Have You Ever Had A Day When…?

Have you ever had a day when you think you have come to the end of your rope and you don’t know how you’re going to make it through the next 15 minutes, much less the rest of the day? Why me? Why is this happening to me? We’ve all had those thoughts – right??

For me, it doesn’t take very long before I realize that I’m never given too much, that I WILL make it!! I remind myself of others who have gone through far worse, much more difficult times than I can even comprehend!

My friend Miguel is one such person. As long as I’ve known him, over twenty years now – his goal has never changed – “One day, I will return to Peru and become the first indigenous person to be president”! Lofty goals for a kid born in a dugout canoe on a tributary of the Amazon River I’d say!!

In 2010 he started the “Pluralist Party”, (Movimiento Pluralista del Peru) and is now well on his way to doing just that!

Miguel Harerio-Manenima was born the grandson of a Shipibo-Conibo Tribal Shaman, in the rainforest of Peru. His nickname is “Manenima”, meaning “The Traveler”, destined to travel to far off places. Today, instead of a blow gun and darts that he carried as a young boy, he carries a PhD and two masters degrees in Politics and Anthropology from Stanford University, and his goal still remains to save his people and their rainforest.

When Miguel was 12 years old, he made a difficult decision. The only boy in a family of 4 girls, he left his village along the Ucayali River in the upper Amazon of Peru and traveled by canoe for three days to the jungle town of Pucallpa. He was an economic asset to his family, the hunter man, the fisherman. But even at that early age, he realized that education was the only way to protect his family from exploitation from the outside world. The rainforest and all of its abundance had been decimated by “The Exploiters” – the ways of his people changed forever.

He knew that his Amazonian people were on the brink of extinction and that only way to protect his people from further exploitation was to travel to the land of the exploiters, to learn their ways and, in doing so, learn how to preserve his people’s simple life. Miguel is determined to be a leader who comes from the people.

He survived the streets of Pucallpa for 5 years digging for discarded food in back of a Chinese Restaurant and playing his bamboo windpipes on the street corners for tips. Finally having enough money for a bus ticket, Miguel’s quest for knowledge led him on an exhausting two day journey over the Andes Mountains to the streets of Lima. In Lima, he found the missionaries who had worked with his village and they recognized him.

It was there, working as a Janitor for the missionaries, that he met Retired Petaluma Police Chief, Patrick Parks, then a Captain. Parks had heard Miguel play some of his native instruments, and had been impressed. Chief Parks was teaching a class on how the missionaries could protect themselves against militant leftists and Maoist terrorist who were killing foreigners during the early 1990’s. Chief Parks gave Miguel his card and an offer to visit if he ever got to the States.

Soon after Miguel was awarded a missionary scholarship to study theology with “Youth With A Mission”, in Tyler, Texas. From Texas it was on to Santa Rosa Junior College and then Sonoma State University to study politics and economics of Latin America.

Chief Parks, helped Miguel procure a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. With that, he was off to England to study at Oxford University. He studied politics and economics for a year at Oxford and then returned to Sonoma State to graduate in 1999.

Next it was on to Stanford University having been awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, where he did his Doctoral Dissertation on “The Political Participation of Indigenous Amazonians in Peru – The Case of the Shipibo-Konibos”

Miguel is the President and founder of the Peruvian Amazon Indian Institute, set up to help the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon make the transition from semi-nomadic hunting and gathering groups to healthy twenty-first century societies, while still maintaining their cultural identity.

He spent many years in Washington, D.C. working at the Inter-American Development Bank in the sector of Social Development. Currently he is writing a book and working hard to make his political party a viable one.

Do I have it tough sometimes? Sure – we all do!! But when I start getting those feelings of desperation and just wanting to give up, I think of Miguel and his story, and then I tell myself… “Keep Movin’ – it will all work out”, and it does!

I am proud to call Miguel “friend”! Thank you friend for being such an inspiration!