A new day for Blacks in Ecuador

New Crisis, The, Nov/Dec 2002 by Robinson, Lori S

"Either by running away from Spanish authority and establishing alternative communities or by contributing to the formation of colonial society as slaves, Africans set the tone for the development of Ecuador. That's been ignored," says Kris Lane, a professor of history at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. "The African contribution is central, not just in terms of labor, but also in terms of resistance and culture." Music, literature and spiritual expression are some of the spheres of culture in which Afro-Ecuadorians have excelled.

Without such knowledge, however, racial consciousness and pride among Blacks in Ecuador is low. On one episode of a daily television game show, loosely translated as No Holds Barred, the White male host appeared in blackface, his makeup designed to make him look more like a gorilla than a man. For this segment, the Afro-Ecuadorians in the audience were moved to the front row next to the host in an apparent attempt to mock Black people, yet none in the audience seemed disturbed by it.

Stories, incidents and language that demean Black and indigenous people are an open part of Ecuadorian popular culture. According to Ecuadorian folklore, for example, a man with kidney problems can be cured by having sex with a Black woman, an allusion to the persistent myth of super sexuality Former professional basketball player Alvaro Aleman says spectators sometimes try to distract Black players by making monkey sounds.

It is in this social climate that professional soccer player Hugo Guerron was pulled over by police March 2. Officers refused to believe the 24-year-old owned the new red Volkswagen Golf he was driving. One officer sprayed Guerron in the face with tear gas, partially burning his corneas. A day later, Jose Caicedo, then a mid-ranking federal official, was being driven by a chauffeur in a government car when stopped by police. The officers didn't believe Caicedo, 35, was a bureaucrat. They beat him and threw him in jail for five days.

"It is incomprehensible [to the police] that a Black man would have a car when it is impossible for him to have access to a job," says Hernandez, explaining why police abuse is no surprise. In neither case were officers punished or required to apologize. Guerron had to pay $250 for his own medical expenses after the attack. Caicedo had to pay $1,000 in bail to get out of jail.

Change Is Coming

The United States' history of legal segregation left African Americans to create their own schools, churches and other institutions. No such history exists for Black Ecuadorians. The modern Afro-Ecuadorian movement extends back only 23 years to the founding in 1979 of the Center of Afro-Ecuadorian Studies, an organization that researched Black culture and promoted racial consciousness. According to Oscar Chala, one of the Center's founders, there are now hundreds of Afro-Ecuadorian organizations.

"How do we create change? Little by little, through these small organizations from rural communities or cities, sitting down to dialogue, thinking of small but feasible things [we can do], not in grand things that don't get us anywhere," he says.