TACANA

Tacana ethnic group

The Tacana population is located on the banks of the Beni river in the province Vaca Diez del department of Beni and a banks of the mother of God river.

Currently we do not know with accuracy how many Tacana’s communities exist in the area nor the number of people that inhabit them. Only 17 communities are recognize today as tacanas or considered as the children of Tacamistas.  

The Tacana population living in this area arrived approximately in the first decades of this century, coming mostly from the former Franciscan missions of Ixiamas and Tumupasa, located in Iturralde province of Department of La Paz.

They were moved to this region many times by force and another through the deception of the great companies engaged in extraction of rubber and rubber. In the barracks settled initially extended family groups that eventually they became related each. A second group arrived at the beginning of the extraction boom of almonds, but unlike the first (according to Wentzed) is migration was a character voluntary. 

As a result of the violent history several groups indigenous people of the northern Amazon are in very small demographic scales.

Groups like Caripunas, Toromonas and Maropas were completely exterminated. Others like the Ese Ejjas (671 people) Yaminahuas (129 people), Machineris (45 people), Araonas (152 people) and Pacahuaras (a family contacted) to date have not been able Recover the decrease in their numbers.

Only the Tacana (3,400 people) and Cavineños (2,300 people) have relatively large populations (Corridor North 2006). For the same reason population percentages indigenous people are usually very low in different municipalities of the north Amazon, being what highest in the municipality of Gonzalo Moreno (29%), Nueva Esperanza (22%) and San Lorenzo (20%), directly linked to the presence of the Territory Multiethnic Indigenous II (TIM II), with population Tacana, Cavineña and Ese Ejja (North Corridor 2006).

It has to be emphasized that in the 40 – 50 era in our region he dressed in ball gowns at European style, there was an intense activity of theater and sometimes presented opera works, so that cultural activity of the original peoples was no longer taken into account that these people only served for the work of collection of products and natural resources. Musical rhythms like the Taquirari, carnavalito, polca, etc.

The introduction of musical instruments such as guitar, mandolin and accordion which combined with the bulb, flutes, maracas and other percussion They are what give rise to our regional music. It is necessary to recognize that there has been no real concern for knowing one’s own music and its instruments of the native peoples, nor interest in other cultural activities, of such so that there is now an arduous task of authorities and people concerned to defend the cultural actions of native peoples.

Currently in order to carry out a sustainable tourism activity, more funds will be allocated for cultural rescue of traditions, actions and regional activity.

It should be noted that especially in the main cities there is a growing number of people who self-identify as indigenous, considering the immigration of Quechua and Aymara people (Corredor North 2006).

Indigenous organizations from the north Amazon have begun to articulate towards the end of 1980. Currently the existing indigenous organizations in the region are:

• The Indigenous Central of the Amazon Region of Bolivia (CIRABO).
• The Cavineña Indigenous Organization of the Amazon (OICA).
• The Indigenous Captaincy of the Pueblo Ese Ejja de Amazon (CIPEA).
• The Tacana Indigenous Organization of the Amazon (OITA)
• The Captaincy of the Chacobo people – Pacahuara.
• The Indigenous Peoples Central of the Pandina Amazon (CIPOAP).
  

Most of these organizations were created in 1997, and They have played an important role in the different efforts, initially especially in relation to the distribution of lands, and in recent years more and more for various productive projects.

CIRABO, based in Riberalta, already exists since 1991 and has been the parent organization Main for indigenous people in the region. In 1999, the CIPOAP has been created as a parallel organization to CIRABO after certain internal conflicts, and with strong political support of the ADN party.