City at the Center of the World: Space, History, and Modernity in Quito

1. The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism

1 Chapter 1 The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism In 1935, as part of an early attempt to develop a tourist economy in Ecuador, the Dirección General de Propaganda y Turismo issued a series of picture postcards designed to advertise the country’s charms to the world at large. Printed in Italy by the Instituto Geográfico de Agostini, the series was available in sepia, blue, or green and sold as sets as well as individually. The pictures on the fifty postcards are equally divided among images of the coastal and Andean regions of the country, with two landscapes from each area and twenty-three shots of each of the country’s two largest cities, Quito and Guayaquil, indicating the importance of these two urban centers. Perhaps more revealing of the cities’ importance is the rhetorical schema developed throughout the collection. Of the twenty-three Guayaquil postcards, twentytwo feature twentieth-century construction (parks, promenades, and statues of prominent independence heroes) while the twenty-third features a bare-chested young man rowing a traditional dugout canoe by moonlight down the Guayas River. Of the twenty-three Quito postcards, one duly features a poncho-clad indigenous boy herding sheep in the woods of Itchimbia in the eastern environs of the city. Three demonstrate the new building of the Central University (an 2 \ The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism institution dating to 1651), while the remaining nineteen feature colonial-era churches. Taken as a set, the postcards serve as a panoramic performance of regional stereotypes. Guayaquil is offered to the modern tourist eager to stroll along a promenade with lovely young girls in spring dresses (fig. 1.1) and represented by a gallant, imported from impressionist Argenteuil, who prepares to launch a yacht at the “tourist paradise” of Las Peñas (fig. 1.2). Quito, meanwhile, seems Fig. 1.1. Las Colonias Promenade, Guayaquil. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, lot 2779. Fig. 1.2. Las Peñas, Guayaquil. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, lot 2779. 3 / The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism more like a museum to be admired by the connoisseur of baroque antiquity, adorned as it is by sumptuous colonnades, majestic interior courtyards, priests (fig. 1.3), and, if one passes into the countryside, picturesque Indians (fig. 1.4). The postcards offer an impression of bifurcation, one that equates Guayaquil with modernity and Quito with tradition. While this binary stems partially from each town’s architectural record (old Guayaquil having been largely destroyed in an 1896 fire and Quito boasting one Fig. 1.3. San Francisco Convent, Quito. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, lot 2779. Fig. 1.4. Surroundings of Quito. Courtesy Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, lot 2779. 4 \ The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism of the best preserved colonial centers in South America), the rhetoric also exhibits a more deliberate plan to capitalize on a denial of coevalness.1 The postcard text, presented in both English and Spanish on the back of each card, crystallizes this schematic (table 1.1). Guayaquil is framed as a favorable business zone, with contemporary architecture and cultivated urban green space, where one receives the “modern conveniences of our cities” and “the favorable currency exchange rate . . . at 15 sucres per dollar.” The majesty of Quito, on the other hand, signifies the “land of history and tradition, land of ancient and colonial art” where one can “see the celebrated churches of San Francisco, La Compañía, La Merced.” This presentation of Guayaquil and Quito as the symbolic, political, economic , and social engineers of regional identities by no means expressed the contemporary or, worse, the historical situation of Ecuadorian regionalism. Instead, it displays a particularly banal attempt to profit from conventions that, by the 1930s, had become commonplace in a country that had long sought to overcome the economic and political rivalry of these two centers. These rivalries arose in the politics and poetics of regionalism from the colonial period into the No. City Image title Postcard caption* 1 Guayaquil Las Colonias Promenade Visit Ecuador, that welcomes you. Enjoy the modern conveniences of our cities. 4 Guayaquil Bolivar Park The favorable money exchange makes Ecuador one of the most inexpensive Tourist Countries to visit. The rate of exchange is stabilized at 15 sucres per dollar. 10 Quito Façade–La Compañía Visit Ecuador, land of history and tradition, land of ancient and colonial art. See...