According to some authors, the name Yagua comes from other towns or from Spanish settlers, since it is a name in the Quechua language. Yagua would come from the Quechua word yawar which means blood or blood color, an expression that is reflected in the custom of painting their bodies with annatto and in the self-perception of the Yagua, who see themselves as red. On the other hand, the authors have pointed out that this people call themselves Nihamwo, which means ‘we the people’.

In our country, the Yagua are the only indigenous people whose language belongs to the Peba-Yagua linguistic family. Likewise, it is also one of the towns with the greatest participation in the tourist circuits of the department of Loreto. Their traditional clothing made with palm leaves and the making of instruments for hunting are some of the Yagua attractions of this industry.

The Yagua people live mainly in the department of Loreto, in the border area with Colombia and Brazil. According to the results of the 2017 national census, due to their customs and ancestors there have been 1,843 people who have self-identified as part of the Yagua people at the national level; and due to the language or mother tongue with which they learned to speak in their childhood, there have been 712 people who have stated that they speak the Yagua language, which corresponds to 0.015% of the total native languages ​​at the national level. In addition, data obtained by the Ministry of Culture, the population of the Yagua people communities is estimated at 10,119 people.