In June 1990, Indigenous peoples shocked Ecuadorian elites with a
powerful uprising that paralyzed the country for a week. Militants
insisted that the government address Indigenous demands for land
ownership, education, and economic development. This uprising was a
milestone in the history of Ecuador's social justice movements, and
it inspired popular organizing efforts across Latin America. While
the insurrection seemed to come out of nowhere, Marc Becker
demonstrates that it emerged out of years of organizing and
developing strategies to advance Indigenous rights. In this richly
documented account, he chronicles a long history of Indigenous
political activism in Ecuador, from the creation of the first local
agricultural syndicates in the 1920s through the galvanizing
protests of 1990. In so doing, he reveals the central role of women
in Indigenous movements and the history of productive
collaborations between rural Indigenous activists and urban leftist
intellectuals.
Becker explains how rural laborers and urban activists worked
together in Ecuador, merging ethnic and class-based struggles for
social justice. Socialists were often the first to defend
Indigenous languages, cultures, and social organizations. They
introduced rural activists to new tactics, including demonstrations
and strikes. Drawing on leftist influences, Indigenous peoples
became adept at reacting to immediate, local forms of exploitation
while at the same time addressing broader underlying structural
inequities. Through an examination of strike activity in the 1930s,
the establishment of a national-level Ecuadorian Federation of
Indians in 1944, and agitation for agrarian reform in the 1960s,
Becker shows that the history of Indigenous mobilizations in
Ecuador is longer and deeper than many contemporary observers have
recognized.
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