ayahuasca. This jungle vine is identified as being the plant Banisteriopsis caapi. Ott at 199–200.
The tribal hunters then entered into what may be described as a shared experience of vision. After an initial chaotic flux of organic images and designs, arabesques in blues and greens, a collective fantasy developed in which a 'parade' of birds and animals began to pass into the group's awareness. Following the chief's cue the hunters would shift the chant, enabling them to use the particular song (icaro) associated with each of the jungle creatures as it passed before them. Evidently the group had evolved this method to coordinate their visions, so that they could then collectively imagine a similar scene of forest life. Accordingly, following their group witness of the wild creatures one after another, each of the tribal members was better able to appreciate the instinctual nature of such an animal or a bird, and the stealth and techniques of their fellow hunters, all of which could be scrutinized and delicately appraised in each mind's eye. Several of such hunting scenes, later reconveyed in elaborated stories told after the session, might then be carefully assimilated. The experience naturally worked to coach each hunter to improve his skills, e.g., shooting arrows that hit their mark, or refashioning his tracking intuition.Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) at 23–40 (nixi honi or ayahuasca); at xvii (ayahuasca vines and yaje [yagé] leaves).Lamb (1985) at 12–13, 15.Lamb and Córdova-Ríos (1994) at 28, 32, 34–36 (nixi honi); 28 (shared visions).Cf., Carneiro (1964) at 6–10, on the yoshi or "spirits" of the Amahuaca. After drinking ayahuasca the yoshi may be experienced; "the stronger the potion the more yoshi one will see" (at 8). These yoshi are believed to be the spirits of several different types of animals and plants, e.g., the jaguar, puma, porpoise, electric eel, anaconda, boa, carrion eagle, vulture, all considered "unfit to eat" (at 6–7). Hence, similar or analogous to the "parade of animals" summoned by chief Xumu as narrated by Córdova. A few large and imposing trees also represent yoshi (at 7).Carneiro (1970) at 341, n17 (per text at 340) states, "The Amahuaca also drink ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi) to induce spirit visions, but do not do so to assist them in hunting." In discussing "Hunting Magic" at text 339–340, however, Carneiro reports that Amahuaca do take various drugs in order to increase their success in hunting.
This ayahuasca experience, which was from time to time repeated for the tribe's hunters, fascinated and enchanted the young initiate, Manuel Córdoba. By this process, the Huni Kui men worked together to sharpen and refresh the tribe's hunting skills. Afterwards, hunters divided into small groups and put to the test their newly enhanced ability to find and bag the forest's wild game, and so to increase each family's ability to survive. In one of these hunts, Nixi and Txaxo told Manuel how to pursue feral pigs and, after tracking a large band, shot arrows bringing down a few quick targets. Nixi and Txaxo further described roving habits of the forest pigs.Lamb (1971, 3d 1974) at 33–36 (ayahuasca to improve hunting skills); 42–64 ('hunting camp'); 51, 52–54, 55–56 (wild pigs), 29 (Nixi Xuma Waki "Maker of the Vine Extract"), 49–51 (Txaxo Anika "Deer [hunter]"); 87–97 (later series of ayahuasca sessions where Córdova alone taught by chief Xumu).Lamb (1985) at 12–16.