Andean Dreams: a little history, some ritual, and of course food!

I have been in Ecuador just over two weeks, and have so many amazing experiences to share!

Highlights include finding a great yoga class, some beautiful museums, a translation project for a book published by Fundación Pachamama in Quito, participating in a PAV training (Pasos Alternativos a la Violencia/Alternatives to Violence Project), my housemate Annie's birthday party (Annie's party was at this wonderful cafe owned by a cooperative of Amazonian Indigenous families), a ritual bath in Cotacachi for the autumnal equinox, a village planting festival in La Calera, ...and I am starting a women's spirituality circle in Quito!

A History Lesson
But first of all, a quick and very incomplete historical panorama, based on what I found the most interesting while visiting the Ecuadoran National Museum in Quito during my first week. I thought it might provide some helpful historical perspective on the situation and practices of Ecuadoran Indigenous communities today.

The first settlements in Ecuador were around 8500 BC, with the dominant cultures of the Las Vegas on the coast, and the Inga in the Andean highlands/Sierra. Agricultural production began in about 6000 BC, with the cultivation of corn, kidney beans, pumpkin, achira, and cotton. In the Sierra, people cultivated local plants such as potatoes and quinoa, as well as crops that originated in other parts of Ecuador, including ají and peanuts. They also raised llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Trade soon became prevalent among the various groups, as evidenced by the ceramic trope of the "basket man"/canastero/mindala. The many examples of this figure in pottery show that a special position of trader (who traveled with a basket on his back) had become central to society. The most prevalent items in trade were spondylus shells. The conch shell was also an important symbol of male fertility & was used as trumpet, however the spondylus princeps was truly sacred, associated with the vulva (because of its red color, shape, shine) and with fertility and rain. Spondylus was considered the favorite nourishment of the gods, and shamans wore spondylus as a sign of fertility and closeness to the divine. Although in this early period some confederations and centralized power developed--such as the Kingdom of Quito founded by the Quitus, the Puruhaes, and Cañari, as well as the Shyri Dynasty--the societal organization was dramatically shifted by the Incan invasion in the late 15th century, followed closely by the invasion of the Spanish. Contemporary indigenous groups to some extent reflect a blend of all of this: pre-Incan, Incan, and Spanish colonial traditions.

Autumnal Equinox
On Wednesday (September 21) I took the bus to Cotacachi to participate in a ritual bath for the Autumnal Equinox. After switching buses in Otavalo, I arrived in Cotacachi, and wandered around looking for Jambi Mascaric (the Indigenous women´s health center run by UNORCAC). I finally found it, and saw three trucks full of people outside, even though I had arrived 2 hours after the official meeting time. I ran up and asked if I could come along, and was directed to the last truck, which had plenty of room in the back. After about a minute, the trucks roared off. I gripped the bar that extended over the truck bed, trying to keep my balance. We zipped along bumpy dirt roads until we were way out in the campo. Then we suddenly arrived, and everyone spilled out of the trucks. We began hiking in a snaking line down into a ravine, along a narrow path strewn with loose rocks (one of which caused me to fall on my hip, and split open my left middle finger--but it's almost fully healed already!). Finally, we arrived in a meadow with a stream. There the women laid out a cloth on the grass and covered it with rose petals, bread, and fruit, and surrounded it with branches of yerba buena. After the ritual space had been established, three women spoke in Kichwa, and then a representative of the Red Cross spoke briefly in Spanish (they support these ceremonies through their intercultural health program). A shaman from Bolivia then took the lead, speaking about how the time of the woman was beginning with this equinox, transitioning out of the part of the year when male energy dominates. There was a clay bowl of smoking palo santo, and it was passed around, as everyone bathed themselves with the smoke. Then a man dug a hole in the ground, and offerings of bread, fruit, and flowers were thrown in and buried. After all that, the ritual bath itself began. Stripping down, being beaten with yerba buena branches, and having alcohol spit on my face were all included in the process. As unappealing as that might all sound, it really was a deeply moving experience. After everyone had their bath of cold water and alcoholic mist, some closing words were said and we all trekked back up the ravine to the grassy patch by the side of the road where the trucks were parked. There blankets appeared, laid out on the ground in a long line, and giant containers of potatoes, corn, beans, and hardboiled eggs were poured down the middle of the blankets. We all gathered around on the ground to share this communal meal, grabbing handfuls of potatoes and corn, and drinking chicha from shared gourds.

After this amazing day, I met up with Dana, a PhD student from the U.S. who is doing research on political consciousness and organizing among women in Cotacachi, and we went to our friend Magi's house. Magdalena is one of the primary leaders in her village (Calera--more on that later!) and an extremely wise and intelligent woman. She has been interviewed by many scholars and anthropologists and even conducts her own research! (She and Dana do research together). Dana and I waited in Magi's dusty courtyard while she was in a community meeting that was running really long because of some conflict over a volleyball court. We waited for hours, which gave us the opportunity to get to know Claudia, another one of Magi's many friends--a French doctor who has worked for years in Latin America with Médicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) and Doctors Without Borders. Finally, after dark had fallen, we set off with Magi to do another ritual bath. This one was a lot more intimate, just Magi, her adorable daughter Mishari, Mishari's friend, Claudia, Dana, Magi's friend Doña Blanca, and me, bathing in a beautiful, effervescent spring near the village. I know that I will never forget hiking down the muddy path in my slippery flip flops, a tattered yellow umbrella in one hand and a plastic bag filled with fruit and bread in the other, moonlight casting the only light on the dark path and a gentle rain falling steadily, until finally arriving at a grassy clearing next to a bubbling spring. There Magi led us in prayer, lit the aromatic Palo Santo, and lit candles, which she placed on the natural rock ledges that frame the cascading water. After the bath we shared some food and then hiked back to Magi's house where she generously plied us with more food, and Doña Blanca regaled us with stories until late in the evening.

That night I stayed with Dana in her cute new apartment in Cotacachi, and set out the next morning to meet as many people as I could. I visited UNORCAC, Jambi Mascaric, the Cantonal Assembly, and the Red Cross, where I met Enrique Cachiguango, an amazing man who is the director of the intercultural health program in Cotacachi. He shared his life story with me, and assured me that when I was ready, my spiritual teacher would appear. He told me he was on the path to wisdom, not knowledge, and wished me the same, admonishing me not to learn but to experience, not to understand but to know, not to think, but to feel. Enrique also talked about interculturality, the act of facing "the other" and how difficult it is. As he said, it is one thing to talk rhetorically about interculturality, and quite another to actually live it. For Enrique interculturality is like a marriage, where the two partners must accept each other as they are, for life; is not a one-time encounter, it is a mutual change.

Here are some photographs of the ritual!

this cloth was laid out first. we all got to eat some fruit after the bath.

digging a hole and making offerings

praying over the offering

burying the offerings of fruit, bread, flowers

ritual bath

setting the table

communal meal after ritual bath

beginning the ritual with Magi

Tarpuy Raimi/Fiesta de la Siembra
The next two days were spent in Calera, rejoicing in the festival of planting and the town fiesta. I stayed at the beautiful home of Ines Bonilla, which is right in the center of town. This was good in that it was central for the festivities, but that was less of a perk late at night when music was still blaring through the cracks in the house and into my rock-hard bed. The festivities began Friday afternoon with a parade down into town. There were various candidates for town queen/reina, and they each rode in decorated trucks, while a number of community groups performed dances as they paraded. A band played, and there were periodic stops, when the community leaders who headed up the procession stopped and did a circle dance. From what I understand at this point, the circles are a symbol of the equinoxes and solstices of the year, and the foot stomping is as an invitation to Pachamama (loosely translates to Mother Earth) to participate in the celebration, and to be fertile once again in this agricultural cycle. Once we got into the center of town, there were more festivities. Food was for sale everywhere: colada morada, corn on the cob, fried dough. And there were a few little amusements set up, like a mini-ferris wheel, a carousel, and lots of foosball tables. Various groups of youth performed dances and skits that reflected often-humorous themes of their culture and ancestral traditions, such as a marriage, agriculture, and drunkenness. That night we also traipsed over to a field on the edge of town, where a man began to dig in the soft ground, searching for the chicha and food that had been buried the year before. When we finally found it deep down in the earth, it was mostly gone, which Ines said was a good sign and meant that Pachamama had been fertile and hungry. The next day there was another desfile (parade) from the highway where one turns to reach La Calera, into the center of town. This one was smaller and all on foot. Large baskets of fruit were carried in, and the character Aya Uma (a two-faced creature with 12 horns, said to represent the cycles of the year and be the spirit of the mountain) danced with us. When we got to La Calera, there was also a ritual planting of maize, more dancing, food, and music. Here are a few pictures to give a better sense of what went on. (I actually took maybe hundreds of photos, primarily because I offered to make a book of photos for the town to have a record of their 2011 fiesta. So, soon on the agenda is to find a photo place in Quito that will make a book for me to give to the town leaders!)

Cotacachi, as seen from Dana's apartment

preparing the communal meal in La Calera (that's Magi in the blue sweater!)

Truck decorated, and ready for the parade

one of many decorated trucks

Wilson, the town president, and one of the contenders for Queen

digging for last year's chicha

gathered around a fire watching the lone man dig for chicha

cooking mote (hominy) for the communal meal

the band, and some cows

Ritual Planting

Planting and Dancing!

Aya Uma leading the parade

Photos of Quito
Those are the primary updates for now, but I want to share a few more photos. I am feeling very glad to be here, and that I am learning so much already. But hopefully as Enrique shared with me, I will know and feel and internalize wisdom, absorb stories and landscapes, more than I try to acquire or commodify knowledge.