The Importance of Language

I had only been in this town a few times. Like all Peruvian frontier towns, Breu was a mix of native and foreign. It was the last Peruvian town on this upper Amazon tributary and the town had a feel of the Old West. Natives traded with settlers, and timber was the topic of interest. If not for the military outpost, I doubt the town would even exist, but so it was, I found myself in a time and place far from my point of origin.

Breu had the only store in the district, anything from ammunition to batteries could be bought­–at exuberant prices. The reason we came to Breu now escapes my mind, but one event is lodged in my memory.

Every day of the week, there were six languages spoken in Breu. And of all these the most looked down upon was the language of the Yaminahua tribe. It was not easy learning their language, but for the task I had been given it was imperative. One night, my partner and I found ourselves in a conversation with a Mestizo (a Peruvian of mixed blood) and a Yaminahua (native) man. The conversation quickly became an argument. I knew both men, but only barely, however, I felt it necessary to try and calm the situation. In the midst of the discussion, the Yaminahua man said to the Mestizo; “No, you don’t understand me. This man (pointing at me) understands me, he speaks our language.”

There was little more said after this. We parted and went our ways; however, I noticed an odd look on my partners face when he turned and said to me, “Do you realize what that Yaminahua man just said? He said that you understood him because you spoke his language, but he was not speaking his language!  The whole conversation was in Spanish.”