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Politics of Place and Urban Indígenas in Ecuador’s Indigenous Movement
- Duke University Press
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Politics of Place and Urban Indígenas in Ecuador’s Indigenous Movement rudi colloredo-mansfeld The 2002 restoration of the Bennett Stela, ‘‘a massive symbol of the Aymara past,’’ from a tra≈c roundabout in La Paz to the ruins of Tiwanaku near Lake Titicaca captures in a single event many currents of contemporary Andean native politics. The repatriation was championed by an indigenous intellectual and politician, supported by international funders and technical experts, and facilitated by allies in the national government. In the course of the move itself, Aymara ritual specialists consecrated the monolith’s departure from the city, and indigenous political activists presided over its reincorporation at Tiwanaku’s ruins in the country. If this event signaled the rise of a new politics, one that would culminate in the election of Bolivia’s first Aymara president, it also a≈rmed an old premise: native authenticity and authority properly reside in the countryside. In Ecuador, a national indigenous movement found its footing by promoting the needs, heritage, and identity of provincial municipalities and rural comunas, or formally recognized peasant communities with territorial jurisdictions that have been registered with the state. Led by the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (conaie), with its provincial organizations , native peoples mobilized to secure land for small-hold farmers, political autonomy for communities, and constitutional recognition for native cultures . Levantamientos (uprisings) throughout the 1990s initiated specific negotiations with the state over land reform, water rights, and bilingual education . They also provoked a national discussion about civil rights and collective identity. For all its activism and skilled maneuvering, though, the movement 222 rudi colloredo-mansfeld surged, in part, because potential political rivals faltered. The historic, urban popular movements that had attracted a measure of indigenous support struggled in the 1990s. Industrial economies of cities lost ground during the post-1982 economic crisis, and neoliberalism’s promises of personal advancement began to shape a new populist turn away from class-based solidarities.∞ Mass emigration further harmed older political activism, as some 2.5 million Ecuadorians moved abroad rather than struggle for change at home.≤ Summarizing the changes, Kim Clark writes, ‘‘The processes of globalization have left behind the space for [an indigenous national project,] shifting the locus of subordinate organizing and political engagement out of the cities and into the countryside’’ and—in her analysis—away from poor and middle-class mestizos and toward the indigenous population.≥ The equation that links countryside, indígenas, and political momentum does not always add up, however. Two of the native organizations I have worked with are instances in which the urban bases of indigenous activism seem more robust. For example, the peasant comuna of Quiloa, Cotopaxi, is located on a high ridge in the valley of Tigua. With between eighty and a hundred households, Quiloa has at times actively promoted its own development , securing government or ngo funding for soil-building projects, a communal house, or reforestation e√orts. Local residents, though, have tired of the bad schools, the lack of water, and the poor access to the provincial highway, and many have moved on to either the provincial capital or Quito. Population has declined to the point that remaining residents can only attempt their famous Three Kings or Corpus Christi celebrations if outside donors provide the resources. Meanwhile, in Otavalo, the artisan association known as the Unión de Artesanos Indígenas del Mercado Centenario de Otavalo (unaimco) represents over 1,000 members who work on three different continents and in trades ranging from hand knitting to industrialized manufacture. In the 1990s, unaimco orchestrated a way to host the costumed dancers of the Fiesta of San Juan in the heart of Otavalo’s artisan district, promoting indigenous culture in a space once reserved for mestizo-run events. In the early 2000s, several leaders of the organization went on to win municipal and provincial elections. Briefly put, the urban, artisan association is in an expansive mode; the peasant sector is contracting. Though conaie professes to be rooted in the rural zone, its most vociferous supporters and well-resourced indigenous backers are often in the city. And yet, for all the di√erences, and for all the apparent gains of the trade organization, it shares much with the peasant comuna. Since the early [54.89.70.161] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:08 GMT) Politics of Place and Urban Indígenas 223 1990s, both the Quiloa community council and unaimco leadership have carried out business...