CORPORATE CARTO-AGGRESSION

Has anyone noticed the corporate map war on TV ensuing between Verizon and AT&T? Could there be a better instance of the importance of maps? This is carto-propaganda rolled into advertising carto-aggression played out in front of our eyes (for those of you who watch TV)! The maps used by both sides indicate how the map maker and the purpose for which the map is used are paramount. It is also a good illustration of Mark Monmonier's thoughts of "how to lie with maps" or at least present your side (in this case, phone coverage) with maps clearly foregrounded. I hope they continue to break into the regular programming with the carto-entertaiment interludes!

CARTO-PROPAGANDA IN DEEP RAIN FOREST

While crossing the border from Ecuador to Peru, in 1983 (headed to the Rio Napo, in Amazonia), the Peruvian border guards, with shouldered rifles, ordered the two foreigners off the bus, into the guard hut, to search our luggage. They asked one question only: “Tienes algunos mapas?” Did we have any maps? Maps? Deep in the rainforest?

The border dispute between Ecuador and Peru originated when the last Inca divided his empire between his two sons just before the arrival of Pizzaro. The area remained a frontier (etymologically, a region that “fronts”) between the two Spanish audiencias and continued as such with the formation of the modern states of Ecuador and Peru. The two countries fought a border war around 1941, evidently won by Peru. (Ecuadorians peevishly informed us that Peruvians were “monos”--monkeys.)

The Peruvian border guards were confiscating maps published in Ecuador which show the large chunk of Amazonia we were in as part of the national territory of Ecuador. The government of Peru did not want the carto-propaganda to reach the outside world. Cartographically, the two countries are still at war. (It does not help that Chevron has been pumping oil out of the region, to the benefit of Peru--a further affront at the frontier.)

Spatial events which occurred half a millennium previously were being played out deep in the Amazonian rain forest, nearly at gunpoint, on two unsuspecting foreigners.

I wish I could now possess a map of Ecuador showing the contested chunk of rain forest, so I could illustrate that particular rain-forest geography of propaganda.