Embera Puru remembers its founder

The next generation. Photo by Eric Jackson

Embera Puru, five years after
the village founder's demise
photos by Eric Jackson and José F. Ponce

On September 20 people in the Darien community of Embera Puru, which is on the Pan-American Highway past Agua Fria and before Arimae, noted the fifth anniversary of the death of Arcenio Bacorizo Dogiramá, the cacique, architect, traditional healer and visionary who founded the village shortly after his release from a three-year wait in prison for a trial in which a jury quickly acquitted him of a murder charge.

Bacorizo, who had an eighth grade formal education, received a far more advanced traditional education from his father, who was skilled in herbal medicine, and other Embera elders.

Along with his brother and several others, Arcenio founded the community of Arimae. The Bacorizo brothers were active in the movement for an Embera comarca, but when the Embera - Wounaan Comarca was established Arimae was one of the communities that was left out. After his brother became too ill to serve as Arimae's cacique Arcenio took over the job, and along with other caciques from communities outside the comarca he founded the Indigenous Organization for Embera and Wounaan Collective Lands to fight for the property rights of those communities. He was elected general cacique of that organization, and in that position established international ties and working relationships with other groups in Panamanian society.

Bacorizo was taken prisoner by American soldiers and briefly held in the wake of the 1989 US invasion, when the Christian Democratic Party, then trying to establish itself as the dominant party, falsely accused him of being a Noriega supporter. The truth of the matter was soon established, the cacique was freed and after a year or so of similar incidents all over Panama the Christian Democrats were forced out of their positions of power in the government.

In 1994 a Colombian man was stabbed to death in Arimae and eventually Arcenio Bacorizo was charged, the "evidence" against him being the supposition that such a thing could never happen unless the cacique ordered it. After more than three years in prison he went on trial in Panama City, where his family and friends used The Panama News office as their defense committee headquarters. The jury quickly aquitted Bacorizo.

However, in his absence new leaders who didn't share Bacorizo's views took over in Arimae, and the position of general cacique for the communities outside the comarca also rotated to others. Very much in the Embera tradition, in 1999 Bacorizo led a group of followers from Arimae and other Embera communities a few miles up the road and established the village of Embera Puru.

However, Bacorizo's plans for the new community didn't get very far along. Imprisonment had broken his health and a gastro-intestinal disorder which neither the doctors in the public health care system nor traditional healers were able to diagnose caused him to waste away and die on September 20, 2003.

"We don't see him physically, but spiritually he's helping us," Arcenio's son Yuri Bacorizo told those assembled for a September 20 event marking the fifth anniversary of the cacique's passing. Embera Puru's current leader, Aristobulo Salazar, noted that when he became ill Arcenio Bacorizo was developing a nature trail garden to train botanical healers but when he died it went untended. "We don't know what he knew," Salazar lamented, adding that it has led to a situation in which community development is hampered by politicians donating things that people didn't ask for and don't need and resources being unavailable for things that people in Embera Puru consider important.

A young farmer. Photo by José F. Ponce

Kids show off their school. Photo by José F. Ponce

Embera Puru's church, where preachers of any denomination are allowed to hold
services, so long as they do not denigrate Embera culture. Photo by Eric Jackson

Embera justice: the stocks, over which the women have control. Photo by Eric Jackson

At the barbershop. Photo by Eric Jackson

Embera Puru girls. Photo by José F. Ponce

Kids listen to their elders. Photo by José F. Ponce

Studying the significance of animals depicted in tagua sculptures. Photo by Eric Jackson

Taking on land invaders, or the Panamanian government?
That's no big deal for these kids, who are being prepared
to do battle with Superman himself. Photo by Eric Jackson