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ECUADOR
Brotherhood and Sister Cities - The Rainbow's Beginning
By Jheri St. James
 If
an argumentative group of travelers sat down to choose a shared
destination, they would be hard put to come up with a place
that would best Ecuador. Packed like a knee-cap between Peru
and Colombia, Ecuador contains within its borders an improbable
variety of landscape and culture. For the mountaineer, it
is bisected by an epic stretch of the northern Andes. For
the jungle explorer, there is a biological mother lode within
the Amazonian Oriente. The sea-minded are rewarded with miles
of Pacific coastline, to say nothing of the living wonders
of the Galapagos Islands. In a matter of two hundred miles,
the traveler can penetrate all of the mainland’s defining
regions—the coastal lowlands in the West, the volcanic
central highlands, and the rainforests of the East, or Oriente.
Ecuador
is an amazing country due to the incredible variety of natural,
historical and cultural resources available at its  geographical
location In the international literature, the end of the rainbow
is described as a magical place; when you reach it, unusual
and even mythical conditions are achieved that belong to the
world of dreams and illusions. In Ecuador, the rainbow symbolizes
the wide variety of cultures and geographical richness present
there. The Indian people have adopted the colors of the rainbow
in the huipala (a kind of scarf) which is part of
the traditional costumes, representing multicultural integration.
*
* *
The Republic
of Ecuador is a country in northwestern South America, bounded
by Colombia on the north, by Peru on the east and south, and
by the Pacific Ocean on the west. The country also includes
the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific about 600 miles west
of the mainland. Named after the Spanish word for equator,
Ecuador straddles the equator and has an area of 98,985 miles.
Its capital city is Quito, and Quito has a turbulent and dramatic
history.
 It
was a lack of brotherhood that brought Ecuador under the rule
of the Spanish Conquistadors in 1531. Atahualpa, one of the
sons of the Incan Emperor Huayna Capac, was born in Quito.
However, he could not receive the crown of the empire since
the emperor had another son, Huascar, born in Cusco, then
the capital. The empire was divided in two—Atahualpa
received the north with his capital in Quito, and Huascar
received the south with its capital in Cusco.
Civil
wars continued, however, and when Spain’s Francisco
Pizarro arrived, Atahualpa wanted to align with the Spanish
to defeat Huascar and reign over a reunified Incan empire.
The Spanish established themselves in a fort in Cajamarca,
captured Atahualpa and held him for ransom. A room was filled
with gold with which to secure his release. During his capture,
Atahualpa arranged for the murder of his half brother Huascar
in Cusco.
And so the stage was set for the Spaniards to take over the
Incan empire. Despite being surrounded and vastly outnumbered,
the Spanish executed Atahualpa, and began the decimation of
the indigenous population, forcing the natives into encomienda,
slavery under Spanish landlords, as well as infecting them
with their diseases, causing many more deaths.
After
nearly 300 years of Spanish colonization, Quito was a city
of about 10,000 inhabitants and it was there in 1822 that
Ecuador joined Simon Bolivar’s Republic of Gran Colombia,
later to become a separate republic in 1830. The 19th century
was marked by instability, with a succession of rulers. The
territories of the Viceroyalty—New Granada (Colombia),
Venezuela, and Quito—were separated when Quito withdrew
in that year and changed its name to Republic of the Equator.
Between 1904 and 1942 Ecuador lost territories in a series
of conflicts with its neighbors. A border war with Peru that
flared in 1995 was resolved in 1999. Although Ecuador marked
25 years of civilian governance in 2004, the period has been
marred by continuing political instability. Seven presidents
have governed Ecuador since 1996.
There
has been no conflict about collecting the soil of Ecuador
for Common Ground 191, though.
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Jorge
Olmedo, Maria Augusta Labanda & Angel Armijos |
It
was sisterhood that brought the soil of this unique country
of Ecuador to the Common Ground 191 project. Gary Simpson,
as usual, was racking his brains trying to come up with
collection ideas. With over 100 soils collected, one would
think the project would get easier, but no. He has used
up pretty much all his traveling friends’ gracious
participation in Laguna Beach, California, a small beach
village. He was been sending letters to foreign embassies
in Washington, D.C., but with very poor results, and then
sending letters to U.S. Embassies in foreign lands, with
better results. Then another brainstorm was the Sister Cities
group in Long Beach, California.
“My
name is Gary Simpson and I am a member of Sister Cities
International. For the last four years I have been working
on a global art project called Common Ground 191, which
involves collecting soil from every country in the United
Nations. Currently, I am midway through the collection process
and I am looking for soil volunteers from Ecuador and Cambodia.
I have all necessary approvals from the USDA for importing
the soil for this art project. . . Thank you for any help
you can provide through the Long Beach Sister City group.”
Patricia
McMasters, Chair, replied: “Gary, this is my friend,
Angel Armijos, who I am asking to volunteer for the project
you are working on and collecting the soil from Ecuador.
If you need to, you can contact him directly if there are
any special requests/requirements regarding the soil. Language
is not an issue, Angel lived in the USA for many years and
he and his lovely wife are now retired in Ecuador. Glad
to be of help. Let me know how the project is working and
look forward to seeing it when finished. I love Laguna Beach,
maybe I will stop by one day.” Sister Cities of Long
Beach, Inc.
And
so one more soil collection was completed. Here is what
Angel wrote:
 “This
is presented on behalf of Long Beach-Manta Sister Cities
(California) and Mr. Angell Armijos (Ecuador)
”The
soil collected comes from the Andean area known as Cacha,
in the province of Chimborazo, which has been named “Birth
of the Ecuadorian Nation”. According to the history,
Cacha was a very important place during the Duchicela Dynasty
in Quito, Ecuador. Seven members of the Duchicela dynasty
reigned for 233 years, from 1300 to 1533, until the Spanish
Conquistador, Francisco Pizarro killed the last ruler, Atahualpa
Duchicela. This Indian jurisdiction, Cacha, has its name
after Cacha Duchicela, one of the most important rulers
of the Quito Empire and Queen Paccha, Atahualpa’s
mother was there.
Andes
Peaks in the Chimborazo region of Ecuador
“There
is an avenue in Riobamba (capital of the Province of Chimborazo)
that connects this city with the Cacha region. Along this
avenue you can see seven busts of historical Indians, such
as: Atahualpa, Queen Paccha, Kinas Cacha, Hualcopo. Autachi
and Queen Toa. This avenue is called the Avenue of the Duchicela
Kingdom.
“The
soil collected has a long history; here our ancestors were
born and died. Strong, brave fighters, men and women with
traditions and costumes, left us their book and culture.
We consider that the essence of the Ecuadorian people is
well represented from the land of the ‘Cacha’
in the province of Chimborazo—Birth of the Ecuadorian
Nation. - Written in Spanish by Maria Augusta Labanda
Ortiz, Ecuador. Translated into English: Patricia McMaster,
Sister Cities International, Los Angeles, USA – July
27, 2006
Internet
research did not yield up any pictures of this intriguing
avenue, but it did provide this:
Message
from the Forest
“The
money of the most industrialized countries is worthless
when the Earth begins to shake. The world leaders are turned
into children when faced with the powers of nature, and
technology becomes no more than a piece of straw which cannot
even be used to build bridges over great rivers.
“Confronted
with the fury of nature, nothing and no one can save themselves
nor be saved. In order to calm everything down and bring
balance to the global nature of the Earth, there is only
one path: Stop cutting down trees, don’t take any
more oil or minerals from the earth, and stop consuming
with excess.
“Let
us not forget, change does not come from governments, but
from each human being. Each human being is responsible for
everything that might occur on Earth.”
Statement of the Amazonian Chiefs of the Shuar Nation, Ecuador
*
* *
The indigenous culture of Ecuador includes those in the
Waorani culture. Unravelling the secrets of Ecuador’s
Waorani culture, Jim Yost in 1976 made some amazing discoveries.
He found that the Waorani had maintained the highest levels
of homicide ever recorded in the annals of human history.
Fully fifty per cent of all deaths in the preceding five
generations had been the result of homicide as the Waorani
engaged in a continuous and deadly internal vendetta, pursued
mostly at night, in spearing raids. No death, it seemed,
whatever the cause, went unavenged. Furthermore, the Waorani
were even reputed to kill by spearing any, although only
a few instances have been proven, of their old people who
no longer had the means to support themselves; and they
practised infanticide, either strangling unwanted or malformed
babies with vines, or burying them alive. Even while Jim
was studying the Waorani culture, the killings in feuds
and raids continued, although their frequency gradually
reduced due to increasing missionary influence. Apart from
their extraordinary history of homicide, a further twenty
per cent of Waorani deaths were caused by shootings by outsiders;
and another five per cent died from snake bites.
 Medically,
the Waorani turned out to be something of an enigma: they
had no trace of cancer; no cardiovascular disease; no high
blood pressure; no allergies; and none of the known diseases
familiar to us. 'Waorani', in their own language, means
'people'; anyone who is not a Waorani they call 'Cowode'–
savages and cannibals. The Waorani lived in secrecy, in
the hinterlands on hilltops, well away from major rivers
to avoid contact with others. Living under the constant
threat of being raided by war parties, the Waorani kept
possessions to a minimum; they never knew when they might
have to flee in the night and re-establish a home perhaps
many days journey away on foot. In case of such an emergency,
they maintained a series of gardens scattered over a huge
territory to give them alternate living sites with food
already available. It was a life of constant fear.
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(From: WAORANI, The Saga of Ecuador's Secret People:A
Historical Perspective © Adrian Warren, Last Refuge
Ltd., March 2002, in association with Dr. James Yost)
*
* *
With one foot in the present and the other in the Puyango
Petrified Forest, in El Oro and Loja Provinces, near the
border with Peru, the possibility exists today to see 100-120
million year old petrified trees, ferns and snails, together
with living flora and fauna. Puyango is probably the only
petrified forest on earth that shares its habitat with a
living forest. Plate tectonics and the dating of petrification
seem to indicate that Ecuador was located further south
at one time. Finding a petrified tree is equivalent to finding
the fossilized bones of a dinosaur, but finding a petrified
forest has the same meaning as finding a valley full of
fossilized bones of hundreds of dinosaurs. In addition,
Puyango is one of the few remaining dry tropical forests
where the complete natural vegetation has been preserved
and where some million years ago an interior sea was located.
Petrified
Dinosaur Bones and Snail Shells at Puyango Petrified Forest
in Ecuador
The
Galapagos Islands are a mythic archipelago on the surface
of Mother Earth made up of 13 main volcanic islands, six
smaller islands and 107 rocks and islets. The very first
island is thought to have formed between five and 10 million
years ago, a result of tectonic activity. The youngest islands,
Isabela and Fernandina, are still being formed. The islands
are distributed around the equator, are famed for their
vast number of endemic species. The archipelago has been
known by many different names, including the “Enchanted
Islands” because of the way in which the strong and
swift currents made navigation difficult. The term “Galapagos”
refers to the Spanish name given to the Giant Land Tortoises
known to inhabit the islands. It has been said that if the
entire world was destroyed, the life forms existing at the
Galapagos Islands would be enough to begin life on earth
all over again.
It
was in these Gallapagos Islands that Charles Darwin conducted
the studies that led to his revolutionary theory of evolution
by natural selection, theory that is still hotly debated
in schools and philosophical forums, even though his work
is acknowledged today to be some of the best in the 20th
century, predating the discovery of DNA science, which is
proving his theories to be accurate.
The famous Charles Darwin, who came to the Galapagos
in 1835 and was inspired to develop the theory of natural
selection by the variety and the numbers of species
in these islands, seen here in satellite view. What
would Darwin have thought of that? |
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These
are just a few of Ecuador’s stories, timeless stories
of the geography--the land, the waters, the people, ancient
and modern. Other stories could be political and economic
ones. For instance, Ecuador has substantial petroleum resources,
which have accounted for 40% of the country’s export
earnings and one-third of central government budget revenues
in recent years. In the late 1990s’, Ecuador suffered
its worst economic crisis, with natural disasters and sharp
declines in world petroleum prices driving Ecuador’s
economy into free fall in 1999. Real GDP contracted by more
than 6%, with poverty worsening significantly. The banking
system also collapsed, and Ecuador defaulted on its external
debt later that year. The currency depreciated by some 70%
in 1999, and on the brink of hyperinflation, the MAHAUD
government announced it would dollarize the economy. A coup,
however, ousted MAHAUD from office in January 2000, and
after a short-lived junta failed to garner military support,
Vice President Gustavo Noboa took over the presidency. In
Mach 2000, Congress approved a series of structural reforms
that also provided the framework for the adoption of the
US dollar as legal tender. Dollarization stabilized the
economy, and growth returned to its pre-crisis levels in
the years that followed. Under the administration of Lucio
Gutierrez, 1/2003-4/2005, Ecuador benefited from higher
world petroleum prices. However, the government under Alfredo
Palacio has reversed economic reforms that reduced Ecuador’s
vulnerability to petroleum price swings and financial crises,
allowing the central government greater access to oil windfalls
and disbursing surplus retirement funds.
Avenue of Measurers
Taking
the measure of Ecuador, the “end of the rainbow”
may not be the most accurate term. The beginning of the
rainbow may be more like it, with sisterhood the dominant
energy in this particular soil collection in Ecuador. The
spirit of cooperation in Common Ground 191 continues to
be strong, with many kinds of siblings joining in the brotherhood
of this amazing art project, and even angels adding their
complementary energies to the project to make the soils
of the earth into one at last, if only symbolically. In
the family of Common Ground 191, we thank you and la
paz to you, brothers and sisters.
The Beginning of the Rainbow
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