ORIGIN: DARIÉN
Our community, puru biakiru, was founded on Thursday 31 May 2018. Initially today the community was known as puru biakiru which in Emberá dialect means "beautiful village".
The first individuals to settle were the Ruiz Family, Elías Ruiz and his wife Alicia Caisamo and their 5 sons, Eneldo Ruiz, Ángel Ruiz, Euclides Ruiz, Iván Ruiz and Eliecer Ruiz. They left the province of Darien in the 1970s in search of a better life near Panama City. The economic situation in Darién had become very difficult and they could no longer make a good living from agriculture. In addition, the clandestine Colombian drug trafficking groups in the Darién were a major threat to their security.
OUR LIVELIHOOD
At that time they practised subsistence farming and hunting to support themselves and their families. They also practised traditional medicine for health and handicrafts for everyday tools, as well as clothing, decorative items and accessories.
OUR ANCESTORS
Elías Ruiz, our grandfather, was a humble man. He was a farmer, an expert in medicinal plants and a skilled craftsman in traditional Emberá carvings in cocobolo wood. His wife, Alicia Caisamo, together they forged a small and humble community in the jungle of Alto Chagres. They practised subsistence farming and hunting to support themselves and their family.
