Since colonial times, the Peruvian Amazon has been portayed, internally, as a highly sexualized landscape. A character that the collective imagination has concentrated in local women through the charapa ardiente emblematic figure. This representation refers to a lustful woman always available for sexual intercourse. In this paper local women´s discourses and experiences around this representation are presented. Through these I demonstrate both the fluid character of the meanings attached to it, as well as local women´s active participation in its recreation process.
Amazon; Peru; Sexuality; Gender; Representations