Category Archives: Recent Research

En otro texto, sin embargo, en el contexto de la radicalización del movimiento, Cordorcanqui imagina un cuerpo político poscolonial compuesto por diferentes naciones, en el que los criollos y los indios “vivan como hermanos y congregados en un cuerpo, destruyendo a los europeos” (374). La naturaleza anticolonial de esta nueva comunidad es muy marcada: es una suerte de reacomodo de las naciones anteriores que debe primero extirpar al elemento foráneo-peninsular. Lo que tendrían en común los miembros de este cuerpo político sería el origen del nacimiento, la tierra natal, que los opondría a los a los europeos. Vemos aquí que la comunidad que emerge de la fusión de las naciones anteriores no solo está marcada por la fraternidad de los miembros que la integran, sino también por el odio ante quienes no la pueden ni deben integrar. La nueva entidad que surge del reacomodo de las comunidades anteriores depende de la cesura que separa entre naturales y extranjeros: se trata de un corte que hace pensables los límites de la nueva comunidad, como también identifica aquellos a los que esta nuevo sujeto comunitario debe oponerse.

En cambio, en el discurso de la sentencia contra Túpac Amaru, el visitador José Antonio Arreche se refiere a “la nación de indios, llenos de supersticiones” y a “la ilusa nación de indios” (766). Arreche trata de volver a las delimitaciones étnico-culturales de la nación del Antiguo Régimen, es decir, a los límites anteriores a los de la nueva entidad comunitaria que el levantamiento buscaba crear. La represión de la gesta anticolonial pasa por reafirmar límites étnicos muy marcados y por cancelar la imaginación de una comunidad que rechace el poder peninsular.

En suma, el levantamiento de Túpac Amaru II empezó como una demanda particularizada, cuya retórica respetaba estrictamente los canales de negociación para los reclamos en el Antiguo Régimen. Esto se evidencia en los límites semánticos que tiene el empleo del término “nación” en sus textos iniciales. Sin embargo, cuando el levantamiento adquiere una tonalidad más radical, su cariz anticolonial se liga a una nueva imaginación del cuerpo político de la sociedad: se trata de hacer pensable una comunidad que aún está por venir en el que los límites entre las “naciones” étnica-culturales para dar paso a una nueva entidad colectiva. El punto que integraría a los integrantes de esta comunidad no solo sería la fraternidad, sino también el odio compartido ante un enemigo en común: los peninsulares.

Posted by Emmanuel Velayos, Ph.D. Candidate in Spanish and Portuguese at NYU

During my last two weeks in Ecuador I was feeling somewhat lost with all the new information I had gathered.  One of my initial hypothesis as I prepared for my trip was that the proliferation of rights under the new constitution was based in individual rights, and a careful avoidance of collective rights.  I was trying to make an argument that because the Ecuadorian economy is dependent on oil extraction and the mining of heavy metals, it purposely undermines the establishment collective rights that might challenge the extractivist economy.  I was aware that amidst all the flourishing of social rights there was also a strong government campaign against several environmental groups and that President Correa had gone as far as labeling them “developmental terrorists.”

As I began my research I came to understand that this argument did not translate well because the terms “collective rights” were very explicitly written into the constitution as the rights of indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian citizens.  These collective rights include reparations, land rights, anti-discrimination legislation, affirmative action in education and employment, and some degree of political autonomy for small ethnic enclaves.  Furthermore, the rights of nature and the indigenous concept of “Living Well” are also written into the constitution.  Following the establishment of the new constitution in 2008 many state funded research groups known as “observatorios” are working to track the how well these new laws and social rights are being implemented.  The re-drafting of the constitution in 2007 was extraordinary political moment for its inclusion of a diverse array of social activists and intellectuals who wrote, debated, and approved the constitutional articles and amendments through a democratic process.  This accounts for why the Ecuadorian constitution is so expansive in the realm of social rights.  After careful consideration I was able to discern that to frame my investigation as a comparison between collective and individual rights was not going to be particularly useful in examining the relationship between social rights and political economy.

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In considering the development of individual rights, especially anti-discrimination laws, we have to also look towards the social movements that reinforce these laws or in some case dismantle them. On July 28th, I attended a panel presentation on Afro-Ecuadorian feminism hosted by FLACSO University’s Women and Gender Studies program. The panel consisted of two presenters Olivia Cortez and Sonia Viveros. Olivia Cortez is a professor at San Fransisco University and well-established leader & consultant among women’s organizations in Quito y Guayaquil. The second presenter, Sonia Viveros, is a professor at the University of Guayaquil.  Francia Jenny Moreno, a graduate student from the Women and Gender Studies department, moderated the panel. The event was to serve as a space of reflection and analysis on the status of what is black or Afro-Ecuadorian feminism, and whether it can be considered a movement here in Ecuador.

Both presenters began their speech by identifying as Black women and asserting the value of that statement over other terms like mulata or Afro-descendant which serve to dissimulate and distance women from their blackness.  They each affirmed that black women’s issues include the issues that are most commonly associated with feminism, such as sexual and reproductive freedom, and then when on to expose how racism and questions of poor women’s basic survival need to be more thoroughly incorporated into the mainstream feminist agenda. Black women have participated in a number of struggles in the coast, urban regions, and rural outskirts and have held leadership positions in these struggles, yet often find issues specific to Afro-Ecuadorian women unmentioned. Olivia Cortez spoke of the influence of black feminists in the US as a prime influence for her political development as a black feminist in Ecuador.

After the panel discussion I met with Francia Jenny Moreno to talk about the panel discussion

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Claudia Garriga-Lopez                                   PhD Candidate in American Studies    Dept. of Social and Cultural Analysis of New York University

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