Hugo Blanco is a very interesting character and he tells a detailed and often saddening story in We, The Indians. He has worked hard for a very long time to fight against the many abuses and injustices faced by the poor, believing that they must work together to achieve their common goal. However Hugo is not universally loved, but is a bit controversial and has acquired some enemies over the years. “I found out that I had been sentenced to death by the Government’s National Intelligence Service and also by the ultra-leftist group Shining Path, so I was forced to leave the country and go to Mexico to live with my partner and my two youngest children.” I found it interesting and a bit surprising that Hugo was being attacked by both the left and the right. The right obviously would not ever like him and would try to shut him up but I wouldn’t have thought that the left would also put a hit out on him.

This shows how within groups there are splits and different factions. In organizations and large groups there are always going to be different opinions and ideas and clashes. You can see this in groups like the indigenous. Indigenous is an umbrella term that covers a very large group but within this group there is a lot of variety in lives and experiences. They all are indigenous but that doesn’t mean they are all the same or that they face the same struggles or that their problems have the same solutions. You have to remember the individuals within the groups.

Activism, especially in Latin America, is very often dangerous. And it is not just an individual choice because loved ones are also at risk, like when Hugo’s life was threatened and he had to flee to Mexico with his family. Consequences affect the whole family the decision to fight back against the state. As a parent this must be such a difficult choice. Fight to try to give your children a better future but risk them having a future at all.  But if no one pushes back and fights for change things will always stay the same and living with the suffering and abuses Hugo describes in his testimonial is no way to live. That is just surviving and it is time for the poor and indigenous to be allowed to do more.