Seattle Latinx Bookclub - We Will Be Jaguars

This month, we'll be discussing We Will Be Jaguars - an impassioned memoir about an indigenous childhood, a clash of cultures, and the fight to save the Amazon rainforest and protect her people, from the fearless and internationally acclaimed activist, Nemonte Nenquimo. As always, our number one priority is creating comunidad. So please feel free to attend even if you didn't get a chance to finish the book this month.

Nos vemos pronto!

Where to find the book

You can find a copy of their book on Bookshop.org here

Purchase through Estelita's Library's Bookshop.org storefront, and you'll support Seattle's local Black/Brown-owned justice-focused community bookstore & lending library.

You can also find the book at Seattle Public Library in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.

About the Book

Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest—one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950s—Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing. She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. She played barefoot in the forest and didn’t walk on pavement, or see a car, until she was a teenager and left to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. But after Nemonte’s ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture, she listened.

Nemonte returned to the forest and traditional ways of life and became one of the most forceful voices in climate change activism. She spearheaded an alliance of Indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres of primary rainforest.

We Will Be Jaguars is an astonishing memoir by an equally astonishing woman. Nemonte digs into generations of oral history, uprooting centuries of conquest, and hacking away at racist notions of Indigenous peoples. Ultimately, she reveals a life story as rich, harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself.

About the Authors

Nemonte Nenquimo (born 1985) is an Indigenous activist, author and member of the Waorani Nation from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador. She is the first female president of the Waorani of Pastaza (CONCONAWEP), co-founder of the Indigenous-led nonprofit organization Ceibo Alliance, and co-founder of the nonprofit Amazon Frontlines, which works to protect the Amazon rainforest, protect its biodiversity, and strengthen Indigenous guardianship of the Amazon. In 2020, she was named in the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, the only Indigenous woman on the list and the second Ecuadorian to ever be named in its history. In recognition of her work, in 2020 the United Nations Environment Programme gave her the "Champions of the Earth" award in the category Inspiration and Action.

Nenquimo was the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian government, which culminated in a 2019 ruling that protects half a million acres of Waorani ancestral land in the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling.

2026 Meeting Dates & Book Picks

• Sat. 1/31/26 - Ophelia After All, Raquel Marie
• Sat. 2/21/26 - Krik? Krak!, Edwidge Danticat
• Sat. 3/21/2026 - Defectors, Paola Ramos
• Sat. 4/25/2026 - Chilean Poet, Alejandro Zambra
• Sat. 5/2026 - Abyss, Pilar Quintana
• Sat. 6/20/2026 – Our Migrant Souls, Hector Tobar
• Sat. 7/25/2026 - Canto Contigo, Jonny Garza Villa
• Sat. 8/2026 – When Language Broke Open, Alan Pelaez Lopez
• Sat. 9/2026 – So Many Stars, Caro De Robertis
• Sat. 10/24/2026 - Malcriada & Other Stories, Lorraine Avila
• Sat. 11/21/2026 – We Will Be Jaguars, Nemonte Nenquimo

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