Author: Meleiza Figueroa

Meleiza Figueroa is a PhD candidate in geography at the University of California, Berkeley. She is conducting her dissertation research on agriculture and urban development in the Brazilian Amazon.

ImageElection day came lazily in Santarém, a mid-sized city and trading entrepôt at the junction of the Amazon and Tapajós rivers, the halfway point between Amazônia’s primary metropolises of Manaus and Belém. The internet was out of service in this sleepy Amazonian town, as were two out of the four major cellphone carriers, and the streets were nearly empty.