The Multiple Amazon

What is the Amazon? At first sight, the question may seem inconsequential, or even silly. The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world, home to millions of species, many of which are still to be catalogued. From a geographical perspective, however, the Amazon is more than the rainforest, encompassing a large region of South America in the basin of the Amazon River, and spanning across eight South American countries and France—the only European power that retains a direct colonial foothold in the region. The sheer size of the Amazon beggars belief. Without denying the immensity of the Amazon, we believe a better way to approach it is by emphasizing not vastness or pristine nature, but spectacular multiplicity. That is, we are interested in the internal variety of ways of life, state policies, and challenges in the region. With COP30 set to take place in Belém, a city in the Brazilian Amazon, the region is once again in the spotlight and the subject of exoticizing narratives. In this context, this special issue of Latin American Perspectives is the first in the journal to ever be entirely dedicated to the Amazon. It does not attempt to offer a totalizing or synthesizing view of the Amazon. Instead, the eleven original articles collected here, alongside a set of literary texts from Amazonian writers, embrace and showcase the multiplicity of approaches, styles, methodologies, imaginations, and narratives that can be built around the Amazon. The articles not only offer analysis of a range of themes, but also include empirical material on different parts of the region in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.