By Luis Yerovi Jr.

I read Mario Vargas Llosa's masterpiece "La Guerra del Fin del Mundo" (The War at the End of the World) this past winter. For those of you who haven't read it, I recommend it highly.

The novel is a work of historical fiction. It tells the tale of an uprising of squatters in the jungles of Brazil at the end of the 19th century. At the time, Brazil was undergoing a political transition. Secular statehood was replacing local lords as the center of power. Economically, the industrial revolution was beginning to rear its ugly head. Entire classes of people were created and, at the same time, others displaced.

The outcasts- which included not only the displaced classes but also the deviants of society- were led by a radical priest who wanted to create an anarchist state with Christ as its sole point of reference. The uprising was brutally repressed by the government.

I read the novel a month after a two-day rock concert I had sponsored, "ConcienciAccion" (Conscious Action), was forced to relocate at the last minute to my parent's ranch by an angry mob. The concert was meant to be a peaceful gathering of people celebrating the right to protest. In our case, it was to protest a proposed plan by the governemnt to build an oil pipeline through the cloud forests of Mindo, an ecosystem that, arguably, is the most biodiverse spot on the planet.

The timing of my reading, the themes presented in the book and my visual interpretation of Llosa's scenes awoke in me a profound sense that history is indeed repetitive. The proverbial light went on over my head- I realized that with a just a bit of happenstance, the EXACT same story as told in the novel, could happen in Ecuador - right now and in Mindo!

As I thought further, I imagined Llosa's book being adapted into a movie set in Mindo and filmed by El Otro Lado Films. I imagine the movie in the following way (remember this is only a movie).

Scene one: Mindo is taken over peacefully by a feverishly devoted and unified group of greens and misfits led by a charismatic Animal Planet junkie. The followers taking over Mindo include a rainbow coalition made up of:

(1) the neglected of Ecuador - natives (Shuar, Huaroni, Quechua, etc.) the poor, people of African descent, mestizos, retirees, doctors, teachers, artists.

and (2) those radically believing in the green (liberal?) cause -- ecologists, globalization foes, human rights types, feminists, hippies.

Mindo is turned into a 24/7 carnival reminiscent of Woodstock but with Andean and Amzonian shamans. Mindo, exactly like Canudos, the town in Llosas' novel, lies in a deep, lush valley surrounded by primary Andean cloud forest. There is only one dirt road that leads into town. Literally, there is no other practical way in or out. As a result, well entrenched, the citizens of Mindo would be hard to uproot with conventional weapons. The scene ends with the sun setting on a group of jugglers dancing around a fire as flocks of parrots fly over head.

Scene two: Somewhere in Asia, the President of Ecuador, learns that a bunch of mujeres y extremistas have tied themselves to trees in the cloud forest of Mindo vowing to die rather than see another tree cut down for oil and the corrupt aspirations of the entrenched oligarchy.

Swearing up and down that he won't let anybody joder with the country's future and underestimating the tenacity of the rebellion, he orders his Vice President to send a ragtime force of police and local army personnel to dislodge the activists.

Scene three: A few police cars and a couple of trucks ramble down the winding dirt road leading to Mindo leaving a trail of dust. The police are allowed to enter town without resistance. Overwhelmed by the colors of slinky tye dyes barely draped on young women's bodies and the driving rhythms of a drum circle, some members defect while others are put in a trance. Helpless, the President's forces resolve is quickly dissipated and they make a hasty retreat.