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Ecuador
Country on the northwestern coast of South America, bordered by Colombia to the north, Peru to the south and east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west.The Pacific Lowlands Black Culture region consists of Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. This unique Afro-Hispanic culture stretches from Ecuador's Esmeraldas Province through the San Juan River of the Valle del Cauca Department and the Chocó region of Colombia to Panama's Darién Province. The culture developed through Afro-Hispanic migration and ethnic intermingling, beginning in the colonial period. Blacks in Ecuador settled in the three main geographic regions of the country (the highlands, the coast, and the tropical lowlands of the Amazon region in the east), often displacing or mixing with indigenous populations to create the ethnic diversity that exists today. During colonial times, the Spanish minority imposed a social system of formally stratified ethnic castes that discriminated against the racially mixed majority. Remnants of that system persist in Ecuadorian society, reflected in a broader ideology of racial and cultural Whitening (blanqueamiento), upheld as an ideal achievable through the process of mestizaje (racial and cultural mixing). The belief in racial and cultural blending toward whiteness is overwhelmingly strong in Ecuador, even among black communities. It is in part responsible for the socioeconomic rifts that deeply divide Ecuadorians.The widespread acceptance of the ideology of whitening is evident in the use of negro (black), a term that can be offensive to Ecuadorians because it implies lower-class status and other negative stereotypes. Dissociation from this term and its connotations has led to the use of various labels to define Ecuadorian people of African descent. Most of these labels have political and historical implications, often reflecting class boundaries. Negro fino (“refined black”), for instance, is used to differentiate blacks with higher levels of education and white-collar jobs from the rest of the community. Gente morena (dark people), moreno (brown-skinned), gente negra (black people), and Zambo (of African and Indian descent) all describe degrees of racial mixture and may carry pejorative connotations or implications about social status, depending upon both context and user. Afro-Ecuadorians identify themselves in various ways, making political unity difficult; but, despite their differences, they have mobilized to effect change. To this end, relatively small circles of intellectuals and political activists have adopted the terms Afro-latinoamericano and Afro-ecuatoriano, which emphasize the unity of all people of African descent.
Standard History
Ecuador was once a territory on the edge of the Inca Empire divided into several warring nations. The conquest of the area by the Incas in the late fifteenth century was a protracted and unstable process. The tenuous stability of Inca rule was further shaken by civil war in the Inca Empire in the early sixteenth century. When the Spanish explorers Francisco Pizarro and Sebastián de Benalcázar entered Ecuador in the 1530s, therefore, some Indians welcomed them as liberators from the Incas rather than as conquerors. The Spaniards established colonies in the highlands and to a lesser extent on the coast, but few settled in tropical lowlands, mainly because of the threat of Indian attacks. In 1563 the Spanish crown centralized its control of the region with the establishment of the Audiencia de Quito as an administrative center. From this point, the colonial economy of the highlands flourished, an improvement based largely upon the export of textiles to other areas of the Spanish Empire. The coastal city of Guayaquil also attained a measure of importance as a port during the colonial period, which process gained further impetus from the development of cacao exports in the late eighteenth century. The Audiencia fell under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of Peru. Between 1717 and 1723, it was transferred to the viceroyalty of New Granada, with its administrative center in Bogotá; then reincorporated into the viceroyalty of Peru; and in 1739 finally incorporated into New Granada. The struggle for independence from Spain began in 1809, and was won in 1822 by the army of Antonio José de Sucre in the decisive Battle of Pichincha. Quito then came to form part of Gran Colombia, which also included the area of present-day Venezuela, Colombia, and Panama. Regional rivalries, however, created instability and in 1830, Ecuador withdrew from the association, under its present name.Following its formation as a new republic, Ecuador was divided between Liberals, with a stronghold in the coastal city of Guayaquil, and Conservatives, centered in the highland city of Quito. The nineteenth century was marked by political instability, regional rivalry, civil wars, and dictatorial rule. The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a shift in political dominance from Conservatives to Liberals and from the highlands to the coast. This shift was related to the growing economic importance of the coastal region, based upon its export of cacao.Political instability continued into the twentieth century. Economically, the export of bananas in the 1940s and 1950s and of oil in the 1970s produced periods of relative prosperity. President José María Velasco Ibarra (1934–1935; 1944–1947; 1952–1956; 1960–1961; and 1968–1972) stands out as a dominant political figure. A Conservative who pressed for some populist measures, such as land reform, Velasco Ibarra was frequently ousted. After a border war with Peru in 1941, Ecuador's territory was reduced substantially by the 1942 Rio de Janeiro Protocol, giving rise to an ongoing border dispute between the two countries.
Ecuador
Come, Mr. Tally Man A banana boat makes it slow way down the Guya River. Ecuadorians rely heavily on the export trade in a country where some seventy percent of the population lives below the poverty line.
Library of Congress
Library of Congress
Slavery
African slaves were first imported to Ecuador by Spanish explorers in the early 1550s, principally to work as agricultural laborers in areas in which the Indian population was scarce or rebellious. Slaves were also put to work in gold mining, domestic service, and cattle ranching. Don Juan de SalinesLoyola traveled with African slaves when he went to conquer the Jívaro, an indigenous group in the tropical region of Loja, in the south. Blacks later joined with Indians of the region in the Jívaro uprising of 1579. Africans arrived in the present-day northwest coastal province of Esmeraldas when a slave ship traveling between Panama City and the viceroyalty of Peru ran aground in 1553. The twenty-three slaves on board escaped from the ship and established a community among the Indians in the area; the zambo population that emerged was later to dominate the region.The escaped slaves in Esmeraldas were led first by Anton and then by Sebastián Alonso de Illescas, a ladino slave (a Hispanicized slave who had lived in Spain) known for his skills as a political strategist. Establishing palenques, self-sufficient communities of runaway slaves and their descendants, the zambos frustrated the Spaniards, who for years attempted to destroy what historians have since called the Zambo Republic in Esmeraldas. This pole of resistance attracted more runaway slaves. Finally, in 1599 an unconventional truce was reached when a contingent of zambo chieftains traveled to Quito from the Zambo Republic to recognize the sovereignty of Spain. Once the Spaniards had been appeased in this way, the local colonial government allowed zambo settlements to function with relative autonomy.African slaves brought to Ecuador and those brought to other Andean countries often shared the same origins. Most were taken from West Africa in the Upper Senegal, Angola, Nigeria, and Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) regions of the continent. Usually they were transported to Ecuador through Cartagena De Indias, a city on the Pacific coast of Colombia, then by overland routes to the Chocó region, and finally southward into Ecuador. Slave ships also sailed between Panama City and the viceroyalty of Peru, where traders would begin their way north.Estimates of Ecuador's slave population indicate that it was small in comparison to neighboring Colombia's. No comprehensive figures are available, because of chronological gaps in the records and the fact that Ecuador was part of the viceroyalty of New Granada. Approximately 200,000 bondsmen were imported to the viceroyalty of New Granada during the entire slave trade. By the 1720s there were about 2,000 African slaves in the region of Ecuador, a number that increased to more than 7,000 by the census of 1782. More slaves were imported after many escaped to Esmeraldas in the west, the Amazon lowlands in the east, or large towns and small cities in the south. The free black population also began to grow in the early 1800s, as gold mining died out and more people were able to buy their freedom. The Spanish system of ethnic castes and racist attitudes limited opportunities for free blacks. These free and newly freed populations survived largely through gold mining and subsistence agriculture.Independence
The liberating armies of Simón Bolívar reached the interior of Ecuador in 1821 and enlisted or forcibly recruited an undetermined number of slaves into battle. Those who willingly joined the liberators were attracted by promises of emancipation and a better life without the Spanish aristocracy. Rebel forces sometimes threatened both free and enslaved Afro-Ecuadorians with a choice between perpetual slavery and enlistment. The decision was obvious for those who had a choice, while others had no power to choose. Members of the Ecuadorian slave-owning élite, not wishing to forfeit their property, controlled their slaves as tightly as they could).Ecuador won its independence from Spain in 1822 and became part of Gran Colombia until 1830. In 1821 a Free Womb Law was passed in Gran Colombia, declaring that children born of slave women were free, though a period of “apprenticeship” was required that effectively bound these free blacks to their mothers' masters until the age of twenty-one. In 1825 the importation of slaves to Gran Colombia was also banned. Juntas de manumisión (manumission committees) were established during this time to raise funds to purchase slaves' freedom. Slave owners often circumvented these laws, however, and Ecuador's withdrawal from Gran Colombia marked a step backward on the road to emancipation. Subsequent Ecuadorian governments passed laws allowing special permission to be granted for the importation of slaves and extending the period of apprenticeship. By the mid-1830s, Ecuador was serving as a supplier and a port for the slave trade.Beginning with independence in 1822, slavery slowly decreased; there were 8,000 slaves in 1822 and 6,804 slaves three years later. Around this time, more than 75 percent of the slave population lived in the coastal provinces, where owners prevented the creation of manumission committees or made existing committees ineffective. In 1852 there were about 2,000 slaves left in Ecuador. The decrease was due in large part to pressure from the British, who forced the signing of an antislave trade treaty for all of Spanish America. Total abolition in Ecuador was proclaimed in 1851 and was ratified a year later, once it was determined how much slave owners should be compensated for the release of their slaves.Despite strong British opposition to slavery, a form of involuntary bondage continued in Ecuador until 1894. Referred to as concertaje, a system was used in which newly liberated slaves were coerced by their former masters into signing labor contracts that continued their servitude. Afro-Ecuadorians who were already liberated returned to the same type of labor that they had performed in servitude.In the late nineteenth century, the Ecuadorian government advanced several measures to colonize the province of Esmeraldas, subletting sections of land to European and American companies. The region enjoyed some prosperity through harvesting tagua nuts. The construction of a railroad in the 1850s was planned, though the plans went unfulfilled. These projects spurred a large migration of Afro-Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Jamaicans, brought by British companies, to Esmeraldas Province.Contemporary Times
The first half of the twentieth century brought little advancement for Afro-Ecuadorians. Some large towns in the predominantly black province of Esmeraldas had no hospitals, electricity, or paved roads. In the absence of easy access to health-care facilities, recurring epidemics plagued the population, causing many deaths. Significant changes did not occur until the 1950s, when an agricultural boom brought about the construction of the long-since planned railroad connecting Esmeraldas Province to Quito. More jobs were created, resulting in a growth in income for the coastal town of San Lorenzo. Migrants from surrounding towns, the highlands, and Colombia came seeking business opportunities and began to settle. With this relative prosperity came the broad use of wage labor, which undermined the minga, a communal work system of Afro-Ecuadorians. Although individuals could gain an income, community ties in San Lorenzo were weakened.In towns and cities across Ecuador, conflicts arose over increased socioeconomic stratification and competition for jobs. In San Lorenzo, these conflicts had racial overtones and sometimes culminated in police brutality or murder. White and mestizo (of European and Indian descent) migrants began buying out small-town black shopkeepers and replacing mulatto middlemen who had negotiated business for the black population. Blacks believed that the Ecuadorian government ignored their requests for assistance because Esmeraldas was a predominantly Afro-Ecuadorian province. The community felt disempowered by the lack of political representation or support from the government. Reaction to these situations took the form of an Afro-Ecuadorian literary protest movement involving writers such as Adalberto Ortiz and Nelson Estupiñán Bass, whose work promoted pride in the African heritage of Afro-Ecuadorians. The hope was to undermine the growing belief in the ideologies of mestizaje and blanqueamiento, which devalued Afro-Ecuadorians and Indian ethnic groups. This literary protest had less effect than its participants envisioned. Blacks remained marginalized economically while whites and mestizos held positions of power. Jaime Hurtado, a black lawyer from Esmeraldas and a founding member of the Popular Democratic Movement (a Maoist opposition party), was the first black to reach the Ecuadorian legislature, as the representative of Esmeraldas. He was assassinated by unidentified hitmen on February 17, 1999, as he was leaving the congress building in Quito.Economic and social marginalization has been part of black history since slaves were first brought to Ecuador, yet Afro-Ecuadorian cultural forms have become popular in the society. Literature such as the Décima, a genre of poetry from Esmeraldas, has gained international fame, as has the music of this ethnic group. La bomba, arrullo, and the rhythms of the currulao (also common in the Pacific lowlands of southern Colombia) are but a few examples of the variety of Afro-Ecuadorian music forms. The music ceremonies that blacks perform revolve around themes from their history and their cultural beliefs. The Afro-Esmeraldian festival La tropa, for example, reenacts the formation of a palenque. The social embrace of these cultural forms, however, has occurred in a context of continued discrimination against Afro-Ecuadorians.To confront this continuing racism, Afro-Ecuadorians from various regions mobilized in 1988 to form the Asociación de Negros Ecuatorianos (ASONE), or Association of Black Ecuadorians. Representatives from various parts of the country, including the cities of Guayaquil, Quito, and Ibarra and the regions of Loja and Chota-Mira, joined Esmeraldians in this movement to “rescue national dignity” by eliminating the racism that plagues Ecuadorian society. Described as both a Black Ethnic Movement and a Nation-State Nationalist Movement, ASONE sought modernization without significant disruption of traditional lifestyles. It also intended to minimize the elite control that has held blacks and indigenous peoples in the lower classes. Another principal goal was to unite Afro-Ecuadorians across economic, ecological, and sociopolitical barriers. Because much of Afro-Ecuadorian identity is region-based, relations among some groups have historically been tense. For instance, blacks from the highlands often have not associated with other Afro-Ecuadorians because highlanders tend to define themselves by community of origin rather than by their ancestral African roots. Unity through ASONE demonstrates the drive of Afro-Ecuadorians to resolve their differences and work together to improve their marginalized status.Afro-Ecuadorian Cultural Week, which took place in Quito during October of 1997, brought together various black communities. This festival featured traditional cooking, dances, native costume exhibits, and music in an effort to expose the rest of Ecuadorian society to myriad aspects of Afro-Ecuadorian culture. During this cultural week Afro-Ecuadorians, in a collective effort, brought forth a proposal for legislation to protect their land and labor rights and to create a National Day of the Black Person. This proposal would bring much-needed attention to the issues of poverty and discrimination facing black communities in Ecuador. Organizers and supporters of the event believed that once these issues were politicized, the government would have to acknowledge the problems faced by the black population and facilitate. It is unclear whether the Ecuadorian government has made a commitment to assist its black community.Working with indigenous peoples, who historically have paved the way for the rights of ethnic groups in the country, has proved very beneficial for Afro-Ecuadorians. A protest march from Puyo to Quito united blacks from Esmeraldas Province with indigenous peoples of the Oriente to fight for political rights and social justice. The march was the beginning of a trend in which these two ethnic groups are continuing to work together to achieve mutual goals. In January 1998, the World Bank approved a loan of $25 million to assist with the development of indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities by investing in community-based infrastructure, social infrastructure, and microenterprises, among others. While the results of this project have yet to emerge, its existence suggests that the growing activism of Afro-Ecuadorians and their alliances with other social groups have made them increasingly effective agents for change.See also Afro-Latin America, Research on; Afro–Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Identity: An Interpretation; Cultural and Political Organizations in Latin America; Maroonage in the Americas; Racial Mixing in Latin America and the Caribbean; Racism in Latin America and the Caribbean; Slavery in Latin America and the Caribbean.Sign up to recieve email alerts from African American Studies Center
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