Some General Thoughts and Observations On Ecuador - investigation period report

Before coming to Ecuador, I knew very little about the country I know a little bit more know, well I should hope so, but I still don’t in any way class my self as knowledgeable about Ecuador.

I will however share with you some of my experiences and observations made during ten days of investigation period travel here in Ecuador.

Firstly the Ecuadorian people are very warm, friendly and hospitable. They have that wonderful combination of leaving you along and not hassling you, with warm open friendliness when we share with each other. What do I mean, well in a lot of countries that have tourism as one of their main income the people, quite naturally want to sell the tourist’s things, hotels rooms, arts and crafts, whatever. While on one level this is a service that the tourist needs on the other level, in many places, it can be too much in your face hassle. How many times a day do you have to say ‘no thank you I do not want to buy a …….’. Here in Ecuador, one of the main incomes is from tourism but I have not been hassled at all on the street to buy things, I have been to some of the tourist centres and this still hasn’t happened. If however you are walking down the street and you smile at somebody you will every time get a smile back, if you want to take some time and chat with somebody, ask questions about whatever, you will find not only is that person friendly and happy to chat with you but most times he or she will have the answers to your questions. For me, it is the almost perfect combination of being friendly and being left alone when you want.

Another observation on the people is that physically they are a small people, which will be due to a history of poverty and poor diet. Now I am quite large, 1.83 metres tall and about 85 kilos. The average Ecuadorian male is maybe 1.65 and 60 kilos, while the various indigenous peoples are a lot smaller, so many times I feel like a giant and many times I find myself banging my head going through doorways that are smaller than I am used to. I was talking about this with Kiyoon and Seoung Eun (Poverty Fighters in CCTG's March Ecuador team 2009), asking them if they felt more comfortable in Ecuador than in the USA, as here they are normal to slightly tall people and in the USA they will have been small people, in comparison. They agreed with me and said that they felt much more comfortable here, in Ecuador, than in the USA. They both said that they felt everything in the USA was too large and impersonal while here everything feels to be on a human scale and more friendly.

Talking of the indigenous peoples, while travelling through the mountains you will observe rainbow coloured flags, not the rainbow shape rather the colours in stripes. Now in San Francisco or London or Cape Town or Rib de Janerio this would indicate that the building the flag is flying on is a gay and lesbian club, here however the rainbow flag is for the rainbow alliance of the indigenous peoples. It is both a cultural and political alliance. In the past 15 years or so, the indigenous peoples have get together and organised themselves. It has been a process of reclaiming their cultural heritage back. I asked somebody if there is an alcohol problem within the indigenous communities. I was told not any more, that there is very little alcoholism these days. When the Spanish arrived in the early 16^th century and started to oppress the peoples living here, one of the main tools they used was alcohol. The Spanish were not alone in this and it has been used and is being used as a tool of oppression through out history and all round the world. However in the mid 90’s when the rainbow alliance was first being put together and as a part of reclaiming their cultural heritage, the indigenous peoples made the decision to stop drinking alcohol. This is indeed good news.

What else, oohh yes, travelling through the mountains one sees that it is a constant battle to maintain the road infrastructure. The mountains here in Ecuador are very volatile; there are many volcanoes, earthquakes and landslides. In many places the road has disappeared, slide down the valley. The government has an extensive program to improve the roads; they are changing the roads from asphalt to concrete, which is much stronger but also is much more expensive. I was reminded of what both Jeffery Sachs in his book ‘An End To Poverty’ and Jared Diamond in his book ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ about how geography is one of the root causes of poverty. To travel from Cuenca to Riobamba, a distance of about 250 kilometres by road and much shorted as the crow flies, took 6 hours. This means it is much more difficult for farmers to get their produce to market and to get what they need from market than in, for example, the mid-west of the USA, where it would less than half the time to travel that distance.

Everywhere you go in Ecuador you will see graffiti, painted on walls and houses in the cities, towns and villages but also painted on bridges, cliffs and rocks outside the populated areas. Most of this graffiti will consist of people’s names and a number, often with the word ‘Vota’. All of this is political graffiti encouraging the population to vote. Not only in the last general election but also for everything from small local village elections right up to the Pan-Andean Council elections which will be held soon. The Pan-Andean Council is and intergovernmental body to govern Andean affairs and includes Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. It seems to me that the general populace here in Ecuador are actively engaged in the political process, much more so than the populace of both the USA and Europe and that has to be a good thing.

Talking of politics the government of President Correa seems to be very popular. Even allowing for the fact that most of the people I am attracted to and have spoken with will be naturally Correa supporters, I have spoken with any Chevron Oil executives; the present government is still very popular. It is with good reason that the government is popular; they are following a program of redistribution of wealth (the government is now getting a much higher percentage of the oil revenues than it was before and the American oil companies much less) with free education and health care for all. The private universities are being turning into public ones and they are free to all, so that higher education is no longer the privilege of the wealthy few but the right of all. I have seen many good programs here, woman’s empowerment, cultural and indigenous programs, health care including traditional health and healing using the knowledge of both the peoples from the mountains and the Amazon rainforest, children’s programs and micro-credit programs. There is defiantly a feeling of self-pride and self-determination here in Ecuador after many decades of being dominated by the USA and the USA oil companies it is indeed good to see.

Before I came to Ecuador I knew something of the history of Ecuador but not much of the history before the Incas. The Incas had been living in what is now Peru for a long time but only started their vast expansion about 1430. When the Spanish first met with the Inca, in about 1530, the Inca Empire stretched from what is now Columbia in the north to Northern Chile in the south with their capital in Cusco, Peru. Quite a remarkable achievement in only 100 years, I am sure you will agree. The second major city of the Inca was Cuenca in south central Ecuador. We visited Cuenca, which has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO, and I urge everybody visiting Ecuador to do the same.

While I was in Cuenca I went to visit the Aboriginal Museum, which really was amazing. I knew in pre-Inca times there were other cultures living in Ecuador but had no idea of the diversity of length of time that peoples have been living here. Pre-Inca there were at least 20 distinct cultures living in Ecuador and that is nor counting the tribes who were living in the Amazon rain forest at the time. There have been peoples living here for at least 15,000 years. That is much longer than in the UK, my home country, where peoples have been living there for about 8,500 years. People have been living in the Cuenca valley for nearly 10,000 years. I do not know if the site of the current city of Cuenca has been habited all this time but if it has it must make it the oldest continually inhabited city in the world. I had always thought that it was Damascus that claimed that title, having been continually inhabited for over 5,000 years. I will have to do some more research and find out.

The museum has over 5,000 separate artefacts on display, covering the period from 13,000 BC to 1530 ad. It has artefacts from all of the 20 different cultures and I spent a wonderful morning there.

Also talking about Cuenca, the first peoples there, from 8,500 BC, were the Canarji. While I was walking around Cuenca I saw a poster advertising a cultural festival that will take place on the forthcoming summer solstice (June 21^st 2009) and this festival is to be based upon Canarji culture. Now that is some continuation of culture, I do not know of another people who can claim such a long heritage.

When you are travelling in the mountains it is easy to see who are the indigenous peoples. Firstly they are small, with weather worn faces from working the land and they are dressed very colourfully. They also always seem to wear hats of various descriptions. As you travel you will notice that the way they dress changes, sometimes from one valley to the next. These changes must reflect different cultures amongst the indigenous peoples. Which is also reflected in the rainbow alliance. I wonder how many groups there are and how far back these different groups can claim their linage.

Nique Spencer (leader to the investigation period in Ecuador - May 2009)