July 31, 2005
Overview of Meeting in Achuar Territory
From July 26-29, Pachamama organized and facilitated a significant conference in Achuar territory between NGOs interested in conservation, development, poverty alleviation, and indigenous issues. The meetings took place at the Kapawi Ecological Reserve and in the Achuar community of Sharametsa so that each actor could gain a better understanding of the realities of the region, its natural wonders and its people.
Interested NGO participants included various representatives from Pachamama, World Wildlife Fund International and WWF Perú, Fundacion Natura Ecuador, and the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV). FINAE president Milton Callera accompanied the group at all of its meetings and made two presentations regarding the organization and work of FINAE, as well as the needs, culture, and current projects of the Achuar people. Kapawi manager Paulina Rodriguez presented the approach and vision of Kapawi and the planned transferal of all management of the ecolodge to the Achuar nation in 2011. In addition, the local leader of Sharamentsa Domingo Peas was present. Sr. Peas, a visionary who has created a model of sustainable development in his community (including compost toilets, solar panels for electricity, and sustainable extraction of peanut oil), organized events and led discussions during the day in his community.
Identifying a clear overlap of projects among conservation NGOs acting in the central-southern Ecuadorian Amazon, Pachamama decided to hold this meeting to streamline work in the region in order to best meet the needs of the rainforest and its inhabitants. Indeed, the glut of current conservation projects in the region often does not further the goals of the indigenous people in the area. With this meeting, Pachamama sought to make connections between conservation and other factors, especially in terms of territorial and cultural defense and local sustainable development. In addition, the invited NGOs generated new ideas about projects, approaches, and contacts for Pachamama, Kapawi, and the Achuar communities. Hopefully, these meetings will stimulate interest and spawn collaborative projects between NGOs and the Achuar nation in the future.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 11:46 AM
July 25, 2005
Safety in Quito
On Saturday Afternoon, I was robbed for the first time ever on the street in Quito near Parque El Ejido, a beautiful park that is filed with pedestrians sitting or playing Ecua-volley or futbol on weekends. I guess I had it coming--to have lived here six months out of the last year and not have been robbed was quite a feat. But what was so weird was the robbery itself. Right on the street too, in broad daylight, with lots of people around. Guess I stood out as the Gringo. Here's what happened: Some 18 year olds ran up behind me, reached violently into my right pocket enough to rip it, and ran off with $15.
By the time I realized what happened, they were a block away. A couple other people on the street told me to run after them, but all I could do was turn to my friend next to me and walk back and forth for a minute before walking up the street in the direction they ran. It was a hopeless pursuit, and I talked with some people further up the street, who said I should have shouted so they could have tripped the guys as they ran past. They were kind enough, offered my friend and I some water and beer to calm down my nerves and racing heart, and after talking with them for a few minutes about the streets of Quito and what they did, I walked toward a local park to sit and reflect while watching the old-Ecuadorian-men's version of Bocce Ball. After watching for half an hour, I still couldn't figure out the objectives or strategy to the game. Indeed, my mind was thoroughly distracted by the recent events.
In terms of a robbery, this was pretty tame. Luckily, I was not confronted with a weapon, and they didn't steal my bag filled with the jeans and jacket I just bought. Even better, they did not reach into my left pocket, which had my credit card and photocopy of my passport.
So all in all, it wasn't that bad, but I was so scared that when a little street kid came up behind me trying to sell me gum a few minutes later, she touched my leg and I jumped 3 feet backwards. I've been petitioned by street kids every day since I've been here, but I was completely scared, probably becasue this little girl also came up from behind me.
Wow, I am now scared of a 4 year old. Way to go Quito. You've made me feel so safe and secure.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 12:57 PM
July 19, 2005
A Wonderful Weekend
I had one of the most incredible weekends of my entire Ecuadorian life these past few days. I managed to make it to Laguna Quilotoa after attempting every weekend for the last month. I went with Bryant from my SIT program, who was my best guy friend from Ecuador and is here with his friend for two weeks of traveling. So his friend Clayton came, and to finish off the great group was my friend Ming from Brown, who's living in Quito doing creative writing about volunteering in a family planning and health clinic here. Totally great times were had.
We headed down Friday afternoon, and had to fight our way onto the most crowded bus I’ve ever seen. Only one bus runs from Latacunga-Zumbahua every hour and a half, and we tried to get on three times after riding in a taxi to catch up to the bus and flag it down to let us on. The first time, our bags couldn’t make in on with us. The second time, popular dissent from the passengers intimidated us from attempting. Finally, after five minutes and everyone getting angry, one incredibly nice woman named Rosio fought for us and said, “Get on, there will be room, get on up now.” So while standing and straddling the people next to us, and dancing to the salsa and cumbia blasting out of the speakers, we had a very pleasant journey, until the bus got a flat tire at 12000 feet at night. Whether the flat tire was caused by our extra weight, I’m not sure, but luckily the other riders did not make that conclusion. All the passengers got out to reduce the weight and ease the work of the person operating the jack. The starts were magnificent, and I realized how long it had been since I was able to see them this clearly. I also saw the Southern Cross for the second time in my life.
Outside in the cold, Rosio introduced herself to us and said that she wants tourists to have a good image of Ecuador and the Ecuadorian people, and that is why she fought for us. She was surprised that none of us were married, however. Unfortunately, and this always happens, friendliness comes at a price, and she definitely tried to sell us perfume products (this is her job). I mean, it’s friendly enough, and it’s a correct assumption that most gringo tourists have more money than Ecuadorians. I guess buying from her would be a form of reciprocity, but instead we decided to be grateful and friendly back to her as our reciprocity. However, in the end I understood her as a very generous person, and she ended up gifting Ming a beautiful bottle of perfume. A truly lovely and strange encounter, flat tire and all. We arrived in Zumbahua at night and basically just went to sleep.
Earlier Saturday morning, before venturing to the Laguna, we went to a large indigenous market in Zumbahua, which is way less touristy and much more remote than other markets in the country (such as Otavalo). It was beautiful to see everybody out, wearing different colorful clothes, and different vendors selling things from food (every type imaginable, including quail eggs, chicken feet, and cow heads), non- traditional and traditionally indigenous clothing, to electronic appliances, rope, grain, and chamomile. I bought some scarves and shawls for my mom's friends.
Laguna Quilotoa is like Crater Lake in Oregon, except way bigger and at 13000ft. It was a volcano that exploded and then imploded on itself, and with rainfall created a 900ft deep lake. We walked around the rim a bit, and it's really some of the starkest, most jagged, and utterly beautiful and barren landscapes I've ever seen. And riding in the back of the pickup there was incredible, peering out at a completely flat river valley, with the actual river hidden in a jagged canyon 100 ft below the normal valley floor, with the tall Andean mountains surrounding us on all sides. We took a hike around the rim, or at least partway around, and it was so amazing to notice how the colors of the water changed and how the landscape seemed to change depending on where one was located and how the clouds were positioned in relation to you and to the Laguna. Quilotoa is truly a natural wonder of this world.
Saturday night, we somehow made it to this hacienda that sleeps up to 12 people. We changed our plans, decided not to go to Chugchilan, which has a model of sustainable tourist lodging that I wanted to check out, and instead stayed at the Hacienda Tigua Chimbacucho. It is located right outside of Tigua, a tiny rural village famous for its blue-background traditional and very fine indigenous paintings, usually done on leather and containing images of the Condor, the volcano Cotopaxi, Laguna Quilotoa, and various rituals and figures of normal indigenous people. I came across the Hacienda in my rough guide, apparently that's the only English-language guide it's in. Luckily there was space, and the owners are a family with 17-18 year old kids. Their hacienda supplements their dairy farming with keeping guests for the last 3 years (after mad cow disease in 1997 and then dollarization in 2000 made dairy barely profitable). We milked cows, played futbol with local indigenous children, and drank water from the tap (a first for me in Ecuador) because the water comes straight from a spring.
We all chatted together all night with the family and with the four other guests, which included two medical doctors from Quito (one is a high school friend of the father/owner of the hacienda), one doctor of philosophy, and one American medical doctor from University of New Mexico. They were wonderful company, and I learned about an exchange program between UNM and a university in Quito. They were down here observing the medical clinic in Zumbahua and hope to send volunteer medical students down there soon. In addition, the Dr of Philosophy told me about an incredibly library that contains everything published about Ecuador in its four walls, and it’s located in the North of Quito. Until now, I had doubted that libraries even existed in Ecuador.
For breakfast the next day, we ate amazing fresh farm food in the morning (fresh milk, cream butter, eggs, cream caramel, and yogurt--all straight from the cows 100 ft from the house). It was totally ridiculous and comforting. I have so much caramel now, and it's so delicious. I might even have some left to bring back.
We made it back to Latacunga, two hours from Quito, on Sunday morning in the back of the transport truck of the family who owns Hacienda Chimbacucho. The younger son was heading off to Guayaquil to go to Naval training, and brought his guitar along for the ride. He played a bit but then went to sit in the front while us travelers were left in the frigid cold mist of 13000 foot Andean climate. This journey was spectacular, weaving in and own of valleys, going up sides of mountains, seeing pine and eucalyptus forests and then cleared lands. It was the most remote campo I’d ever been to, and every single house was built halfway into the hillside out of mud and a thatched roof. Yet there were no trees or bushes in sight—I have no idea where the thatching came from. We passed women and children dressed in beautifully bright traditional long sweaters and heavy skirts and tall socks and gold bead necklaces, working away with hoes on their land. As we rose in altitude, everything got colder but the view was spectacular.
When we finally arrived in Quito, we headed straight to La Capilla del Hombre, or The Chapel of Man, a magnificent center of art conceived as a crowning achievement art museum showcasing large works of the absolutely unparalleled Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasamin. Guayasamin died in 1999 before the project was completed, but what exists in the museum is breathtaking. Most of the works exhibited come from his Rage Stage, where he decries, with great detail and emotion, the hardship, hunger, pain, and violence in many parts of the world, from Nicaragua to Chile to Ecuador to South Africa and Vietnam and Spain and former Czechoslovakia. Giant paintings showcase his vision of the world, and his work always emphasizes giant and expressive hands and faces. He takes Picasso’s Cubism and transforms it into an indigenous call for justice in the world (his mother was indigenous and plays a prominent role in many of his paintings). The building itself is magnificent, incredibly open with an eternal light at the bottom of the second floor that can be seen from the open-center of the upper floor. The light is a symbol of one of his famous quotations right before he died, “Keep a light burning because I will always be ready to return.”
This was my second time in The Chapel of Man, and interestingly, I was quite moved by certain paintings more this time than last time. Especially those in black and white with a little blue, they seemed to come to life and I felt like I could feel the pain expressed in them. One called “Tenderness,” quite a contrast to the devastation of many of his other works, is striking because pain still exists, even in the depicted embrace. At the same time, one of the larger pieces composed of 16 small paintings, which greatly moved me the last time, had less of an effect on me. I’m definitely in a different stage of my life right now, but I’m not really sure about what it might signify that the black and white paintings affected me more. Pleace check out Guayasamin’s work at http://www.guayasamin.com/index_ing.htm, and anyone who comes to Quito must visit this museum.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 05:08 PM
Fame on SIT Website
I studied abroad with SIT in Fall 2004, and I received an email about two weeks ago from a man who works at World Learning, SIT’s parent organization. He is in charge of writing news articles for the website. I’m not sure how he found out and decided to choose me to write about, rather than the other five people from my program who are all back in Ecuador this summer doing equally engaging and incredible work, but he was interested in my work at Pachamama. I sent him some photos and a summary of my work at Pachamama, Pachamama’s work in general (both of which are more or less summarized previously on this blog), and about how the internship fits into my studies as a Development Studies concentrator at Brown and how it may fit into my future. For those of you who keep up on the blog, that part’s more interesting and personal and won’t be repetitive. I’m such a famous alumnus of SIT. Wow.
The photos can be found here. The first six are from my time studying abroad here last fall, and the last five are from this summer.
The article I wrote can be found here.
ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Lee Gilman at 04:10 PM
July 15, 2005
Indigenous Demonstration for a Moratorium on Extractive Practices in their Territories
On Tuesday I went to a march in downtown Quito. It was not organized by Pachamama, but was supported financially in terms of transporting indigenous peoples to Quito and aiding in the planning of logistics. It was a combined march between the Huaorani, Zápara, and Amazonian Kichwa nations, and they marched in Quito from the headquarters of CONAIE (the largest indigenous political organization in Ecuador) to the National Congress, then to the Presidential Palace, and onward to the headquarters of Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil. Petrobras has contracts to drill in these nations' territories, and have recently won a long legal battle to construct a road there. At each spot, leaders presented a petition calling for a moratorium on all resource extraction (mainly mining, logging, and petroleum) and construction projects in their territories.
The Huaorani’s relationship with extractive development is quite interesting. They have been known to kill anyone foreigner who entered their territories, and have been engaged in a decades-long fight against the incursion of oil drilling and open-pit mining on their lands. Dozens of Huaorani and extractive company workers have been murdered in the struggle. It is quite a statement that this nation, who used to be so averse to the outside, has decided that this issue is of such supreme importance that they can afford to leave their ancestral lands for a few days and venture into the hectic city that is Quito. They’ve realized that they can no longer continue to fight a powerful industrial machine on their territories but need a legal mandate for a moratorium in order to protect their collective rights over their territories and culture.
I was only present for the demonstration outside of the Congress building, but it was a really emotional experience. First of all, there were twice as many people as we expected, and they create a solid and influential mass. The Huaorani, who normally run around naked, were wearing Speedos or shorts, and with only long bead necklaces on their upper half. Many had large corks or wood in their ears, and elders had removed these earrings to reveal gaping holes in their lobes. Everyone had spots of red achiote dye on their faces and arms, and many of the men and women held huge spears, some ten feet long, with feathers attached. Some men wore feathered headbands as well. I definitely saw lots of wrinkled and sagging upper bodies, and it was so powerful to see a bent-over 70-year-old Huaorani woman chanting and holding a spear and joking with younger members of her community. This woman had traveled hundreds of kilometers from her village to Puyo to Quito, because she felt so strongly in the harm of oil development and the need for autonomous management of her territory and culture. She helped to lead a series of chants, conducted mainly between her, 2 other women, and about 10 men that lasted for 15 minutes or so. The demonstration was such a powerful vision of solidarity among often conflictive groups (indeed, indigenous people, even within the same nation, are by no means completely unified in their beliefs).
It was quite interesting to observe the different indigenous peoples present. On the one hand, I observed the Huaorani grassroots movement led by the Women’s Group, and on the other hand was Sr. Luis Vargas, president of CONFENIAE (but not recognized by Shuar or Achuar as such after the meeting of the Comité Interfederacional a month ago—see below post), wearing a striking blue suit and tie while walking and talking with others in similar garb. In addition, there were about 10 gringoes present who all wore signs marking them as Human Rights Observers.
Eventually, about 10 Huaorani, 7 members of other nations, and 5 leaders including Sr. Vargas were allowed entrance into the Congress building, which was heavily guarded by police in full riot gear. Indeed, these police were ready for action at the slightest disturbance. Luckily, everything passed peacefully, and I’ve only heard the rumor that Congress received their petition for the moratorium generously. However, I do not know the outcomes of their protests outside the Presidential Palace or at the Petrobras headquarters. In addition, it seems quite unlikely that this moratorium will be passed by a Congressional majority, considering many Congress members have direct oil interests that usually override their concern for indigenous issues.
All in all, this demonstration and march was a powerful symbol of the solidarity, possibilities for success, and future actions of well-organized and well-governed indigenous organizations that listen to the needs and desires of their masses.
Some photos of the march!!!
Posted by Lee Gilman at 01:28 PM
New Moon Update: Transnational Communication
I took on the task of writing this month’s New Moon Update, an email newsletter sent from the SF Pachamama office to all of Pachamama’s donors, telling them about successful developments of our work in Ecuador. It was quite fun to write, and also a learning process, since I’ve never really had any journalism experience. I enjoyed the role-play process involved, imagining what I would want to read as a donor from the Bay Area (and the rest of the US, but most are concentrated near SF). After reflection, I found ways to present our work in such an appealing flavor. Apparently, the New Moon Updates had been crap for the last six months, when they were written by my Dutch, very ideological coworker. The people at the SF Pachamama office even wrote me thanking me for good stories that were real news and that didn’t necessitate re-editing into the ground!
You can read my stories on the SF Pachamama website. They pertain to my coworker Dave’s mapping project (which I wrote about in an earlier post, but this story has a bit more technical detail), and the formation of the Women's Group of the Huaorani nation and their planning of a march in Quito that took place this week (see above post).
Posted by Lee Gilman at 12:51 PM
Indigenous University?
I was in Puyo in the Amazon from Wed to Friday last week, learning about and supporting various processes for UNIDAE, The University Of Indigenous Nationalities of The Ecuadorian Amazon, which is the only indigenous-run university in the region. It offers degrees in Environmental Management and Tourism, Community Health, and Business Administration, and offers classes in many topics including English, Math, Stats, Indigenous Technology (along with modern technology, science, business, and law), Natural Science, Biology, Anthropology, Sociology, Bilingual Languages, and Indigenous Philosophy. I took a tour of the campus, helped out in a class about ecologically-sound agricultural management, did some office work, and even taught an English class on Friday when the professor didn’t show up. An English lesson was not a problem for me to improvise on the spot, since I volunteer teaching English to Guatemalan immigrants once or twice a week at Brown.
Students working on projects in their agroecology class
The university was started in 1997 by CONFENIAE, the largest indigenous political organization of the Ecuadorian Amazon. UNIDAE now has an enrollment of nearly 150 students, though because of changes in course dates, only 35 were present for the week of courses at which I was present. The university seeks to provide an educational alternative and learning facility for both indigenous and mestizo students.
Lee teaching English to his student and giving the "thumbs up" for good work (I didn't even know I was doing that!)
UNIDAE was forcibly shut down for nearly two years by the Ecuadorian government, who demanded that it needed to get legal recognition for its degrees before it could reopen. Recently, UNIDAE gained this needed approval and recognition for its bachelor’s program from the University of Cuenca. UNIDAE’s curriculum further gained official recognition from the Council of Universities of Ecuador. These developments represent a huge victory for the university in its struggle to gain legitimacy and provide an indigenous-led alternative form of higher education. The courses I attended were the first given since this pause in instruction.
Students designing a historical map of the organization of their communities for their Participatory Work class
UNIDAE, sadly, has a lot of problems. It is severely under-funded, and Pachamama, a small NGO, currently provides nearly half the funding. The director (only in place the last 3 months) is suspected of stealing money, and his undersecretary recently, and mysteriously, acquired the funds to construct quite a large house in Puyo. The university is in possession of few educational materials and has a very limited library. Indeed, the ecological territorial management class I helped facilitate one day had to use plastic soda bottles and cups instead of beakers with proper measures. In addition, the students have to pay nearly $100 per term (classes meets for one entire week every month), a ridiculously exorbitant amount for the mostly-indigenous student body who, on average, have very low incomes. Many are in massive debt without the possibilities of gaining income soon because, shit, they live most of the time in the middle of the forest and are working towards or have only recently received their university degree. Finally, absenteeism among teachers is a constant plague. Indeed, the university has such numerous and important problems that they place the future existence and success of the university in jeopardy.
First-year Students engaging in group work for their Economics class.
I talked with many people, including students, directors and teachers, about these problems, and Cristina and I have begun a Pachamama discussion about these issues. In fact, two days ago Cristina decided that the problems were so massive that Pachamama cannot be certain that their funds will be well-spent. Thus, we have planned to revoke our agreed partnership with and support of UNIDAE in two weeks for a period of at least three months, until UNIDAE can prove that it has its house in order.
Yet we should not lose hope. UNIDAE is not yet a lost cause. It is still salvageable because of the students themselves. I observed fun, attentive, eager 30-50 year old men and women who are driven to learn. These students see education as a tool for power, as well as an aid to the achievement of future goals, whether they be improvements in economic and material well-being, the acquisition of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, skills to implement in their communities to improve basic services, or tools to help them in the struggle of indigenous peoples’ to defend their territories and cultures and assert autonomous forms of economic development and political governance. These students present a vision of hope and possibility for the future of the university.
You can read a bit more about UNIDAE here
Posted by Lee Gilman at 12:33 PM
July 14, 2005
ROBBERY!!!, or my love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with Ecuadorian bureaucracy
On a somber note, my apartment was robbed two weeks ago, which really scared me because it was the first night I had my laptop in my apartment. Luckily it was in my room. The robbers came in through the window, and needed to have climbed onto the 1st floor roof (we're on the third floor) with a ladder to get in. The window of the living room was open in the morning, and the plants directly below the window were carefully and silently moved away from the window. With all that f***ing effort, all they stole was our crappy and old stereo system (but not the more expensive speakers for the stereo or the hundreds of original CDs sitting right next to it (a rarity for the pirating capital that is Ecuador)). They also stole our phone and answering machine (but not the power adapter to plug into the phone). So now we have a really cheap phone with no answering machine. We still get calls though! It was such a strange robbery, and so little was stolen from us that the landlord thought one of our friends was playing a trick on us! I didn't think it affected me that much, but it really did, and I've been a bit paranoid at night in the apartment, although this feeling has reduced significantly in the ten days since it happened.
The strange part of the story begins now. My landlord came to my door five days later after having followed up on the case. He talked with the guards on the street, and the guard two blocks away reported that a robbery had occurred in a building two blocks from my apartment the same night around the same time. Furthermore, the guard found an old black stereo without speakers sitting in front of the entrance doorway to that apartment building the next morning. Most likely, it was our stereo. However, the guard called the police to report the robbery, and some detectives took the stereo back to the police station where it was impounded.
I was told to try to recover the stereo, so I decided to flex my Spanish skills in the bureaucracy of the Judicial Police building. After being re-routed twice and told to go to two different offices which each said to go to an additional one, I was finally told that I must first make a report (denuncia) of my robbery on the first floor of the building. So after waiting in line for an hour, I successfully completed the report, a triumph for my Spanish skills, but a victory without the material benefit of our stereo.
Right before leaving, the officer with whom I filed the report told me that I needed to go to the financing office and then another office, and that in the third office I would be lead to the impounding room and pick up my stereo. I was also told that I needed some sort of confirmation of ownership of the stereo to get it back. Two issues made it seem unlikely that I would ever get the stereo back. First of all, the financing office closed for lunch (for two hours!) three minutes before I arrived there. Second, because the stereo was at least ten years old, and because it was not my stereo, nor my housemates, but rather Leonore’s (my academic director from SIT here), we doubted that a receipt or proof-of-purchase could be found. Even if it was, another report would have to be made, because the receipt would not have been in my name. I called up Leonore, and she looked around and couldn’t find anything.
A few days later, Leonore phoned and said that she found the instruction booklet. However, we discussed the issue and decided that the best possibility was to utilize our in-roads to the police system, because cronyism is legendary in Ecuadorian bureaucracy. Leonore’s daughter, who’s currently in Italy, works in some facet for the police, and we found her police ID card. Additionally, my roomate’s friend is good friends with someone high up in the police department, and decided that this was our best bet. My roommate has currently taken over the process, and the end result could be one of three options: 1) we don’t get anything back; 2) we get our stereo back, or 3) our stereo wasn’t the one impounded by the police. But our friend’s friend lets us pick a stereo of “similar value” from the unclaimed one’s lying around in a room in the police station. I’m hoping for the third result.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 05:53 PM
A Visionary Achuar, and my Laptop
A week ago Thursday, I got my laptop! Haha, no more fighting over computer time in the office among the part time consultants and the intern! My mom brought it to Pachamama's office in San Francisco and Pachamama is currently leading a trip down in Ecuador with donors and 2 staff members from SF. They get to go to Kapawi, the Ecotourism lodge in Achuar territory. I almost was able to tag along, something that my boss and I wanted very much, so that I would be able to see a community in which the Achuar live and see a project supported by Pachamama in action. However, because it's operated by another company, I would be charged full price, and I couldn't pay 1000 for 3 days on a Smoke Grant budget, nor was Pachamama willing to cover me. Oh well, I might get to go down in late July.
Anyway, I went to meet the gringos at their hotel in Quito, and sat and listened to a presentation given to them by an Achuar named Domingo Peas, who talked about the Achuar people, culture, development and politics. Domingo was a leader of FINAE (the Achuar political organization) for 10 years until he decided he wanted to work in his communities instead of dealing with political issues outside of the community. He's also a visionary who is studying for a bachelor's and has implemented a few sustainable projects in his community, such as peanut oil farming and processing. In addition, he has almost single-handedly taught and changed the consciousness of most of his community members towards one that embraces environmental stewardship! In the meeting of the Comité Interfederacional a month ago, he was specially invited, despite not being a leader, because he is incredibly well respected for his insight. He’s only a 40-year-old man too, not one’s typical image of a wise elder. Instead, he’s of a younger generation that knows the political ins and outs and knows how to maneuver within various systems to defend their territories and culture and to achieve improvements in the well-being of his people. At that meeting, he came across as the most level-headed politically savvy (in terms of synthesizing ideas and consensus building) of anybody there. And in the meeting with the Pachamama SF representatives, he was an eloquent, well-organized and powerful speaker.
After his presentation, Cristina (my boss) and I talked about Pachamama and the main elements and successes of the recent work of the Quito office. I thought it was quite funny how Cristina slipped in slogans from the San Francisco office’s website into her talk. Overall, a very successful meeting, and I want to start a dialogue with Domingo to try to pick the brain of this insightful, rational, visionary human being.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 05:34 PM
Two Paradigms for Development
On Wednesday, June 29 (I really haven’t written in a while), I went to a great meeting at the Center for Economic and Social Development of Ecuador (CDES), where two panelists spoke about different paradigms for alternative development in the Central Southern Ecuadorian Amazon. An amazingly intelligent anthropology professor named Teodoro Bustamante spoke first, presenting a framework for cooperative development that reconciles and forges a singular identity out of Western and indigenous cultures...i.e. he believes that indigenous cultures in the region have no choice but to compromise and incorporate aspects of Western culture into their development models. He believe that this is necessary for the long term successful preservation of these cultures and alternative economic development of the region, that they must at least understand the West in order improve the lives of their people.
He spoke of marginalization, and that the goal of development is to make these people and their cultures autonomous and prosperous in their own way rather than marginalized and forgotten. In terms of alternative development, he presented striking evidence that in zones of petroleum extraction, poverty is no worse than in other regions of the Amazon. However, grand contamination of water, land, and air, the resulting health problems, delinquency, and violence are all worse. In his view, the goal of development of the region was to overcome the current marginalization of the zone (embodied by the highest rates of illiteracy of all the Ecuadorian Amazon) without producing the problems characteristic of petroleum zones.
In his view, indigenous nations in the region need 1) services (such as health care, education, and technology); 2) money--in his opinion, and I agree with this from what I’ve witnessed of the Shuar and Achuar, the indigenous are pressured to and then embody the desire to consume; and 3) they want legitimacy and valorization of their people, culture and territories by outside groups and the Ecuadorian government. He calls on local, national, and international organizations to help in the effort, but described that “consensual plurality and coordination” (“articulación pluralista consensuada”) among the indigenous organizations with their own people and with the outside is the key to successful alternative development.
After Prof. Bustamante ended his presentation, a Shuar named Marcelino, who is also a professor, spoke about a resistance paradigm, where nonviolent but substantial resistance originates from the Shuar, and then they are allowed to implement their vision of development in their own way. He first dissected the current indigenous political process in Ecuador, explaining how divided it is in reality. He explained that under land titles and as seen by the government and international organizations, the Shuar lands, while they are collective, are actually a set of territories with different interests and conflicts among them. These divisions are greater at the higher levels of indigenous political organizations like CONAIE. However, divisions are masked over, and in the process, fewer voices and needs are heard. Alliances that understand the differences among indigenous groups and promote comprehensive solutions are necessary.
Marcelino then went on to discuss development, that current efforts at development must fit into indigenous visions for the future, and that both must be incorporate into a political body of self-governance. Thus, he does not believe in a syncretism of culture but of autonomous development based on indigenous cultural visions for the future. Furthermore, because of the bombardment of Western culture and its ever-present decisions to trample over indigenous culture, as well as its attempts to impose its own visions of development (extractive industries or even other forms of “alternative development”), Marcelino sees the need for resistance in order to carry out autonomous, alternative development. This resistance, in his view, will be constructive rather than conflictive. For resistance to be successful, all indigenous people, from the grassroots level to the leaders of their organizations, must become gain consciousness of their goals and visions of development. They must construct and define their identity and visions of the future within their culture first, and then project this and gain support for these visions second. When this occurs, indigenous peoples will find the spirit of money, that they will value money but break away from capitalist logic. In this way, they will promote autonomous alternative development which may vary among indigenous territories because of the different visions of the people.
In the discussion afterwards, some interesting issues arose. Mario Melo, an important lawyer who organized the meeting at CDES, explained that these ideas for development that have been generated in the meeting cannot just be proposed but must be implemented. He argued that a key to successful development would be strong, well-administered, but at the same time participatory, indigenous organizations. He pointed to the Sarayaku and FINAE (Achuar org) as prime examples of strong indigenous organizations. Theodoro concurred that strong and positive leadership is necessary, but reaffirmed his argument that alternative development must incorporate some aspects of Western culture and cannot just celebrate ancestral culture. Finally, Marcelino spoke, invoking a stronger argument for resistance, saying that it is worth enacting positive changes for the indigenous peoples even if it might mean paralyzing the rest of the country.
Taking a bit from both is, as usual, to me what makes the most sense if and when such development plans get put into action. The resistance paradigm seems most culturally sensitive and will produce a more positive outcome in the long run. However, I agree with Prof. Bustamante that an understanding of Western culture, as well as its political and economic structures, is necessary in the struggle to gain the better provision of services such as health care and education (most likely from the Western-structured Ecuadorian government) as well as gain desired political and economic autonomy to undergo development according to their own beliefs and desires. Such knowledge will also be necessary to receive funding from national or international organizations to support their visions of future alternative development.
The thing that frustrates me is that, on this topic, there's so much theoretical talk and not enough action. Critically thinking and then coming up with NEW realistic solutions is always easier then reading and analyzing previous material and then asserting a position which isn't all that practical. I hope that future meetings (which WILL occur over the next few months) will produce concrete ideas for implementing these paradigms. The meeting was incredibly stimulating and intelligent, and the two long presentations made me feel like I was back at Brown, except with a Shuar professor. Unlike at Brown, the stakes were raised quite a bit, because, with half those in attendance coming from indigenous nations, the people discussing these development models were those directly affected by development planning and decision-making processes.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 05:03 PM
July 04, 2005
Red Hot Rhythm
As luck would have it, my boss Cristina decided to give me her tickets to a CD Release and indigenous music performance to which Pachamama was specially invited. It was the first CD produced in a music workshop started a year ago to promote the music of the Tsáchila nation in the broader culture, both nationally and internationally. The hope is that greater cultural recognition will bring indigenous nations greater cultural acceptance and will lead to a less difficult process of promoting their agendas in politics and preserving their territories and cultures.
I was a bit surprised by how many Gringos there were in the audience, especially because the event was not advertised. It took place in La Casa de la Cultura (The Cultural House of Ecuador), in a beautiful and modern-looking theater. The Tsáchila are from the area surrounding the city of Santo Domingo de los Colorados, which is located halfway between Quito and the coast. Incredibly, the music reflected both cultures, centrally utilizing a marimba, which is associated with coastal culture, and flutes traditionally associated with indigenous Andean music. And there were nature sounds in the background to really send home the point that their worldview involves an inherent connection with their natural surroundings. The band was comprised of both men and women, although men played the more central instruments and had the lead vocals. For each song, there was also a performance demonstrating different cultural rites and rituals, the most fascinating of which was the transformation from boyhood to manhood. Tsáchila men have bright red hair that is hard from gel. However, boys do not, and in the performance, an adult male ground up achiote seeds (used for color in cooking across Ecuador and also for the hair color of these men), which naturally created a red gel. He put it in the boy’s hair, a girl painted his body and neck and facein stripes with a natural black die, and then the man demonstrated to the boy how to use a spear. Other dances were quite exciting and active, and women and men shared the spotlight for these. Everybody wore beautifully striped fabric as skirts or shorts, and the men wore nothing on the upper half of their bodies, which were painted with these same black lines.
After the concert, the Tsáchila who had performed gathered with the crowd for drinks and conversation. We drank different types of chicha, an indigenous-made alcohol that can be processed from a variety of plants. At the event, I tried sugar-cane and heart-of-palm chicha. I talked with one younger man about the music and how he got into it. He said that he only started playing a few years ago but really enjoys himself and thanks the workshop for all the support it’s given to promote their music. Then, all of a sudden, a spontaneous chant started among member of the audience and the performers, in both Spanish and Tsáchila, accompanied by some louder flutes. It was quite a beautiful moment of pure emotion created by the music, and I really thank Cristina for giving me the opportunity to attend the event.
Here's a photo of and story on the concert.
Posted by Lee Gilman at 03:47 PM
