Piedra Roja
José Guerra grew up in Piedra Roja, an area located by the Cricamola River. At the time, it was part of the province of Bocas del Toro, but is today part of the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé. One story he told me was that during his childhood (sometime in the late 1940's or early 1950's), a German had moved into the area. At this point, José kindly explained that Germans speak a language different from English. Anyways, the man was supposedly a former soldier, having escaped from the 2nd World War. He lived in the area as a laborer and accordingly learned the local language. The ultimate fate of the German is unknown as José himself would move out of the area.
Chitä
José's older cousin, Chitä had moved with his wife in the late 1950's westwards in what was the frontier of its time. Previously, Bocas del Toro was scarcely settled owing to the difficulty of the terrain and lack of towns from which to draw supplies. The development of Bocas del Toro (the town), Changuinola, and other settlements provided staging grounds from which to journey into the rainforest and establish farmlands. Much of the settlers would be Ngäbe, looking to exercise their newfound rights to claim land ownership under the government of Omar Torrijos.
Chitä would only live in what was to become Lado Oeste for a few years. Curva del Río, today a town of over 2,000 inhabitants, had less than 100 people at the time. As I went around Curva del Río, some of the older folk recognized the person who I was named after and remark "te nombraron bien". One man, who was a kid when Chitä was around recalled that Chitä would get drunk in Curva and challenge people with his balsería name: Suri (tigre). During balsería itself it is said he was quick and try all his opponents might, they could not knock him down.
I asked what became of Chitä and José paused for a moment, making me think the worst had occurred.
"No te voy a engañar" he started "pero su esposa lo dejó y después el se mudo a Changuinola".
Chitä left the land to José, who then moved from Piedra Roja to Lado Oeste with his wife Emelina. He was in his mid-late teens at the time. His birthdate, as with many people of his generation, is a result of guesswork. No one kept track of dates so it was anyone's guess how old they were.
Present Day
In 2003, the community of Lado Oeste was officially registered. Today Lado Oeste is inhabited by José, Emelina, their descendants, and those who married their descendants. There are a few unrelated (in terms of family) households that I include as part of Lado Oeste for the purposes of the water project, but Lado Oeste proper consists of a cluster of households, all but two of which are related to José and Emelina. One noticeable aspect is that each household is headed by one of their daughters and the man they married, but never the other way around. Of the 10 children José and Emelina had, 7 were female and 3 were male. Their sons had moved out of the community (the closest living in Curva) while their daughters remained. There should have been an additional household in the community, I was told, if it weren't for a snake (icha) killing one of their daughters.
The people of Lado Oeste make their living through agriculture, eating their produce and selling their surplus. The staple food is bananas which is supplemented with tubers such as cassava. Cacao is the major cash crop responsible for the majority of their cash reserves. Their farming methods are fairly natural with their crops growing among the forest trees (though they clear out the dense ground foliage). The machete is the only form of herbicide used.
Additional food sources include domestic animals (chickens and the occasional pig). A small clearing in the hills contains a few cows (and ducks for some reason), but the primary purpose for raising the cows seems to be selling them rather than eating them.
Cows
Water System
Since 2011 the near-entirety of Lado Oeste is connected to a spring-source. The project was largely funded by the Consejo Nacional de Desarollo Sostenible (CONADES). The project came about due to the efforts of one Alfonso who lives in Ladera. The original plan was to eventually extend the water system across the river and thus bring water to Ladera. However technical difficulties, a lack of further funding, and interpersonal conflict prevented the continuation of the work.
The project was resurrected when Bernardino made contact with a Peace Corps Response volunteer who promised that the Peace Corps volunteer who was coming to Curva del Río could write them a grant. This Response volunteer was something of a maverick. I'm not entirely sure what his job functions were, but he had ended up making promises that Peace Corps couldn't keep and had caused some headaches in the office. At the very least, he helped Lado Oeste and Ladera form a joint water committee, reopening project communication between the two.
The G83 volunteer that arrived in Curva del Río was unable to secure a grant for the community, for grant writing was neither his job nor were those communities part of his prerogative. He did however help lay the groundwork for them to receive a volunteer of their own...
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