The struggle to be indigenous in the city: The case of the shipibo-konibo community of Cantagallo in Lima

Abstract

The number of indigenous people living in Latin America and reproducing their culture in large cities has been growing in recent decades. The indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon are no strangers to this dynamic, and there are some, such as the Shipibo-Konibo people that have been creating urban communities that allow them to reproduce their own culture in a new spatial context. This process is also taking place in a difficult context, insofar as the Peruvian State does not officially recognize the existence of urban indigenous communities. This situation has generated a process of mobilization and struggle for the right to live as indigenous people in the city. This article discuss how the Shipibo community of Cantagallo has been fighting for the possibility of living as indigenous people in the city of Lima.