Manuel Córdova-Rios (November 22, 1887 – November 22, 1978) was a vegetalista (herbalist) of the upper Amazon, and the subject of several popular books.
As a teenage mestizo of Iquitos he joined a company's work party to set up camp in the neighboring Amazon forest. They commercially cut rubber trees. He was, however, captured by a native tribe, and apparently lived among them for seven years. The elderly chief taught him in intensive private sessions traditional tribal knowledge: medicinal plants of the jungle, and ways of leadership. The small tribe knew skills for hunting in the jungle, which he learned well, acquiring the name Ino Moxo (black jaguar). The chief also led night-long group sessions under the influence of ayahuasca to sharpen prowess in the hunt. After the chief's death, Córdova was acknowledged as leader of the tribe for some years.
He then returned to local Peruvian life, married and raised a family. Eventually he became well known in the upper Amazon for his success as a curandero (healer), due to his knowledge and use of the chief's herbal teachings. Also he regularly sent medicinal plants to New York.
In the early 1960s he met an American forester, Bruce Lamb (1913–1993), a veteran of many years in the Amazon. Lamb then wrote Córdoba's life story in Wizard of the Upper Amazon (1971), and about his healing arts in Rio Tigre and Beyond (1985). Both books sold well and drew academic interest, acclaim, and some controversy. Later, a Peruvian poet-novelist and an American poet each published literary works focused on Córdova.
Early years
Amazon youth and caucho
Until the age of twelve Manuel Córdova-Ríos attended schools in Iquitos his birthplace. The major Peruvian city on the Amazon, it then had perhaps 40,000 inhabitants. His Uru mother came from Moyobamba, a town west of Iquitos in the Andes foothills between the Río Marañón and Río Huallaga. His father worked in the surrounding forest as a tapper (; ) or cutter of wild rubber trees. His origins lay near Arequipa (a provincial capital near the ocean and far to the south).
The thriving Amazon trade in rubber (Sp: caucho) had come upriver to Iquitos circa 1880 from Brazil. Eventually his mother let him go with his elder sister Mariana and her husband Lino Vela into the hinterland to learn the booming rubber business. In the small town of Iberia on the Río Tapiche the couple's trading post served rubber tappers, who would bring in their harvest of latex to sell, as well as to buy gear and supplies. Before long young Manuel went further into the bush, by boat with a company of four others under Roque to a remote, makeshift caucho camp by the Río Juruá near the Peru–Brazil border. From here they could fan out into the unexploited forest in search of wild rubber trees.
Captured by a forest tribe
On a day when it was Manuel's turn to cook and clean camp, he was alone while the others hunted for rubber. Surprised suddenly by the deft appearance of a group of forest natives (about 15 in number), Manuel was quickly seized and nearby weapons removed. With hands bound, he was required to run at an accelerated pace along with the silent tribal party, through the forest southward for several days and nights, stopping only briefly. Exhausted and disoriented, he surmised that his fellow caucheros had been killed; he later noticed his captors with their weapons. After about nine days on foot, they reached a small village in a jungle clearing (called Xanadá he later learned) located near the Peruvian headwaters of the Río Purús. It was about 250 km. from the caucho camp. An elderly chief greeted him and expressed kindness toward him. His name was Xumu Nawa. Manuel was naturally apprehensive. Eventually the village came to accept him, and slowly Manuel began to be reconciled to his new situation; ceremonies were held. Village children became casual and friendly, and the chief started to teach him the tribal language.