Carlos Tamani Vargas

A denunciation was filed in 1987 from a man on one of the largest captive communities in Peru:

"I, Carlos Tamani Vargas, 54 years of age and living in the zone of Diobamba, denounce patron Cesar Cagna Figueroa for not having paid me for 30 years work on his farm 'Chanchamayo' where all my youth I spent working. To this day I have received no agreement or payment, except that last year when my father-in-law was sick he promised to take him to Pucallpa for treatment, but on his return he charged me a debt for 4,000 Intis ($10) Which is now 11,000 Intis because he charged me 7,000 Intis for my mother-in-law, an ex-worker of the same patron for 30 years of service. She worked every day from 7am to 6pm without any lunch as is the custom for all my brother Ashaninka who work for him, for many years without any salary and they are as indebted to him as I am. In this way the patron becomes rich with our work, most of whom are mistreated or hit with a stick or the metal barrel of a shot-gun and become sick, as happened to my wife."

Return to The Slave Experience