Crude: A Memoir

Oil waste was everywhere--on the roads, in the rivers where they fished, and in the water that they used for bathing, cooking, and washing. Children became sick and died, cases of stomach cancer skyrocketed, and women miscarried or gave birth to children with congenital disorders. The American oil company Texaco--now part of Chevron--extracted its first barrel of crude oil from Amazonian Ecuador in 1972. It left behind millions of gallons of spilled oil and more than eighteen million gallons of toxic waste.

In Crude, Ecuadorian lawyer and activist Pablo Fajardo gives a firsthand account of Texaco's involvement in the Amazon as well as the ensuing legal battles between the oil company, the Ecuadorian government, and the region's inhabitants. As a teenager, 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.

Eye-opening and galvanizing, Crude brings to light one of the least well-known but most important cases of environmental and racial injustice of our time.

Publisher: Graphic Mundi
Published: 07/13/2021
Pages: 136
Weight: 2lbs
Size: 10.90h x 8.80w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780271088068
Age: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 02/01/2021 pg. 32
Publishers Weekly 03/29/2021

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.