An Ecuador Reading List: Selections from the Helm-Cravens Library by Christopher Mcconnell

An Ecuador Reading List: Selections from the Helm-Cravens Library
by Christopher McConnell & Brian Coutts

Anthropology

Becker, Marc. Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador's Modern Indigenous Movements. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.
(F3721.1.C29 B43 2008 )
Have you ever thought twice about the question, what is an Indian? This book attempts to challenge contemporary definitions of Latin American culture. Many socialist activists believe that the indigenous “movements” should be defined as a nation across various political borders. The author, attempts to give a detailed account of the complex indigenous relationship with Marxist left.

Hurtado, Osvaldo. Portrait of a Nation: Culture and Progress in Ecuador. Lanham: Madison Books, 2012.
(F3710 .H8713 2010)
Ecuador is one of the most beautiful countries in the world with snow-capped mountain ranges, active volcanoes and hospitable people. It is also one of the most enigmatic countries because even as it produces oil, exports bananas, and cacao, shrimp and flowers, it still remains as one of the most underdeveloped Latin American countries. The author offers insight into the cultural habits and customs which may reinforce this problem.

Miles, Ann. From Cuenca to Queens: An Anthropological Story of Transnational Migration. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
(F128.9.E28 M55 2004)
Transnational migration is at the core of the difficult choices to be made when seeking economic prosperity. In 1995, Vicente Quitasaca left his home in Cuenca, Ecuador for New York City. His anthropological struggle and quest to find a better way while fighting against racism and social inequality is documented by Ann Miles who has been longtime friends with the Quitasacas.
Rhoades, Robert E. Development with Identity: Community, Culture, and Sustainability in the Andes. Wallingford: CABI Publishing, 2006.
(HC203.C68 D48 2006)
This book reports on a 6-year interdisciplinary research project on natural resource management in Cotacachi, Ecuador. It discusses the relationship of the indigenous population and their interaction with the environment and how the development of its Andean landscape must address local priorities such as ethnic identity.

Swanson, Kate. Begging as a Path to Progress: Indigenous Women and Children and the Struggle for Ecuador's Urban Spaces. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010.
(F3721.1.Q55 S93 2010 )
In Ecuador, as agrarian output has declined, women and children struggle to share vending spaces in urban areas. While begging is often associated with decay and poverty, here it has become a valuable skill towards progress.

Economics

Mansfeld, Rudi Colloredo-. The Native Leisure Class: Consumption and Cultural Creativity in the Andes. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999.
(F3721.1.I3 C65 1999 )
In this book, artist, anthropologist, Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld examines the cultural renaissance developing within the traditional farming community on the Andean mountains. Age-old traditions are slowly fading away as new borders are open to the trading community. New consumer goods have been received in Ecuador in exchange for the Otavaleños colorful textile patterns. This book gives a unique insight into the economic and cultural expressions of a “native middle class.”

Film

Crude. Directed by Joe Berlinger. 2009.
(VR 8159)
Exploitation, oil disaster, and proliferation of carcinogenic substances have struck the once beautiful and lush country of Ecuador. Berlinger’s film artfully examines the fascinating case about Big Oil and little people.

Que tan lejos. Directed by T. Hermida. 2006.
(VR 11813)
Two young women find their paths intertwined as they search for love and the picturesque countryside they so desire, but the national strike brings their travels to a halt after which they decide to take matters into their own hands. They hitchhike to their destination meeting people along the way who challenge the purpose of their journey.

Ratas, Ratones, Rateros. Directed by Sebastian Cordero. 1999.
(VR 0853)
Salvador is a young and naïve thief who finds himself torn between his family’s problems and his cousin Angel’s recent arrival. Angel is an exconvict who promises fast action adventure and danger to Salvador, yet they both can’t seem to keep the crime life away from their family.

History

Mares, David R., and David Scott Palmer. Power, Institutions and Leadership in War and Peace: Lessons from Peru and Ecuador, 1995-1998. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012.
(JZ6385 .M35 2012)
In January of 1995, an armed struggle broke out between military forces of Ecuador and Peru over a disputed section of remote land in the Amazon. This is the first book to relate this complex dispute to broader theories of why countries conflict over land borders.

Newson, Linda A. Life and Death in Early Colonial Ecuador. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995.
(F3721.3 .P76 N49 1995)
Provides unique maps of the distributions of ethnic groups on the Sierra, Coast, Orient, the Otavalo Region and the Quito Basin during the Spanish Conquest. It also discusses demographics such as population decline, textile mills, and labor during the sixteenth century.

Pineo, Ronn. Ecuador and the United States : Useful Strangers. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2007.
(E183.8.E2 P56 2007)
While giving a history of foreign relations between Ecuador and the United States, it’s also a case study of how a small, determined country has taken advantage of its resources while dealing with a world superpower. From independence in the 1850s, the Cold War in Ecuador, to democratization and neoliberalism in the 1980s, the book examines the misunderstandings and controversies from the U.S. perspective with often unintended consequences that have sometimes arisen in relations between the two countries.

Spindler, Frank MacDonald. Nineteenth Century Ecuador: An Historical Introduction. Fairfax: George Mason University Press, 1987.
(F3736 .S64 1987)
Spindler provides a survey based on archival investigations from the U.S., Colombia and Ecuador. He describes Ecuador’s nineteenth century political struggles between liberals and conservatives. Includes illustrations from the Library of Congress.

Literature

Ansaldo, Cecilia. Cuentan Las Mujeres: Antología de Narradoras Ecuatorianas. Santiago: Editorial Planeta del Ecuador S.A., 2001.
(PQ8216 .C83 2001)
Author Cecilia Ansaldo is a native Guayaquileña and was the Academic Director of Saint Mary University of Chile, Guayaquil campus professor. Her anthology is unique from a gender point of view because all of the authors included are female. She criticizes most Ecuadorian anthologies because they are compilations predominantly of male authors even though the Ecuadorian tales originally started with the works of Elisa Ayala.

Torres Espinosa, Carlos, and Steve Striffler. The Ecuador Reader: History, Culture, Politics. Electronic Source: Durham : Duke University Press, 2008.
(Electronic Book)
This anthology describes a wide array of materials in terms of topic, approach, historical period, region, perspective, and especially form (poems, recipes, speeches, etc.) It also focuses on the most marginalized groups who have struggled for recognition and justice.

Political Science

Aken, Mark J. Van. King of the Night: Juan José Flores and Ecuador, 1824-1864. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
(F3736 .F5 V36 1989)

Juan Jose Flores was Venezuelan and became Ecuador’s first president in 1830. His political insight included integration of the European monarch in both Central and South America. His everyday problems included supervising the disputes between highland Quito and coastal Guayaquil. This is a political biography and should not be taken as general history of Ecuador from 1830 to 1864.

Becker, M. Pachakutik! 2nd. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2011.
(F3721.3.P74 B43 2011)
Becker offers the ideal course of Latin American politics and social movements in Ecuador during the last twenty five years.

Cervone, Emma. Long Live Atahualpa: Indigenous Politics, Justice, and Democracy in the Northern Andes. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012.
(F3721.3.P74 C47 2012)
This is an ethnographic study of indigenous political movements against discrimination in modern Ecuador. The author describes the complex process that led these activists to force new alliances with the Catholic Church and NGOS.

Clark, A. Kim, and Marc Becker, . Highland Indians and the State in Modern Ecuador. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007.
(F3721.1.S54 H55 2007)

Ecuador has suffered unstable political crises which during the turn of the twentieth century led to six different governments. At the same time, the indigenous population, who actively participate at the national level, set Ecuador apart from the rest of the Latin American countries.

Henderson, Peter V.N. Gabriel García Moreno and Conservative State Formation in the Andes. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.
(F3736.G3 H46 2008)

Gabriel Garcia Moreno was president of Ecuador from 1861 to 1869. He was criticized for his conservatism, and bringing religion to the forefront of the country’s national identity. On the other hand, Garcia built the foundation for a centralized nation-state.

Olson, Christa J. Constitutive Visions: Indigeneity and Commonplaces of National Identity in Republican Ecuador. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2014.
(F3710 .O47 2014)
Arguments over national identity advanced theories of citizenship, popular sovereignty, and republican modernity struggled to reconcile the presence of Ecuador’s large indigenous population with the dominance of a white-mestizo minority. The indigenous people were excluded from civic life, but proliferated in speeches, periodicals and artwork during Ecuador’s process of nation formation.

Pallares, Amalia. From Peasant Struggles to Indian Resistance: The Ecuadorian Andes in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.
(F3721.1 .S54 P35 2002)

The author engages the reader describing a transformation of the local residents of Cotacachi and Cacha. They each work hard towards gaining indigenous autonomy, and become aware of their own citizenship and political identity as the indigenous resistance slowly builds momentum.

Scher, Melina Selverston-. Ethnopolitics in Ecuador: Indigenous Rights and the Strengthening of Democracy. Coral Gables: North-South Center Press at the University of Miami, 2001.
(F3738.2 .S458x 2001)

Modern Ecuador has been transformed through indigenous social and political movements. Selverston-Scher, works as a consultant in Washington D.C. specializing in Latin American politics, ethnic politics, human rights and the environment. She affirms that Ecuador is strengthened by its diversity and recognition of indigenous rights rather than cultural homogeneity.

Sociology

Blankenship, Judy. Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2010.
(F3722.1.C2 B53 2005)

Explore Ecuador’s unique culture through Judy Blankenship’s expert account which documents the lives of an indigenous people living high in the Ecuadorian Andes. Judy and her husband Michael went from being outsiders to community members and godparents to some of the local children.

Blankenship, Judy. Our House in the Clouds: Building a Second Life in the Andes of Ecuador. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013.
(F3741.C25 B53 2013)
American photographer-journalist Judy Blankenship spent several year in Cañar, Ecuador photographing the local people in their daily lives and conducting photography workshops to enable them to preserve their own visions of their culture. This book was the subject of a feature article in the June 5, 2013 edition of the New York Times which also includes a multimedia slide show of 23 of her pictures in the online edition.

Cepek, Michael. A Future for Amazonia: Randy Borman and Cofán Environmental Politics. Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2012.
(F3722.1.C67 C437 2012)
For centuries, the Cofán people have suffered massive losses to their habitat and population due to violence and political oppression. Despite their difficult experiences, the Cofán embody one of the most politically successful indigenous populations of the Amazon. Today, their successes provide protection for over one million acres of forestland. This story also discusses Randy Borman, a Cofán man of Euro-American descent, raised in the Cofán community who has risen to the top of indigenous leadership.

DeTemple, Jill. Cement, Earthworms, and Cheese Factories : Religion and Community Development in Rural Ecuador. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.
(BR690 .D48 2012)
Uses historical, documentary and ethnographic data collected over a decade as an aid worker and researcher in central Ecuador to examine the ways in which religion and community development are closely intertwined.

Hamilton, Sarah. The Two-Headed Household: Gender and Rural Development in the Ecuadorean Andes. Edited by Billie R. DeWalt. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.
(F3721.1 .H33 H35 1998)
Sarah Hamilton is director of the Women in International Development Program at Virginia Tech. As a sociocultural anthropologist she discusses gender responsibilities and women’s control of household economic resources in a rural section of the Ecuadorian Andes.

Milton, Cynthia E. The Many Meanings of Poverty: Colonialism, Social Compacts, and Assistance in Eighteenth-Century Ecuador. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007.
(HC203 .Q57 M55 2007)
Through various illustrations, a glossary and an extensive bibliographical reference, Milton redefines the many meanings of poverty after extensive research in Ecuador and having firsthand accounts with the poor there today. She compares them to the poor from eighteenth-century.

O'Connor, Erin. Gender, Indian, Nation: The Contradictions of Making Ecuador, 1830-1925. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2007.
(F3721.3.S65 O36 2007)
O’Connor changes the focus of modern indigenous activism to the roles of gender and its significance to the development of modern Indian-state relations. She also tries to explain the marginalization of indigenous women in Ecuador today.

Rahier, Jean Muteba. Kings for Three Days: The Play of Race & Gender in an Afro-Ecuadorian Festival. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2013.
(F3741.E6 R34 2013 )
Jean Muteba Rahier is an Associate Professor of anthropology at Florida International University. Rahier studies carnivalesque adaptations of Catholic celebrations of the Epiphany in small Afro-Ecuadorian communities.

Whitaker, Robert . The Mapmaker's Wife : A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
(F2546 .W46 2004)
Robert Whitaker’s long fascination with South America manifests itself through his extensive research in this book through the story of Jean and Isabel Godin. The story is based on La Condamine expedition which provides the backdrop for Isabel Godin’s journey in the Amazon. La Condamine and eleven others mapped the Amazon River, and precisely measured the distance of one degree of latitude at the equator. Most historical references only provide muddied descriptions of her story to which Robert challenges with his unique source material from that time period.

Whitten Jr., Norman E., and Dorothea Scott Whitten. Puyo Runa: Imagery and Power in Modern Amazonia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
(F3722.1.C23 W463 2008)

With forty years of experience, Norman E. Whitten Jr. and Dorothea Scott Whitten provide firsthand accounts of the daily life of the CanelosQuichua people of Andean Ecuador. The locals’ understanding of the tropical forest ecology, ceramic artwork, shaman rituals, and political aspirations provide a unique insight into the modern history of Ecuador.

Whitten, Jr., Norman E., ed. Millennial Ecuador: Critical Essays on Cultural Transformations and Social Dynamics. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2003.
(F3721.3.S65 M55 2003)

Whitten’s focus here is on emerging and enduring nationalities with millennial agendas within a framework of a globalizing and localizing country such as Ecuador. This has cautioned other Latin American countries of assimilating western traditions.

Travel

Box, Ben. South American Handbook. Bath: Footprint Handbooks, 2013.
(REF F1401 .S71 90thed 2014)
Published annually since 1924, this is one of the best general travel guides on South America. The section on Ecuador tells you where to go, when to go and how to get around beginning with Quito.

Gomez, Nelson E. Nuevo Atlas del Ecuador. Quito: Ediguias C. Ltda., 1999.
(G1735 .G6 1999)
This atlas includes maps highlighting the climate, vegetation, demography, mineral and petroleum deposits, with other maps of Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. It describes Ecuador in terms of its three different regions: Costal, Sierra, and Oriental.

Kidder, Laura, et al., . Fodor's South America. New York City: Random House, Inc., 2009.
(F2211 .F6)
Fodors provides the most up to date information up to the year 2009 including: Lake Titicaca, Side Trips from Rio, detailed maps, Chilean Patagonia, Quito and many more. This guide tells you where to stay, where to eat, transportation contacts, and sites to see.

Roy, Tui De. Galapagos: Islands Born of Fire. Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2010.
(F3741.G2 D47x 2010)
Tui De Roy a wildlife photographer explores the Galapagos Islands through her photographic documentary of penguins, coastlines, turtles, and marines iguanas.

St. Louis, Regis. Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Oakland: Lonely Planet Publications, 2012.
(F3709.5 .R33 2012)
As Lonely Planet’s number one bestselling guide to Ecuador, it comes complete with easy-to-use maps, comprehensive listings, and the Galapagos wildlife guide. Search for where to stay with hotel addresses, telephone numbers, websites, prices, and map locations.

Waterson, Luke. Ecuador and Galapagos (Insight Guides). Singapore: APA Publications Services, 2013.
(F3709.5 .E27 2013)
The Insight Guide for Ecuador and the Galapagos is unique with contributions from Luke Waterson, a travel writer who specializes in Latin American Andean culture. He has written for BBC Travel, Columbus Travel, and The Guardian among many other publications. The guide describes the rich culture and history of Ecuador and includes vivid photographs by Corrie Wingate.

Westwood, Ben. Moon Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Berkeley: Avalon Travel Publishing, 2012.
(F3709.5 .E28 2012)
Discover and explore your future adventure to Ecuador just as Ben Westwood did when he first visited the country in 1998. Whether you would like to look for the 1,600 species of birds and 25,000 species of plants, or gaze at 5,000-meter-high volcanoes and visit the Shuar Indians who hunt with blowpipes, you can accomplish this all in one day! It’s no wonder that Ecuador is known as having “four countries in one.”

Langton, Loup. Descubriendo Ecuador. Quito: Imprenta Mariscal-Dinediciones de Periodismo de la Universidad de Missouri-Columbia, 1994.
(F3716 .D5818 1994)
This book was created thanks to the efforts of 38 photographers from eleven counties and four continents. It depicts four regions of Ecuador: Sierra (mountains), Orient (the East), Galapagos Islands, and the Coast.