Greetings Cofan Survival Fund Supporters!
As Cofan Survival Fund (CSF) President, I usually write newsletters that report on the important work we’re doing to protect Cofan territory and the people who rely on it to sustain their way of life and maintain our global climate system. I also like to share the inspiring stories that emerge from our education projects, which are producing the next generation of Cofan leaders to carry our work into the future. Today I want to share a story about something else. It might not seem as important as our other work, but to so many Cofan individuals, it can mean the difference between life and death.
Very few of you have met Freddy Espinosa, an Ecuadorian citizen who has worked for the CSF since it was founded. As a motorcycle-driving “pizza delivery boy,” Freddy met our executive director Randy Borman when Freddy was still a very young man. Slowly, he learned to help Randy negotiate the ins and outs of Ecuador's capital city to make our legal and political work possible. As a native Quiteño (Quito resident), Freddy’s Spanish is flawless, and he knows just how to relate to Ecuador’s elected leaders and bureaucrats to convince them that the Cofan are the right people to protect the country’s most biodiverse landscapes. After many years with us, and after finishing his university degree, Freddy became our main legal coordinator. Without Freddy’s help, so many of the Cofan Nation’s land rights, territorial treaties, and mechanisms for securing governmental and nongovernmental support—financial and otherwise—would not exist.
But Freddy and the CSF do so much more for the Cofan Nation. As soon as we established our Quito headquarters in the late 1990’s, our offices became short- and long-term homes to Cofan activists, students, and individuals and families seeking medical care. More than anyone else, Freddy helped them organize the government meetings to achieve their goals. He convinced high school and university administrators to enroll Cofan students and provide them scholarships. And he has helped dozens of Cofan people to negotiate Ecuador’s public and private healthcare systems to get the medications, treatments, and operations that keep them alive and healthy. Cofan people are brilliant in many ways, but when it comes to making things happen in Quito, Freddy’s aid is essential.
I am in Quito right now working with Cesario Lucitante—an elder and shaman from the community of Duvuno—and his son Octavio. Living in an apartment and obeying the proper COVID protocols as an isolated “pod,” we’re analyzing the research materials that will allow me to write my next book, which will list Cesario as a full co-author. Every day Cesario teaches me something new about Cofan cosmology and his complex healing techniques. Octavio helps me to interpret, record, and write down his father’s words. As an accomplished shaman, Cesario’s abilities are astounding. But as a 78-year-old Ecuadorian citizen who is only minimally conversant in Spanish, he finds the country’s bureaucratic system perplexing, to put it mildly.
Shortly after Cesario arrived, we learned that his cédula (government ID card) was out of date. Without a current cédula, Ecuadorians face fines and are unable to access essential government services, including healthcare. They can’t even make basic purchases at many stores, as official receipts must include a person’s cédula number, which can only be “proved” with an up-to-date card that is checked against a national database.
Perplexed by what to do, I called Freddy. Within a matter of minutes, he arrived at our apartment. With masks on and windows open, he drove us to Quito’s Registro Civil, the government office responsible for renewing cédulas, granting passports, and providing other essential documents. With his typical charisma and confidence, Freddy spoke to the officials and got Cesario to the front of a very long and thankfully socially distanced line, explaining that Cesario was an Indigenous man of tercer edad (old age) who deserved special treatment. In a matter of minutes, Cesario’s cédula was renewed—as you can see in the above photo, with Freddy at Cesario’s side—and we were on our way home. Without Freddy, getting the renewal in Quito would’ve been impossible given how little I, Cesario, and Octavio know about how to negotiate Ecuadorian bureaucracy.
Freddy’s aid to Cesario is just one example of how he keeps Cofan people safe and secure while also helping to create the legal structures and agreements that do the same for their Amazonian homeland. His help for Cesario might seem like a minor matter in the grand scheme of things, but for Cofan individuals, such aid can be a lifesaver. On our drive back from the Registro Civil, Freddy told us about two Cofan people whom he had recently helped to secure medical care in the city. One has metastatic stomach cancer. Though she likely won’t survive, Freddy helped her attain the palliative treatment that will keep her as comfortable as possible. The other had a baseball-sized tumor-like growth on his neck. We feared it was another case of cancer, but with Freddy’s aid, the man spent weeks in one of Quito’s best hospitals with insurance that Freddy and the CSF helped to secure for members of his community. Luckily, the growth was “just” a massive cyst, and the man will make a full recovery. If he hadn’t gotten the proper care, the infection could’ve spread and the outcome could’ve been very different.
As we continue to fight for the future of the Cofan homeland and way of life, the CSF will do all the “little things” it always has. More than anyone else, Freddy makes those little things possible. Like all our Ecuadorian staff, when our funding has dwindled to a trickle, Freddy has gone months without a paycheck. Yet he has never thought about abandoning the CSF or the Cofan, even with a degree and legal credentials that could bring him a much more substantial income. As is the case with me, Randy, and the rest of our team, Freddy is a Cofan “lifer,” and the Cofan Nation is extremely thankful for his service and commitment.
As always, it’s time for my pitch. If you want to help Freddy and the CSF continue our work, please consider donating for the first time, increasing your donation, or becoming a recurring donor. We promise to use your support as efficiently as possible to do all the “little” and “big” things to ensure the welfare of Cofan people and their rainforest homeland. If you want to have a direct conversation about about how we can do that, feel free to send an email to my personal address: michael.cepek@utsa.edu. You can contribute online by credit card by clicking on our website: www.cofan.org. Or you can mail a check to: Cofan Survival Fund, 53 Washington Boulevard, Oak Park, IL 60302. Another way to give, if you shop at amazon.com, is to go to smile.amazon.com and select the Cofan Survival Fund as your designated charity. Then, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of every one of your purchases to the CSF.
Sincerely,
Michael L. Cepek, CSF President