Crude: A Memoir

by Pablo Fajardo, Sophie Tardy-Joubert, Hanna Chute, Damien Roudeau (Artist)

Overview

A gripping, richly illustrated recounting of the battle indigenous Ecuadorians and their allies waged against Texaco/Chevron over the energy company's destruction of portions of the Amazon. As a teenager, Pablo Fajardo worked in the Amazonian oil fields, where he witnessed the consequences of Texaco/Chevron's indifference to the environment and to the inhabitants of the Amazon. Fajardo mobilized with his peers to seek reparations and in time became the lead counsel for UDAPT (Union of People Affected by Texaco), a group of more than thirty thousand small farmers and indigenous people from the northern Ecuadorian Amazon who continue to fight for reparations and remediation to this day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780271088068
Publisher:	Graphic Mundi - Psu Press
Publication date:	07/13/2021
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	13 - 16 Years

About the Author

Pablo Fajardo is an Ecuadorian lawyer and activist. He is lead counsel for the UDAPT and continues to dedicate his life to prosecuting the case against Chevron. He travels the world to defend the UDAPT cause, advocating for environmental justice and human rights.

Sophie Tardy-Joubert is a French journalist. In 2014, she met Pablo Fajardo and wrote a profile on him for the magazine XXI. She adapted Fajardo’s story for Crude.

Damien Roudeau is a graphic journalist. He has published illustrations in magazines and the popular press, collaborating with various organizations and NGOs.

Editorial Reviews

BOOKLIST — “Staggering. . . . Give this book to those readers who shun graphic novels for their lack of artistic talent and those who support global environmental causes.”

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED) — The pollution of Indigenous Ecuadorian land by American oil companies-described here as the “Amazonian Chernobyl”-propels the activism at heart of this visually stunning graphic memoir, which is part horror story, part urgent manifesto. Fajardo, one of 10 children from a poor family, travels from the Pacific Coast to find work in Lago Agrio, an oil-drilling boom town built by Texaco. In addition to hard labor, he finds both the land and human beings are treated as dumping ground. Supported by progressive Franciscan fathers, Fajardo goes to law school so he can hold Chevron (which owns Texaco) accountable for the destruction it leaves upon its 1993 departure. The seven-year, $9 billion case is won, only for the plaintiffs to face years of violent retribution, corruption, and nonpayment. As an afterword by Amnesty International underscores, multinational corporations slither between jurisdictions, getting away with literal murder (cancer skyrockets among locals who drink polluted water). Timelines and maps clarify the issues, and though the legal nuances are dense, the power of the testimony comes from Fajardo's narrative and Roudeau's impressionistic depictions of the Amazonian tapestry and inhabitants. Though UN legislation offers glimmers of hope, Fajardo admits that “after 25 years of fighting, I'm starting to think justice is a fiction, a nice story to tell children.” Readers will root for Fajardo's account to herald meaningful change.

From the Publisher