Some observations by Clark – End of Ecuador

Some observations by Clark – End of Ecuador

Below are some perceptions based on talking to a small number of folks – mostly two of our guides, and from limited observation of others.  Obviously, this will lead to generalization, and perhaps in some cases (though hopefully not), some errant generalizations. 

About 2/3 of the way from Quito to Cuenca, we changed guides (from ones based in Quito to ones based in Cuenca).  It was very interesting to hear many of the same stories about the history/settling of Ecuador – from two very different perspectives.  I suppose it shouldn’t have been surprising to me, but the regions about the largest three cities in Ecuador all have some not-quite-so-hidden animosity toward the others.

The easier one to describe is the friction between the coast and the highlands.  The largest city on the coast (Guayaquil) is the major import/export hub of Ecuador, and thinks it ought to be more than the ‘Economic Capitol’ of Ecuador.  And until the early 1900s, there were no roads/rail from the rugged mountains to the coast (first rail service across the Andes to the highlands was in 1905 and the Pan-American Highway shortly after), so transport between inland and the coast was limited along footpaths with great effort , and only during the dry season (the paths through the jungle become impassible during the wet season). Because of the engineering challenges, the number of roads across the Andes is still very limited (there are still no highways that that cross the Andes between Argentina and Chile – and only two railroads with extensive tunnels).  Those on the coast refer to the people from remainder of the country as ‘Highlanders’, in a derogatory way;  the inland folks refer to the coastal citizens as monkeys.  The discord toward the coastal area was clear with both of our guides – during the police strike a couple months ago, one guide said that everything proceeded as normal in Cuenca, because the folks in Cuenca are civilized, but that there were mass-riots in Guayaquil (looting, stealing of ATMs from the walls, etc) – which was not a surprise to her at all.

The relationship between the North and South of the Andean folks is more complicated, and is rooted in the history of Ecuador.  In Ecuador, the people  still define themselves by their pre-Incan heritage.  The Incans invaded what is now Ecuador, from Peru, only 70 years prior to the Spanish Conquistadors.  Both of our guides referred to the Incans as ‘the First Invaders’ (as opposed to the Spaniards).  The Incans did allow the local tribes to maintain their customs and internal hierarchies – unless, of course, they did not conflict with Incan cultural ideals, in which case statues/relics/temples were destroyed and customs quashed (eg – the matriarchal society of the Canari, as well as their worship of the moon rather than the sun).  The local chiefs that remained were subject to the local Incan governor.  The Canari were one of the few groups that did not willingly surrender to the Incas, but were eventually defeated.

In the mid 1500, the Incan Chief Huayna Capac, had two sons: his ‘legitimate’ son, Huascar, born to his sister in Peru (Incan bloodlines were to remain as pure because the Chief was believed to be a direct descendant of the Sun god); and Atahualpa, born to a local tribal princess of the Quitena (part of a political union to solidify his empire).  It was believed that Huascar would be the heir to the throne, but Huayna Capac instead split his kingdom in two and gave half to each son, with the Southern half being most of Peru, and the Northern half being most of Ecuador.  Predictably, when the father died, the two sons went to war.  The Canari of Southern Ecuador had to decide which Incan son to support.  Because they already had a large contingent of their soldiers near Lima supporting Huascar, and were worried that these men would be killed if they allied with Atahualpa, they allied with the South.  Unfortunately for the Canari, Atahualpa won the war, and as punishment had every Canari man killed and every building (other than the temples) razed.  When the Spaniards arrived, they found a 15:1 ratio of women to men in the Cuenca region – which didn’t bother the Spanish soldiers one bit.

As a result, the areas near Cuenca still identify with the Canari in dress and culture, and have greater Spanish lineage (since the male indigenous population had been wiped out).  The area near Quito identifies with Atahualpa as part of their pre-Incan heritage (through Atahualpa’s Quitena mother).  There is even a culture south of Quito that wears all black, still mourning the death of Atahualpa almost 500 years later.  Between the two regions, the dress is different (Canari wear dark hats and shawls and brightly colored skirts while the groups in the North wear colorful hats and shawls and pants or dark skirts); the language is spoken with much more voice inflection, almost like singing, and seems to have absorbed more indigineous words into the dialect; and the political views appear to be different (Quito seems to be more supportive of the Leftist government, and Cuenca seems to lean more to the right).  The friction between the North and South Andean folks appears to be less than with the Coast, but both of our guides, while almost certainly trying not to make negative comments about the opposite region, did let digs slip.

Not that this should have been surprising to me (though it was).  In the US, we still have our own frictions between the North and the South, and between the more conservative Heartland and the liberal West-coast/Northeast states, not to mention the conflicts between the Ducks and Beavers.  It is just that the differences here seemed more striking – probably because Ecuador is about the size of Colorado and the shifts in customs/language/dress changed so quickly as we drove south.  But in the US, travel is so much easier than trying to navigate Andean mountain passes - and American heritage is based on settling/expansion, so folks are not generally tied to the land in the same way as in Ecuador.  With some very limited exceptions (eg: various Native tribes, or perhaps the Amish), local homogeneity has just not been allowed to persist in the same way in the US as it has in Ecuador. 

A few other fun/interesting facts we learned in Ecuador:

·         While Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain from sea level, the peak of Mt Chimborazo is the point on the surface of the Earth furthest from the Earth’s center, due to the bulge at the equator from the Earth’s rotation.

·         Only one of the six places we stayed in Ecuador had a clock in the hotel room – and four of the rooms had the beds set up Leave-It-to-Beaver style, with twin-beds and a table between.

·         The first floor of most rural houses is reserved for animals (primarily chickens and guinea pigs – up to 40 of them; guinea pigs were the first domesticated animal of the region and are considered a delicacy, called cuy).  The second floor is for living quarters.  Many of the houses have outside stairwell access to the second floor.

·         There are a lot of words for ‘pig’, a lot of them absorbed from various local indigenous languages.  Our guide from Cuenca rattled off about 15.  Pigs are very important, and it especially seemed so in the South, where we saw lots of fully roasted and/or raw pigs hanging at markets along the Pan-American Highway (mostly a 2-lane road outside of the major cities).

·         The two most popular sports in Ecuador are soccer and Ecu-volley (3-3 volleyball with a much higher net).

·         The official currency of Ecuador is the US $.  The Ecuadorian currency collapsed in the 1990s, and the switch was made to stabilize the Economy.

·         Gas is $1.48 a gallon nationwide, and has been for years.

·         The typical indigenous man in Ecuador has dark black hair well into his 80s, has no facial hair, has very little body-hair, is pretty short and never goes bald.  I am not an Incan.