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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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Last Excursion Down

Alli tuta, buenas noches, good evening everyone!

Acabo de regresar del campo inteño, the marvelous Intag River Valley in Ecuador’s northern Imbabura province. The región is famous for its natural beauty, its coffee, and its legacy of resistance in the face of mining. For the past 3 or 4 decades, transnational mining companies have invaded the region seeking copper and gold. Yet, 2 of these companies were expelled through the concerted efforts of local nonviolent resistance. The third currently has the blessing of the Ecuadorian state, and we’re moving out of the initial exploratory phase into the beginnings of the mining phase. The region has been heavily militarized, people have been forced to flee, and the fight is as hard as ever. It remains to be seen what will happen with Intag.

Entretanto, we stayed with host families whose heads of households were all women. These women belong to a grassroots organization called Mujer y Medio Ambiente, or Women and the Environment, which, as the name suggests, is a feminist environmentalist group that organizes women to weave handicrafts out of the abundant cabuya plant, aka agave, in order to sell them to make the money they need to support their households and communities. The reason behind all this is to show the Ecuadorian government that there are economic alternatives to mining in the area and thus to hopefully swing the tide against extractivism. These women are probably the most badass women I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting. They work all hours tending to their families, their houses, their animals, their farms, us, meanwhile finding time to weave the handicrafts they sell, attend protests and marches, go to craft fairs and produce exchanges, hang out with their relatives/neighbors (which are basically the same thing), and perhaps find time to play a game of soccer or Ecua-volley. Absolutely mind-boggling what they have to juggle and how at least the women I met made it look so damn easy. I could write a whole book just on this topic!

Nuestro propósito, digamos, fue practicar las técnicas de hacer investigaciones de campo; es decir, intentar a conducir entrevistas, integrarnos en la comunidad local a través de conversaciones, juegos, el trabajo cotidiano, etc., comprometernos en observación enfocada, etc. We went to practice the techniques of field research to prepare for the upcoming independent research project (ISP), which will take up the entire month of April. Needless to say, I have perfected nothing and am left with more questions than answers regarding the best practices, how to manage the ethical dilemmas, etc. My independent project is all shored up now by the way. I will be heading to the north of Imbabura province to a place called Chota, the historic epicenter of the enslaved Afro-Ecuadorian population. I will be doing a home stay with a family there for 3 weeks while I gather my field research; then, I will spend one week compiling my notes, finding outside research to incorporate, and actually writing my paper. I will be lucky enough to have an advisor whom I have yet to meet but whom I am told is an academic, an expert in Afro-Ecuadorian issues, and a local resident. I’m leaving my research agenda open for the time being, because I essentially want to co-author my paper with the individuals I will be lucky enough to meet and learn from. They know their community infinitely better than I ever could, and I want to use my privileges to be a loudspeaker for their voice, leaving out as much as possible my own diagnoses and interpretations of their lives. This is the research orientation we’ve been exposed to all semester as an alternative to research that imposes its agenda on its subjects and treats them like objects rather than people. So, as for now I have no idea what I’ll actually be documenting, but that’s the whole point lol.

We only have one week and a half left in Quito! I don’t know where the time has gone, and I have mixed feelings about leaving so soon. I’ll probably update y’all after Easter (which I’ve heard is insane here haha) and on the eve of my departure for Chota. Espero que les vaya bien, and I’ll see y’all before we know it!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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3 Cositas

Hello World!

Wanted to give yall an update on some standout things from this week.

1. On Wednesday we had a visit from a representative from the U.S. Embassy here in Quito. The representative worked in the economics division and had the job of convincing U.S. companies to invest in Ecuador. I’m just gonna come right out and say it: this visit made me super mad. I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else. This guy was shamelessly peddling neoliberal, colonial economics even though there’s no way he couldn’t know about the history of violent U.S. involvement in Latin America and how miserably neoliberal economic reforms failed these countries in the 90s. Moreover, given the U.S.’s own economic nationalist-bent under our current president, it was hypocritical of him to claim that Ecuador needs to open itself up to more foreign investment when we aren’t even willing to do that at home. It was painful to see how genuinely he believed in this stuff though and how he actually thought he was helping the Ecuadorian people by selling their jobs to U.S. companies and pushing small artisan dealers out of the market. At one point, he even claimed that the new Ecuadorian administration has to rebuild trust after the last regime’s antics. Really? Ecuador has to re-earn the U.S.’s trust? I asked him point blank about the reverse of his statement: whether he believed the U.S. needs to regain Ecuador’s trust. He said no. Which is bullshit lol. Trump’s 100 days should have begun with 100 apologies to various groups and countries we’ve fucked over. But no—we don’t need to rebuild confidence. We’re the U.S., the Promised Land, the shining city on the hill. But what was most disheartening—although I shouldn’t have expected anything else—was that he was just following orders. Washington’s orders. Still we stubbornly push capitalism onto the world in the religious hope that it will solve all of the world’s problems. Granted, we’re only one colonial power in the world today. China has had more influence on Ecuador recently because the last president cut ties with the U.S. in favor of China, which has been devastating in its own right. No country is justified in colonizing another, even if (especially if perhaps) that colonization is masked under names like “development.” I would love to work for the foreign service to counteract the colonial legacy. But after hearing this guy’s talk, I don’t know if I could stand the constant moral conflict of going against my bosses or selling something I don’t believe in. I don’t know. It was an interesting experience.

2. Thursday we had almost a polar opposite presentation in a move that I have to say was planned very well. A renowned critical thinker and social critic came to talk to us about development itself, its history, and its effects on current Ecuador. She ended up going all over the place, beginning with a lengthy but fascinating recorrido of the colonial history. She mentioned 3 cultural factors that aided the Spanish in their conquest of the continent: an abstract religion, philosophy of communication that permitted deception, and linear time. Regarding the first, Christianity boasts an abstract god who can be known through its works or manifestations here on earth but whose true essence is unapproachable. In contrast, many civilizations here in Abya Yala had religious systems whose gods were concrete entities in nature, like a river or a tree. With an abstract god, it’s very easy to incorporate physicals gods and just call them mere manifestations of the one, supreme god. This amounts to a discursive form of colonization that is pretty all-encompassing; it’s allowed for the gradual invisiblization of endogenous cultures in the overarching Euro-centric matrix. Second, because the Spanish were just about to complete the transition from mythical to rational thought, their communication philosophy emphasized communication between individuals for the benefit of each individual. In contrast, the mythically-based discourse of many civilizations on the continent stressed the community over the individual; thus, communication always had the community’s benefit at stake, a stressor that would have placed more stringent limits on “the possible” in terms of communication than would have done so the Spanish counterpart. Thus, the Spanish were very comfortable lying, swindling, or cheating their way into Tenochtitlan, for example, adding this dimension onto the physically violent. Finally, concepts of time here on the continent were spiral; thus, there is no future. There is only the “present” which gives way always into what has already happened. Thus, the arrival of the Spanish had already happened, meaning there was seemingly nothing to do to stop it. In contrast, the linear time of the Spanish discursively made them masters over an as-of-yet unwritten future, meaning they as individuals were masters over their fates. This was a fascinating take on the conquest, which still mystifies me a little bit. She also touched on racism here in Latin America, which she explained primarily as an internalized racism. According to the colonial legacy, mestizos should want to be white; yet of course they are denied full whiteness. Yet at the same time, they reject “the indigenous” in a constant losing battle to be more and more white. But, as this presenter explained (which is obviously up for debate), this puts mestizos in an intermediary place where they don’t quite belong to either group. Thus, the primary target of their racism is themselves. Again, fascinating, and I would love to get the perspective of other mestizos as well as individuals of ancestral descent and African descent as well—persons of African descent are largely left out of the mestizaje paradigm because they’re neither indigenous nor European. This presentation was infinitely more interesting than the former, and it has left me with much more to investigate.

3. Friday I had the first chance to play some soccer here in Ecuador. It was thrilling! The Parque Carolina right by my house boasts like 15 tiny soccer canchas where teams of 6 can play each other. My host brothers and I wandered around the fields and eventually just formed a team with some random dudes and played some intense games! I’m quite out of shape and didn’t bring my cleats, yet I managed to both impress my host nationals and have a ton of fun! It was a fantastic end to the week and an excellent break from the academic. I’ll be sure to return before my homestay ends(;

On that note, signing off. I only have 3 weeks left in my homestay before I head off to do my independent research project for a month. ¡A ver lo que pase!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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Galapagos: Been there, done that(;

Hello once again!

Quito has never felt quite like home until now. After about 6 hours total of travel (including the hour I lost due to the time difference) from the Galápagos back to the Andes, I’m very glad to be back home-loosely speaking. There’s so much to tell yet so much that words can’t express, but I’ll give it my best shot to review everything that was our excursion to Guayaquil and the famous Galápagos Islands.

Last Wednesday we flew from Quito to Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city. Nicknamed the Pearl of the Pacific for its beauty and the pride of its inhabitants, Guayaquil is the financial hub of Ecuador and really always has been. It’s named after the legendary figures of Guayas and Quil, an indigenous couple who according to legend led the resistance against the Spanish in what is now the area around the city. It was damn beautiful—and hot as hell compared to Quito! Upper 80s with 100% humidity and no clouds! Our first stop was the centrally-located Parque Histórico, where we took a tour of the zoological/botanical gardens that featured animals and plants from all over Ecuador. Crocodiles, otters, parrots, mangroves, monkeys—it was pretty cool! After that, we ate lunch on the famous Malecón (Boardwalk) that sits right on the River Guayas. Then, we toured an art museum that housed an impressive collection of pre-Columbian art from all around Ecuador. Ecuador is home to the first culture in South America to make pottery (the Valdivia culture). The Ecuadorian coast can also boast to be the home of the Manta-Wantawillka culture, the best and only ocean navigators in the southeastern Pacific. In addition, the infamous Spondylus shells are found in the depths off the Ecuadorian coast. These shells were traded as far north as Baja California and as far south as Chile and formed an important part of the economies of various ancestral societies. Alas, our time in Guayaquil was limited to a day, but what a day we spent! It’s a beautiful city that doesn’t have a tradition of tourism interestingly enough, yet I couldn’t recommend it more.

Thursday was the big day, the one we were all looking forward to: the arrival in las Islas Encantadas, the Galápagos Islands. The word “Galápagos” comes from old Spanish and means a saddle; it originally referred to the various species of tortoises that inhabit the islands and then came to refer to the islands themselves. We spent Thursday and Friday in San Cristobal, the capital and home of the oldest human settlements on the islands. Unlike mainland Ecuador, there is no history of ancestral communities living on the islands. Even though the Manta-Wantawillka were the first to discover the islands, they didn’t settle them because they’re very inhospitable. Only 2 islands have natural sources of fresh water. Only 4 are inhabited. I never knew the meaning of “desert island” until I came here. Yet they’re a curious mix of tropical, desert, and high altitude. On the same island (such as San Cristobal or Santa Cruz), you can encounter 5 different micro-climates, each with their own vegetation, animal life, and weather. And then there are the islands that look like they’re otherworldly, such as Bartolomé or Baltra. Bartolomé is red and rocky with an occasional cactus sprouting out of the lava flows and this scraggly grey lichen sprawled out over the entire surface of the island. Baltra has completely red soil, like deep red soil, and the same grey lichen except in much vaster quantities. There are also ruined buildings all over the island—probably dating from the WWII U.S. military base—which give the island an Old West-type feel.

But anyway, Thursday we spent on San Cristobal. We checked into our hotel and chilled the rest of the day, heading down the boardwalk to the beach and swimming with sea lions (which are called lobos marinos in Spanish, or sea wolves, which to me makes a whole lot more sense than sea lions). Sea lions are literally everywhere on San Cristobal—on the benches, on the beaches, on the sidewalk, on the outdoor patios of the restaurants, sometimes on the street. They’ll chase you sometimes if you get too close—as some of the students found out! The way human settlements work on the Galápagos is that 97% of all the territory of the islands is reserved as the national park, leaving 3% for human development. San Cristobal boasts a population of about 8,000 people; Santa Cruz is the biggest in population with around 18,000. So yea, Thursday we spent exploring and swimming and trying to avoid sunburn (which would prove a losing battle the entire trip, as there was hardly ever a cloud in the sky all the days we were there. The sun would be roasting us from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. every day).

On Friday we took a boat out to a tiny rock called León Dormido to go snorkeling! This was the first time I had ever gone snorkeling and it was amazinggggggg. We wore wetsuits, flippers, and masks—the whole outfit lol. The current around this rock was such that you could just float effortlessly while looking at all the wildlife literally right below you. We swam with schools of fish, sea lions, sharks, and even sea turtles! It was absolutely incredible to be only 10 feet from all these animals you see at the aquarium or on TV. One of the students brought a GoPro camera and got the whole experience—including the animals—on video! After eating lunch on the boat and taking a wonderful nap in the sun (which I later came to regret due to sunburn), we returned to San Cristobal to hear a talk by a local political activist about the tourism industry and local relations of power. This to me is far more interesting than the wildlife, although it’s never emphasized. The activist told us that some people come to the Galápagos not realizing that people actually live on the islands lol, which is indicative of the image projected to the rest of the world. There’s basically 4 entities that run the islands. There’s the Charles Darwin Research Station, which has the most funds of any of the entities I’ll discuss and enjoys the most privileged access to all of the islands—such unrestricted access that not even the local politicians or national park people have. Their agenda, which is ostensibly one of conservation and study, often prevails over the local interests of the people who inhabit and try to make a living on the islands. Second, there’s the Parque Nacional Galápagos, which is the administrative body of the national park aspect of the islands and is overseen principally by the Ministry of the Environment. Their agenda often meshes with that of the Charles Darwin Station, yet the key difference is the amount of money the two have. Whereas the Parque Nacional is funded by the state (meagerly), the Charles Darwin Station is an NGO affiliated with the Charles Darwin Foundation, which receives much more money from international donors. Third, there is the political system on the islands which includes local governments for each of the 4 inhabited islands as well as an overarching political body. Whereas the local governments are elected directly, the Minister of the Galápagos is appointed by the president and thus often a) is corrupt, b) is unpopular, c) does not govern with the interests of the local population in mind, or d) some combination of a, b, and c. Finally, there is the tourism industry, which really comprises two sets of individuals and companies: local and foreign. The foreigners are technically not allowed to operated in the islands by law, yet one always sees the fleets of international cruise ships circling the islands like vultures with their tourists on board. The corrupt politicians allow the international cruise lines to operate illegally, and the fucked up thing is that the conservationist agenda usually goes along with it because the rhetoric of tourism in the Galápagos is ostensibly to minimize the environmental impact of tourists by having them take up as little space as possible for as little time as possible. So, it’s very common for a trip to the Galápagos to be spent almost entirely on board a Royal Caribbean cruise ship or another similar one, which then lays anchor at various ports only long enough for tourists to disembark to take pictures, buy things, eat, etc.

We’re not taking this route obviously. In fact, this piece is important for yall to know in case you ever want to come to the Galápagos or have friends/family who do. It’s vital that visitors to the islands DO NOT rely on big-name, international travel agencies to visit the islands. In addition to the environmental impact these companies leave behind, they siphon money out of the local economy. Only 1/3 of the money spent in the Galápagos stays in the pockets of the local galapagueños. Even though the islands are the richest province in Ecuador, they should be a lot better off. Instead, their environment and their jobs get auctioned off to foreign companies because of corrupt politicians and because tourists don’t know any better and go with the household names over the local establishments and tours. The latter is wayyy more fun, trust me. And part of the fun lies in knowing that I’m contributing to a responsible tourist ethos. I came into this trip thinking that tourism was inherently exploitative. Now I understand that that’s not the case. However, when big transnational companies appropriate the livelihood of the local population, that’s when tourism becomes a problem. Now yall know and can plan a smart, eco-friendly, and relatively sustainable trip to these magical islands.

On Saturday we arrived on Santa Cruz, the biggest island population-wise and the tourism hub. We stayed on land and checked out the Center of Environmental Interpretation, a system of trails with cool information about the formation of the islands as well as sociological information about the human aspect of the islands. We hiked up breathtaking (literally and figuratively) trails and spied frigate birds, boobies, big spiders, marine iguanas, giant cactuses, etc. I found out that the colonists as the residents are called have their residency pretty much for life; the only way they can lose it is by failing to renew it once every 10 years or so. Yet obtaining residency in the first place is tricky: one must marry someone with residency or be born to parents who have residency. Living on the islands is so exclusive so as not to upset the delicate ecosystems or overburden the economy. This whole time we had been eating fabulously. I’ve never had seafood so fresh in my life. Lobsters, tuna, shrimp—out of this world delicious. At dinner some of us met this random U.S. dude touring the islands after having just graduated college. He rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning, but then he mentioned how he really wanted to try ayawaska recreationally. Ayawaska, or ayahuasca, is an entheogen that combines two vines found in the Amazon—one contains a neurotransmitter released at birth and at death, and the other contains an enzyme that allows for the metabolization of the neurotransmitter. This combination is distilled into a drink and taken by shamans (yachakuna in Kichwa, where the term ayawaska comes from) of various Amazonian nations in order to divine the future, receive instructions or warnings, or cope with loss or other powerful life events/emotions. It is a sacred plant, and partaking in an ayawaska ritual requires years of dedication, preparation, and for outsiders, trust and bonds of communion with a local population. It cannot be taken recreationally, and the fact that this tourist expressed an interest in doing so even after one of us pointed all the above out to him just really irritated me. However, it’s important I use him as an example and continuously strive to root out my own ignorance and prejudices toward cultures different than my own.

Sunday was the best snorkeling day by far. We took a boat from Santa Cruz to the little island of Bartolomé, which is home to perhaps the most iconic image of the islands (Google Galápagos and you’ll probably see it, or check out my Facebook as I posted a picture of it). Bartolomé is so inhospitable that it’s been used as a site to film movies that take place on Mars. There’s dried lava plumes, ridges, cliffs, and tunnels everywhere, and the sparse vegetation only adds to the merciless landscape. With no trees and no clouds to shade us, we were sizzling as we climbed up to the summit to look down on the bay. But it was all worth it once we jumped in the water! We snorkeled and swam with penguins! The second smallest species in the world. They were adorableeee! And they zoomed in the water right past us as we snorkeled! We also saw numerous sharks lurking on the seafloor, as well as seastars and tons of fish. There’s this giant fish called a parrotfish that is as brightly colored as its namesake. They are absolutely breathtaking. And the water was a bright turquoise—I’ve only ever seen water that beautiful in the movies haha. We also ate lunch on the boat (an incredible experience), and on the way back to Santa Cruz (about a 2 hour ride), I sat up top with the captain and jammed out to his playlist of reggeaton classics while the wind whipped my hair and the sun beat down on my back. Simply beautiful.

Monday was our last full day. We visited two sinkholes that are named Los Gemelos (the Twins) because they’re right next to each other. They were pretty cool but uneventful haha. Then we visited the famous Charles Darwin Research Center. We toured the tortoise breeding program and saw baby tortoises! They were absolutely the cutest things ever—only like the size of your hand, moving all around their enclosures exploring to their precious little hearts’ content, and eating leaves like you’ve never seen anything eat a leaf. The day passed far too quickly and left us all with sadness and nostalgia. We played classic group games like Hot Seat and the question game and games of that sort through the night. As we were leaving today, I couldn’t help but feel that this is an adios and not a chao—a goodbye forever and not an “until next time.” I certainly would love to return but I just don’t see how I’ll ever be able to for the rest of my life. Then again, I’m one of the 1% of the world population who has ever visited the islands. And what a fulfilling trip it was. Still though, returning to Quito has filled me with a profound sadness. It’s not just leaving behind such a paradise and knowing that I’ll never be able to recreate that experience in the same way. It’s also returning to the daily grind of classes and homework. But even more than that—being in an airport for the first time since January has filled me with homesickness for one of the really only times so far. I can’t really explain why beyond that just physically being in an airport made me recall the flight to the unknown that took place what feels like eons ago. The domestic and international arrivals share the same exit point, so I was literally back in the same place I was when everything was so new and I didn’t know anybody or anything. It was a weird feeling.

So, there ya have it—the Galápagos episode over and done with. These words fail to do justice to the sights, smells, sounds, emotions, and thoughts that comprised this trip. I encourage yall to go and see for yourselves, because the Enchanted Islands will certainly enchant you—as they have done me.

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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Headin to the Galapagos!

¡Hola todos y todas! ¡Espero que todo les vaya bien atrás en los EE.UU.!

Ya es muy difícil escribir, hablar, y a veces pensar en el inglés. Los otros estudiantes estadounidenses hablan en ingles frecuentemente cuando estemos juntos, pero aparte de esos ratitos, vivo completamente en el castellano. Y claro una lengua nunca es solo una manera de hablar, sino que es otra manera de pensar, identificarse, e interactuar con lo que se llama el mundo.

Language really is constitutive of reality itself. That sentence was very hard to write after the preceding paragraph haha. The structures and vocab of my language permit me to think about certain realities and also prohibit me from imagining others. Thus my very world is conditioned by my language. For example, last week I spent learning the basics of Kichwa or Runashimi. There’s a particular possessive form in Kichwa that is used exclusively to denote a relationship of such intensity that it can never be broken. So, for example, if I have an unbreakable, inalienable relationship with a particular llama, I can express everything I just expressed in one simple syllable attached to the end of the name of the llama: llamayuk. Fascinating, no? Thus Kichwa conceives of relationships in different ways from the others languages I can speak (not necessarily better or worse ways, just different). Por eso, no se puede aprender una lengua sin que a la misma vez se aprendan una cultura y una filosofía también.

Anyway, here’s some things that have impacted me apart from learning the basics of Kichwa. No, I’ll stick with Kichwa first. Kichwa has 3 vowels, does not change inflection for questions, and is agglutinative (which means to form sentences or change the meaning of words, you add morphemes to the beginning, middle, or end of a word. To some extent, all languages are partially agglutinative, but Kichwa, among others, is particularly so. For example, tanta is bread, tantata makes bread the direct object of some verb, and tantatachu makes it a question as to whether or not the bread exists, is being eaten, etc.). The structure places the subject first, the object second, and the verb last. Always. There are no irregular verbs either. In many ways, it’s a much easier language to learn than either English or Spanish! I just need much more practice because it requires a completely different way of thinking about language than I’m used to. Ñukaka Wesleymi kani (nyoo-KA-ka We-SLEE-mee KA-nee) means “my name is Wesley.” Kanka allkuta charinkichu (KAN-ka ash-KU-ta cha-reen-KEE-choo) means “Do you have a dog?”. Counting is very hard haha. To say 30, you say three-ten. Thus, a number like 5,678 would be as follows: five-thousand six-hundred seven-ten eight, or pichka waranka sukta patsak kanchis chunka pusak! We only did four days of formal instruction, but I’d like to continue learning and practicing. It’s a really unique language that is completely different from anything I’ve ever experienced, and if possible, I’d love to continue speaking it when I return to the U.S.

The legacy of colonialism is long. VERY long. As in, it still traps Ecuador to this day. Here’s a tiny example. During the age of formal colonialism, Ecuador’s natural resources were extracted by Ecuadorians (or African or indigenous slaves) and shipped to Spain. Spain, or another European country, refined those raw materials into a finished product that was then sold back to Ecuador. Even after gaining independence in 1822 and later from Gran Colombia in 1830, this trend has only slightly abated. So, given this, I was only mildly surprised to hear from my host dad as we were eating KFC one day for lunch that until very recently (like a couple of years), Ecuador exported potatoes and imported French fries. Potatoes originated in the Andes, and Ecuador has over 100 different varieties of potatoes. French fries are not that difficult to produce. This is an example of the enduring economic patterns inherited from colonialism that continue to wreak havoc on formerly-colonized countries. This isn’t exclusively the fault of the neocolonial powers (U.S., China, Britain, France, the standouts), as domestic elites benefit from this arrangement of power (which Aníbal Quijano calls the coloniality of power). So, yea, colonialism is still being felt today.

Here’s another example: the state system itself. Originating from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the concept of the nation-state with unbreachable sovereignty was quickly incorporated into the colonial project begun nearly 200 years earlier in 1492. The state system justified the seizure of alien lands, the violence perpetrated against the original inhabitants of these lands, and the privileges of economic, social, religious, and political control. This system was imposed through physical, structural, and cultural violence. Today, the state system and the concept of citizenship it has engendered obscures the diverse nations that inhabit what is known as Ecuador. These nations have had other names imposed on them, such as “indigenous” or “Indian” or even Kichwa. Those who speak Runashimi call themselves Runa, which simply means people. Let’s not forget the Afro-descendant (this is the English equivalent of the Spanish afrodescendiente which is one of the common words used to self-identify) communities who were kidnapped from their homes and forcibly transplanted here; they constitute their own nation as well. There’s also the Montubio nation out west who forms their own distinct culture as well. Thus the title “Republic of Ecuador” presumes to be a homogenous whole, when it in fact conceals a plurality of peoples and cultures that call this arbitrarily-drawn territory home. It’s the same in the U.S. and every other state in fact.

But, what is so interesting is that the latest Constitution of Ecuador (composed in 2008) defines this place as “democratic, sovereign, independent, unitary, intercultural, plurinational, and lay” (my translation). The Constitution is actually quite progressive, far more so than that of the U.S. It was drafted by civil society members rather than elites. The environment has rights. Healthcare, access to drinking water, and education are declared human rights. Each ancestral nation is recognized and is guaranteed rights and a status concomitant to that of the state itself. Now, of course, the extent to which this amazing document is carried out is not as progressive. But it nevertheless is a high water mark in the history of drafting constitutions. Y’all should check it out.

I went to a soccer game last Wednesday, and damn was it exciting! Soccer really is the ‘beautiful game.’ I would love to investigate it sociologically as well, because it’s a fascinating cultural and political phenomenon. As a tiny example, the first inter-African international organization was, in fact, the CAF, or African Confederation of Football. I think soccer thus possesses interesting socio-political dimensions that as of now are unknown to me. But, as a purely entertaining event, I was thoroughly pleased. Liga Universitaria was playing Phoenix Rising from the U.S. in a friendly match. Liga is the only Ecuadorian team to have won an international tournament, and they’ve won several. Phoenix Rising is a new team that features one of the best players ever, Didier Drogba, in his presumably final years in the game. It was incredibly exciting to watch the match tie 2-2 and then go in Liga’s favor in a penalty shoot-out.

My host mom and grandmother in particular never cease to rave about Ecuador’s food, places to travel, and artisanal crafts and clothes. It’s really cool actually to see that they have so much pride in their country, and I get to find out new things to do or see or buy with each conversation. The individuals I’ve met so far (which is a very small number) have so much to say about the natural beauty of Ecuador as well. Favorites are the Galápagos and the Amazon out in the eastern provinces, and no wonder! La Amazonía is simply incredible, and I’m sure Galápagos will be too!

Over the weekend a group of us went to Baños, which is a tiny, cheap, and fun tourist attraction—and not just American tourists. Baños is especially popular with the Quito crowd, but there were also many people from other Latin American and European countries that I met or observed. When I say Baños is cheap, I mean I got a two-course lunch for $2.50. Our hostal was $10 a night per person. We rented bikes for the entire day for $5 each. Incredible. So we spent the weekend hitting up various nightclubs, going to the hot springs after which Baños is named (though they are nothing compared to the hotsprings at Papallacta), eating at delicious restaurants, ascending a small mountain on whose peak is this swing that is positioned right on the edge of the cliff; but my favorite part was the bike ride we took on Saturday. Our destination was 20 km away, this giant waterfall called Pailón del Diablo. To get there, we biked along the main road for about 2 hours, at times in pouring, driving rain coming down so hard you had to close your eyes and hope for the best. It was an existential experience for me. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alive, precisely because I didn’t know if I’d make it out unscathed. That plus the natural beauty of the landscapes (green mountains shrouded in mist on all sides) and the thrill of reaching high speeds going downhill, through a car tunnel, or climbing a ridge was nothing short of inolvidable. The waterfall too was spectacular and well worth the bike trip. We caught a bus back which only took about 20 minutes! Definitely a weekend well spent!

Yesterday and today we’ve been in class wrapping up our Kichwa section as we transition to the thematic seminar at the heart of the program: Paradigms of Development, which, as my professor declared, is basically a class all about hegemony, power, and resistance. Tomorrow we leave for Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest and most financially powerful city. Thursday we head to the Galápagos Islands! The actual Galápagos Islands! I’m so freaking excited I can’t even begin to describe it! ¡No puedo esperar ni un minuto más! ¡Espero que hayan disfrutado de este episodio del blog! ¡Tendré mucho que contar al regresar de los Galápagos!

Til next time!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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A casual weekend in the Amazon(;

¡Hola todos! ¡He regresado de un fin de semana en la selva! It was quite an adventure, as you’ll find out below. I apologize in advance for being unable to post pictures; Tumblr apparently will not allow me to post any more pictures. In the meantime, I’ll put some on Facebook for y’all to check out!

We left earlyyy on Saturday at 7:30 from the beautiful Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, named after the last Incan ruler who also happened to be born in present-day Ecuador. Our first stop was the hotsprings at Papallacta, which is a volcanic lagoon area famous for its crystal-clear hotsprings. ¡Y que termas fueron! The water was exquisite and soooo warm. There was a light rain which felt luxurious after having been in the water for a few minutes. There was also a pool that was separated from the rest because it was full of ice-cold water from the river—it was exhilarating going back and forth between the frigid and the infernal! After spending about an hour there, we continued toward our ultimate destination: the Arajuno River Lodge located on the banks of the Arajuno River on the border of Napo and Pastaza provinces. The Arajuno is a tributary of the Napo River, which meets another river in Peru to officially form the Amazon River. But first, we stopped at an abandoned shack on the side of the highway to have a picnic lunch lol. The shack was across the way from the Quijo River, to whose banks we frolicked after eating. All in all, it took us about 7 hours to finally hit the Arajuno River. Once there, it was a 5-minute canoe ride to the lodge, which is owned by an American man and his Kichwa wife. It’s completely self-sustaining, with its own solar system for electricity, natural water reserves, home-grown food and medicine, and really nothing else you could want. It is a beautiful place that I highly recommend if you’re ever considering ecotourism in Ecuador. The Arajuno Foundation, started by the owner, also collaborates with local Kichwa communities to protect the environment and engage in sustainable building projects that benefit the communities in which they take place.

Upon arriving, we had an amazing presentation by a Kichwa shaman about the philosophy of Kichwa Amazonian worldview and shamanism. He described the numerous plants that have spiritual and/or medicinal value and demonstrated shamanic healing practice. It was really cool to have a glimpse at an alternative to the Western status quo. The general feel I got was that this system of knowing and being is much less rational and much more poetic, which is not to place value on either form of knowing sino just to point out their differences. Nature and human society also don’t seem to be as distinct as back home. I’ll have to keep updating y’all once I begin my Kichwa language and culture class.

On Sunday, we took about a 3 hour guided tour through the secondary and primary rainforest on the property of the Arajuno Lodge. Our guide was so knowledgeable about both the biology and mythology of the forest, showing us places and animals and plants that all figure into the collective system of living in the Amazon. It was quite impressive, and what impresses me the most is the level of adaptation that the peoples who call the Amazon home have adopted. They are each uniquely specialized to live in this environment to a degree that our culture, with its rationality and engineering and science really has failed to attain. It was beautiful (and tiring) to have this tour and learn so much. After a scrumptious lunch (the meals were outstanding here), we took an hour-long canoe ride upriver to a Kichwa community called El Mirador (the lookout, because it used to be a prime lookout spot for vultures and even condors). We had been invited to witness traditional dance, learn about the community’s history, try local food and drink (including the fermented drink chichi, which is quite unique), and purchase handmade crafts and chocolate. It was an incredible opportunity that I doubt I’ll ever have again. And the individuals who welcomed us were so generous and willing to share.

Yesterday we ate a delicious breakfast and then were dropped off individually in the forest for an hour to basically do whatever we wanted. I ended up meditating. It was an unforgettable experience. The sheer symphony of noise was unbelievable. The forest floor was incessantly moving with insects of all varieties. At one point I opened my eyes and saw a graceful butterfly flutter about whose top wings were brown and whose bottom wings were blue with black-ringed white spots. Truly unique. In what felt like only 10 minutes, the exercise was over and it was time to return. After debriefing, we got to witness a Kichwa pottery presentation and even make our own pieces. Amazonian Kichwa pottery has traditionally been a strictly female endeavor, as there used to be a belief that because the method of choice is the coil method (where one rolls out coils of clay and wraps them around each other to form shapes), that therefore if men touched the limp coils they would be unable to get an erection forever. Lol the belief has been shed yet the work remains female. The clay comes from natural reservoirs, as do the main colors of red, white, and black. También, there’s this resin from a tree that is applied when the piece has been fired and is still hot to give it a protective shine. The pottery is quite laborious yet exquisitely beautiful. I ended up making a seashell-like object into which I carved my name and the date. When it dried this morning (we didn’t have a chance to fire them because they would have had to have dried for much longer, otherwise once put into the oven it would explode), I hiked up to this beautiful little secluded spot where I watched the Amazonian sunset a couple nights earlier and chucked it into the Arajuno River.

The rest of the time was spent bonding, swimming, eating, drinking, singing, laughing, engaging in deep discussions, exploring. It was a fantastic excursion that has left me craving more. I hope all is well in your world! ¡Hasta la próxima!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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About to head into the Amazon!

What’s up, world!

I’m about to trek into the upper Amazon Basin this weekend, so I figured I’d blog about this week and then do a detailed post about the trip. I’ve been reading a book of Ecuadorian folklore, and the first two sections of the book provide excerpts of texts written by foreigners about Ecuador. I find the connection between that work and this one quite ironic.

One night this week, I forget which, we watched a telenovela o simplemente una novela. I’m just going to recount the plot without any interpretation because, well, you’ll see. There’s this family with a teenage son who’s in high school. The episode opens with him and his friend talking about having sex. There’s this girl who’s pining after him but whom he finds unattractive, and thus he brushes her off. At the end of the day, he’s walking home, and just as he turns onto his street, he sees this gorgeous woman drop a heavy box she was carrying from a moving truck. He rushes to her aid and introduces himself. She turns out to be his new nextdoor neighbor. At the end of the day, he’s going to bed but looks out his window into her bedroom. She has just returned from the shower and is changing. He watches. She sees him watching but continues undressing and flirting with him. Keep in mind she is a married adult. The next day, the boy leaves his house to go to school when the neighbor calls him into her apartment to talk to him. She makes him think he’s in trouble for ogling her, but in the end she confesses how much she loved it and makes out with him. They develop a sexual relationship. The boy’s mom, meanwhile, is suspicious of how much time her son is spending with the new neighbor. So, she goes over to her apartment and tells her that her son is no longer welcome to visit her next door. The next day, the boy is home alone, and the neighbor rushes in sobbing claiming that her husband hit her. The boy is comforting her in his bedroom when his mom returns. She walks in on them embracing and physically removes the neighbor, who then returns home to find her husband has been murdered. When questioned by the police, she confesses to having an illicit relationship with her neighbor and that at the time of her husband’s death, she was at her neighbor’s house, which the boy affirms. The day after, she admits to the boy that she did in fact murder her husband and begs him to keep her secret, to which he agrees. At night, however, he peers out his window to see her and another male packing up the things in her apartment to move out the following morning. Upon waking up, he confesses everything to his parents, who call the police and have her and the man arrested just as they’re about to move away.

Here’s a note about driving in Quito. Don’t ever do it. It’s terrifying. Motorcycles weave in and out of traffic, drivers are wicked aggressive, buses and taxis take up so much room, the police do nothing if an accident occurs (as some of my friends found out; apparently, according to law, if you kill someone in a traffic accident, you are responsible for taking care of their family for life). All the cars here are manual, which I find very interesting. The streets are always congested, and you can always hear the cacophony of impatient or angry horns being honked. It’s amusing (and dangerous) to watch as a pedestrian yet frightening as a passenger.

On Tuesday a group of us went up the teleferico, which is a cable car that takes you up to the mountains to the west of the city. They’re over 4,000 meters above sea level! As you can see, the view is just unbelievable. It was almost a religious experience to have the wind whipping my face and to behold the raw majesty of the mountains to one side and the spectacular vista of Quito on the other. It’s really something I can’t describe in words. You have to see the pictures or, better yet, go and experience it for yourself(;

A couple of nights ago, I had a very interesting conversation about immigration with my host mother and grandmother. Many, many, many Venezuelans are pouring into Ecuador every day. They come here because of the dollarized economy and because Ecuador’s constitution guarantees freedom of movement. My grandmother said that the first wave of immigration was the Cubans, but that they’ve mostly all gone. Now it’s the Venezuelans who are pouring in and taking jobs away from Ecuadorians. Sounds familiar, no? This is the same woman who practically crucified her grandsons for resisting going to mass with us the previous Sunday. Sounds familiar, no? I told her I had met a Venezuelan man during my first week here, and that he was working two jobs just to be able to survive and hopefully go to the U.S. And at the mention of my country, my host mom and grandmother affirmed how crazy it is that our government actually wants to build a wall and how Latin American immigrants are treated so badly, etc., etc. In the moment I actively tried to empathize and listen. But inwardly I was doing a double take. So the U.S. should relax its borders but Ecuador shouldn’t lol? Obviously it’s much more complicated than that (or is it lol?). It was quite an interesting conversation to say the least.

I’ll be sure to update yall after coming back from this weekend’s excursion! Have a great weekend!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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2 Weeks in!

Hello once again everyone! It’s officially been 2 weeks since I landed in Quito!

This week brought the return of classes…Needless to say it was a little challenging getting back into the swing of things after 2 months without going to school. However, the routine that this week has brought has also been very reassuring. I’ll be taking 4 classes while I’m here: Spanish, Languages in Contact (an introduction to the Kichwa language), Research Methods and Ethics, and Paradigms of Development (a seminar about the discourse, technologies, and power behind colonial and postcolonial development). Each one is taught in sequence kind of, so for the next 2 weeks I have nothing but Spanish with an occasional Research Methods and Ethics session that usually comes right after Spanish. My Spanish class is super cool, as it’s the most advanced one, so we do a lot of talking, learning important (and random) new vocab words, and perhaps the best part is there isn’t much homework lol. Tengo que confesar that my language skills are already improving. Case in point: it’s now much easier to understand Ecuadorians when they’re talking to each other. Joking is also much easier now. It’s amazing the things you take for granted. I’m still not quite there yet, but it’s only been two weeks!

I have to mention the ducha, the shower that I have while I’m here. First of all, I do have a shower, which is in itself quite a privilege. The shower head proceeds perpendicular from the wall and has this device on the end that heats the water as it comes out of the shower head. But, too much water and the device can’t heat it up. So, I have to find the perfect volume that allows me to wash thoroughly while also being warm. It’s also quite low-down, as it’s probably built for Ecuadorians lol, the majority of whom are shorter than me. So, it’s quite an adventure taking a shower!

Now for some more random things of note. On Ecuadorian TV channels, at least the 4 or 5 I’ve watched, someone always translates the Spanish into Spanish sign language, which I think is super cool. My host brother, Matías, has a knack for finishing every single grain of rice on his plate, always (and we eat a lot of rice here). It’s quite amazing, and it always leaves me a little ashamed that I can’t replicate it. Instead of the SAT or the ACT to get into college, there’s something called the bachiller, which is basically the equivalent thing to get into public university (which is free here-the catch is you have to score a certain number of points out of 1000 in order for certain career paths to be open to you). There’s 160 preguntas covering 5 sections of knowledge: Ecuadorian and world history; Spanish language proficiency; basic natural sciences; logic and math; and the “abstract” where you are provided a shape and are asked to rotate it in space or manipulate it in some other fashion. There’s no essay. Fascinating, no?

Julian Assange was recently granted Ecuadorian citizenship, although the people here resent that decision. The last president, Rafael Correa, was decidedly anti-U.S., which is why he took in Julian Assange, among other things. But according to my host family, he did so without the consent of the people. Now that Britain and other Western countries have socially and/or politically excluded Ecuador, the people are left pointing fingers at Correa yet stuck with the consequences.

On Wednesday we went to some dancing lessons provided to us free of charge by SIT! It was amazinggg. We learned the basics of salsa, bachata, and merengue. Salsa is much slower than the others and quite romantic, if you ask me. Merengue was by far the hardest, as it’s continuous for the duration of the song without any pauses. I’ll be sure to practice so I can teach you all when I get back (;

On Thursday we took a trip to the Oswaldo Guayasamín museum as well as the Capilla del Hombre (Chapel of Man) that he had built, which is now a World Heritage Site. Guayasamín was an Ecuadorian painter who has quite the distinctive style that makes his works very recognizable. His art is very comprometido socialmente, meaning he dedicated his works as a form of social critique. His many paintings denounce colonialism, dictatorships across Latin America, global capitalism, etc. His Capilla del Hombre is a humanist chapel dedicated to humanity. As it had an almost sacred effect on me, I want to take some time to describe some of the pieces inside.

First of all, it’s a big, thick square building with a dome that sits on a hill that gives one an incredible view of southern and western Quito. In the cupola is a vast painting of skeletal figures clambering their way up to the skylight-opening. It’s dedicated to the slaves of Potosí, which was a sacred mountain to the Inca that is located in Bolivia. It had so much silver that from miles away, it is said you could see rivers of silver flowing down its slopes. The Spanish mined it dry in no time, not before establishing the city of Potosí and importing thousands of African and indigenous American slaves to work the mines. In addition, there’s a large (they’re all large lol) painting of a woman just about to wake up. Each half of her body is a little different from the other. It’s called “Mestizaje,” and it’s paying homage to America’s mixed-race heritage. It’s about to wake up because Guayasamín believed that the continent is about to wake up and break free of its colonial past. Next, there’s a reinvention of one of the many Pieta paintings. Yet, Guayasamín transformed it from a religious image into a brutally real image of any mother losing her beloved son. As one of the many changes he made to the original, he painted all the human figures as indigenous Americans (he himself identified very strongly with his indigenous identity). There are many homenajes a las diferentes dictaduras that plagued the Americans during the last century. Entre otros, there’s one dedicated to the victims of the Somoza regime in Nicaragua; one called “Tears of Blood” that is dedicated to Guayasamín’s friends Neruda, Jarra, and Allende whom he lost in the Pinochet coup in Chile; and one dedicated to the Cubans who fell in repelling the Bay of Pigs invasion. There’s an absolutely gigantic painting downstairs that depicts a condor savagely fighting and defeating a bull. This represents an Incan custom of pitting a condor and a bull together in combat; if the condor one, the year would be prosperous, and the opposite would happen if the bull one. The condor, the largest bird of flight in the world and native to the Andes, represents America, while the bull represents Spain. The message is clear lol. In addition to the paintings, there are two giant phrases that stand opposite one another downstairs. They read thusly: “I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a child that had no feet;” “Keep a light forever aflame, as I will always return.” Indeed, in the middle of the downstairs floor directly underneath the cupola is an artificial flame. Guayasamín believed in reincarnation.

As we were waiting to leave the Capilla, a friend and I were standing taking in the magnificent view. I was overcome with emotion and stated how different our journey would be if European colonialism never occurred. He replied that we probably wouldn’t even be here. I agreed and added that it is quite a privilege to be standing here hearing Guayasamín’s voice speak to us through time and space. Immediately, my friend replied: “Our very presence recalls colonialism.”

El desafío que queda es qué hacer ya que se sabe eso. ¿Cómo voy a usar este privilegio para que nunca tenga que reencarnar otro Guayasamín?

Viernes me llevó una aventura de otro tipo entero. A poet named Juan Carlos Miranda Ponce came to our Spanish class to share his experience as an artist in contemporary Ecuador and speak to some poems we had read in class. He really did neither, instead talking about artists he had the privilege of meeting over the years and reading some of his own poetry. He ended up inviting me and a few other friends out for drinks later that night. It was the first (and hopefully not the last) time I had ever gone out with a poet lmao. He took us to this lovely café called Café Libro, the owners of which are personal friends. There’s a large dancefloor in the middle, and there’s all this cool art that adorns the walls as well as pictures of famous people (many, many pictures) hung literally everywhere. He regaled us with incredible stories that are way too complicated and outlandish to record here lol. At like every sentence I was like, “There’s no way this guy has done all this shit” lol. We then went to a rock bar called Cats that has been around for like 30 years. He again knew all the waiters and chefs and the owners and gave us a personal tour of the place. We shared a delicious steak dinner and listened to him alternate between favorite short stories/poems by Latin American authors and more incredible personal anecdotes. We stayed for nearly the whole night. I was able to buy one of his books of poetry for $5, signed and dedicated and everything, which I considered one of the highlights of the night(;

Here’s some more random thoughts. In Quito, there are people everywhere that are just selling random stuff. They walk in between cars, they set up a stall right outside the mall, they’re in the park. They’re everywhere. Most of them are women, and many have small children in tow. Some appear indigenous (judging by their dress, long braided hair, or their darker skin), while others are of African descent. I think this speaks to the large informal economy to which many must seek refuge. As in the United States, inequality is rampant, and I bet you it’s what’s driving all these people out to ply their wares every day.

In the U.S., I find I get along much better with females. But here, I find just the opposite. I remember that during orientation, they told us that having friends of different genders is still relatively new here, since by heterosexist-patriarchal logic, men and women can only be lovers, not friends lol. So I find it’s been hard to make friends with the few young Ecuadorian women I’ve come to know, whereas the men I know readily talk and hang out with me. Perhaps there are other elements I have yet to analyze in this phenomenon.

In April, we have to do an independent research project somewhere in Ecuador. To prepare, we’re taking a research methods and ethics class. I’m very glad the “ethics” is included, because when I took research methods last semester, it was just that: only methods. Because I’ve come to realize in the first few assignments we’ve had for research methods and ethics that there is, in fact, a whole complicated ethics associated with doing “research” in a foreign place. For example, I have an assignment where I have to try to penetrate the cultural mores and myths surround the questions that I as a foreigner am asked. Naturally, I want to ask as many people as possible to absorb different perspectives. But, for example, I cannot just ask the waiter serving me lunch to pause what he’s doing to answer my question. Neither can I barge into my parents’ room and demand the same of them. As if I have a right to know the answer they’ll give! As if they live to help me out. At the same time, how am I to finish this assignment if the only people I’ve talked to are my host siblings at meal time? Moreover, how am I going to obtain the information I need during my independent research project if I’m to respect people’s lives at the same time? I have yet to figure this out, as I’ve only just begun. But what lies behind this is a series of narratives, institutions, and histories that complicate the efforts of a global northerner to conduct “research” in the global south, the likes of which I’m only just barely beginning to grasp.

Tonight, I went to a Catholic mass, which was a cool cultural experience. It was an enormous church building on top of this little hill from which you could look down on eastern Quito. There weren’t too many people because of the holiday weekend (Carnaval—Wednesday is Ash Wednesday or Miércoles de Cenizas). We arrived late (as always) lol. There was a giant screen on which were displayed the lyrics for all the songs. Something that amused me was that people were kind of doing their own thing throughout the whole mass: there was no general consensus on when to stand, when to kneel, even to take Communion. About half the congregation, including my family, didn’t receive Eucharist at all. Very interesting.

So there ya go: 2 weeks down. I hope y’all are doing well and I look forward to seeing you eventually!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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One Week Down!

¡Hola, todos! Sending out good vibes from Quito!

Damn has a lot happened this weekend! Perhaps both the most exciting and nerve-wracking part of the experience so far has finally come: I moved in with my homestay family! But there’s quite a story leading up to this point so I’ll start from the beginning.

Friday was taken up by one-on-one interviews with our program director, Faba, during which we just checked in about our medical information and how we’re doing so far. Since there are 24 of us, and each interview took about 10 minutes, and somehow we fell behind at some point, this took almost half the day. When it was finally done around 1:30, a big group of us went out for tapas and had quite the time. It will be our last meal together for some time, because at around 4:00 on Friday, our host families came to pick us up from our hotel!

I was quite the ball of nerves and excitement while waiting for my family to arrive. Hell, we all were! All I had to go on was a letter they wrote me describing how excited they were to welcome me into their home, as well as a photo of the family and some info about them that the program provided. Well, the funny thing was that my family did not show up on Friday. The whole family had taken a weeklong vacation to the beaches of Esmeraldas, a province to the northwest of Quito that is a looooooong car ride from the city lol probably 6-8 hours with traffic. So, one of their good friends who is hosting another student and who lives close by picked me up. She was so nice and hospitable, feeding us cake, tea, and a scrumptious dinner. She is quite experienced in hosting foreign scholars, and in fact I ended up meeting two additional students from other universities and doing other stuff in the country that were wrapping up their time in Ecuador. My temporary host mom has a daughter and a son around our age, so all 6 of us ended up going out to a house party after dinner. Oh, one cool thing about my temporary host family is that the father’s brother is an ex-president of Ecuador who is also a famous economist. In addition to his famous books he’s written, my temporary host mom showed us a picture album with the whole family which was amazing and cute.

Now, this house party was something else. Getting there took around 40 minutes, as we had to drive out of Quito to Tumbaco, a little town out to the west. Let’s just say that the young Quiteño upper-class plays hard. First of all the estate was enormous, surrounded by this huge wall that enclosed probably three or four buildings on this large piece of land. Behind the mansion was this patio that was replete with a huge grill, a hammock, access to the kitchen, comfortable furniture, and even security cameras lol. There were many young men and only four young women including my temporary host sister. The men were going hard, forcing each other to drink, smoking cigarettes, forcing each other to drink more, running around all over the place, fighting over control of the music, grabbing the women as if they owned them. I had heard from one of the program assistants during our safety lecture that in Ecuadorian society, men are under such pressures from patriarchy that they vent all their pent-up emotions by drinking excessively. I don’t know enough to claim that this is what I witnessed, but it is a tempting conclusion to draw. Of course what I saw at the party is also heavily influenced by class, since these kids (my age) have the leisure and money to drink hard on a Friday night. It should also be said that this entire weekend is a dry weekend; bars are closed and you can’t buy alcohol anywhere. The reason? There was a national referendum today, and I take it that for all elections, since voting is mandated by law, alcohol disappears so as to ensure people’s faithful compliance. Nonetheless these individuals had procured alcohol from somewhere and were indulging. The most fun I had was swapping party stories with this one guy who ended up getting so drunk he couldn’t stand by the end of the night, and talking with this truly intercultural young man who spoke English, Spanish, and German, had studied abroad almost as much as he had in Ecuador, and who has plans to continue his education in Europe. One other thing I learned was that marijuana is super taboo here, way different from the states lol.

Saturday morning, my friend’s host family dropped me off at my real host family, and I finally got to meet them! Their house is also enormous. Just like every other house I’ve seen in Pichincha province (which includes Quito and the surrounding towns I’ve visited, like Pifo and Tababela), their house is enclosed in a tall wall covered in spikes. It has three stories, including a large patio and a home office for the parents’ travel agency they’ve owned for over 20 years. The sitting rooms are spacious and filled with cool art, the kitchen is small but intimate, and the house is super well located: just a few minutes’ walk to Parque La Carolina, El Jardín Mall, and our class building. Two parents, a daughter, two sons, and their grandmother all live in this incredible house. There’s even room for a visiting aunt who lives in London who is also very charming. In addition, a lovely Japanese woman named Ayumi rents office space and works as a travel agent for Japanese tourists. Her office is right next to my room; she’s also super friendly! Everyone is so welcoming and nice! We talked, watched Black Mirror in Spanish lol, ate delish traditional Ecuadorian food, compared the Spanish and English in different countries across the world, and went out the shopping mall. More on the food. It’s all soo yummy. There’s like a mini corn-on-the-cob that’s called choclo, and it’s usually served with a slice of cheese. They brought out a cacao fruit, which looks really cool, and when you cut it open you expose the brown seeds that are covered in a white slime. You can suck on the seeds and ingest the white slime, which sounds kinda gross but is actually a good mixture of sweetness and tartness. Oritos are mini bananas that are super sweet. Habas reminded me of edamame, as they’re kinda a bean-looking food whose shell you bust open to reveal a kinda bland inside that you can scoop out and eat. It’s really good with just a pinch of salt added to it! The main course of lunch featured a sardine flank that was served cold in a red sauce with tiny round potatoes. At breakfast there was thick papaya juice which was really good, and with lunch there was this sparkling apple juice that somehow had no sugar whatsoever in it. Tonight for dinner I had pastel de plátano, which is exactly what is sounds like: a little pan-seared cake made of smooshed sweet plantains called maduros. Oh I guess should I explain how meals work lol. Lunch is the main course of the day, usually consisting of 3-4 dishes served around 1-2 pm. Breakfast and dinner are both very light. Coffee or tea is usually served at both, and I’ve had grilled cheese sandwiches served at both as well lol. At breakfast, they bring out the rich fruits, whether in slices or juiced. Dinner, if served at all, tends to be pretty late, like around 8 pm. Needless to say everything I’ve eaten so far is delish(;

But I have to say that moving in with the host family has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Saturday was one of the longest days of my life. I’m overwhelmed still from being here and being so far away from what’s comfortable; add to that the awkwardness of getting to know an established family unit so intimately and the mindfuck of re-socializing your brain to speak only another language. There was a lot of time to myself Saturday, which was hard. But, it was also very fun and I can’t say I regret it. I knew going in that this weekend would be the hardest, but once I get over this hump then it should be relatively smooth sailing. On the positive side, they treat me very well and I can hold my own in conversations with three generations of native speakers. Think about the differences in pronunciation that accompany age in English-speaking lands; well, I’m slowly building the satisfaction of mastering that in Spanish as well. I also get along very well with both sons, which is cool to think that I’m making international friends! It’s a long journey I’ve just begun, but I wouldn’t go back for anything.

Another cool thing was a conversation I had with the youngest son about voting today. This won’t be his first time voting (that came in Lenín Moreno’s election last year), but he nonetheless had some cool perspectives on the referendum. Voting is mandated by law for all those above age 18 and is optional for those aged 16 and 17. If you do not vote, you incur a steep fine. In addition, upon voting, one receives a certificate that one needs to do official citizen business like procure a passport or visa. The referendum consists of 7 questions that will amend the Constitution. These questions are:

1. Would prohibit those accused of corruption from ever serving in public office (Ecuador has a long history of political corruption, yet the last straw in adding this question to the referendum was the recent imprisonment of former vice president Jorge Glas on corruption charges)

2. Would limit all elected officials to only 2 terms in the same office (brought about by the last president, Rafael Correa, who changed the constitution to allow himself to run indefinitely)

3. Would replace all current members of the Citizens’ Participation and Social Control Council (the 5th branch of government here) and replace them all with new appointees (to flush out the last remaining allies of president Correa)

4. Would remove statute of limitation for sex crimes against minors (due to over 1,000 cases of sex crimes against minors brought to court over the last 2 years)

5. Would prohibit mining in protected areas, untouchable zones, and urban centers (mining is on the rise in Ecuador, yet this question might prove decisive for the young industry’s future)

6. Would get rid of the law of plusvalía, which essentially treats the sale of property of any kind as speculation, meaning that the seller must pay like 70% of the revenue from the sale to the state as tax

7. Would expand the protected areas of the Yasuní National Park, the single most biodiverse place on earth that also sadly houses much of Ecuador’s oil reserves (this question would thus prohibit future oil drilling in Yasuní)

The general populace was expected to vote to pass all of them in what many see as a middle finger to the last president, Rafael Correa, and a vote of confidence for Moreno’s young regime. Yet that’s not how my host brother necessarily sees it. He doesn’t support the current regime, and he certainly didn’t support the last. According to him, both presidents have raised taxes, especially on imports, which has raised the cost of living significantly. In addition, neither president supports/ed policies that are favorable toward foreigners, something he doesn’t like. His perspective is quite interesting and will need to be investigated further. Another interesting thing about the referendum came when Sebastián told me that many voters don’t understand the wording of the questions, not to mention all the annexes that are on the flipside of the ballot page. Very interesting. Also last night I watched a government news channel ahead of the vote today. After going into detail about each of the questions, the focus turned to the actual process itself. Even though this is the 11th national referendum since the return to democracy in 1979, there are some new and exciting steps being implemented in this referendum. For example, there is a new electronic rapid-response exit-poll-type technology designed to report trustworthy results ahead of the official tally. Lots of domestic and international observers were invited to oversee the polls. Something that I guess isn’t new is that all ballots are translated into indigenous languages, and for the many hard-to-access communities scattered across Ecuador, the government helicopters ballots in so people can still vote. Another highly promoted feature on this program was the accessibility of all voting stations so that people with different abilities can still vote. The temptation at looking at this at first was to dismiss it as government propaganda, which it no doubt is. After all, in the U.S., elections are a piece of cake and no one ever has reason to question the outcome (except Trump lol). But, I had to catch myself. This is a country whose democracy is relatively young. Building up these institutions is key for achieving long-lasting social justice. Who am I to come in and laugh at things that Ecuadorians take pride in? Nonviolent, inclusive elections aren’t a given. So, I learned a lot more than I thought I would watching that program last night.

Today I accompanied my host brother, Matías, as he went and voted. It was quite the process to get to his assigned voting place. We had to take a bus probably a mile or so (which, in Quito traffic, took about 30 minutes) and walk to the destination. Although we didn’t know at first which street the school was on, so we were walking around asking people where it was. Finally, we found it, and I watched as Matías showed his I.D., was handed the piece of paper with each question labeled and color-coded, walked over to a schooldesk on which stood a cardboard trifold to act as a privacy shield, and deposited the ballot in the cardboard box in which was cut a slit to slip in the ballot. And home we went. At night, nos reunimos para cenar y mirar los comentarios a cerca de la votación. As expected, all measures passed. Now the country awaits the implementation of each question.

After lunch I had the opportunity to talk to the ones I love most. I cannot overstate how happy I was to reconnect with them and catch up, even just to see their faces and hear their voices. No matter where I am on this earth, I know where home is (:

Classes finally begin tomorrow. I’m actually looking forward both to their content and the sense of routine they’ll bring.

¡Hasta luego!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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Nearing the end of week one!

Hello, y’all!

Just a disclaimer: writing and speaking in English is already a little difficult, so if I say weird stuff just ignore it lol. Somehow, it’s already felt like ages since I landed; yet at the same time, in the words of a man I had the honor of talking to today, ya no he aterrizado; todavía estoy en las nubes. Hay mucho para contar y voy a empezar con martes.

On Tuesday, we spent our last day in the town of Tababela. After going through various logistical things, a group of us hit the town around early evening/late afternoon to this little pizzeria catered for tourists. It was called Chester’s (after the owner’s beagle), and the menu was even in English lol. It opened not long after the new international airport did, which explains its presence. Needless to say it was a blast, and I can definitely say I will miss the tranquility, hot sun that made you feel at ease with the world, and the hospitality of the inhabitants of Tababela.

We touched briefly on a problem that seems rampant across the so-called Global South. The colonial legacy has such a stranglehold still on the population yet at the same time has facilitated the rise of a new elite who keeps their pockets lined with foreign cash while doing nothing to alleviate social injustices in their own country. This is a problem that will need to be problematized further. También, I had some insightful interchanges with some of the other students about our privilege to even be in this country. We have so much wealth (broadly defined) that has put the world at our fingertips. It wasn’t a matter of if I could study abroad; it was where. I believe this is so telling. Then our academic director, Faba, nailed it on the head: can you imagine a group of Ecuadorian students romping through the states asking random people questions in the name of “research?” Of course not! It would be ludicrous. Yet that is exactly what we would do the next day.

On Wednesday, we were given instructions on how to get to the bus stop in Tababela and to proceed there after breakfast para coger el autobús hacia un pueblo cercano que nos asignaron nuestros profes. My group’s destination was Pifo, a little town to the south of Tababela and only about a 40-minute bus ride east of downtown Quito. When we arrived, we were tasked with finding the city square, observing all we could about it, going up to random strangers to ask them about the town, find a place to eat lunch, and navigate the bus system once again to make it to our hotel in Quito. It was quite the experience. That I lived to tell about it I think demonstrates just how well I and my fellow students can survive in a Spanish-speaking country. What we found out was that Pifo seems to be a “just-passing-through” kind of town, as many of the merchants would only come into Pifo to sell their wares even though they didn’t live there. I talked with a man who was on his way home to Ambato from the airport. He and I ended up having a fantastic conversation about politics and current issues facing Ecuador. Some of the big ones are a massive amount of foreign debt, a national referendum that might amend the Constitution along 7 lines which takes place this Sunday, and the ages-old dilemma of capitalistic investment vs. conserving the environment. Then, we met this other very nice man who ended up problematizing our notion of “poverty.” He told us that too many foreigners come to Ecuador with their preconceived notions of what poverty is when, he said, the reality is that Ecuadorians are rich beyond compare in biodiversity and natural beauty. Ecuador is, in fact, the most biodiverse country per square kilometer or meter or something like that lol in the world. Yasuní National Park out east is actually the single most biodiverse spot in the world. While in a restaurant for lunch, we broke a plate accidentally and ended up having to pay for it lol. Once we had all the info we needed, we boarded the bus for Quito.

Quito is quite unlike any city I’ve ever seen. It’s long and narrow, with the towering Pichincha volcano to the west and the just immense Cotopaxi volcano to the south. It’s crowded, loud, tall, and there’s always something going on. Our taxi from the bus station took almost as long as our bus ride into the city, yet the distance separating our hotel from the bus stop was less than 2 miles. At night, after we got settled, the program directors invited some local Ecuadorian university students to come share their perspectives with us in a panel format; then, we had the chance to talk with them personally. Two stand out most in my mind. One, a 26-year-old architecture students with a wife and child, hailed from a part indigenous, Kichwa-speaking family. His hair was braided in a long braid that reached his waist. When asked about it, he told us that for him, wearing his hair this way was an act of resistance. For too long, the mestizo-dominated society (mixed European and indigenous Andean and Amazonian heritages) have marginalized darker-skinned, indigenous, and afrodescendant communities. For this student, wearing his hair in the traditional way handed down to him from his grandfather was a giant middle finger to this oppressive regime. And he is teaching his son to do the same. He related how one day, his son was made fun of for his long, girlish-looking hair. His son responded that no, he was not a girl, instead he was a proud indigenous boy whose long hair enabled him to make contact with the universe. Apparently the boys who made fun of him went home to their families and expressed jealousy over this boy’s self-confidence and “cool” hair. Isn’t that awesome? This man’s resistance was inspiring for me, even though I come from such a different context.

Similarly, there was a young woman studying sociology. She had quite the structural lens and was very articulate in diagnosing some of Ecuador’s problems in terms of oppressive social structures. When asked about the topic of abortion, she quickly moved onto more enabling aspects of Ecuadorian patriarchy that make abortion so controversial and fatal in many cases. In her perspective, the lack of sexual education in Ecuador is a dire problem that needs to be addressed. This country has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in all of Latin America, and she thinks that a big part of this is the lack of sexual education. But what is there to do in a country dominated by both machismo and marianismo and a conservative Catholic church? In her view, structural changes are urgently needed. It was refreshing talking with someone like her, because even though we are from different contexts, her analysis reveals that patriarchy might operate similarly in different places. Needless to say we got along quite well. After the students left, we all went out to the Plaza Foch, a well-known hotspot for Quiteño youth due to the numerous bars and clubs. I ended up with a group that settled on this little outdoor area with restaurant stalls all selling food and drinks. They had cards and board games in a clear marketing strategy aimed at foreigners lol. I ended up talking with this man who is a Venezuelan refugee. He had come very recently to escape what is a state meltdown in Venezuela. Although he has multiple degrees, he cannot work as that for which he is trained because he doesn’t have enough money to hurry along his application for work papers or citizenship if he wants it. He told me that you have to have money in order to do these things efficiently, and right now he doesn’t have it. So, he works 2 jobs day and night and has no time to even enjoy the money he’s earning. From his perspective, Ecuadorian society was much more reserved than Venezuelan; apparently in Venezuela, people chat and gossip and are much friendlier with each other. For him, Ecuadorians weren’t like that. He also hated the heat and eventually wants to move somewhere colder lol. He was in awe when I told him how cold New England is!

Something I’ve been struggling with today is where I fit in the matrix of Ecuadorian society. Being a white male westerner, I come to Ecuador with two sets of stereotypes attached to me. The first is that I’m wealthy, and as such I represent the legacy of colonialism, the crippling external debt Ecuador owes to many other countries, the sharp divide in material wealth between the global north and south, and the ongoing phenomenon of cultural exportation from the United States. At the same time, I am a target for robberies because of my perceived wealth. I am also just one more foreigner in this country; as such, I am also invisible, I take up hardly any space, I cannot take part in the political discourse of this country, and I have been told to minimize myself as much as possible to reduce the risk of being attacked. I feel that all this cultural baggage I bring with me is contradicting. I don’t quite know where I fit in the order of things, and I have had the privilege of not having to know this for most of my life. In the U.S., my presence and my body are buoyed by just about every social structure we have. Here in Ecuador, I may retain many of those privilege, yet they have been recast to include some feelings of marginalization I have never before experienced. I do not yet know how to reconcile this. But I tell you that I am constantly aware of others staring me down as I pass them on the street. I know that my every action has hundreds of possible witnesses. It is a disconcerting feeling; I feel like an alien. And lol that’s because I am. Yet how do I derive meaning from this knowing that at the same time, I am perhaps the poster child of the global north? I’ll keep you updated on this, because I feel it to be right at the heart of why I’m here in the first place.

Just a note on the pictures below. The first is a breathtaking shot of Cotopaxi, which rises over 19,000 feet above sea level! It’s one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. The second is the volcano of Pichincha, which demarcates the western edge of Quito. The volcanic peak is the one like dead center with the light-ish streak running down it. The last is a picture from a little bridge in La Carolina park in downtown Quito. I will definitely be coming here to hang out and enjoy the little nature escape in the middle of the city!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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Después de solo dos días...

¡Hola Todos! Hello from Ecuador!

So much has happened the last two days that it feels like I’ve been here for a week! I guess I’ll begin with the flying. I surpassed my own expectations by going through the entire airport process, beginning in Boston and ending in Quito, completamente en español! It was a much-needed confidence boost that I could manage my first int’l flight in another language. As the pictures below show, Quito is a breathtaking city! I was so overcome when we finally burst through the low-lying clouds that I gasped out loud to the surprise of the woman seated next to me! After making it through customs, I managed to find some of the other students on the program who happened to catch the same flight as me, and a couple of us took a taxi to a beautiful little hostel in a town just outside Quito called Tababela. It’s quite small; the woman we met at the park (see below) said only about 3,000 people live here.

Getting to know everyone was and has continued to be fabulous. I’ve already met funny, charming, interesting, badass, passionate people from all corners of the States. It’s weird just how many connections we all have despite just meeting for the first time! But we were all so exhausted that by 10 pm I was out cold.

Our hostel is extremely nice. It is completely enclosed by stone walls about twice my height just like all of the estates in town. It kinda has the layout and feel of a summer camp. There are many stand-alone cabin-like buildings where guests stay. There’s a swimming pool, a little pond, and a dining room where we’ve been served some excellent food breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And there’s free wifi. As nice as it is, it makes me suspicious that I’ll be treated this well my entire trip. If I wanted that, I would have stayed at home, you know? I want to shed my middle-class living privileges, yet thus far this hostel has catered to them. We’re leaving on Wednesday, so we’ll see if I come to regret those words then!

Today we formally introduced ourselves and met our program directors. Then we went over a logistical outline of this week of orientation as well as a bare-bones schedule for the months to come. What’s super exciting is that our homestay begins on Friday! I’m so excited and also a little nervous to get to meet my host family! The coolest part of today was when we were assigned our first “assignment” in our Research Methods and Ethics course. We were split into groups and tasked with walking out into the town, finding certain buildings, and learning as much as we could about them and the people there. I was in a group tasked with finding both a frutería and a panadería. The equatorial sun was blazing when we set out, and we enjoyed a fabulous view of the ring of mountains that encircles far-off Quito (Tababela is about an hour outside the city center). Along the way we passed many stray dogs and many more pieces of land enclosed by the same stout stone walls and gates as those at our hostel. I’m not yet sure if these are rich people’s houses or if everyone lives like this.

Anyway, when we got to the city center, we walked to this charming little park that had lots of benches, a playground where a family was playing, a statue of a rainbow-painted hummingbird, and the gigantic palm tree whose picture is below. Totally lost and unsure of where to find either of our target destinations, we stopped into a little tienda and asked the man where we could find both a frutería and a panadería. He told us there were no stores that exclusively sold fruit in the town but that there were many bakeries around. So we followed his direction to the nearest bakery and stumbled upon this tiny bakery owned by this really nice couple. They had lived in Tababela for most of their lives and had only started their bakery 4 years ago. They told us of a popular river where people go to swim and about how their business was doing. Then a customer came in so we didn’t want to be rude and take up their time so we left.

We returned to the park and ended up talking to this woman and her two children. She was quite funny and would joke with us, usually at our own expense. Her son challenged one of my fellow students to a basketball game, but said he wouldn’t be in town again until Wednesday, the day we’re supposed to be leaving. But he said he’d find us and challenge us to a game anyway. He had a tattoo on his arm about which I commented; when I told him I had a couple, he asked to see them, so I obliged lol. Keep in mind that all of these interactions were exclusively in Spanish. It was really liberating to be able to communicate with these random strangers thousands of miles away from home because I can speak their language. It was such a testament to the power of the spoken word to connect people who otherwise would remain in complete isolation from one another. When it was time to head back, the son gave us some good advice about cool shopping malls to check out in nearby Tumbaco and Cumbayá, so I’ll have to swing by eventually.

Overall, it’s been an exciting couple of days that have also felt very long. I’m anxious to settle into a routine and, strangely enough, to start classes. Pero, por ahora me alegra simplemente sobrevivir aquí en Tababela. ¡A ver lo que pase mañana!

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wesleyv21-blog · 6 years

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Only one night away...

¡Hola a todos ustedes! Hello out there everyone!

Tonight is the last night I’ll spend in the U.S. for the next 3.5 months. That makes me want to throw up to be honest. This is the biggest trip I’ve ever taken in my life. To say I feel ready would be very far from the truth, yet I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I have no idea what to expect, even after all the weeks I’ve spent preparing. What will it be like? With whom will I hit it off? What (and whom) am I gonna miss? What will the smells be? How will the food taste? What will I learn? What won’t I learn? Hopefully the next few months bring answers to these questions as well as questions to my assumed answers. Tonight I want to answer a common question I’ve received over the last few months:

So, why Ecuador?

As far back as high school, I knew I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country for study abroad. I have felt it to be the capstone on my Spanish language education. I’ve been craving an immersion experience to finally seal the deal for me in this regard. This originally led me to look at Spain as a possible destination.

But then sophomore year came. Spain was off the map; enter Central and South America. What had happened to change my mind? Well, I came to realize that I need to leave “the West” for a little bit (maybe forever lol). I need to leave my familiar discursive and social framework so as to peer back on it. I’ve come far in developing a critical lens, but I need to step outside the bubble to realize how big the ocean really is. Perhaps erroneously, I figured Spain as an extension of the West. Socially, religiously, intellectually, economically in both its past and present it fits my identification of what the West constitutes. I don’t really know where Latin America fits, though, and that’s what attracts me. I want to go somewhere that has been totally off my radar thus far to above all learn and listen. Learn and listen so as to grow. So for a while I was considering either Peru or Chile.

But then I heard about SIT’s program in Ecuador called Development, Languages, and Politics. And with a name like that, how could I refuse? If you’ve read the description of the program you’ll understand. Here is an arena in which to develop my critical thinking and apply it in such a unique part of the world. In the fall I had the opportunity to take a class about the political history of Latin America. Long story short, I learned just how badly the U.S. and other “Western” powers have fucked over this part of the world. Far from being an outlier, Ecuador is perhaps a prime case study of what I mean. So now I feel that I have a responsibility to go and learn and listen. I have to learn whose blood is on my chocolate and bananas and Panama hats and everything else we’ve taken without reciprocating. You know? For too long I’ve read about and listened to and watched films about places like Ecuador. It’s high time I get out there and see it for myself and hear it from the mouths of real Ecuadorians.

So there you have it. That’s how I’ve arrived at Ecuador. And I couldn’t be happier with my decision!

But happy is far from the only emotion. I’ve been a nervous wreck these past two days. I’ve spluttered all my teary goodbyes. I’ve run around like a chicken with its head cut off tying up loose ends. I’ve watched endless videos on how to fly internationally because, yes, this will be my first international flight. I’ve walked around with a constant pit in my stomach. I’ve explained myself ragged to my concerned family and friends. I’ve borne the hundreds of woe-filled questions of the ones I love dearest for months now. I’m nervous about the discomfort I’ll feel. I’m going to be so far away from my middle-class American privileges that, frankly, the distance scares me. I’m terrified. But at the end of each breath is excitement. My chance has finally come. I’m standing on the edge of something great. With any luck I won’t even recognize the person who steps off the plane on the twelfth of May. Excited isn’t strong enough. I’m absolutely thrilled. I’m thrilled! Yet every time I blink, a little part of me doesn’t want to open my eyes again. So it goes: a vicious cycle of excitement, sadness, despair, hunger, anxiety, happiness, confusion, anger, shame, anticipation, apprehension, impatience.

Entonces, venga lo que venga, yo no puedo esperar a viajar al Ecuador. This is truly a chance of a lifetime, and I’m ecstatic to be able to take it. I earnestly hope this upcoming semester is as rewarding for all of you as it will be for me. Denme las noticias de sus vidas si tengan el tiempo. Stay tuned for one hell of an adventure!

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