Afro-Indigenous Territorial Defense in Nicaragua: Film Screening and Discussion
Join us in the Student Union Theatre on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at 12:30 p.m. for a screening of the documentary Patrol (2023), which follows Indigenous Rama and Black Kriol communities in Nicaragua as they fight to protect their territory from illegal cattle ranchers and other settlers from colonizing their territory. Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion, Q&A, and conversations with four Rama and Kriol territorial defenders. Please register in advance. The panel discussion and Q&A will be live-streamed: s.uconn.edu/SUTheatre.
On April 3, 2018, a settler started a wildfire in the territory of the Indigenous Rama and Black Kriol peoples in Nicaragua, burning more than 13,000 acres of rainforest in the Indio-Maíz Biological Reserve and setting off nationwide #SOSIndioMaiz protests. Please join us on the seventh anniversary of the fire for an event centering Rama and Kriol resistance. We will begin with a screening of Patrol (2023), a community-collaborative documentary that follows Rama and Kriol communities in Nicaragua as they fight to protect their territory from illegal cattle ranchers and other settlers from colonizing their territory. Filmmakers Camilo de Castro and Brad Allgood accompanied Rama and Kriol forest rangers, Nicaraguan journalists, and a U.S. conservation biologist over the course of seven years as they worked together to document, investigate, and halt this colonization, including by tracing its connections with international business interests. Following the film screening, we will have a panel discussion, Q&A, and group conversations with the film’s protagonist, Rama forest ranger Armando John, and exiled Rama and Kriol territorial defenders Lorenzo Martinez, Becky Mc.Cray, and Erick Thomas.
Co-Sponsors: Department of Anthropology, Native American & Indigenous Studies, Department of Social and Critical Inquiry, El Instituto
For more information, contact: Dr. Josh Mayer at joshua.mayer@uconn.edu