P itt L a tin A m erican Series

John C harles Chasteen and C atherine ML Conaghan, Editors

City at the Center of the World
Space, History, and Modernity in Quito

Ernesto Capello

University o f Pittsburgh Press

 BIBLIOTECA-FLACSO-EC
F e c h a :. 1 3 .-. > y . r . S p \ l ........................
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P u b lish e d by the U niversity o f P ittsb u rg h Press, Pittsburgh, P a., 1526 0

C o p y rig h t © 2 0 11, U niversity o f P ittsb u rg h Press
A ll rig h ts reserved
M an u fac tu red in the U nited Sta te s o f A m erica
P rin ted on acid-free paper
10987654321

IS B N 13: 978-0-8229-6166-6
IS B N 10 : 0-8229-6166-0

L ib ra ry o f C ongress C atalog in g-in -P u b lication Data

C ap ello , Ernesto.
C ity at the center o f the w orld : sp ace, history, and m od ern ity in Q u ito / Ernesto Capello.
p. cm . — (Pitt Latin A m e ric a n studies)
In clu d es bibliographical references an d index.
IS B N -13 : 978-0-8229-6166-6 (pbk. : a lk . paper)
IS B N -10 : 0-8229-6166-0 (pbk. : a lk . paper)
1. Q u ito (Ecuador)— H istory. 2. Q u ito (Ecuador)— P op u latio n . 3. Q uito (Ecuador)—
H istoriograph y— Social asp ects. 4. C ollective m em ory— E c u a d o r— Q uito. 5. Historic
p reservatio n — Ecuador— Q u ito — H istory. 6. Place (Philosophy) I. Title.
F 37 8 1.3.C 3 7 2 0 11
9 86.6’i3 — dc23 2011021269
 Contents

List o f Illustrations v ii
Acknowledgm ents ix
Prelude xiii

Chapter l. The Politics and Poetics o f R egio n alism 1

Chapter 2. M app ing the Center o f the W orld 24
Chapter 3. H ispanism o: Site, Heritage, M em o ry 61
Chapter 4. G overnance and the Sovereign C ab ild o 85
Chapter 5. The D u rin i Cosm opolis: C raftin g a H yphenated
V ern acu lar Architecture 115
Chapter 6. A Phantasm agoric Dystopia 147
Chapter 7. Santa C lara de San M illan: T he Politics o f
Indigenous Genealogy 179

Postscript 2 11
Notes 219
Selected Bibliography 263
Index 283
 Illustrations

o .i G uillerm o Illescas, “ U ntitled” (c. early 1920s) xv

1.1 Las C o lon ias Prom enade, G u ayaqu il • 2
1.2 Las Penas, G u ayaq u il 2
1.3 San Francisco Convent, Quito 3
1.4 Surround ings o f Q uito 3
1.5 A lam ed a P ark, Q uito (c. 1900) 13
2 .1 Charles M a rie de La Condam ine, d eta il o f Plan de Quito (1751) 30
2.2 Jorge Ju a n an d A ntonio de U lloa, Plano de la ciudad de
San Francisco de Quito (1748) 31
2.3 J. G ualberto Pérez, Plano de Quito con los pianos de
todas sus casas por ]. Gualberto Pérez (1888) 35
2.4 H. G . H igley, Quito en 1903 (1903) 39
2.5 Paul Loiseau-R ousseau, Geodesic M on u m en t, A lam eda
Park, Q uito 42
2.6 J. G u alb erto Pérez, detail o f Quito actual y del porvenir (1912) 43
2.7 D etail, Plano de la ciudad de Quito para los trabajos del
Censo (1921) 47
víii \ Illustrations

2.8 Luis H errera and Ezequiel R ivad en eira, mid-range detail

o f Plano de la ciudad de Quito levantado (1922) 49
2.9 Luis H errera and Ezequiel R ivad en eira, close-range d etail
o f Plano de la ciudad de Quito (1922) 50
2.10 Froilán H olgu ín Balcázar, Plano indicador de Quito (1935) 55
2 .11 C harles M arie de La C ondam ine, Plan Profil et Élévation
des deux Pyramides 56
2.12 Servicio G eográfico M ilitar, d eta il (photograph of
m on u m en t, lower left) from Plano de la ciudad de Quito
(A p ril 1946) 57
3-1 Façade o f S an Francisco, Q uito 74
3-2 W estern façade o f the royal m o n a ste ry o f El Escorial, S p a in 75
3-3 Cover, fro m Gaceta Municipal (A u g u st 28,1934) 79
3-4 "Bit o f S p a in in South A m erica," fro m New York World
Telegram 83
5-1 Pasaje R o yal, Quito (early 1920s) 116
5-2 Lorenzo D u rin i, San José N atio n al Theater, stairwell (1897) 123
5-3 C o m m em orative photo o f the P laza de la Indepen­ 126
den cia (1906)
5-4 D etail o f com m em orative photo o f the Plaza de la In depen­ 127
den cia on the occasion o f the cen ten n ial celebrations (1909)
5-5. Pedro D u rin i on an A ndean polo pony 131
5-6 Pedro D u rin i, Larrea M au soleu m (1908) 132
5-7 F ran cisco D u rin i, Círculo M ilita r u n d er construction (1920s) 138
5.8 Fran cisco D u rin i, Banco del P ich in ch a (1920s) 140
5-9 Fran cisco D u rin i, G em m a D u rin i H ouse (1940s) 142
5.10 Fran cisco D u rin i, Villa V illagom ez (1932; restoration, 2007) 143
6.1 G u ille rm o Latorre, “ Nuestros h isto rió grafos. Sr. de
G an go ten a de Cristóbal de Jijó n ,” fro m Caricatura (Feb ru ary
2 9 ,19 2 0 ) 158
6.2 G u ille rm o Latorre, cover for Pablo Palacio's novel
De'bora (1927) 161
6-3 K an ela, back cover art for Débora 162
7-1 M ap o f Rosaspam ba, Catalom a, an d Lom agorda 188
 Acknowledgments

T h is book ow es m uch to the su ggestion s, advice, and support o f num erous

people, each o f w hom deserves recognition. I have been fortunate to have been
mentored b y extrao rd in ary teachers, b e gin n in g at Academ ia C o to paxi in Quito,
where A rth u r Pontes and Eric L ittle first awoke m y interest in h isto ry and
M atthew S zw ed a and the late Buddy B u rn isk e taught me the value o f clear prose
and an alytical th inking. A t Vassar C ollege, D avid Schalk and the late H si-H uey
Liang inspired m e to pursue graduate w ork w hile Leslie O ffutt reintroduced me
to Latin A m e ric a and has proved a tireless advocate and true frien d over the
years. I e sp e cia lly th ank M auricio T enorio T rillo , with whom I first discussed
this project over a ram bling walk through A u stin , Texas, that ended w ith empty
coffee cups a n d a host o f fascinating th oughts to be digested. He h as continued
to be a source o f inspiration, a d ed icated advocate, and strategic contrarian
throughout th e m an y phases o f the b o o k ’s developm ent. I w ish to also thank
several oth er m entors, including Jo n ath an Brown, G in ny B u rn ett, Jay Byron,
Jorge C a n iz a re s-E sg u e rra, Shane D avies, S u san D ean s-Sm ith , G a ry Dibble,
Henry D ietz, Seth G arfield, A line H elg, Peter Jelavich, C hristopher Leff, M itch
M iller, M ich ael M urray, and the late D o n ald Olsen.
x \ Acknowledgments

The book h a s a ls o b enefited from th e in v a lu ab le advice o f a n u m b e r

o f colleagues in E c u a d o r and the U nited S ta te s. G u illerm o B u stos o f the
U niversidad A n d in a in Q uito proved an in v alu ab le guide as I first b e g a n to
explore Q uito’s a rc h iv e s, while V aleria C o ro n el and Eduardo K in g m a n o f
the Facultad L a tin o a m e ric a n a de C ien cias S o c ia le s (FL A C SO ) h a ve b een
instrum ental in sh ap in g m y understanding o f Q uiteño and Ecuadorian h isto ry.
C h ad Black was a com rad e in arm s throughout m y research and m ad e critical
m ethodological su gge stio n s that first h elp ed m e consider the p o ssib ility o f
bridging the colo n ial an d national periods. N a n c y A ppelbaum , M arc B ecker,
L in a del C astilo, C o n su elo Figueroa, and th e late T h elm a Foote h a ve read
and com m ented e x te n siv e ly on d rafts of' ch ap ters fo r which I th a n k th em .
M y writing group p artn e rs Pablo Bose, M a rg o Thom son, John W ald ron , and
especially Ignacio L óp ez-V icu ñ a deserve sp e c ia l recognition. O ther v a lu a b le
suggestions for c o n textu alizin g this stu d y w ith in Ecuadorian h isto rio grap h y
have come from X a v ie r A ndrade, C h ristian a Borchardt de Moreno, K im C lark ,
Peter Henderson, A n a M aria Goetschel, M erced es Prieto, Juan R a m o s, B etty
Salazar, M ireya S alg ad o , and Kate Sw anson. I w rote the first draft o f th is book
in New York where Pablo Piccato not only facilitated library access at C o lu m b ia
University but w as a lso a creative listener and frie n d , while Elaine Carey, B renda
Elsey, Thom R a th , C h ristop h R osenm uller, an d M auricio Borrero p ro v id ed
intellectual ca m a ra d e rie during m y tenure in the city. M y colleagues in the
h istory d epartm ents o f the University o f V erm o n t and at M acalester C o llege
fostered a collegial w o rkin g environm ent a n d also provided critical feed b ack
in writing w o rksh op s. I particu larly th a n k E rik Esselstrom , Sean F ield , Jim
O verfield, A m a n i W h itfield , and D enise Y ou n gb loo d at the U n iv e rsity o f
Vermont and L y n n H u dson, Jam ie M on son, a n d Peter RachlefF at M acalester
College. I also th a n k R am ó n Rivera-Servera fo r h is ongoing friendsh ip an d for
his advice at a c ru c ia l m om ent in the project’s developm ent.
This book w o u ld not have been p o ssib le w ith out m uch fin a n c ia l an d
institutional su p p o rt. V assar College gran ted m e a Dorothy Evans Fellow sh ip
for alum ni g rad u a te stu d y while the h is to ry d epartm ent at the U n iv e rsity
o f Texas at A u s tin provid ed me w ith a U n iv e rsity Fellowship an d a P e rry
Castañeda Fellow sh ip . M y research in E c u a d o r was funded w ith th e su p p o rt
o f a Fulbright HE Fellow ship and facilitated b y the impressive in d ivid u als w ho
ran the Fulbright C o m m issio n , including fo rm e r director Susana C a b e z a de
Vaca, A n a L u cia C ó rd o b a, Elena D u ran go, K a ren A gu ilar, and M a ria n g e la
García. The U n iv ersid ad A ndina Sim ón B o lív a r and the F L A C S O in Q u ito
provided in stitu tio n al support while a critic a l post-doctoral research trip w as
funded by the D e a n ’s Fund at the U niversity o f Verm ont. I wish to th a n k M a ry
Helen Q uinn, M a rily n Lehm an, A n n a M a rie M anu zza, Kathy C aro lin , K a th y
T ru ax, and H erta P itm a n for their ad m in istrative support as well as th e scores
o f student w orkers in A u stin , Queens, B u rlin g to n , and Saint Paul w h o have
 Acknow ledgm ents / xi

photocopied, scan n ed , b o u n d , and otherwise su p p orted this book in m an u sc rip t

fo rm , especially L u is a A y a and Ina Rojnic fo r th e ir help w ith the ind ex.
Multiple a rch ivists, lib rarian s, and p rivate in d ivid u a ls facilitated access to
the sources that sh ap ed th is book. A t the A rc h iv o N acion al del E cu ado r, I th an k
G recia Vasco E scu d ero an d M argarita T u fiñ o . A t the A rch ivo M etro po litan o de
Q uito, I thank Dr. Jorge Salvador Lara, D iego C h irib o ga, and M arco C a rrera.
A t the Biblioteca E c u a to ria n a “A urelio E sp in o sa P ó lit” in C o to collao, I th a n k
its form er director, R .P . José Ayerve, who w as graciou s enough to allo w arch ival
access despite the lib r a r y ’s closure and a lso O rlan d o Bracho. I th a n k G eorge
W eingard, who in tro d u c e d m e to Pedro D u r in i, w ho h as b een e x tre m e ly
generous by not o n ly agreeing to participate in an oral h isto ry but also facilitated
access to the D u rin i C o llection at the M u seo de la C iu dad . X im en a E n d ara and
A ndrea Moreno m ad e m y working in the D u rin i archives a pleasure d espite the
collection not yet b e in g fu lly catalogued. I th an k G lo ria Gangotena de M o n tu far
an d Carlos Freile fo r th eir help in accessing th e C risto b al G an go ten a y jijó n
papers at the U n iv ersid ad S an Francisco de Q u ito. Perhaps no single a rch ivist
h as been more h e lp fu l th a n José Vera Vera at th e Fondo Jijón y C a a m a ñ o o f the
Banco Central d el E cu ad o r. 1 wish to also acknow ledge the entire s ta ff o f the
Banco Central lib ra rie s, especially H onorio G ran ja, and o f the B iblioteca de la
Universidad A n d in a S im ó n Bolívar, the B iblioteca de la Pontificia U n iversid ad
Católica del E cu ad o r, th e Benson Collection o f the U niversity o f T exas Libraries,
the New York P u b lic L ibrary, the C olum bia U n iversity Libraries, the St. Jo h n ’s
University L ib rary, th e U niversity o f M in n e so ta Libraries, and th e L ib ra ry o f
Congress, e sp e cia lly G in n y M ason who gave m e a behind the scenes glance at
the library’s m ap collection. I wish to p artic u la rly th ank the sta ff o f the B ailey-
Howe Library at th e U niversity o f Verm ont an d the DeWitt W allace L ib rary at
M acalester C ollege, esp ecially the inter-library loan staff.
I m ust also h ig h lig h t the extrao rd in ary su p p o rt that I have received fro m
the U niversity o f P ittsb u rg h Press. I m u st first th an k the Pitt L a tin A m e ric a
Series editors, Jo h n C h asteen and C atherin e C on agh an , for their en th u siasm
for the m an uscript an d also John Beverley fo r h is early interest in m y w ork. T he
professionalism o f th e sta ff at the press h a s m ad e a com plex process incred ibly
sm ooth. Special recog n ition is due to Jo sh Shan h oltzer for h is ch am p io n in g
o f the project a n d h is levelheaded advice over the past two years. I also th a n k
M aureen Crem er B em k o and Deborah M ead e for their copyediting advice, A n n
W alston for her strik in g cover design, and also David Baum ann, M a ria Sticco,
and especially A le x W olfe. 1 am p a rtic u la rly gratefu l to the two an o n ym o u s
reviewers whose su ggestions strongly im proved the final m an uscript and to K ris
Lane and M ark O verm yer-Velasquez for th eir comments.
W riting is in m a n y ways a social enterprise. I particularly th an k m y frien d s
and colleagues E lle n A rn o ld , E m ily B erq u ist, Jam es and K avita B h a n d a ry -
Alexander, K a rl a n d B rienne Brown, D aniel B ryan , A m anda C iafon e an d D an
xii \ Acknowledgments

G ilb e rt, Paul Deslandes, Jerem y D ro sin , Jordana D y m , L au ren Fichtel, M ary
Ellen Fieweger, M oya Foley, S a lly F ran k lin , Juan G arcía, A ld o G arcía-Guevara,
L a rry G u tm a n , Chris and V ick i H artm a n , Dan H aw orth, B ryen Jordan, A n n a
L a b y k in a , Pepo Lapaz, Je ffre y L e ib , Jason Lowery, Jo h a n n a M aron and N ed
S ch o dek , A b b y M cGowan, Terence M urren, Lara N ielsen, th e O rtm an fam ily,
M ick R itte r, Jerem y Sm erd , L e o Sotom ayor, C lay S te in m a n , M ark Stoler,
Patrick T im m o n s, Julio V argas, L u is Vivanco, A lex Z a k a ra s, and Frank Zelko. I
also w ish to th an k m y fam ily, e sp e cia lly Carol Boland, H azel and Ernie Boland,
N ap o C ap elo , Bernice and E . G . C o n k lin , Carol and A la n Perim eter, Jessica
P erim eter an d A nthony C o c h ra n e , L illia n and Jack Perim eter, and N ancy
S u lliv a n a n d M ichael A p ic e lli. M y grandparents C r is tin a and A lejan d rin o
C ap ello were am ong the th o u san d s o f m idcentury p rovin cial m igrants to Quito,
and th eir m em ory was alw ays a n in spiration . M y sistets, C ristin a and E m ily
C ap ello , h ave been com rades a n d intellectual com batants fo r so m any years,
an d I th a n k them for their e m o tio n a l support and th eir cau stic humor. 1 w ish
to th a n k m y parents, the late Jorge C apello and Kathy B o lan d Capello, for that
fo u n d a tio n a l decision to ra ise th e ir ch ildren b in atio n ally, fo r their love and
encouragem en t, and especially fo r en su rin g that there were alw ays books upon
the table, even in lean times.
F in a lly , I w ish to express m y love, gratitude, and a d m iratio n for Rachel
Perim eter. N ot only did she first suggest that I m ight en jo y exploring Q uito’s
h isto ry, b u t she has also d isc u sse d , read, edited, re-read, an d re-edited every
word o f th e dozens o f papers, articles, and m anuscripts th a t have culm inated in
this b o o k . She has patiently en d u red nightly w riting w oes, clarified convoluted
sy n ta x , a n d know n when to encou rage m y more fa n c ifu l ideas and when to let
th em d issip ate. She is sim ply th e m o st beautiful,' stim u la tin g , and dedicated
person I h ave ever known.
 Prelude

O n th e aftern o o n o f Frid ay , D ecem ber 6, 2002, at th e Plaza de Toros on

Q uito’s upper-class north side, approxim ately eighty people gathered to protest
b u llfigh ts celebrating the an n iversary o f the Spanish fou n d in g o f the c ity .' The
carn ivalesq u e spectacle, d u b b ed “ K ito A nti-Taurino,” wove am ong a reveling
crow d th at was rife w ith Ib e ria n textu res— flat-b rim m ed som breros, gaily
patterned ponchos, and w in esk in s brought out for the holiday. The protesters
u n fu rle d banners ch allen gin g the Eurocentric festivities by proclaim ing the
p re-C o lu m b ian origin o f the c ity w ith a banner on w h ich a broad black line
slash ed through “1534,” the y e a r when conquistador S eb astián de Benalcázar
first arrived in the equatorial valley. Ribald clowns w ith painted faces satirized
the ritu a l violence o f the b u llfig h t, using juggling pins to stand in for the beasts’
h orn s and the m atadors’ sabers w hile denouncing the “ b lood th irsty” practice
as antithetical to the deep A n d ea n “respect for life and natu re.” In the m idst o f
the cacophony, a storm o f flyers and broadsides took the battle to an ontological
level, arguing that the word Quitu stem m ed from an ancient Sh yri Indian term
m ean in g “center o f the w orld."
S even ty-six years earlier, on M ay 29, 1936— an oth er F rid ay— the upper
xiv \ Prelude

echelon o f Q uito’s diplom atic and ad m in istrative corps had gathered n ear the
sm all town o f S a n A n to n io de Pichincha, tw en ty-seven kilom eters n o rth o f
the Ecuadorian ca p ita l. The dusty desert la n d sca p e contrasted sh arp ly w ith
the elegant co attails an d stovepipe hats o f th ese lu m inaries, whose presence
graced a site where eighteenth-century French geographer Charles M a rie d e La
Condam ine had erected a com memorative p y ra m id , destroyed in 1747 b y order
o f the Spanish C row n due to its inclusion o f the French fleur-de-lis. F lan k ed by
m ustachioed French colonel Georges Perrier, actin g president and som etim es
d ictator Federico Paez dedicated a new m o n u m en t, based upon the o rig in a l,
to celebrate the bicentennial o f the original m issio n . Designed by L u is T u fin o ,
m ilitary cartographer and director o f the N atio n al Observatory, the m onu m ent
site would become a to u rist complex know n as the M itad del M undo (m eaning
m iddle or center o f th e world) and a key com po n en t in the developm ent o f a
regional tourist in d u stry trading upon the ca p ita l’s equatorial location.
The previous decade, am ateur photographer G u illerm o Illescas d ocum en ted
th e Chim bacalle tra in station in Q uito’s so u th ern environs (fig. 0.1). O ne o f
h is photographs, m o st lik ely posed, is d o m in a ted b y the outward g aze o f a
hardened indigenous m an who sits on the cu rb w ith bare feet outstretched w hile
he carefully clutches a c ru st o f bread in his rig h t h an d , which is cradled in his
left, as one m ight receive Com m union. The b ro ad brim o f his coarse w h ite h at
shields his eyes, w h ile a rope emerges from h is p onch o to advertise his profession
as a porter. W om en su rrou n d him on either side. The older w om an, p ossib ly
h is wife, and the yo u n g wom an, possibly h is daughter, bow their heads as th ey
reach for items fro m th e gunnysacks at their feet while a young boy in a flo pp y
black hat pleads fo r a m orsel from the girl, p resu m ably his mother. B eh in d the
fam ily stand representatives o f the city’s m otley population— an elderly beggar
w om an hiding u n d e r a crum pled fedora, tw o chalina-clad girls ch attin g over
bags o f produce, an d a light-skinned dandy. T h is last figure completes Illescas’s
critiq ue o f the c ity ’s stagn an t inequality; th e m a n ’s three-piece su it, w a lk in g
stick , cigarette h old er, an d apparent p o m p o sity desperately co n trad ict the
poverty-stricken scene at his feet. He is a sy m b o l o f fashionable m o d e rn ity in
an unchanging society.
The porter and h is fam ily, however, also p articip ate as active agents in the
c ity ’s shifting m o d ern p u lse by virtu e o f th e ir engagem ent with the lo a d in g
and unloading o f tra in cars at a railroad statio n , a little more than a decade
old , which conn ected Q uito to the port o f G u a y a q u il and thus to th e w orld
econom y. The p h o to g ra p h e r’s vision o f h is to ry b elies this d y n a m ism an d
accentuates stagn atio n , a stance contradicted b y the lived experience o f h is
subject (the porter). T h is rhetorical (re)production o f tradition pregnan t w ith
social denunciations itse lf corresponds to tropes advocated not only b y Illescas
but also, increasingly, b y other activists skeptical o f the tenets o f m odern ization
and progress tru m peted by elites and state b u ild ers. Yet the construct itse lf also
exists as sim ulacrum in a city far from the global core.
 Prelude / xv

Fig. 0 .1. G uillerm o Ille sc a s, "U n titled " (c. early 1920s). C o u rte sy A rch ivo H istórico, B an co C e n ­
tral del Ecuador.

These three im ages suggest the resilien ce a n d contestation su rro u n d in g

a trope id en tifyin g Q u ito as the center o f th e w o rld , a conceit w ith m u ltip le
definitions and a co m p lex developm ent th a t th is b o ok seeks to u n rav el an d
trace. In p a rtic u la r, 1 explore a series o f m a n ip u la tio n s o f Q u ito ’s h is to ry
that crysta lliz e d b e tw e e n the 1880s and th e 19 4 0 s, a period o f e x p lo siv e
m odernization, so c ia l upheaval, and d em o grap h ic grow th that p arad o x ic a lly
coincided with efforts to preserve the city’s co lo n ial core and to develop a vib ran t
tourist econom y b a se d on the cap ital’s h is to ric a l legacy. A s the se e m in g ly
solid firm am ent o f a lon g stagnant city d isap p eared , quiteños needed to fin d a
definable history, one th at would be a psych ic anchor and also serve as a spatial
framework for en gagin g a shifting cityscape.
A sem inal m om en t occurred in the w ake o f the 1895 Liberal R evo lu tio n ,
which tra d itio n a lly h a s been interpreted a s a sig n a l o f the risin g p ow er o f
Ecuador’s coastal p lan ter elite, concentrated in th e great port o f G u a y a q u il, at
the expense o f the h ig h la n d aristocracy, w hose fortunes had long been lin k e d to
Quito’s political and econom ic hegemony. O f p artic u la r im portance were rad ical
reform s that c h alle n g e d corporate p riv ile g e s, spon sored public w o rk s, an d
com m itted to the secularization o f the state. T h is interpretation p rio ritizes an
essential political-econom ic analysis h igh ligh tin g the nation’s expan d in g access
to global m arkets an d national integration, e sp e cia lly after the com pletion o f a
railroad between the tw o cities in 1908. H owever, becau se the Liberal R evolution
occurred as p a r t o f a continuu m o f p o sitivist refo rm ism across the n in eteenth
century, it should not b e a central focus. M oreover, the traditional d yn am ics that
xvi \ Prelude

operated among v a rio u s elem ents o f society d id not prevent change bu t in stead
w ere essentially g en erative, enabling in d iv id u a ls an d collectives fro m across
sociopolitical h ierarch ies to position th em selves in a global and in c rea sin g ly
local m arketplace w h ere h isto ry could serve as b o th resource and p olitical tool.
B y embracing and p e d d lin g visions o f the city as m u seu m , as phan tasm agoria,
or as allegorical rep o sito ry o f universal C ath o licism , these groups, in stitu tio n s,
fa m ilie s, and c o m m u n itie s defined and created a Q uito respond in g to an d
rooted in a “ historic” identity.
T hese c o n stru ctio n s represented m od ern in ven tio n s, to be sure, b u t not
solely o f the sta te-d rive n form o f n ation alist p o litic a l theater tied to o fficial
p agean try and in ven ted h olidays described b y E ric Hobsbawrfi an d T erence
R an ger, though th ese c e rta in ly played a p a r t.2 In stead , the rein ven tio n s o f
Q u ito ’s colonial p a st rep resen t d ialogical p rocesses involving re-en co un ters
w ith tenets som etim es centuries old or on ly gen eration s rem oved fro m th eir
o rig in . The actors m o st involved in these d isc u rsiv e form ulations p rim a rily
cam e from the city’s trad itio n al elite but also in clu d ed sh iftin g constellations o f
in d ivid u als, fam ilies, m ig ra n ts, and even in d igen ou s com m unities w ell aware
o f the power inherent in controlling history. T h ese salient re-im aginings o f the
c ity ’s past thus d em onstrate not only the role o f tradition as a generating force in
quiteño m odernity b u t a lso the dynam ism and resilience o f an urban p o p u latio n
contending with ra d ica l change.3
T h e series o f lenses I use to exam ine this d ia lo g ical process are d eterm in ed
b y p articular n arrative configurations o f space an d tim e, or what the R u ssia n
c ritic M ik h ail B a k h tin c a lls the chronotope (literally, space-tim e).4 B a k h tin
argues that chronotopes determ ine the scope an d style o f a given literary genre
b y co d ifyin g a m ea n s o f apprehending and m o v in g through space w ith in a
tem poral trajectory. F o r exam ple, classical ad ven tu re m yth s featu re a h ero
traversing m ultiple la n d sca p es w ith little a tten tio n to a realistic ch ro n o lo g y
w h ile folktales depend o n the irruption o f idyllic q uietud e by the carn ivalesqu e
presence o f rogues, fo o ls, or buffoons. He a d d s th at these genres con cretize
social relations by v irtu e o f their repetition, in a m an n er rem iniscent o f M au rice
H albw achs s views o f collective mem ory.5 Like B ak h tin , Halbwachs argu es that
a group fram ed b y sh ared encounters d epends u p o n constant (re)affirm ation
o f their collective m em o ries, languages, and cod es. O nly through reiteration
can the collective con tin u e to exist. This process depends on proxim ity, re g u la r
engagem ent, cod ifiable term inology, com m on locales, and dialogue. M e m o ry
thus becomes spatial a n d tangible in its form u lation but also contingent u p o n a
discursive and d ialo g ical process.
D urin g the fin-de-siglo, Q uito becam e th e site and the b ackd ro p to th e
creation o f a n u m b er o f groups whose a rtic u la tio n as com m u nities h elp ed
determ ine the shape a n d character o f their city, ju st as they were th em selves
constructed by their environm ent. This stu d y addresses the c rystallizatio n o f
six m ajor chronotopes, th a t is, six critical acts o f com prehending, con stru ctin g,
 Prelude / xvii

and explaining Q u ito’s u rb an m ilieu that w ould prove to be o f lasting cu ltu ral
and social im port.6 E ach resonates with ancient m ean in g yet crystallized in the
specific historical age associated with the c it y ’s tw entieth-céntury upheaval.
T h e book suggests th a t each chronotope p la c e d the historical experience o f
a p articular group o f in d ivid u a l and collective actors at the center o f a global
m etan arrative.7 T h e selective deploym ent o f th ese collective m yth o lo gies
accentuated the p ow er, econom ic strength , a n d v e rsa tility o f the grou p s in
question, which in clu d e elite H ispanist in te lle c tu a ls, m ilitary cartographers,
the m em bers o f a n in d igen o u s com m une, a n d a fa m ily o f im m igrant Sw iss-
Italian architects. F ro m these various p osition s, each group claim ed the right
to reinvent Q uito’s geograph ic form and h isto ry on its own term s. B y tracing
each chronotope’s o rig in s and reflecting u p on th e ir contem porary resonance,
the book reveals h ow th e plasticity o f h isto ry and m em ory has (re)shaped the
spatial and cultural lan d scap e o f the city to the present day.
M y exploration b e g in s w ith a ch ap ter p ro v id in g a panoram ic v iew o f
Q uito’s fin-de-siglo h is to ry that seeks to locate th is m om ent w ithin the context
o f extended regio n alist discourses. C itizen sh ip (vecindad) in colonial Span ish
A m erica associated lo c a l urban identity w ith belon gin g to a universal corpus
such as the Spanish n ation or the Catholic C h u rc h .8 1 locate the cru cial nature
o f regionalist p o litic s an d poetics in E c u a d o r’s postcolonial h isto ry as an
outgrowth o f th is b ifu rc a te d form ulation o f collective identity. There follows
a broader d iscu ssio n o f the rivalry betw een E c u a d o r’s coastal and A n d ea n
regions in the n in eteen th and early tw entieth cen turies. I particu larly focu s
on the degree to w h ich aspirations toward u n iv e rsa lity colored expressions o f
regional identity th at w ere sim ilar to colonial notions o f citizenship. Extending
the analysis o f K im C la rk , who has argued th a t the Liberal program in Ecu ador
was tinged with m etaph ors equating the coast w ith progress and the A n d es w ith
stagnation, I m a in ta in th at the Liberal R evolu tio n proponents’ concern w ith
positivist narratives necessitated a reh abilitated im age o f Quito as a h isto ric
center.9 The stirrin gs o f nostalgic regionalism as national phenomena m arked
the configurations o f actors, identities, and spaces th at developed in the w ake o f
Liberal reform s.
I subsequently trace th e intellectual a n d p olitical genealogy that gave rise
to fin-de-siglo attem p ts b y discrete segm ents o f quiteño society to lay claim to
the city’s essential id en tity by elaborating u n iversalizin g chronotopes. I locate
the colonial and nineteenth-cen tury p recu rsors o f these totalizing discourses
by following an arch aeological approach th at acknowledges the internal logic o f
each chronotope w h ile underscoring its contingency. The narratives crafted in
the early twentieth cen tu ry deployed and m an ip u lated these earlier fram ew orks
yet should be considered m anipulations an d inventions by specific collectives o f
actors seeking to estab lish footholds o f know ledge, power, or economic vitality
w ith in a rapidly m o d e rn iz in g city. I also h ig h lig h t the traces o f chronotope
form ation and th eir continued sociocultural im port in the contem porary city.
xviii\ Prelude

C h apters 2 through 4 focus on in stitu tio n a l fo rm u latio n s o f Q uito as a

historic center ripe for tourism d eveloped by state organizations w hose interests
at times coalesced with those o f oth er establishm ent actors bu t ju st as frequently
diverged. T h e state did not act m on o lith ically in constituting Q u ito as a city o f
m em ory bu t instead operated from a confluence o f im pulses fra m e d b y internal
organizational logics.
C h apter 2 traces the historic ties betw een cartographic p rod u ction and the
m etaphorical construction o f Q u ito as th e mitad del mundo. C o lo n ia l im agery
depicted Q u ito as a new Rom e, a n d an eighteenth-century Fran co-H ispanic
mission to m easure the arc o f the n earb y equatorial m eridian broad en ed global
scientific in terest in the equ atorial A n d e a n province. T h e a lle g o ry lin king
Q uito’s geo g rap h ic and scien tific c e n tra lity continued to flo u r is h during
the n in eteen th and twentieth c e n tu rie s. T he process o f lo c a l cartograp h ic
production ultim ately became in stitu tio n alized within the M ilita ry Geographic
Service (Servicio Geográfico M ilitar, or S G M ), which used m ap p in g to produce
a sanitized vision o f Quito’s touristic predilections during th e 19 20 s and 1930s.
M onum ents an d com m em oration h ave inscribed this ch ron oto p e up on the
urban landscape.
One o f the prim ary m arketing strategies in the developm ent o f th is tourist
econom y concerned Quito’s ren o w n ed colonial architecture. T h e im age o f a
city d efined b y its Iberian heritage w as cultivated b y conservative intellectuals
seeking to situate Quito w ithin a g lo b a l m ovem ent called H isp a n ism , which
theorized a com m on cultural c o m m u n ity am ong Spain a n d th e nations o f
Spanish A m e rica. Chapter 3 traces th e role the National A c a d e m y o f H istory
(A cadem ia N acional de H istoria) p la y e d in creating a m y th o lo giz e d Spanish
Quito. A lly in g itse lf with the m u n ic ip a lity , this body su cceed ed in reifyin g
the racial pow er im balance o f the ca p ita l while ju stify in g the p reservation of
its colonial city center even as m o d e rn structures arose in its en viron s. These
m ultiple restrictions and the c o n tin u in g activism o f its c u ltu ra l elite m arked
Quito as a p otential World H eritage Site, an award bestow ed b y U N E S C O in
1978. It was the first urban center to receive the honor.
The invention o f Quito as a S p a n ish city found a m ajor a lly in th e m unicipal
governm ent d u rin g the 1930s, largely as a result o f the presence o f Conservative
activists led b y the industrialist an d h isto ria n Jacinto Jijón y C a a m a ñ o and his
successor, G ustavo Mortensen. D u rin g th at decade, the m u n icip al governm ent
engaged in a series o f political sk irm ish e s w ith the national go vern m en t over
control o f p lan s for the city’s fu tu re developm ent, a battle th at p itted national
p arty lead ers against each other a s w ell as local officials. C h a p ter 4 situates
the c o n flict as an outgrowth o f a cen tu ry -o ld tug-of-w ar b e tw e e n the city
governm ent an d the national state. It em phasizes the im p act o f th is struggle
on urb an p la n n in g m easures b e tw e e n th e rise o f the P ro g re ssiv e P arty at
the national level, in 1885, and th e ad op tio n o f the city’s first m aster plan, in
1942. I argu e th at the success o f th e conservative m u n icip ality b u ilt upon its
 Prelude / xix

a d m in istra to rs’ ability to h a rn e ss a “n eo co lo n ial” d ece n tra liz atio n o f local

governance n ation ally while system atically im plem enting m od ern m easures to
centralize Q uito’s sociospatial ord er at the local level.
C h ap ters 5 through 7 move fro m an em phasis on in stitu tio n al chronotopes
to a fo cu s on ind ivid uals, fa m ilie s, an d collectives recently incorp orated into
the u rb an fabric. Trading on p erso n al identity and com m unal h isto ry provided
flexib ility fo r groups navigating th e u n fa m ilia r contours o f the m o d ern city.
These chapters also demarcate strategic m anipulations o f narratives o f personal,
local, n a tio n a l, and global h isto ry. G ro u p s that were p art o f the u rb an fabric
not on ly w eathered Quito’s ch allen ges but also inverted tra d itio n a l narratives
by situ atin g th eir own past at the cen ter o f the city’s chronotopical landscape.
C h ap ter 5 considers the d ifficu ltie s o f traversing the b u rgeo n in g real estate
and c o n s tru c tio n m arkets th a t a cco m p an ied Q u ito’s d em o g ra p h ic boom
from the p ersp ective o f the D u r in i fa m ily , recent S w iss-Ita lia n im m igran ts
who e sta b lish ed the city’s p re m ie r arch itectu ral firm . E xten sive research in
the h ith e rto unavailable D u rin i b u sin ess archives reveals a fa m ily deploying
its cosm op olitan heritage and tra in in g in order to establish its e lf in what was
o rig in a lly a relatively “p ro v in c ia l” d esign m arket. I a rgu e th a t th e fa m ily ’s
sen sitiv ity to th eir elite clien ts’ d esire fo r m odern sop h istication helped the
firm rise to the pinnacle o f the profession, in the process creating a hyphenated
v e rn a c u la r arch itectu re p e c u lia r to th e fa m ily ’s adopted c ity y e t reflecting
international norm s and styles.
C h a p te r 6 features a n o th er, serie s o f m igran ts— a c a d re o f p ro vin cial
in te lle c tu a ls lin k ed by a co m m o n an tip ath y to the m y th o lo g y o f Q u ito’s
tra d itio n a list im age— that fig u res in to risin g hopes for a revo lu tio n ary city.
T h eir d en u n ciation s o f tra d itio n a l view s o f Q uito o rigin a te d in nineteenth-
cen tury lib eralism and were elab orated in the ascetic novels w ritten b y socialist
nationalists and indigenistas d u rin g the 1930s. I compare these published portraits
to the transcendental im aginaries o f th e avant-garde, whose am bivalen ce about
the c it y ’s present colored th eir e q u a lly bem used view o f its fu tu re potential
and b egged the question as to w h eth er m odernity had ever visited the ancient
A n d ean citadel.
T h ese denunciations attem p ted to decenter the protagonistic role ascribed
to the ca p ita l in institutional h isto rio grap h y, p artly b y d eveloping narratives
fe a tu rin g elite exploitation o f r u r a l p op u latio n s an d in c o m in g m igran ts.
However, th ey did not incorporate the voices o f indigenous peoples them selves,
whose engagem ent with the d isco u rse s o f Q uito’s h isto ricity is th e subject o f
chapter 7. T h is chapter traces th e developm ent o f a chronotope o f indigenous
autonom y w ith an em phasis on th e com m unity o f Santa C lara de San M illan ,
in Q u ito ’s n o rth ern en viro n s, w h o se struggle w ith the m u n ic ip a lity over
co m m u n al landholdings had b e g u n soon after the Conquest. U sin g civil court
cases, n o ta ry docum ents, and th e com m u n ity co u n cil’s m in u tes, I argue that
Santa C la ra exploited the political an d economic o p p ortu n ity afforded by urban
xx \ Prelude

incorporation w h ile sim ultaneously m an ipu latin g land histories and com m unal
genealogy to su sta in both a m easure o f autonom y and relative in tern al stability.
M y d is c u s sio n o f these p ara lle l ch ron otopical n arratives ch allen ges the
traditional h isto rio grap h y o f Q uito, w h ich has largely considered th is m om ent
as a ly n c h p in in the developm ent o f m od ern class identity. T h e im po rtan t
works o f L u c a s A ch ig and F ern an d o C a rrio n , for instance, b u ild on M anuel
C astells’s in flu e n tia l observation th a t th e m odernization o f u rb a n form and
construction o f m onum ental avenues à la the Cham ps-Elysées in th e fin-de-siglo
Latin A m e ric a n city demarcated zones o f elite hegem ony an d lim ited subaltern
access to th e centers o f power.10 O th ers, including G u illerm o B u stos, M ilton
Luna, and M a n u e l Espinosa A polo, h ave extended this an alysis to questions o f
cultural o r ra c ia l identity, again su b ord in ated to class.“ W h ile m y stu d v does
not contradict these authors’ conclusions th at race and class severely constrained
an in d iv id u a l’s social p o ssib ilities, it d oes suggest th at c o rp o ra te identity
was e xtrem ely flu id and m u ltivocal. A s such, this work has m ore in com m on
with E d u a rd o K in gm an ’s exh a u stive stu d y o f urban h ygien e th a t attem pts
to situate Q u ito ’s spatial alterations betw een i860 and 1940 as ou tgrow ths o f
sh ifting e lite visio n s o f the u rb an polis, in w hich the id en tificatio n o f place
with class is p aram o u n t.12 H ow ever, it also questions the co n tin u e d support
K ingm an d isp la y s for Castells’s b asic presupposition o f collusio n am ong elites
and in te lle c tu a ls hoping to prove th e ir “m odern” cred entials th rou gh urban
p lan n in g.13 I m ain ta in that n o th in g c o u ld be fu rth e r fro m th e tru th , as the
upper class exh ibited a su m m arily am b ivalen t attitude tow ard a m ovem ent that
fu n d am en tally challenged their trad itio n al prerogatives.
T his b o o k a lso seeks to advance a broad er understanding o f th e dialectical
relatio n sh ip betw een “ tradition” a n d “p rogress” in the fo rm a tio n o f Latin
A m erican cities. A lthough early a n a ly sts o f the urban h isto ry o f L atin A m erica,
p articu larly Jorge H ardoy and R ic h a rd M orse, attended to c u ltu ra l resonance
between th e colonial and m odern cities, the question o f the im p act o f cultural
mores did n o t receive substantive critic ism u ntil the late tw en tieth cen tury.14
This situ atio n h as begun to change; scholars such as M auricio Tenorio, M arisol
de la C a d e n a , an d M ark O verm yer-V elâzquez have h igh ligh ted th e economic
and p olitical benefits o f adopting a “ trad itio n alist” urban im a g in a ry .15 M y work
seeks to b u ild up on the insights o f th ese studies b y dem onstrating the degree to
which “ h is to ry ” proved a tradable com m od ity that provided a pliable blueprint
for the co n stru ctio n o f m odern Q u ito. I thus hope to illu m in a te the degree to
which even a q u ain t polis, som etim es thought o f as “ backw ard ” and “ isolated,”
refram ed th e parad igm s o f m od ern ity an d established its righ t to b e considered
not only a g lo b a l capital but, indeed, the city at the center o f th e w orld .16
City at thè Center of thè World
 Chapter 1

The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism

In 1935, as part o f an early attem pt to develop a to u rist econom y in Ecuador, th e

Direccion General de P ro p agan d a y Turism o issued a series o f picture postcards
designed to advertise the c o u n try ’s charm s to the w orld at large. Printed in Italy
b y the Instituto G eografico de A gostini, the series w as available in sepia, b lu e,
or green and sold as sets as w ell as individually.
T h e pictures on th e fift y postcards are e q u a lly d ivid ed am ong im ages o f
the coastal and A n d ean region s o f the country, w ith tw o landscapes from each
area and tw enty-three sh ots o f each o f the c o u n try ’s tw o largest cities, Q u ito
and G uayaquil, in d icatin g th e im portance o f these tw o u rb an centers. Perhaps
m ore revealing o f the c itie s’ im portan ce is the rh eto rical schem a d eveloped
throughout the collection . O f the tw enty-three G u a y a q u il postcards, tw en ty-
tw o feature tw entieth-century construction (parks, prom enades, and statues o f
prom inent independence heroes) while the tw enty-th ird features a bare-chested
y o u n g m an rowing a tra d itio n a l dugout canoe b y m oo n ligh t down the G u a y a s
River. O f the tw enty-th ree Q uito postcards, one d u ly features a p on ch o-clad
indigenous boy herding sheep in the woods o f Itchim bia in the eastern environs
o f th e city. Three d em o n strate the new b u ild in g o f th e C entral U niversity (an
2 \ T h e Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

Fig. 1 .1 . L a s Colonias P rom enade, G u a yaq u il. C ourtesy L ib ra ry o f C o n gress, Prints & Photo­
g ra p h s D iv isio n , lot 2779.

Fig. 1 .2 . L a s Penas, G u ayaq u il. C o u rte sy Library o f C ongress, P rin ts & Photographs D ivision,
lot 2779.

in stitu tio n dating to 1651), w h ile the rem aining nin eteen featu re colonial-era
churches.
T ak en as a set, the p ostcard s serve as a panoram ic perfo rm an ce o f regional
stereotyp es. G uayaquil is offered to the m odern to u rist eager to stroll along a
p ro m en ad e w ith lovely y o u n g girls in spring dresses (fig. 1.1) and represented
b y a ga lla n t, im ported fro m im pressionist A rgenteuil, w h o prepares to launch a
yach t at the “ tourist p arad ise ” o f Las Peñas (fig. 1.2). Q u ito, m eanwhile, seem s
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 3

Fig. 1.3 . San Francisco C onvent, Q u ito . C ourtesy Library o f C on gress, P rin ts & Photographs
D iv is io n , lot 2779.

Fig. 1.4 . Surroundings o f Q uito. C o u rte sy Library o f C ongress, P rin ts & Photographs D ivision,
lo t 2779.

m ore like a m useum to b e ad m ired by the connoisseur o f baroque antiquity,

ad o rn ed as it is by su m p tu ou s colonnades, m ajestic interior courtyards, priests
(fig. 1.3), and, if one passes into the countryside, picturesque Indians (fig. 1.4).
T h e postcards offer an im pression o f bifurcation, one that equates G uayaquil
w ith m odernity and Q uito w ith tradition.
W h ile this binary stem s p artially from each tow n’s architectural record (old
G u a ya q u il having been largely destroyed in an 1896 fire and Quito boasting one
4 \ The Politics and Poetics of Regionalism

Table 1.1 M in istry o f Tourism sam ple p ostcard s and captions

No. C ity Im age title Postcard caption*

G u ayaq u il Las Colonias V isit Ecuador, that welcom es you.

Promenade E njoy the m odern conveniences o f our
cities.
G u ayaqu il Bolivar Park T h e favorable money exch an ge m akes
E cu a d o r one o f the m ost in expensive
T o u rist Countries to visit. T h e rate o f
exch ange is stabilized at 15 su cres per
dollar.
10 Q uito Façade—La V isit Ecuador, land o f h is to ry and
Com pañía trad ition , land o f ancient an d colonial
a rt. See the celebrated ch u rch es o f San
Fran cisco, La C om pañía, L a M erced.
25 Itchim bia Surroundings V isit Ecuador, let her en chan t yo u w ith
o f Quito h er clear sky and pleasant clim ates,
w ith h er abundant curative w aters and
w ith h er m any and lu sciou s fru its.

'T h e captions are th e o rig in al translations on th e p ostcard s.

Source: Lib rary o f C on gress, Prints & Photographs D iv isio n , lot 2779.

o f the best preserved colonial centers in S o u th Am erica), the rhetoric a lso exhib­
its a more d eliberate plan to capitalize on a d en ial o f coevalness.1 T h e postcard
text, presented in both English and S p a n ish on the back o f each c a rd , crystal­
lizes this schem atic (table 1.1). G u ayaqu il is fram ed as a favorable bu sin ess zone,
with con tem p orary architecture and c u ltiva te d urban green space, where one
receives the “m o d ern conveniences o f o u r cities” and “ the favorable curren cy
exchange rate . . . at 15 sucres per d o lla r.” T h e m ajesty o f Q uito, on th e other
hand, signifies th e “ land o f h istory and trad ition , land o f ancient a n d colonial
a rt” where one can “see the celebrated churches o f San Francisco, L a C om pañ ía,
La M erced.”
This presentation o f G uayaquil an d Q u ito as the sym bolic, p o litic a l, eco­
nomic, and so cial engineers o f region al identities b y no m eans exp ressed the
contem porary or, worse, the h isto rical situ atio n o f E cu ado rian regio n alism .
Instead, it d isp lays a particularly b an al attem p t to profit from conventions that,
by the 1930s, h ad becom e com m onplace in a coun try that had lon g sought to
overcome th e econom ic and political riv a lry o f these two centers. T h ese rivalries
arose in the p olitics and poetics o f region alism from the colonial p erio d into the
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 5

early tw entieth cen tury. In the com plex relationsh ip between locality, collective
identity, and citizen sh ip , there existed a p rocess whereby a m u ltip o la r colony
dom inated b y th e Q uito m arketplace b ecam e transform ed,- at le ast o fficially,
into a biregion al n ation coalescing aro u n d th e poles o f Quito and G u a y a q u il.
It was this p rocess th at necessitated th e d isp u ta tio n o f Q uito’s p a st an d th at
was itself in fo rm e d b y that com petition to control the city’s fram e. E m b racin g
the identification o f the city with a now m yth olo gized past m ade it possible to
challenge G u a y a q u il’s preeminence as a n atio n al site o f m odernity. In d eed , this
potentiality allow ed Q uito to claim a global signification dating back to the six­
teenth cen tu ry— a h istory that could propel the city toward future glories.

Quito as Colonial Capital

The h isto ry o f regionalism in Ecuador rests on a firm foundation lin k in g u r­

ban spaces w ith citizen sh ip— a system w ith roots in the colonial era. B egin n in g
in 1501, w ith Q u een Isabella’s presentation o f detailed in struction s to N icolás
de O vando re g a rd in g the design o f San to D o m in go, centrally p la n n e d u rb an
settlements b ecam e the adm inistrative, com m ercial, and m ilitary cornerstones
o f Spanish ru le over a vast rural h in terlan d . T hese ideal cities w ere ch aracter­
ized by the use o f a grid plan strongly in flu en ced b y Leon Battista A lb e r ti’s trea­
tises on u rb an fo rm , and, as such, they represented the pinnacle o f R en aissan ce
m odernity. B eyo n d the grid, the Span ish A m e ric an city instituted a p articu la r
social m odel b a sed on proxim ity to the u rb an center. A t the core la y a p la z a that
determ ined th e hieratic and civic center, ch aracterized by the presence o f the ca­
bildo, or m u n icip al council, as well as a ch u rch . T he surrounding b lo ck s housed
the chief citizen s, or vecinos, followed b y m erch an ts, artisans, and m estizos. The
schematic term in ated with poor neighborhoods that abutted sem i-autonom ous
indigenous p arish es or towns (pueblos de indios) in the nearby en viron s, the resi­
dents o f w h ich w o u ld labor for their E u ro p ean overlords but id e a lly rem ain in
their own (rural) sphere. Towns and cities were arranged in an in terlock in g net­
work, with s m a ll tow ns overseeing the su rro u n d in g countryside, la rg e r centers
a d m in isterin g th e sm all towns, and so o n , u p through the viceregal capitals,
which answ ered d irectly to the Crown.
T h is sp a tia l m ap delineated not o n ly th e im perial bu reau cracy b u t also a
c rystallized consideration o f citizen sh ip , or vecindad. T h is C a s tilia n concept
built upon a com plex m atrix o f legal a n d extralegal codes th a t d ete rm in e d
one’s stan d in g in a com m unity according to a set o f norm s seldom d efin ed but
generally u n d e rsto o d . Establishing vecindad necessitated v e rify in g c u sto m a ry
characteristics such as Catholicism , m asc u lin ity , and the intention to reside in
a com m unity. S u ch norm s proved flexib le enough for foreigners to ap p ly for
and achieve vecino status and had p roven enorm ou sly effective d u rin g the Re-
6 \ The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

conquistas p u rgin g o f M oorish and Jewish p op u latio n s. Sim ilar civic stru ctu res
were instituted in the A m ericas but were so o n altered due to sh iftin g c ircu m ­
stances— for in sta n ce , residence requ irem ents d im in ish ed in im p o rta n ce in
areas that h ad b e en settled by Europeans fo r o n ly a short time. In stea d , racial
and at times econom ic distinctions between vecinos becam e established, even as
kinship networks continued to link in d ivid u als across regions according to their
com m on origins in Europe.2
The stru c tu ra l im portance o f locating o n e’s belonging in a c o m m u n ity o f
vecinos in a p a rtic u la r city first and extending th at m em bership to one’s place in
a national (Spanish) or universal (Catholic) c o rp u s nevertheless shaped Sp an ish
A m erican considerations o f vecindad. A t tim es, these sentiments becam e m an i­
fest in panegyrics establishing what R ich ard K a g an has term ed “com m u n icen -
tric” representations o f urban com m unities. T h e se were expressions o f belong­
ing in which in d iv id u a ls and corporations q u a lifie d the particular c h aracteris­
tics that denoted m em bership in their c o m m u n ity o f urban dwellers. E xam p les
include patron sa in ts (of which M exico C ity ’s V irg in o f G uadalupe is th e best
known), urban view s featu ring prom inent citiz en s, allegorical lan d scap es, and
illustrations o f lead in g economic enterprises su ch as P otosfs silver m in e s.3 Such
im ages are ancestors o f the peculiar depictions o f Q uito that would b e adopted
and reim agined d u rin g the fin de siglo. T h is is p articu larly true o f th e H isp an ­
ist ones, w hich d ire c tly referenced the co lo n ial heritage in p rom oting Q u ito’s
hidebound character.
The geography o f a colonial Spanish A m e ric a n city thus established radiat­
ing categories o f pow er and belonging accord in g to spatial, racial, an d aesthetic
segregation. W h ile th is ideal pattern was e asily sketched on paper an d zealou sly
guarded in new ly b u ilt centers such as L im a , it w as increasingly d ifficu lt to ad­
m inister in areas w ith existing indigenous p o p u latio n s.4
Quito’s h isto ry serves as a case in point. A s a northern Incaic stronghold and
the birthplace o f th e em peror Atahualpa, the A n d ea n citadel o f Q uito attracted
the attention o f conquistadors in the m id st o f the wars o f the Conquest. O ne o f
Pizarro’s origin al p artn ers, Diego de A lm a g ro , established a charter fo r the city
in A ugust 1534 soon a fter decisively defeating A tah u alp a’s lieutenant, R u m iñ a-
hui, near present-day Riobam ba in central E cu ad o r. A lm agro’s envoy, Seb astián
de Benalcázar, entered Quito on Decem ber 6, too late to save its legen d ary trea­
sures and the g ran d im perial palaces from th e b laze set by the retreating Incan
arm ies. The con q u istad o r drew the first traza, or central grid, am ong th e ashes
and consecrated th e city to Saint Francis. D espite the m onum ental possibilities
o f developing the great A ñaquito plains to th e no rth , Benalcázar e m u lated his
Incan forebears b y exploitin g the m ilitary advantages o f the steep h ills , deep
ravines, and n arrow approach o f the o rigin al site. A substantial q u an tity o f raw
m aterial for con stru ction also lay am ong the ru in s o f the old city. T h e Fran cis­
can m onastery th a t began to rise in 1535, for in stan ce, incorporated th e rem ains
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 7

o f the great Incaic T em p le o f the Sun, w hich h a d m ade the city the m ost splen­
d id in the north ern A n d e s . T h u s, from th e s ta rt, colonial Quito existed as a
hybrid space where v a rio u s elements com peted for predom inance.
The uneven to p ograp h y and existing po p u latio n also altered the spatial and
social m ap o f the new c ity from the Spanish id eal. T he grid m orphed to conform
to the rough terrain a n d w as interrupted in n um erous places by rush ing creeks.
Settlem ent p atterns q u ic k ly abandoned the id eal rad ial structure and instead
adopted a pattern rem in iscen t o f the Incaic up per-h alf/low er-h alf dichotom y.
The parish o f El S ag ra rio replaced the “up per” section that had housed the In ca
nobility, the Tem ple o f th e Su n , and the p alace constructed by A tah u alpa’s fa ­
ther, Huayna C ap ac. T h ere, the new sym b ols o f Sp an ish power congregated,
including the Fran ciscan m onastery, the cabild o, the cathedral, the parish seat,
and elite residences. T o the east, downhill, la y the u rb an parishes o f S an Sebas­
tián and San Bias, region s that were reserved fo r indigenous dwellings and that
had previously h o u se d th e lower strata o f In caic Q uito. Even this socioracial
segregation changed over the course o f the seventeenth century as the city grew
to perhaps as m an y as fift y thousand in h abitan ts d u rin g the height o f colonial
power.5 Indigenous h ou sehold s, for exam ple, b egan to stray westw ard to the
upper slopes o f M o u n t Pichincha in the p arish es o f S an Roque and San ta B ár­
bara, drawn b y th e con stru ction o f the F ran cisca n m onastery and its a rtisan
workshops.
A shifting local an d regional economy influ enced these new settlem ent pat­
terns. D uring the six te e n th century, econom ic developm ent in the A u d ien cia
o f Quito had been d om in ated by gold m in in g . M ajo r m ines lay at Z a ru m a , in
the contem porary southw estern province o f El O ro, and at A lm agu er, near the
northern city o f P o payán in present-day C olom bia. The Z aru m a m ines petered
out in the 1590s, a n d , w h ile A lm aguer lasted a few years longer, by the tu rn o f
the century the A u d ie n cia was facing a p o ten tially grave economic crisis. T hese
economic pressures to ok on a political d im en sion because creoles resented the
viceregal im position o f an alcabala, or sales ta x , in 1592. T h is crisis led to the
expulsion o f the A u d ien cia president by a rebelliou s cabildo, a move that in tu rn
inspired arm ed intervention by a viceregal m ilitia and the curtailing o f cabildo
autonom y in subsequ en t decades.6
The region slow ly recovered from this crisis a fter the textile sector began to
expand. Local entrepreneu rs embraced the obraje system , in which sweatshops
staffed by indigenous workers produced cheap w oolen goods for sale throughout
the Andean em pire, as far north as Panam a and as far south as Chile. The p io ­
neers o f this system , su ch as Cham bo-based encomendero (labor grant recipient)
Rodrigo de R ib ad en eira, capitalized on th eir w an in g access to free indigenous
labor to supply th e em erging m arket at the great silver m ines at Potosí, w hich
had become the en gin e not only o f the S p a n ish im perial economy d u rin g the
late sixteenth cen tu ry but would also subsidize the expansion o f European e n ­
8 \ The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

terp rise into the huge A sian m arket o f that era.7 T h e success o f entrepreneurs
like Ribadeneira gave rise to a series o f other obrajes throu gh out the region, p ar­
ticu larly near the cities o f L atacu n ga, Quito, and O tavalo.
Q u ito ’s expansion in the seventeenth century w as p a rtly due to regional
d em ographic recovery as w ell as its dual role as an a d m in istrative center an d
as a m arketplace.8 The city’s p lazas drew merchants fro m throughout the A n ­
dean corridor as well as from th e fertile Chillo and T u m b a c o valleys to the east,
which also were home to im p o rtan t obrajes. A nother increasin gly im portant in ­
d u stry, the production o f religious art, began to develop sim ultaneously. Q uito
had been established as a bishopric in 1545, it became the seat o f an Audiencia in
1563, an d it soon came to h ou se the regional headqu arters for both the regular
and secu lar clergy. The Fran ciscan s took the lead in tra in in g local artisans d e­
voted to producing icons, scu lp tu re, and painting.
T h is process began th rou gh the efforts o f Friar Jo d o co R icke in the 1540s
and continued with the introduction o f a num ber o f scu lptors from Seville and
G ran ad a in the late sixteenth cen tury. These trained a rtisa n s constructed the
largest religious complex in S o u th A m erica, the San Fran cisco monastery. Its
8.6 acres included a convent six patios deep (see fig. 1.3). T h e m ain façade, a
m asterpiece o f Spanish A m erican baroque, emulated Ju a n de Herrera’s m ajestic
fortress o f El Escorial while th e interior incorporated su b tle indigenous m otifs
in gold leaf.9 By the end o f the century, Quito’s artwork b egan to travel— indeed,
the oldest extant A m erican p ain tin g is a portrait o f th ree m ulatto lords from
the E cuadorian port o f E sm erald as painted in 1599 b y th e Q uito m aster A ndrés
Sanchez G allque and sent to M a d rid as a gift for Ph ilip I I .10
T h e “Q uito school” o f polychrom atic sculpture exp lod ed during the seven­
teenth century. In addition to th e workshops m ain tain ed b y the Franciscans,
a n u m b e r o f com peting co n ce rn s arose in conn ection w ith the D om inican
m on astery on the city’s southeastern edge. The secu lar clergy and other orders
follow ed, including Jesuits, D o m in ican s, and C arm elite n u n s, among others.
T h eir m yriad churches h elped em ploy num erous a rtisa n s, p articularly at the
Jesu its’ convent (1605-1765), w h ich brought the city great renow n for its extraor­
d in a rily opulent gold leaf ad orn m en t o f the nave and th e retablo. The sculpture
itse lf traveled the extent o f th e A u d ien cias ju risd iction an d was soon revered
throughout the empire for its d elicacy and fine d etail."
T h u s, b y the seventeenth cen tury, Quito had not o n ly becom e an economic
and adm inistrative center but h ad also crafted a region ally renowned reputation
as a n artistic haven accentuated b y religiosity— a c ity o f G o d , or even a new
R o m e.12 However, the eighteenth century brought a sta g n a n t economy and a
notorious challenge to the c ity ’s cultured image abroad. T h e latter had arisen
largely due to the Fran co-H ispanic Geodesic M ission (1736—1745), a scientific
voyage to m easure the arc o f th e Q uito m eridian to a n sw er a dispute about the
shape o f the Earth.13 The French academ ician Charles M a rie de L a Condam ine
and the Spaniards Jorge Ju a n an d A ntonio de U lloa su b seq u en tly penned ac­
 T h e Politics and Poetics o f R egionalism / 9

counts o f th eir travels in the Q uito region. La Condam ine’s acco u n ts o f his cel­
ebrated trek d ow n the A m azon p roved an instan t success in E u ro p e, not only
because o f the exotic nature o f th e tro p ica l flora and fau n a h e d escrib ed but
also becau se o f h is vivid em phasis on th e barbaric qualities o f Q u ito natives. He
was p artic u la rly critical o f the ind igen ou s population— w ith w h o m he could not
com m unicate— and also stressed th e g o ry details o f a m urder he h a d witnessed
in a p u b lic p la z a in the southern c ity o f C u en ca.'4 Iron ically, th e geographic
study th at w as to have firm ly p laced Q u ito w ith in the corpu s o f m o d ern cities
thus served to underm ine its claim to a progressive spirit in k eep in g w ith con­
tem porary European social attitudes.
L a C o n d am in e ’s critiques represented a m ajor em barrassm ent to the Quito
elite, w ho w ere sim ultaneously u n d ergo in g other troubles due to prolonged eco­
nomic w oes occasioned by the severe declin e o f Potosí m in in g . T h e erosion o f
the Potosí m arket m ade Q uito’s obrajes dependent on L im a’s app etite fo r lu xu ry
textiles. M oreover, a cen tu ry-lon g p rocess o f ad m in istrative reorgan ization
collectively k n ow n as the B ourbon R e fo rm s opened up A m e ric a n p orts to non-
Iberian trad e for the first time. T h is restru ctu rin g ham pered Q u ito ’s textile ex­
ports as a flo o d o f inexpensive, h igh -grad e French cloth u n d ercu t its product in
the viceregal capital. W hile the cheap woolens that were p roduced in th e north­
ern regions o f the A udiencia con tin u ed to be distributed th rou gh ou t the rest o f
the V ice ro y a lty o f New G ran ad a, u n d e r whose ju risdiction th e A u d ien cia had
been p laced in 1739, Quito u n d erw en t a serious slump. A series o f plagues hit
the city in th e 1750s, exacerbating its problem s. When the vicero yalty attem pted
to exp an d th e alcabala on aguardiente— sugarcane liquor— in 1765 follow ing the
d ecim ation o f the im perial trea su ry due to the Seven Years’ W ar, a w idespread
and cro ss-c la ss rebellion broke ou t, w h ich anticipated the better-k n o w n T u ­
pac A m a r u an d Tupac K atari u p risin g s o f the 1780s. In ad d itio n , the so-called
Rebellion o f the Barrios affected relatio n s between urban officials and the su r­
round ing indigenous population.*5
T h u s, as the colonial era w a n e d , Q uitó was entering a p erio d o f pro­
found c risis. T h e uncertainty en couraged widespread m igratio n fro m the tor­
m ented city. Th ose departing represented a ll classes and races, an d the loss o f
p op ulatio n v irtu a lly froze the c ity in tim e as new construction stagnated over
the next cen tu ry. This m ass m igratio n also affected the su bseq uent grow th o f
regional c o n flicts as Cuenca and th e p o rt o f G uayaquil b o o m ed due to their
em brace o f the capitalist p ossibilities offered by trade deregu lation. Cuenca de­
veloped as an im portant center for q u in in e harvesting and m illin e ry production
while G u a y a q u il’s nascent sh ip b u ild in g in d u stry fueled the c ity ’s rise as a major
cacao p o rt. T h e sh ift in econom ic a n d population concentration bred serious
regional com petition between the th ree urban centers over th e n ext century, and
this ten sio n soon becam e in scrib ed in cu ltu ral and p olitical w ars th at d om i­
nated the nation’s politics and p oetics during the nineteenth century.
io \ T h e Politics and Poetics o f R egionalism

Com petitive Regionalism in the Nineteenth Century

B y th e late eighteenth cen tu ry, th e econom ic and c u ltu ra l m odel that had
p revailed in colonial Quito h a d fa lle n victim to cen trifu gal pressure. Local crit­
ics, how ever, continued to argue fo r im p erial reform rather th a n structural ad­
ju stm e n ts designed to m ake th e lo ca l econom y more com petitive. Perhaps the
m ost strid en t voice was that o f quiteño doctor Eugenio E sp ejo , whose m any sa­
tirical w ritin g s located the co n tem p o rary crisis w ithin th e scholastic pedagogy
o f th e Je su it population and th e lim ited developm ent o f lo ca l m edicine. The
Q uito cen sors tolerated these w o rks becau se o f im perial ant ip ath y toward the Je­
suits, w h o were expelled from th e em pire in 1767, but th ey reacted quickly when
Espejo tu rn e d h is attention to C h a rle s III and José de G á lv e z , m in ister o f the
Indies, in h is polem ical tract Retrato de golilla (Portrait o f a M agistrate). Arrested
in 1788 a n d sent to Bogotá, E spejo an d h is politics becam e rad icalized. On his
retu rn to Q uito, he form ed the p atrio tic society A m igos d el Pais, one o f several
across S o u th A m erica that a gitated fo r greater local au to n om y and the exten­
sion o f th e franchise to subaltern grou p s without ch allenging Catholic religious
d o m in a n ce .16 Despite his attention to Q uito’s particular foibles, however, Espejo
c o n tin u ed to conceive o f the crisis as one stem m ing from im p e ria l decadence in
the face o f a global political, p ed ago g ical, and scientific tu rn .
M ean w h ile, regional econom ic tensions increasingly affe cted political rela­
tions w ith th e Crow n. G u a y a q u il a n d Cuenca had been n a m ed separate prov­
inces o r gobernaciones during the m id-eighteenth century, a designation that gave
th em greater control over in tern al a ffa irs. Despite C u en ca’s larger population,
G u a y a q u il’s risin g cacao trade w ith N ew Spain accelerated its statu s, inspiring a
royal d ecree that gave the V icero yalty o f Peru authority over the p o rt’s economic
a ffa irs. T h e ind ignity o f this m ea su re w as a key reason Q u ito becam e the site
for one o f the first resistance ju n ta s in the afterm ath o f N apoleon’s invasion o f
the Ib eria n Peninsula. Led by th e M arqu es de Selva A legre, Ju a n Pío M ontufar,
the con sp irators behind the ju n ta , proclaim ed on A u gu st 10 ,18 0 9 , deposed the
p residen t o f the A udiencia, C o u n t R u iz de C astilla. T h e ir ca ll to the other ju ­
risd ictio n s o f the A udiencia to jo in in p roclaim ing independence was met with
am b ivalen ce in Cuenca, G u a y a q u il, and Popayán, however, w hich ensured the
failu re o f th is first movem ent, the incarceration o f the o rig in a l conspirators, and
th eir execu tio n in A ugust 18 10 . A second independence m ovem en t erupted in
Q u ito la te r th at m onth, led b y a n ow d isgru n tled R u iz de C a stilla in alliance
w ith A rch bish op Pedro Cuero y C aiced o. A gain, the region alist divide was made
m a n ife st as G uayaquil and C u en ca rem ained loyalist centers over the next two
years, a situation accentuated b y th e V iceroyalty o f Peru’s fo rm a l annexation o f
G u a ya q u il.
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 11

On the eve o f independence, therefore, severe regional tension alread y ex­

isted am o n g the three major d istricts o f what w ould eventually becom e Ecua­
dor. The G u a ya q u il elite only sought to redress their grievances w ith the capital
after the restoration o f Ferdinand V II in 1814 and his subsequent repudiation
o f the lib e ra l C onstitution o f C ád iz. In 1815, a group o f G u a y a q u il notables,
including the C á d iz delegate and poet José Joaquín de Olmedo, o fficially p eti­
tioned th at th e d istrict be returned to the ju risdiction o f New G ran ad a. Their
request garn ered strong support in Q uito due to the p o rt’s extensive custom s
duties. D espite the Crow n’s approval o f this m easure in 1819, O lm edo and his
fellows broke decisively with the C row n a year later while h is cou sin , Vicente
Rocafuerte, also a veteran o f efforts to establish the Cortes de C á d iz , becam e a
high-profile d iplom atic supporter o f B olivar’s Colom bian exp erim en t.17 Access
to G uayaquil granted a foothold to an arm y led by Bolivar’s lieutenant, A ntonio
José de Sucre, who marched up the A n d ea n corridor the follow ing year. On M ay
24, 1822, he d efeated the Spanish g a rriso n in the capital city at th e Battle of
Pichincha, fo rm a lly ending the independence wars in the A udiencia.
In terprovincial strife grew com plicated du ring the short-lived G ran Colom ­
bian experim ent. Bolivar’s eradication o f indigenous tribute threatened the tra­
ditional allian ce between Cuenca and G u ayaqu il because the A n d ea n economy
depended m ore heavily on the indigen ous poll tax than did th at o f the coast.
Cuenca, w h ich , like Q uito and G u a y a q u il, served as the capital o f a district
overseeing p rovin cial governm ents, th u s began to serve as arbiter between the
port and the capital. T his role becam e even m ore critical follow ing the establish­
ment o f th e R epublic o f Ecuador in 1830, when internal regional conflicts rose
to the fore.18 T h e leaders o f this exp an d in g antagonism were Ju a n José Flores, a
V enezuelan-born general who m arried into the Quito landed aristocracy, and
the aforem ention ed guayaquileño, V icente R ocafuerte. A b rie f truce existed in
the 1830s as the result o f an agreem ent to have the president com e from one city
and, the n ext term , from the other, on an alternating basis, an accord that fal­
tered the follow ing decade because o f a fiscal crisis precipitated b y a drastic dip
in world cacao prices. A spate o f civil wars ensued, highlighted b y the now exiled
Flores’s 1844 attem pt to reinstall a Span ish m onarch in the cou n try.19
The p ro g ressive general José M a ría U rbin a, best know n fo r abolishing
slavery in 1852 and eradicating tribute five years later, suggested a solution via
electoral reform s designed to lim it the cen trifugal tendencies o f the tripartite
d istrict sy ste m b y granting p rovin cial assem blies the right to elect national
deputies. T h is arrangem ent had the unintended effect of cem enting local power
bases at the provincial level, which in tu rn threatened to split the coun try apart
after its defeat in a border war with Peru in 1858.20 Instability increased over the
next year to th e point that four governm ents (one each in Quito, C uenca, G uay­
aquil, and in the dusty southern bord er tow n o f Loja) each claim ed national
sovereignty.21 O rder finally retu rned a fter the rise o f a staunchly conservative
12 \ The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

m agistrate nam ed G ab riel G arcía Moreno, w h ose extended argum ents in favor
o f greater centralization and bolstering C ath o lic power provided a p oten tial re­
sponse to national fragm entation.
A onetime lib e ra l and native o f G u a y a q u il, G arcía Moreno h ad lo n g been
one o f the forem ost advocates for renew ing th e national com m itm en t to the
Catholic Church. H is positions had put h im at loggerheads with the anticlerical
governm ents o f the 1840s, leading to a period o f European exile du ring w h ich he
witnessed the aftereffects o f the 1848 revolutions. A return visit to Fran ce in 1854
solidified hiS’ favorable im pression o f the autocratic regime o f Napoleon III, who
would later be in vited to annex the A nd ean n a tio n b y his conservative ad m irer
at a moment o f p artic u la r despair. García M oren o becam e active in Q u ito’s m u ­
nicipal politics in 1857 and was also selected to b e rector o f the city’s u niversity.
Upon ascending to the presidency in 1861 he im m ed iately set about q u ellin g the
regional forces th at h ad threatened to split a p a rt the country while en h an cin g
the Catholic credentials o f the nation.
G arcía M oren o’s re fo rm s resurrected m o d ifie d versions o f a n u m b e r o f
structures o f colonial life inflected with a cen tralized autocracy insp ired b y the
French emperor. L ik e U rb ina before him , G a rc ía M oreno turned to the p ro v in ­
cial authorities to tackle the thorny regional d ivid e s, expanding the n u m b e r o f
provincial ad m in istrators and increasing th e ir influence while erad icatin g the
d istrict system altogether. This policy again served local landholding interests,
particularly in the A n d ea n corridor, which w as gran ted a majority o f p rovin cial
delegations. The m ove also lim ited the pow er o f the three major u rb an centers.
Cuenca was p articu la rly dim inished; its o rig in a l ju risdiction had in clu d ed the
m ost populous areas in the country. H enceforth, the city would be m argin alized
b y a central go vern m en t increasingly d o m in a ted b y the port and th e capital.
Paradoxically, G a rcía M oreno increased th e au tonom y o f local m u n icip alities
in a m anner sim ilar to th e Spanish H absburg im p erial system o f the sixteen th
an d seventeenth cen tu ries. T his move lim ite d th e political m an euverability o f
larger blocs and also supplied an easily m o b ilized national network th at proved
particularly u se fu l in quellin g indigenous op p osition to other new in stitu tio n s,
such as concertaje (labor conscription or debt peonage), an institution th at would
literally work to break dow n regional d ivid es.22
Concertaje not o n ly bolstered the h acien d a system by replacing trib u te but
also fueled national p u blic works projects d esign ed to create a serviceable in ­
frastructure. The sy ste m ’s indigenous c o n sc rip ts, who often w orked w ith ou t
the benefit o f even h a n d tools, built hundreds o f m iles o f roads in the southern
A ndes that helped integrate the Andean a n d c o astal regions.25 T h eir la b o r also
b u ilt railroad lines in th e coastal lowlands, w h ich soon linked G u a y a q u il w ith
a navigable river system where paddlewheels b e g a n hauling cacao d estin ed for
the world m arket, u sh erin g in a boom th at w o u ld last until the 1920s. P lan s to
expand the railw ay to the A ndean slopes, how ever, rem ained incom plete due to
the harsh m ountainous terrain and m udslide-prone jungles.24
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 13

Fig. 1.5. A lam eda Park, Q uito (c. 19 0 0 ). C ou rtesy A rchivo H istó rico , Ban co C entral del E cuad or.

W hereas the coast received infrastructure im provem en ts designed to p ro ­

m ote its rise as a global econom ic player, the cap ital b ecam e G arcia M oren o’s
site for sym bolic co n stru ctio n . H is intent w as to u p d a te the city’s façad e in
hopes o f resurrecting its seventeenth-century role as an international leader in
the arts. The m ost am b itiou s project was a m assive goth ic basilica, b ased on
the Cologne cathedral, th at w ould rise atop the P ich in ch a slopes and take m ore
th an a century to com plete. G arcia Moreno also in v ited several foreign a rch i­
tects to build temples to th e civic religion o f p o sitiv istic science. These stru c ­
tures included Juan B au tista M enten’s A stronom ical O bservatory— the first o f
its k in d in South A m erica— an d , to the south o f th e b asilica, Thom as R e e d ’s
panopticon prison, w hich com bined surveillance w ith interior w alls p ain ted a
terrorizing black.25 M en ten’s observatory doubled as the centerpiece o f the c ity ’s
m ost fashionable park, th e A la m e d a (fig. 1.5), w hich a lso boasted a m onum en tal
arch entry, strolling p ath s, an d boating canals.26
The patronage o f arch itectu re form ed one o f th e p illars o f a corresponding
cultural agenda to create w hat Derek W illiam s term s a m odern pueblo católico.27
A n alliance with the p ap a cy resulted in the signing o f a concordat in 1863, w h ich
in tu rn led to increased clerical involvement in edu cation al and governm ent a f­
fairs. Rural schools were the first institutions targeted fo r expansion, w hich re­
sulted in a massive con struction cam paign, again fu ele d b y labor conscription.
The effort helped double the ru ra l student p op u latio n b y 1875.28 The regim e si­
m ultaneously expanded h igh er education in the m ajor u rb an centers, often act­
ing in collusion with the Jesu it order, whose cause G a rcia M oreno had c h am p i­
oned since his journey to E u rope in the 1850s. Q uito received the m ajority o f the
new institutions, in clud in g th e Colegio de San G a b riel (1862), the Polytech nic
14 \ The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

U n iversity (1870), and th e S ch o ol o f Fine A rts. T h e state subsidized tuition fo r

p rom isin g students at th ese institutions and even sen t th e best o f them to stu d y
abroad. Such was the case o f landscape painter R a fa e l Salas, whose som ber p o r­
trayals o f A ndean peaks en circled in fog highlighted th eir m ysterious ch aracter
in a m an ner strongly in flu e n c ed b y Frederick E d w in C h u rch ’s depictions o f
the Ecuadorian m ou n tain s. T h ese vistas also becam e th e first to be d istrib u ted
w id ely as souvenirs to v isitin g foreigners.29
Despite the global asp iratio n s o f the regim e an d its patronage o f science, th e
a rts, and education, the era also featured extrem e cen sorship and the repression
o f dissidents. Leading op p osition figures were e x iled , m ost im portantly th e e s ­
sayist Juan M ontalvo (1832—1889). M ontalvo h ailed fro m the central A n d ean c ity
o f A m b ato, where he b e g a n p enning stark critiq u es o f the regim e’s cen sorsh ip
in h is review, Ei cosmopolita (1866—1869). These led to h is eventual b an ish m en t
to C olom bia, where his v itrio lic prose continued to attract further converts. H is
1874 book, La dictadura perpetua, accused G arcía M oren o o f m onarchist p reten ­
sions, and it circulated w id e ly in an underground netw ork o f associates, liberals,
an d students across th e c o u n try.’ “ When G arcía M oren o reinstalled h im se lf as
president for a third te rm in 1875, young liberals w h o h ad been in contact w ith
M on talvo took m atters in to th eir own h ands, a tta c k in g the president on th e
steps o f Q uito’s cathedral, where a Colom bian native n am ed Faustino Reyes cu t
h im down with a m achete.’ 1
G arcía M oreno’s d eath not on ly led to M on talvo’s fam ou s quip— “ M i p lu m a
lo rnato”— but also in au g u rated a period o f strife a n d civil war in which region al
c a u d illo s com peted to fill th e pow er vacuu m . A m ilita r y dictatorship u n d e r
G en eral Ignacio de V e in tim illa brought a b rie f p e rio d o f stability in th e late
1870s, but the suspension o f civil liberties and V e in tim illa ’s reluctance to give
up pow er in 1882 sparked u p risin g s by two oth er m ilita ry leaders: the m o d e r­
ate Francisco Salazar a n d a rad ical liberal from th e coastal province o f M a n a b i
nam ed Eloy A lfaro, k n o w n as Viejo Luchador (Old W arrior) because o f h is c o n ­
stant insurrections. S a la z a r’s troops m anaged to d efeat Veintim illa and ush ered
in a renewed truce und er th e Progressive Party, a new political organ m ade u p o f
coastal and sierran m od erates who touted progress w h ile m aintaining the c leri­
cal and economic policies o f the Garcian era. A lfa r o ’s refu sal to bow to a g o ve rn ­
m ent he characterized as a m ore benign version o f the G arcian dictatorship led
to his eventual exile over th e next decade until the regionalist fires that h ad been
tem porarily banked flared again.

The Liberal Revolution

T h e Progressive p erio d between 1883 and 1895 ou gh t to be viewed as on e o f

com prom ise, when region al antagonism s were p acified . W hile the Church c o n ­
tinued to play a m ajor p a r t in the adm inistration, th e new government avoid ed
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 15

the m assive repression o f the d icta to r’s earlier rule. P rovin cial ru le continued to
define national politics and also b egan to play a more im p o rtan t role in tightly
controlling fu n d s for local developm ent projects, in effect restrictin g the relative
autonom y m unicipal authorities h ad enjoyed during the p revio u s generation.
The m ajor cities o f Quito, C u e n ca , and G uayaquil were p artic u la rly affected;
th eir budgets were overseen n ot o n ly by the provincial auth orities but also by
the n ation al congress. A s in the G arcian age, the national trea su ry bankrolled
projects em ploying new tech n olo gies, o f which the m ost im p o rtan t were the
strin gin g o f a telegraph line betw een Q uito and G u ayaquil, the elaboration o f a
relatively efficient postal service, and the provision o f electrical lighting to the
inajor cities.
Im provem ents and exp an sio n in the coastal cacao econom y accom panied
and p artly subsidized these in n ovation s in the national in frastru ctu re. While
the G a rcia n steam ship netw orks had increased local p rod u ction capacity, the
in trod uction o f a new bean th at flourished in the h ith erto u n d erutilized A n ­
dean footh ills generated soarin g h arvests that catapulted E cu ado r into the posi­
tion o f leading global cacao producer from the 1890s to the 19 20s.32 The growing
p ro sp erity did not trickle d ow n to the general population, w ith m ore than 70
percent o f revenue going into th e h an ds o f ten fam ilies. N evertheless, chronic
labor shortages on the coast fu eled a desire to loosen the traditional landed ties
o f ru ra l workers in the sierra. A new regional crisis began to develop in the mid-
1890s due to the reluctance o f sierra landowners to eradicate concertaje. Guaya­
q u il again becam e the center o f vigorous opposition, given th at the m ajority o f
the cacao barons resided there an d were linked through trade and fiscal ties to
the new ban k in g sector, w hose credit also helped fu el speculation and further
grow th o f the export sector. T h ese tensions lay at the h eart o f th e cacao indus­
tr y ’s em brace o f Eloy A lfa ro ’s revolution in 1895, d espite in itia l reservations
abou t the radical populism o f h is agenda.33
R egional and political tensions also colored the literary flow ering of costum­
brismo, a South A m erican ro m an ticism centered on the p o rtrayal o f local color.
C o n servatives such as Ju a n L eón M era provided id ealized im ages o f serrano
gen tility in works like Cumandd, a novel featuring a love sto ry between the scion
o f a land ow ning fam ily and a v irg in a l A m azonian In d ian .34 Fray Solano (José
M od esto Espinosa) expanded the genre with his lam p ooning feuilletons depict­
ing Q uito’s provincial quietude and the ironic hum or o f its inhabitants, for the
first tim e identified as sal quiteña.” Costumbrismo also em erged as an important
in flu en ce on the plastic a rts o f the late nineteenth cen tu ry. T h e two prim ary
a rtis ts to em brace this m ovem en t, quiteños Joaquín P in to an d José A gustín
G u errero , highlighted their politics in their watercolors d ep ictin g daily life in
the capital. The conservative P in to celebrated images o f street vendors, festivals,
an d indigenous dancers w hile the liberal Guerrero foregrounded the m isery o f
indigenous conditions in a m an n er rem iniscent o f M anuel Fuentes’s depictions
o f p o ve rty in Lim a.36
i6 \ T he Politics and Poetics o f R egion alism

W hile Q uito’s artists embraced costumbrismo s exam ination o f internal tradi­

tions, C uenca and Guayaquil’s c u ltu ra l sphere began to show sign s o f increasing
diversification. The new school o f p a in tin g inaugurated in 1893 at C u enca’s U ni­
versity o f A z u a y featured foreign fa c u lty such as Seville native T o m ás Povedano
Arcos.37 G u a y a q u il’s cacao elite, m a n y o f whom m aintained residences in Paris,
im ported scores o f paintings and scu lp tu re s from Europe to d ecorate hom es in­
creasingly bu ilt on a Parisian m od el.38 T h ese diverging attitudes tow ard art and
culture fu ele d the increasingly a c rim o n io u s debate su rro u n d in g th e nation’s
participation in the 1889 Universal E xp o sitio n in the French cap ital. Archbishop
Ordóñez o f Q uito condemned E c u a d o r’s contribution to the exp o sitio n as an
im m oral d isp lay because it featured im ages o f naked A m a z o n ia n In dian s. Juan
León M era adopted the archbishop’s position and waged a c a m p a ig n to force
Progressive president Antonio Flores y Jijón o f Guayaquil into can celin g Ecua­
dor’s participation in the exhibit. T h e president refused, arg u in g th at the expo­
sition w ould not only illustrate the ad van ced state o f E cu ad o rian cu ltu re before
a global audience but would also in crease the m arket for G u a y a q u il’s cacao ex­
ports. Follow ing a dramatic attem pted resignation by Flores, su m m a rily refused
by C o ngress, the m atter was d ro p p ed . Flores’s success led to E c u a d o r’s later
participation in the Colum bian E x p o sitio n o f 1893 in C h icago a n d a num ber
o f other s im ila r events, all in the h o p e o f attracting foreign in vestm en t.39 This
linking o f business, art, and cosm op olitan ism m arked the u rb a n developm ent
o f the p ort as well, which built the c o u n try ’s first indoor central m arketplace just
prior to the 1896 fire that destroyed m o st o f G uayaquil’s colonial architecture.
By th e m id -i89 0s, an in te n sify in g regional p olitical-econ o m ic p olariza­
tion w ith cu ltu ra l overtones was d evelo p in g in the country. M a tters cam e to a
head a fter a succession o f events in 18 9 4 —1895 sparked a m assiv e insurrection
that put th e R ad ical Liberal Party firm ly in power for several generations. The
first o f these events was a scandal con cern in g the publication o f the fou rth vol­
ume o f a h isto ry o f Ecuador p en n ed b y the bishop o f Ibarra, a m oderate cleric
nam ed Federico González Suárez. T h e w ork’s treatment o f th e sex u a l exploits
o f seventeenth-century D om inican fria rs raised the hackles o f th e conservative
establishm ent and provoked a h eated debate regarding clerical participation in
politics. M ore vituperative gossip e ru p te d the following year, w h en the Ecua­
dorian n a v y secretly brokered the sa le o f a Chilean w arship to Ja p a n , then at
war w ith C h in a . This “venta de la bandera” (sale o f the flag) sc an d a l im plicated
several officials in the Progressive go vern m en t and led to the resign atio n o f both
President L u is Cordero and the g o vern o r o f G uayas.40 Liberals perceived the en­
suing pow er vacuum as a golden o p p o rtu n ity and quickly con tacted the Viejo
Luchador— Eloy A lfaro— then in e x ile in Panama.
A lfa ro ’s retu rn was at first em braced by sm all cacao planters b u t opposed by
the cacao elite until he marched to G u a y a q u il at the head o f an a rm y m ade up o f
rural and u rb an cacao workers, m a n y o f whom were o f ind igen ou s an d A frican
extraction. T h ough nonplussed, th e cacao barons agreed to b a ck h is insurrec­
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 17

tion since it w ould give th em the op p ortu nity to increase their pool o f labor. The
subaltern arm y A lfa r o com m anded caused even m ore havoc in C u en ca, where
the socially con servative elite actively resisted th e uprising. In 'a b a n d o n in g its
traditional alliance w ith Guayaquil and m o v in g m ore conclusively into Q u ito’s
orbit, Cuenca effectively ended the trip artite region al scheme th at h a d d o m i­
nated the politics o f the nineteenth cen tu ry.4* D espite this deepening p o la riz a ­
tion, the liberal a rm y rap id ly defeated the d iscred ited Progressive governm ent
and entered the cap ital in December 1895 w ith a m an date for change.42
There were tw o m a in com ponents to th e lib e ra l m odernization p rog ram
that shifted the re g io n a l power structure. T h e first sought to c u rb th e pow er
o f the Catholic C h u rch , whose alliance w ith A n d e a n landowners h ad bolstered
their political d o m in a n ce through m ost o f th e nineteenth cen tury. A lth o u g h
continued pockets o f conservative resistance h am p ered A lfa ro ’s ab ility to in tro ­
duce secularizing re fo rm s in his first te rm , th e vo lu n tary exile o f th e m ajo rity
o f the episcopacy lim ited the C hurch’s a b ility to m ount a serious ch allen ge to
the governm ent. B y 19 0 0 , the Vatican h a d d ecid ed on a pragm atic course and
thus endorsed B ishop Federico González S u á re z ’s condem nation o f a p lan n ed
invasion o f co n servative forces m assing in C o lom b ia. Open strife d im in ish e d ,
but jockeying over control o f social fu n ctio n s continued under A lfa ro ’s actively
anticlerical successor, Leonidas Plaza. T h e y e a r 19 0 0 saw the in stitu tio n o f a
civil registry, follow ed b y civil m arriage tw o years later and the d eclaration o f
freedom o f w orship in 1904. The state c o n fiscated clerical lands th at sam e year,
though for the n ext fo u r years it allowed th e C h u rch to keep rental incom e. In
1906, the V atican countered the land con fiscatio n s by nam ing G o n zález Suárez
to the archbishopric o f Quito. His m oderate p olitics and national rep u tation a l­
lowed him to advance policies designed to lim it the .state’s an ticlericalism , such
as rebuilding an episcopacy decim ated b y e x ile an d death during th e p reviou s
ten years.45
Creating a n atio n al economic in fra stru c tu re form ed the second p illa r o f the
Liberal program . O ne o f the key aspects o f th is endeavor involved th e m igra ­
tion o f the un tapp ed labor pool o f the A n d e s to the cacao plantations. Concertaje
rem ained the m ajo r obstacle to planters’ lo n g tim e desire to access th a t labor,
and it was therefore repeatedly attacked in th e Liberal press. A b ill c a llin g for
its eradication w as introduced in C o n gress in 1899; however, the lan d h o ld in g
classes m an aged to block its passage u n til 19 18. Thereafter, m ig ra tio n to the
coast boom ed. B y 1950, 4 1 percent o f th e n a tio n a l population resided in th e lit­
toral as opposed to ju st 15 percent in 1840 a n d 30 percent in 1909.44
The m ost im p o rta n t initiative, how ever, w as the building o f a railw ay lin k ­
age between the capital and the m ain p ort. A s A lfa ro ’s signature w ork, th e costly
and controversial ra il venture tran sfo rm ed th e co u n try’s spatial d y n a m ic. In ­
terregional cargo shipm ents increased d ra m a tic a lly after the ra ilw a y ’s com ple­
tion in 1908 as a n integrated national m a rk e t developed for the first tim e, w ith
agricultural staples traveling down the m o u n ta in s and im ported com m od ities
18 \ The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

flowing into th e h igh lan d s. Internal tra n sp o rta tio n o f a g ric u ltu ra l products
increased fro m a n an n u al average o f 2 7,511 tons in 1910 to 158,272 in 1942. Ship­
ments o f lu m b er a n d m anufactured g o o d s also increased d ra m a tic a lly while
those o f livesto ck an d m inerals d ou b led .45 T h ese figures represented a m arked
change fro m th e nineteenth century, w h en the central h ighland d is tr ic t’s m ain
customer w as C olom bia and the litto ral’s need for grains and o th er staples was
fed largely b y b o th Colom bia and P eru .46
The co n stru ctio n o f the railroad tra n sfo rm e d Ecuadorian regio n alism more
profoundly th a n an y other effort since th e d ays o f García M oreno. Perhaps its
most salient im p a c t was to exclude C u e n ca from benefiting fro m th e increased
com m erce b y a vo id in g the city’s orbit altogether. The route p la n n in g for the
railway effectively m arginalized the c ity an d accelerated an in crea sin g ly bipo­
lar constitution o f the national econom y.47 Liberals rhetorically p roclaim ed the
railway to be a “redem ptive work,” as K im C la rk has put it, arg u in g th at decades
o f stagnation w o u ld be wiped away w ith a chug and a whistle. T h is argum ent
u sually featu red regionalist m etaphors th a t equated the A n d es w ith in su lar­
ity, clerical le th a rg y , and stagnation w h ile the coast was presented as vibrant,
mobile, and progressive. The railroad, b y op en in g isolated pockets o f the Andes
to the w ider w o rld , w ould thus redeem th e nation and force it to em brace the
progress o f the tw entieth century.4®
A s the lo n gtim e stronghold o f the C o n servative Party, the c ity o f Q uito, with
its m yriad ch urch es, legions o f indigenous laborers, and p rovin cial reputation,
was also a rip e target for the liberal estab lish m en t. Critics su ch ’ a s Cuencan-
born jo u rn a list M an u el J. Calle and Ju a n M ontalvo’s erstw hile asso ciate, R o ­
berto A n d ra d e, penned a flu rry o f essays and novels that ech oed Jose A gu stin
Guerrero’s rib a ld castigation o f the c ity ’s in su larity. A lfaro h im s e lf m ade the
transform ation o f Q uito a personal g o a l, freein g governm ent fu n d s fo r public
works projects. T h ese included a new m arketp lace m odeled o n L es H ailes in
Paris and a n atio n al exposition. C o n stru ctio n was paralleled b y in creased offer­
ings in secu lar education, beginning w ith the 1897 establishm ent o f the Instituto
Nacional M ejia, a secondary school th at b y the 1920s had com e to riv a l the Jesuit
Colegio de S a n G abriel as the forem ost education al institution in the country.
Am ong its grad u ates were major figures o f the literary renaissance o f the 1920s
and 1930s such as G onzalo Escudero, Jorge Carrera A ndrade, H u m b erto Salva­
dor, and Jorge Ic a z a .49 Another key in stitu tio n was the Escuela d e B ellas A rtes,
founded in 19 0 4 , which provided the tra in in g for m any o f th e a rtists, such as
Cam ilo Egas, w ho cam e to redefine indigenista painting, as well as traditionalists
like the p o rtraitist Victor Mideros.
The first p h ase o f the Liberal R evolution devolved into a pow er struggle be­
tween L eon id as Plaza and Eloy A lfaro . It cam e to an end in 19 12 , w ith A lfa ro ’s
death and m a rty rd o m . Although the V iejo Luchador rem ained p o p u la r as late
as 1910 due to h is bold march to the so u th ern border to defend a g a in st a possible
Peruvian in vasio n , h is attempt to in stall h im se lf as dictator the n e x t year met
 The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 19

s t i f f resistance. He le ft fo r exile but returned a fter the premature death o f Presi­

dent Em ilio Estrada, a Plaza ally. A lfaro su pp orted Pedro Montero, a m em ber
o f the Guayaquil elite, in h is bid to succeed E strad a and was arrested in h is com ­
pany in January 19 12. T h e two then traveled b y ra il to Quito, where th ey were
interned in the G a rc ía M oreno penitentiary. O n Ja n u a ry 28, a mob broke into
the prison, killed th em b o th , and dragged A lfa ro ’s corpse through the streets to
the EJido— a p astu relan d on the northern edge o f the city. Following the gory
incident, Plaza retu rned to power as the un d isp uted leader o f the Liberal Party,
ushering in thirteen years o f relative calm an d orderly political succession.

The Julian Crisis

The reforms o f th e Liberal Revolution, p a rtic u la rly the construction o f the

railroad, provided m uch-needed national econom ic and political integration
and shifted the tenor o f the regionalist strife th at had dom inated E cu ado rian
history since the colo n ial period. This regional d ivid e, and particularly the r i­
valry between Q uito a n d G u ayaqu il, did not d isap p ear following the early d e­
cades o f the twentieth century. However, con flict between capital and labor that
ensued as a result o f th e m odernization o f the 19 20s began to supersede the re­
gionalist im pulse as the dom inant force in n ation al politics during this decade.
The crisis o f the 19 20s and 1930s had its roots in the liberal socioeconom ic
program. A lthough large projects such as the railroad had strong governm ent
involvement, independent local juntas oversaw h u nd reds o f sm aller projects
with little regulation, lead in g to a bloated budget and increasing deficits as m ost
o f these projects rem ain ed u n fu lfilled . For exam ple, in 1905, only 55 o f the 346
authorized projects were actu ally under con stru ction .50 The governm ent’s lack
o f revenue and poor international credit rating led to extensive borrowing from
local banks. M atters cam e to a head with the ou tbreak o f World War I, which led
to an international fiscal crisis that caused n um erous currencies to rapidly lose
value. The hitherto stable Ecuadorian sucre fell dram atically over the w ar years,
from U S$0,486 in 19 14 to $0,365 by 1917, fin a lly stab ilizing in 1920 at $0 .2 0 .5'
Simultaneously, cacao prices plum m eted as the European market declined d u r­
ing the war years, a situation that also led to greater dependence on trade w ith
the United States. T h e recession only deepened in the postwar era as the cacao
industry crum bled d ue to a com bination o f d isease, com petition from B razil
and British West A fr ic a , and advances in re fin in g techniques that decim ated
the market for the h igh -grad e bean in which E cu ad o r specialized. For exam ple,
Hacienda Tenguel, th e nation’s largest producer in 1920, harvesting m ore th an
30,000 quintals o f b ean s, was forced to cut its w orkforce in h a lf as production
declined steadily, reaching a low point o f 883 q u in tals in i925-5i
The onset o f e co n o m ic tu rm oil helped sw e ll the nation’s m ajor cities.
Guayaquil grew the fastest, its increase being first due to an expanding cacao
20 \ The Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

m ark e t and then im provem en ts in public health, w h ich included inoculation

cam p aign s and the efforts in 1919 o f the Rockefeller Yellow Fever Com m ission,
which finally eradicated th is d ead ly disease from the p o rt.” Q uito’s population
rem ain ed a close second u n til the 1950s, with its p o p u latio n expanding from
51,858 in 1906 to 80,702 in 19 22 , passing 100,0 00 in th e early 1930s and doubling
again by 1947.54 The erad ication o f concertaje in 1919 freed ru ra l indigenous work­
ers to cut their traditional ties to highland haciendas. In droves, they headed
to the southern environs o f Q uito, where they joined th e burgeoning industrial
com m unities that had b e g u n to grow due to the L ib e ra l ad m inistration’s su p ­
p o rt for m anufacturing an d th e form ation o f local b a n k s such as the Banco del
P ich inch a, which offered c red it to enterprising in d u strialists. The arrival o f the
ra ilro a d in 1908 had accelerated this process, p a rtic u la rly w ith regard to tex­
tile factories such as La In tern acio n al or Jacinto Jijón y C aam añ o ’s Chillo-Jijón
in d u stries in the C hillo V a lle y to the east o f the city.55 L o ca l artisan s at first
kept pace by expanding th e size o f their concerns, b u t, b y the 1920s, they were
h a rd pressed to compete w ith th e industrial sector— a reprise o f the eighteenth-
cen tu ry dem ise o f the obraje system .56
Slo w ly but surely, the in d u strializatio n o f Q u ito an d the cacao crisis in
G u a ya q u il led to the on set o f m od ern labor strife. W orkers’ groups had begu n
to organ ize in the late n in eteen th century, begin n in g in 1892 w ith the Sociedad
A rtís tic a e Industrial de P ic h in ch a (SAIP), an a rtisa n society in Quito allied
w ith conservative groups. A lth o u g h tem porarily shut d ow n in 1896 follow ing
th e L iberal Revolution, th e S A I P returned as a p o ten t force and eventually
a d o p ted a socialist stance in th e 1930s.57 A n o th er im p o rta n t group in Q uito
w as th e Centro Obrero C a tó lic o (COC), founded in 19 06 b y the tailor M anuel
S otom ayo r y Luna and a g ro u p o f elite youths, in clu d in g fu tu re conservative
p o litic ia n Jacinto Jijón y C a a m a ñ o . Plagued by m iscom m u n icatio n between
its student leaders and the rank-and-file artisans, the C O C ceased operating in
1909 bu t was reestablished a s a supporting arm o f Jijón ’s reconstituted C onser­
vative Party following the 1925 Ju lia n Revolution.58 T h e G u ayaqu il labor m ove­
m ent, on the other hand, developed a radical bent in th e 1890s, largely through
the influence o f M anuel A lb u q u erq u e Vivas, a C u b a n tailor and activist who
h elped found the C onfederación Obrera del G uayas in 1896. A strong anarchist
sen tim ent also infiltrated th e first major trade u n ion in the city; cacahueros, or
w orkers who dried and tran sp o rted bulk cacao, form ed their union in 1908.
T h e Ecuadorian labor m ovem ent came o f age in th e early 1920s, driven to
collective protest by the ste a d y inflation and declin e in the value o f the sucre
a fte r W orld War I.59 In 19 22, railw ay workers and cacahueros organized a general
strik e in Guayaquil that w a s b ru ta lly repressed b y the m ilitary , resulting in at
least several dozen and p erh ap s as m an y as a th ou sand casu alties.60 The m assa­
cre discredited the reigning L ib erals, who resorted to fra u d in the 1924 elections
an d th us set the stage for in creased worker involvem ent in politics. The R ight
 T h e Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 21

struck first, however, as Jacinto Jijó n led a failed coup attem p t w ith support
from the C entro Ecuatoriano del O brero Católico (C E D O C ). Jijón then went
into exile in Colom bia, and a grou p o f le ftist intellectuals led b y the econom ist
Luis N. D illon agitated against th e c o rru p t adm inistration and its close ties with
G u a y a q u i l ’s Banco Com ercial y A g ric o la , the state’s largest creditor. M agazines
from across the political sp e c tru m , su ch as the m ilitary review El abanderado
and the socialist La antorcha, join ed in criticizing the governm ent. In Ju ly 1925, a
group o f d isaffected arm y lieu tenants allied w ith D illon’s le ftist supporters and
overthrew the governm ent.“
The Ju lia n Revolution in sta lle d E c u a d o r’s first go vern m en t w ith socialist
tendencies. However, once in pow er, th e tenientes abandoned th eir calls for social
reform and instead resorted to regio n alist politics, placing the b lam e for the cur­
rent crisis squarely on the shoulders o f the Guayaquil b an k in g aristocracy. T his
rhetorical castigation deepened u n d e r the governm ent o f th e lib e ra ls’ hand-
picked president, Dr. Isidro A yo ra, a fo rm er m ayor o f Q uito. A yora’s p rio ritiz­
ing o f fiscal reform led him to in vite th e “m oney doctor,” A m e ric an econom ist
Edwin Kem m erer, to visit in 1926. K em m erer advocated estab lish in g a central
bank, lead in g Q uito and G u a y a q u il’s elites to wrangle over th e location o f this
institution the following year. A lth o u g h the economist favored establishing the
ban k ’s h eadquarters in the capital, a larger subsidiary was sim u ltan eou sly built
in the p o rt city to calm local je a lo u sie s.62 Ayora’s go vern m en t also adopted a
progressive new constitution in 1928 th at was the first in L a tin A m e rica to grant
women the right to vote. These re fo rm s, however, could not overcom e the Great
Depression. A m id more social u n rest, A yora fell in 1931.
Despite ongoing attem pts to p ap er over national social tensions b y evoking
regionalist pretensions, the 1930s saw increasing m ilitan cy fro m bo th the L e ft
and the R ig h t as well as concom itant clashes w ith the state. T h e m ost critical
conflagration involved the m ilita ry an d the Falangist-inspired C om pactación
Obrera N acion al (CON) in A u g u s t 1932 over the p resid en tial succession to
Ayora. T h e C O N supported the ca n d id a c y o f N eptali B o n ifa z , a conservative
and form er president o f the B anco C en tral who, though legally elected, turned
out to be ineligible for the p residency because he had been b o rn in Peru. A fte r
weeks o f dem onstrations b y b o th sides, several m ilita ry sq u ad ro n s fro m the
greater Q uito area engaged C O N brigad es, igniting the ca p ita l’s bloodiest battle
since independence, a four-day sk irm ish known as the G u e rra de los Cuatro
Días. Elections held the follow ing ye ar confirm ed the gro w in g im po rtan ce o f
labor w hen pop ulist candidate José M a ría Velasco Ibarra, a h ig h ly skilled ora­
tor, w on h is first term . He w o uld b e elected to the p residen cy five tim es over
the next three decades, though he m an aged to serve a fu ll term on ly twice. L a­
bor w as n o t the only sector o f so cie ty becom ing m ore m ilita n t, however. The
younger intelligentsia increasingly joined the ranks o f the S o cia list P arty in the
afterm ath o f the Julian Revolution. M a n y o f these progressive intellectuals en-
22 \ T h e Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism

tered th e bureaucracy w ith in th e M in isterio de P re visió n S o cial (M in istry o f

S o c ia l W elfare) with hopes o f establish in g a w elfare state an d expanding their
o rgan izatio n .6’

Chronotopes o f Nostalgic Regionalism

In ad dition to this m o u n tin g chaos, the 1920s also saw the explosion o f p op ­
u la rly consum ed nostalgic co lu m n s, stories, theater, a n d a rt em ulating the cos­
tumbrista portraits o f the n in eteen th century. These ch ron icles o f “ traditional”
w ays w ere particularly p o p u la r in Q uito and G u a y a q u il, the cities undergoing
the greatest change during th ese years. One school e m u lated the tradición, a cos­
tumbrista variation developed b y P eru vian historian a n d critic Ricardo Palm a in
the 18 70 s that consists o f a vig n e tte depicting a c o lo rfu l asp ect o f the national
p ast, o ften tinged with irony an d satire.64 The genealogist C ristó bal Gangotena y
Jijón cra fte d scores o f Q uito ch ron icles whose picaresque fria rs and w ily gentle­
m en recalled the sal quiteña elab orated b y José M od esto E spinosa a generation
earlier. G u a ya q u il’s great cronistas (chroniclers), M o d e sto C havez Franco and
G a b riel Pino Roca, on the o th e r h an d , substituted h eroic soldiers saving the
p o rt fro m pirates by day a n d sed u cin g young girls b y n igh t. A n o th er school
em b raced the rogues o f society, highlighted b y the p o r t ’s José A ntonio C a m ­
p os, w ho published under th e confrontation al p seu d o n ym o f Jack the Ripper. A
som ew hat stifFer embrace o f c o lo rfu l deviants appeared in th e guided city tours
o f Q u ito ’s A lejandro A n d ra d e C o ello , art critic an d literatu re professor at the
In stitu to Nacional Mejia, w ho jo in ed the cronista fra y in th e m id -i930s.65
It is am ong these rhetorical constructions o f the old c ity that the postcards
w ith w hich we began this ch ap ter tru ly belong. A s su ch, th e y form part o f an on­
go in g tradition attem pting to develop a sense o f region al distinctiveness datin g
to th e colonial period but th a t h a d com e to the forefro n t in the late nineteenth
cen tury. W hile these tensions h a d themselves sparked extensive strife, economic
riv a lry , and political d ysfu n ction , the growing class d iv isio n o f a sh ifting society
m ad e affirm in g regional sp e c ific ity a nostalgic, w h im sic a l, and apolitical en­
terp rise. In the case o f G u a y a q u il, th is desire was a lo n g in g for the world’s larg­
est cacao port, a place peopled b y elegant bankers, a p lace o f rom antic m oonlit
stro lls and prosperity. In the ca se o f Quito, it was a desire fo r the certainty o f the
c ity o f vecinos safely rem oved fro m the indigenous rabble th at labored for them ,
fo r a city o f priests whose exh o rtatio n s to their flock con sisted o f gently m ocking
th e lo ca l boor who discovered th e im age o f the V irgin M a ry in the lard rem ains
on h is em panada, as described in one o f Gangotena’s fab les. In short, this desire
w as a nostalgic constitution o f regionalism that h a d little resem blance to the
h isto ric a l record but that h ad g ain ed credence am id th e ch ao s o f the present.
T h is book is not about a series o f postcards but in stea d about the evolution
o f th is specific form o f n o sta lgic regionalism . W hile th e M in istry o f Tou rism
 T h e Politics and Poetics o f Regionalism / 23

embraced p a rtic u la r visions for G u a y a q u il and Quito, there w ere m an y other

such reconstitutions o f the past fram ed b y a particular reification o f the regional
distinctiveness o f each city. Such d istinctiveness had begun to 'd isap p ear under
the onslaught o f m odern class con flict, bu t this phenomenon sh ould not detract
from the p o p u lar resonance o f these im ages, which persisted into the 1930s and
endures today. T h is study considers th e genesis and m ethodology beh ind the
construction o f Q uito’s portraits. L ik e the postcards produced b y the M in istry
of Tourism , th e six acts o f con stru ctin g Q uito space-time represent a p articu ­
lar ju xtap o sition or constellation o f h isto rical actors who em braced a unique
framework to attem pt to hold fast an d situate themselves am id a changing city
that no longer resem bled itself. The b a lla st provided by the em brace o f the past
dim inished the challenge o f G u a y a q u il’s increased preem inence as the nation’s
economic en gin e b y establishing Q u ito ’s legitim ate role as the h isto ric center
of power an d cu ltu re. This proclam ation, regionalist to the core, also hoped to
ground the c ity ’s credentials as a global capital for a presupposed international
audience w hose gaze these actors sought to shape through their ow n com m em o­
rative acts. A s such, these chronotopes answered the challenge o f m odernity
through a reconfiguration o f the p ast fram ed by power relations at the local,
regional, n ation al, and international levels.
24 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

Chapter 2

Mapping the Center of the World

Through the study o f Geography a people animates, awakens, develops and

progresses, as only it constitutes today’s living science; the elevation o f views,
as one says, and pecuniary benefits— what are they but the real fruits o f exact
knowledge describing all we see and observe on the surface of the territory o f our
planet?
Luis Tufino, 1911

Between 1903 an d 19 09, fo u r new m aps o f Q u ito appeared, a sm a ll n u m b er,

to be sure, but one th at equaled the n um ber o f c ity plans drawn over th e course
o f the previous cen tu ry. T h is period m arked th e onset o f a pronounced e x p a n ­
sion in local c arto grap h ic projections d esign ed to facilitate u rb an p la n n in g ,
conduct cen suses, or prom ote tourist v ista s. T h e authors o f these c h a rts in ­
cluded a m otley asso rtm en t o f am ateur geograph ers, architects, foreign com ­
mercial hires, an d m ilita ry personnel. O ver th e course o f the first d ecad es o f
the new century, no rm ative tropes slowly em erged in their works, d o m in a ted
b y a sym bolic lexicon considering Q uito as a legible space fram ed d ia lec tic a lly
b y its colonial core and a m odern frontier d isp lacin g the underdeveloped and
“ barbaric” coun tryside. U nderlying this process lay a consensus that m ap s rep ­
resented “ fru its o f exact knowledge,” as m ilita ry geographer Luis T u fin o put it.
H is elaboration not on ly served u tilitarian a im s but also provided a veh icle for
patriotic progress.
The contention that m aps act as neu tral representations o f objective reality
has been subject to criticism in recent years. A s J. B. H arley first p o in ted ou t,
m aps often serve as tools for ju stifyin g and ob scu rin g power relations th rou gh

24
 M apping the Center o f the World / 25

their incorporation o f sy m b o ls, the eliding or inclu sion o f populations, and the
creation o f focal points b y the highlighting o f sp ecific aspects o f the p h ysical
landscape.1 Denis W ood a n d John Fels, am ong oth ers, have extended H arley ’s
analysis by highlighting th e subjectivity o f the carto grap h ic projection itse lf,
m ost recently arguing th a t m ap s m ay best be u n d ersto od as a series o f “p ro p o si­
tions” rather than as m irro rs o f reality.2 Sim ilarly, Jo h n Pickles has elucidated a
variety o f approaches to u n d erstan d in g what he term s the “cartographic ga z e,”
that is to say, the set o f p ractices and techniques th at together brand m aps w ith
the authenticity o f scien ce and the veneer o f o b je ctiv ity .3 These recon sid era­
tions o f mapping p ractices h ave given rise to an ever-grow ing num ber o f s tu d ­
ies docum enting how m a p s have served the go als o f colonial states an d c o m ­
m ercial interests th rou gh th e territorialization o f space, that is, the process o f
naturalizing the claim s o f states and businesses to control space without regard
for the contours o f th e la n d sc a p e or the interests o f its inhabitants. C r a ftin g
this “ G o d ’s-eye view,” h ow ever, can no longer be considered a process b ereft o f
contestation from the su bjects o f the cartographic gaze. A s Raym ond C raib h a s
argued with regard to nineteen th-century M exico, state attem pts to locate a n d
cartographically d elin ea te “ fu gitive land scap es” b o th articu lated h egem on ic
power relations and d em o n strated the lim its o f state dom ination over o u tly in g
populations that engaged in a selective dialogue w ith national cartographers in
order to defend and artic u la te local interests subject to elision through m ap p in g
processes.4
The constitution o f u rb an m aps bears a general resem blance to the n ation al,
im perial, or colonial p rocesses o f territorialization described above. H ow ever,
given the particular im p o rta n ce o f the city as a m ark e r o f citizenship in S p a n ish
A m erica, urban -yiews sh o u ld also be considered an expression o f w hat R ic h ­
ard Kagan has term ed th e “com m unicentric” id eal. A s such, urban m ap s n ot
on ly act as a tool fo r u se in im plem enting cru d e exploitation and control o ver
territory but also express a m ore subtle articu latio n o f collective identity (what
Kagan terms civitas or civic-com m un al identity) th a t can at tim es be d ivorced
from cartographic a ccu ra c y (urbs or constructed space).5
The m aps o f Q u ito d iscu ssed below d en om in ate p articu lar elite c o n stitu ­
tions o f the city’s ch aracter. A review o f th eir com m u n icen tric im agery h elps
illustrate the com plexity o f the hegemonic project involved in the representation
and production o f Q uito space. Despite a general consensus as to the legitim acy
o f cartography as a d ire c t topographic reflection , Q uito m aps also sh ow case
sh ifting and conflicting considerations o f social legitim acy and visions o f co m ­
m unity. O f p articu lar im p o rtan ce is the alteration o f the dom inant city view ,
from one characterized b y in su lar religiosity to th a t o f a tourist d estination at
the center o f the w o rld , w ith a m onum ental colo n ial core, sophisticated n o rth ­
ern districts, and b o u n tifu l environs.
This process in tersected w ith two colonial discourses that evoked the c it y ’s
universality. The first o f these stem m ed from a m illen aria n vision id e n tify in g
26 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

th e city as a new R o m e th at w ould lead the contin en tal crusade to convert in d ig­
enous peoples to th e C atholic faith. The second touted Q uito’s secular role as the
site o f the eighteenth-century Fran co-Spanish G eodesic M ission th at set ou t to
m easure the arc o f th e equatorial m eridian. E ach o f these allegorical a n d in h er­
en tly cosm opolitan v ista s cam e to be e n sh rin e d cartograp h ically w h ile b ein g
refram ed for the m o d ern consum er. Elided in these representations were th e in ­
digenous population s, h aciend as, and sm all tow ns o f the rural periph ery, w hich
was now reconsidered as a periurban space open for chalets o f the elite, factories,
or tourist-friendly d a y trip s. Q uito cartographers thus helped consolidate state
a n d com m ercial in terests in the developm ent o f the city’s environs w h ile also
c ra ftin g a m oral ju stific a tio n for its im perial expan sio n through ch orograp h ic
im ages. A s such, th ey served as brokers betw een the state and the bu sin ess com ­
m unity, a role cem ented in the 1930s w ith the cen tralizing o f cartograph ic p rac­
tices w ithin the S ervic io Geográfico M ilitar. T h is specialized corps o f engineers,
cartographers, an d geographers reified an d m ass-produced the to p o grap h ical
m ythologies o f Q uito-sp ace developed over the previous h a lf century.
There was th u s a process o f in stitu tio n a liz a tio n , co m m o d ificatio n , an d
codification o f the c ity ’s cartographic lexicon fro m the colonial p eriod th rou gh
the 1940s. In this gen ealo gy o f Q uito’s cartograp h ic production, the intersection
betw een colonial d iscou rses, technological inn ovation , state-driven c o m m em o ­
ration, and m ilita ry professionalism is o f cen tral concern. The m aps p rod u ced
in the nam e o f these vectors celebrated the c ity ’s equatorial position an d p resti­
gious contributions to w orld science, p articu la rly a fter a second French geodesic
m ission, the s ta ff o f w h ich visited Ecuador b etw een 1901 and 1906. T h ese tropes
com bined under th e chronotope m arkin g th e c ity as the mitad del mundo, th e
center o f the world.

Colonial Cartographies and Universal Aspirations

The growing assem b lag e o f m aps in fin-de-siglo Ecuador represents on e o f

the later chapters in a global expansion o f carto grap h y originatin g in th e six ­
teenth century. B ey o n d p rovid in g ad vantages fo r W estern im p e ria l p ow ers
exploring the globe a n d navigating as they w ent, m aps, p articu la rly ca d a stra l
m ap s, expanded the p otential surveillance o f local and colonial p op u latio n s b y
the early m odern state. Perhaps the m ost am b itiou s harnessing o f ca rto g rap h y
in this vein was the choro'graphic-geographic su rve y o f the Spanish E m p ire in iti­
ated b y Phillip II's ro yal cosm ographer, Ju an L óp ez de Velasco, in the 156 0s. By
1580, this endeavor h a d led to the com pletion o f the E scorial atlas, w h ich w as
upheld as the first system atic and com prehensive representation o f e v e ry inch
o f the Iberian P en in su la. The sim ultaneous attem p t to extend these relaciones
geográficas to the A m e ric a s, however, m et u n exp ected obstacles in the altern ate
m apping practices o f indigen ous populations in the New World. In N ew S p a in ,
 M apping the Center o f the World / 27

for exam ple, maps p rod uced for this survey often incorporated native glyp h s
or featured distended geo g rap h y incom m ensurate w ith European p ractices.6
T h e subsequent im po sition o f planar geography an d the “C o d ’s-eye view ” o f
orthogonal projections h ave been interpreted in recent scholarship as a d irect
assault on native cosm ographies by a nascent im p e ria l pow er.7 Sim ply p u t, the
deploying o f cartography’s potent scientific gaze served as a m eans o f ju stifica­
tion for the self-appointed civilizin g mission o f the Iberian power.
W hile world m aps p ro vid ed an extensive argu m en t for European centrality,
an am biguity pervaded the u rb an views, which alternately reified and subverted
th is im plicit geopolitical hierarchy. On the one h a n d , the developm ent o f the
orthogonal city plan and th e im position o f a m onotonous grid upon preexisting
cities bolstered claim s o f W estern scientific superiority. A s often as not, h ow ­
ever, the city view incorporated iconography d em onstrating its com m unal ch ar­
acter, thus opening the p ossib ility o f a distinctly creole sensibility interrogating
the preeminence o f the E u ro p ean core.
T h is situation p artly developed from the p arad oxical constitution o f u rb an
collective identities as em blem atic o f micro- and m acrop atrio tism im plied in
vecindad. Local identities b egan to coalesce over the course o f the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, a n d , w hile not excluding sim u ltan eo u s p articipation
w ith in the Spanish E m p ire, th ey began to ch allen ge exclusive identification
w ith one’s peninsular o rig in s. T h is sense o f uniqueness intensified du ring the
seventeenth century, p a rtic u la rly with the increasing presence o f p en in su lar
im m igrants and the subsequent rise o f what D avid B rading has called creole p a­
triotism .® The articulation o f this distinctly A m erican consciousness developed
slowly and depended on the elaboration o f ritu als an d im ages that p erform ed
an d bolstered a sense o f com m u n al distinctiveness.
M aps and urban view s constituted some o f the m ost visible m eans o f il­
lustrating a city’s civic valu es in both Spain and in S p an ish A m erica, yet, by
the seventeenth century, im perial policy had forbidden their elaboration due to
security issues after raid s on Spanish A m erican cities b y pirates and com peting
European powers. The constitu tion o f allegorical im ages standing in for cho-
rographic representations o f urban landscapes grew in the wake o f the ban on
city maps in 1632. The seventeenth century thus saw the expansion o f sym bolic
visu a l culture often fo cu sed on M arian cults and O ld W orld allusions designed
to identify local civitas. M exico City, for instance, not on ly becam e identified
w ith the Virgin o f G u a d a lu p e but was also construed as a new Jerusalem . L im a,
proclaim ed “ la ciudad de los Reyes” by Pizarro u p on its foun d in g, was sim ilarly
conceived as a Western p arad ise, a new Eden, b y its secu lar and clerical p op u la­
tion alike.’
Like its fellow A m e ric a n capitals, Quito also ad op ted an Old World refer­
ent to highlight its central role in the form ation o f a m illen arian world, in this
case the holy center o f R o m e. The label appears to h ave originated follow ing
the discovery o f the A m a z o n b y Francisco de O rellan a in 1541 on an expedition
28 \ M apping the Center o f the World

that d eparted from Quito and provided justification for considering the city as
the startin g point for a new crusade. T h e subsequent con stitu tion o f Quito as a
pilgrim age site bolstered this contention and led to the developm ent o f no fewer
than three m ajor M arian cults b y the end o f the seventeenth cen tu ry, o f which
the nearby V irgin o f Guápulo and the V irg in o f El Quinche are the best known.
Moreover, the city garnered a reputation for m iracles, in clu d in g the celebrated
seventeenth-century “ divine” intervention to save the city fro m p lagu e at the
request o f a young m artyr, M arian a de Jesu s.1“
A s C arm en Fernández-Salvador h as argued, these cu lts in sp ired attempts
by the c it y ’s Jesuit and Fran ciscan com m u n ities to brand th e c ity as a new
Rome, fro m which continental conversion w ould em anate.” Fo r instance, one
seventeenth-century Jesuit, Pedro de M ercado, devoted his acco u n t o f the city
alm ost exclusively to the “m iracles” p erform ed by its in h a b ita n ts, im plying a
contrast betw een their “saintly” lives and the vice-ridden lives o f the rest o f the
province’s inhabitants.12 Quito’s Fran ciscan m onastery provides an im age-laden
example o f the process o f relocating R om e to the slopes o f Pich inch a.
Fernández-Salvador notes the presence o f two sets o f d ep iction s o f Rom an
pilgrim age sites that follow the seq u ential order recom m ended in seventeenth-
century Italian guidebooks. She posits the existence o f a v irtu a l to u r o f the his­
toric capital o f Christendom organized b y the liturgical calend ar, an d she bases
this theory on the series o f m urals fo u n d in the church choir and in the adjoining
Cantuña chapel, named for a w ell-to-do seventeenth-century indigen ous black­
sm ith who was active in the local cu lt o f the H oly Cross (V eracruz) and who,
legend holds, m ade a pact with the d evil b y offering him the lost treasure o f the
Inca A tah u alp a to complete the chapel in a day.13 This circuit b e g in s w ith Saint
John the B ap tist, representative o f the Lateran Basilica w ith in th e city walls o f
Rome. R ath er than proceed according to the city’s geography, the next stops
are the basilicas o f Saints Peter and Paul, outside the historic w a lls bu t next up
on the litu rgical calendar. The n ext three paintings continue th is trajectory by
depicting O ur Lady o f La A ntigu a (referencing the basilica o f S an ta M aria Mag-
giore) an d then Saints Lawrence and Sebastian. Finally, in th e m ost elaborate
work in b o th the chapel and the m ain choir stands Saint H elen, an im age that
likely references the Church o f the H oly Cross in Jerusalem b ecau se its relics
were brough t to Rome by Em peror C o n stan tin e’s m other, H elen. Fernández-
Salvador reads the emphasis on the H oly Cross within C a n tu ñ a ’s chapel as an
expression o f the devotion o f the indigenous cofradía, or lay brotherhood, that
met w ith in its walls. Like Rome in the previous m illennium , th e A n d ea n citadel
would inherit the task o f spreading C h ristian doctrine to a new continent.14
D u rin g the eighteenth century, th e conceit o f Q uito’s m essia n ic character
was reborn due to its role in the developm ent o f the secular religion o f geograph­
ical science. A s the need for cartograph ic secrecy receded, an adherence to En­
lightenm ent principles helped p ersu ad e Philip V o f Spain to p articipate in the
Franco-Spanish Geodesic M ission to m easure the arc o f the equ ato rial meridian
 M apping the Center o f the W orld / 29

in Quito and th u s answ er a dispute c o n ce rn in g the shape o f the E a rth . W h ile

the m easurem ents taken by French a cad e m icia n Charles M arie de L a C o n d a ­
mine and h is S p a n ish counterparts, Jo rge Ju a n and A ntonio de U llo a , clearly
confirmed N ew to n ’s hypothesis o f an e q u ato rial bulge, m uch o f the e x p e d itio n ’s
notoriety lay in its m em bers’ subsequent travels and activities. L a C o n d a m in e ’s
journey dow n th e A m azo n brought E u ro p ean science to the tropical rain forest.
Juan and U llo a, on the other hand, not o n ly duplicated La C o n d am in e ’s efforts
in Quito but a lso ended Spain’s lo n g-stan d in g absence from ca rto g rap h ic en ­
deavors by p rod u cin g the Relación histórica del viaje a la América m eridional (1748),
which provided extensive m aps o f S p a n ish A m erican cities, from Q u ito to R io -
bamba to L im a . T h e m ission also e n co u rag ed quiteño science as R io b a m b a n a ­
tive Pedro V ice n te M aldon ad o, who h a d a lre ad y developed a close frie n d sh ip
with La C o n d a m in e , bu ilt on these u rb a n m ap s an d his own m ea su re m e n ts o f
the n orth w estern co ast to c ra ft the firs t p ro v in c ia l m ap o f Q u ito , w h ic h w as
received w ith g rea t accolades d u rin g a 17 4 6 —1747 trip to Europe.
C onflicts b etw een the French and S p a n ish m em bers o f the e x p e d itio n d e ­
veloped rap id ly as each group sought to tak e authorial control over th e resu lts
of the expedition. L a Condam ine, fo r in stan ce, sought to m em orialize h is con ­
tribution not o n ly through his eventual w ritin g s but also by erecting p y ra m id s
in the plains o f Y a ru q u i to the east o f th e A n d ea n capital and d eco ratin g the
structures w ith th e French m onarchy’s fleu r-d e-lis. Ju an and U llo a su ed h im
in local courts fo r this obvious slight to th e Span ish Crown, yet L a C o n d am in e
was able to escape im prisonm ent b y n o tin g the sym b ol’s presence in th e Ib erian
coat o f arm s. T h e pyram ids th em selves, however, were razed a few years later.
La C ondam ine’s attem pts to claim exclu sive proprietary rights over th e e x p e d i­
tion’s findings continued in his 1745 trea tise, in which he repeatedly d escribed
the activities o f h is Spanish coun terparts as an cillary. N aturally, Ju a n an d U lloa
rebutted th is p o rtrayal in their own w o rk , w hich contained exten sive accounts
o f their m ath em a tic a l calcu lation s— d escrip tio n s designed to h ig h lig h t the
best o f S p an ish science as well as th eir c ru c ia l role in m easuring th e arc o f the
meridian.*5
The tw o m ap s o f Quito that resu lted fro m the expedition’s m easu rem en ts
embody th e c o n flictin g authorial d ra m a o f the general texts. T h e m ap s repre­
sent the first in tern ation ally m ass-d istrib u te d im ages o f the city a n d coincide
in depicting a sm a ll m ountain citadel fro m w hich contem porary science w ould
emanate. E a c h offers an orthogonal p ro jectio n w ith M oun t P ic h in c h a at the
map’s su m m it, ignoring the cartograp h ic convention o f placin g n o rth atop the
image and in ste a d em ulating the local trad itio n o f painting the c ity view from
the vantage o f th e Itchim bia peak in th e eastern environs o f the city. B oth m aps
also high light th e expeditionary m issio n b y depicting the arc o f th e m erid ia n ,
albeit in slig h tly different ways. L a C o n d a m in e ’s m eridian em erges fro m the
city’s coat o f a rm s on the lower left co rn er o f the m ap and travels u n im p ed e d
across the u rb a n g rid until reaching a carto u ch e at the upper rig h t (fig. 2.1),
30 \ M apping the Center o f the World

Fig. 2.1. C harles M aried e La Conclam ine, d e ta il o f Plan de Quito (1751). C o u rtesy L ib ra ry o f Congress.

which identifies the city as Q uito a n d provides its coordinates in reference to the
Parisian m erid ian . The cartouche a lso includes a detailed im age o f tw o couples,
one E u ro p ean and one indigenous, w h o stan d on either sid e o f an enorm ous
globe, w h ich the white male is sh ow in g to h is partner. S u rro u n d in g the figures
are exotic equatorial flora, in clu d in g ca cti, pineapples, and p a lm frond s (atop
the cartouche). Taken together, the im ages present a vision o f a c u ltu re about to
emerge fro m its prim itive existence, in d eed , to become literally th e center o f the
globe, th rough the potency o f Eu ro p ean science. The m ap’s to p o n y m y furthers
the exotification o f Quito, subtly erasin g the previous two cen tu ries o f colonial
rule.'6 T h u s, the Panecillo, a sm all h ill on the city’s southern edge, is identified
by its p re-C olum bian title o f Y avirac w h ile the A lam ed a p astu res in the north­
ern environs o f the city are id entified as the site o f the battle betw een Gonzalo
Pizarro a n d Viceroy Blasco N unez V ela in 1546.
If L a C o n d am in e presents a noble b ut p rim itive Quito, Ju a n an d U lloa’s map
(fig. 2.2) em phasizes the strength o f th e Spanish monarchy an d fu rth e rs the case
for their perso n al prominence w ith in the scientific expedition. A s in the earlier
work, b y L a Condam ine, the arc o f th e m erid ian in the Spanish m ap travels from
lower le ft to upper right, ending in a cartouche id en tifyin g th e p la n o f Quito,
complete w ith its location vis-à-vis th e Paris m eridian. The Ib eria n s break with
La C o n d am in e b y foregrounding the c ity ’s built environm ent, w h ich interrupts
the m erid ian ’s progress until it em erges in the “vacant” cou n trysid e on the upper
31
32 \ M apping the Center o f the World

righ t. Here it encounters an oth er cartouche, one th at deem phasizes the pastoral
land scape present in the Fren ch m an ’s iconography, in stead presenting a sim ple
scroll decorated only w ith th e royal lion echoed b y th e n earb y presence o f the
A la m e d a , identified as “potrero del Rey." Sim ilarly, th e w o rk ’s toponym y lim its
references to nature, with the exception o f the P an ecillo— once again identified
b y its Iberian nam e— and in stead foregrounds the c ity ’s religious association b y
h igh ligh tin g Catholic la n d m a rk s. In a list o f fifty-tw o p u b lic buildings, a ll bu t
ten are sacred structures, in clu d in g churches, chapels, p arish seats, and nunner­
ies. T h e few secular bu ild in gs collectively em phasize m u n icip a l authority, but
am o n g them are two h ouses w here the scientists con d u cted m easurem ents o f
the Q uito m eridian. A s su ch , the m ap ultim ately m erges traditional sym bols o f
religiosity and power w ith a new sense o f the city’s scientific_prominence.
T h e Franco-Spanish exp ed itio n ultim ately had little im pact on the produc­
tion o f local cartography, p a rtly as a result o f Pedro V icente M aldonado’s dem ise
sh ortly after his arrival in Europe. However, it placed th e city and Audiencia o f
Q uito at the center o f an in tern ation al coterie o f ex p e rts and intellectuals in a
w ay that has rarely, if ever, b een duplicated. La C o n d a m in e ’s colorful d escrip ­
tion o f h is exploits brought no to riety even as he d ism isse d the land as fu n d a ­
m en tally backward. W hile th e nationalist Jesuit Ju a n d e Velasco expressed h is
d issatisfactio n with La C o n d a m in e ’s condem nation o f Q u ito ’s barbaric in d ig­
enous inhabitants, the region ’s international p rom in en ce grew as a result. Its
equ atorial associations exp an d ed following the celebrated travels o f natu ralist
A lex a n d e r von H um boldt, w hose Personal Narrative o f Travels of the Equinoctial
Regions o f the New Continent during Years 1799-1804, p u b lish ed in French, G e r­
m a n , E nglish , and Span ish over the first decades o f th e nineteenth century,
firm ly cemented Quito’s glo b al reputation as a fascin a tin g tropical landscape.17
W hen the province joined B o liv ar’s G ran Colom bia in 18 24 , enterprising lead ­
ers hoping for quick in tern ation al recognition ren am ed th e Quito departm ent
E cu a d o r a fter its geographic location, a decision th a t m ay also have reflected
G u a y a q u il’s developing au to n om ist spirit. The ap p ellatio n stuck following the
separation o f the Quito, G u a y a q u il, and Cuenca d ep artm en ts from the C olom ­
b ian republic in 1830 and h as rem ained the name o f the nation ever since.18
T h e cult o f the G eodesic m ission continued to d evelo p in the afterm ath o f
independence. Indeed, the nascent Rocafuerte go vern m en t celebrated the 1836
cen tennial o f La C ondam ine’s arrival b y rebuilding th e v e ry pyram id at O yam -
baro th at had caused such consternation a century earlier, th is tim e without the
o ffen d in g fleur-de-lis at its apex. W hile budgetary co n strain ts continued to re­
tard the development o f n ation al cartographic p rod u ction , this effort bespeaks
th e im portance the event h a d acquired in the local a n d national im agination
o f a co u n try seeking to d efin e its character. U ltim ately, however, it w ould be
th e un iversalizin g doctrine o f a city o f God that d ro ve th e expansion o f local
cartograph ic production d u rin g the García Moreno ad m in istration.
 Mapping the Center o f the World / 33

The Garcian State, or a M arriage of Technology and Religion

G a rcía M oreno came to pow er in 1858 in the wake o f a flare-u p o f the peren­
nial b o rd er conflict between E c u a d o r and Peru. The b o u n d a ry d ispu te origi­
nated in th e transfer o f the A u d ie n cia o f Quito in 1739 to th e ju risd ictio n o f the
newly created Viceroyalty o f N ew G ran ad a. The subsequent sh u fflin g o f Quito
(and esp ecially the prosperous p o rt o f G uayaquil, with its su b stan tial custom s
duties) in betw een the two vice ro y a ltie s led to repeated co n flic ts and co n fu ­
sion over righ tfu l territorial sovereignty. In 1828, the new republics o f Peru and
G ran C olom bia (of which E cu ad o r w as still a part) clashed in a viciou s war that
ended w ith Colom bian victo ry at th e Battle o f Tarqui in 1829. T h ree separate
agreem ents were negotiated betw een 1829 and 1832, yet, in the 1850s, the dispute
emerged again when Ecuador w as try in g to transfer ow nership o f disputed ter­
ritory to settle its debts to B ritish an d U .S . interests. The resu ltin g 1858 skirm ish
contributed to the national d estab ilization that gave rise to G a rcía M oreno’s ad­
m inistration in 1861.
T h e new president quickly set ou t to expand the national educational system
in allian ce w ith clerical in stru cto rs, actions that built on h is fo rm er career as
rector o f the U niversity o f Q u ito. T h e m ajority o f h is energies w ent into the
form ation o f ru ral schools designed to help incorporate isolated regions into the
national b o d y politic. T echnical edu cation, though, w as a seco n d ary interest.
G arcía M oreno sponsored the fo rm a tio n o f the E scuela de A rte s y Oficios in
Q uito for artisan al training, alo n g w ith a tuition-free p olytech n ic designed to
accelerate the growth o f scientific a c tiv ity in the nation. A s w ith m an y o f his
other endeavors, this venture w as m an aged by Jesuit re c ru its im ported from
Europe, the first o f whom reached Q uito in A ugust 1870. T h e a rriv a l o f the Je­
suits coincided with the resu m ption o f negotiations betw een E cu ad o r and Peru,
which m ade the study o f cartograp h ic drafting and geodesic su rveyin g a grow­
ing im perative. Although the u n iversity was forced to close its doors tem porarily
after G arcía M oreno’s assassination in 1875, it had a direct im pact on the growth
of fu tu re cartographic stu d ies.19
Perhaps the m ost im portant contributor was the Jesu it m ath em atician Juan
M enten, best known for his later role as director o f Q uito’s observatory, whose
bu ild in g in the heart o f the A la m e d a he also designed. A t the polytech nic, M en­
ten w as responsible for courses in geodesy, m athem atics, a n d d raftin g . By 1875,
the p riest and his students h ad com pleted enough local m easu rem en ts to com ­
pile the first m ap o f Q uito since th e colonial era to em ploy u p d ated m easure­
m ents. M enten’s projection not on ly sought to docum ent the slight grow th that
the city h ad undergone over the p reviou s century but also challenged the tradi­
tional h orizon tal orientation o f Q u ito m aps, using a ve rtic a l orientation with
34 \ M apping the Center o f the W orld

no rth at the top o f the view . T h is norm alizing o f E u ro p ean m apping conven­
tions continued in the subsequent efforts o f M enten’s colleague, Teodoro Wolf.
A geologist o f G erm an o rig in , W o lf’s career at the p o lytech n ic ended prem a­
turely due to a scandal in 1874 over his teaching o f D a rw in ia n evolution. Despite
the nationalist overtures o f th is pedagogy given the im po rtan ce o f D arwin’s visit
to the Ecuadorian G alapagos Isla n d s to his theories, W o lf w as branded a pro­
ponent o f a heretical theory a n d ultim ately defrocked. G a rcia M oreno, loath to
lose a technician o f W olf’s sk ill, rehired the form er p riest to com plete a national
chorographic survey u p d atin g the eighteenth-century stu d ies o f M aldonado,
La C ondam ine, and Ju an a n d U lloa. W olf soon com piled a p lan o f G uayaquil,
conducted extensive studies o f th e southern coastal p la in s, an d began a national
survey to support Ecuador’s case in the ongoing territorial conflict with Peru, a
project he completed in 1892. L ik e M enten, W olf also ch astised local practices
as out o f touch with European scientific norm s; for in stan ce, he criticized m ost
Ecuadorian m aps because th e y featured the Q uito m erid ia n as the longitudi­
nal reference rather than th e P a ris or Greenwich m erid ia n s then in vogue in
Europe.20
M enten’s and W o lf’s la stin g contributions as bro kers o f cartographic m o­
dernity can best be seen in th e career o f one o f their stud en ts, the civil engineer
and architect J. G ualberto Pérez. Pérez was h im se lf fro m a hum ble fam ily and
benefited from a governm ent scholarship w hile at th e p olytech n ic. There, he
excelled at drafting until th e school closed in 1876; he th en com pleted his sec­
ondary studies at the Jesuit in stitu tio n ; San G abriel, g rad u a tin g in 1882.21 Pérez
then attended Quito’s u n iversity follow ing the in au gu ration in 1883 o f a science
facu lty ru n by form er p olytech n ic students, and he grad u ated with a degree in
civil engineering in 1887. H e so o n secured a position as a m unicipal engineer,
beginning a long-standing relationsh ip w ith the city governm ent that would in ­
clude several architectural an d cartographical projects. O ne o f the first was the
com pletion o f a cadastral m ap th a t Pérez had begun d ra ftin g in 1885 while still
at Q uito’s university. T his m ap w ould becom e the p rim a ry im age o f the city for
the next two decades (fig. 2.3).22
Pérez’s 1888 cadastral m ap re-im agines earlier tropes in a view consciously
m eant to be m ass produced. T h e c ru x o f the m ap ’s rh eto rical im agery hinges
upon a m erger o f the clích éd visio n o f Q uito’s C ath o lic id en tity with an em ­
phasis on strict scientific accu racy. U nlike M enten, Pérez retu rn s to the colo­
nial convention o f placing P ich in ch a at the top o f the m a p — the first o f several
choices that recall Juan an d U llo a , whose em phasis on th e c ity ’s religiosity is
also echoed in the list o f p u b lic b u ild in gs and m on u m en ts. O f the eighty-five
structures on the map h igh lighted in dark red in a style introduced by M enten’s
1875 p lan , sixty-five have a religiou s affiliation; they in clu d e churches, schools,
and parish seats. Unlike his predecessors, however, Pérez d etails the plans o f in ­
dividu al homes throughout th e city, a cadastral convention in keeping with one
o f the m ap’s stated goals. He a lso includes the elaborate gard en s o f the Alam eda
 M apping the Center o f the World / 35

Fig. 2.3. ]. G u a lb e rto Pérez, Plano de Quito con los planos de todas sus casas por ]. Gualberto Pérez
(1888). C o u rte sy Biblioteca Ecuatorian a “A u re lio Espinosa Pólit," Q uito.

and the p ath s and fountains o f p la z a s such as those o f Santo D om ingo and the
Plaza G rand e, thus conveying a sen se o f the lived experience o f the city’s public
and leisure spaces.
A lth o u gh the m ap was p robably not origin ally com m issioned by the m u­
nicipal coun cil, as Pérez was still a n g lin g for the term s o f his p aym ent when he
presented h is d raft to the council in 1887, it was indelibly m arked b y its potential
for ad m in istrative functionality. For exam ple, street nam es are clearly labeled
on every b lo ck , facilitating cross-referencing. M oreover, the to tal num ber o f
houses on each street appears in a list n ext to that o f public bu ild in gs. Plotted
empty lots on the eastern edges o f th e city transform the m ap into a working
cadastre th at the m unicipality co u ld u se to track ongoing grow th and to fa­
cilitate taxation . The outlying areas rem ain nam eless, identified on ly by their
proxim ity to larger avenues, su ch as “ C alle N E de la C arrera de G u ayaqu il,”
which ru n s near A lam eda Park betw een C alles G uayaquil an d V argas. The
inclusion o f these barely traced a rteries reifies the m u n icip ality’s territorial de­
signs u p o n its o u tlyin g c o m m u n itie s, illu strated m ost c le a rly b y Pérez’s
appending o f a blank sheaf o f p ap ers on which to record fu rth e r construction.
The fu tu re is clear: soon the c ity w o u ld expand into the “v a c a n t” environs,
rolling over its haciendas and ind igen ou s com m unities. The m ap would shape
the territo ry.23
Pérez con strued his m ap as Q u ito ’s first cartographic com m od ity. When
36 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

presenting the work to the council, he a rticu la te d a well-tuned sales pitch high­
lighting not only its administrative uses b u t a lso the difficulties he experienced
during the d raftin g process. He p articu la rly em phasized the tu m u ltu o u s na­
ture o f the cadastral measurements due to “ th e opposition o f m ost h ousehold ­
ers who did not allow me to take the n e c e ssa ry m easurem ents” as w ell as the
considerable am ount o f time he com m itted to the project. He argu ed that these
travails justified a fee o f twelve hundred sucres for the com pletion o f the work,
a figure he characterized as modest com pared to the three thousand sucres that
W olf had received three years earlier for h is less detailed m ap o f G u a y a q u il.24
These argum ents resonated with the m u n icip a l council, which n ot o n ly agreed
to pay his fee but also presented him w ith a gold m edal for his “p atrio tic ” ser­
vice, an action that sym bolically conjoined th e cartographer an d th e cabildo
as co-producers o f the map.25 This allian ce w as furth er cem ented w ith the one
hundred reproductions produced by E rh ard Frères, a Parisian firm th at had
previously produced several M exican an d A rgentine maps. A g a in , th e cabildo
highlighted its authorial role by in co rp oratin g a notation in d icatin g th at the
idea for the project and its scope o rigin ated w ith the council. U p o n a rriv a l in
October 1889, the copies o f the map were d istrib uted for display in offices and
classrooms as the public face o f the c ity .26 W hen Teodoro W o lf su bseq u en tly
reproduced this m ap alongside his own o f G u ayaq u il in his 1892 geograph y text,
the map rhetorically reached the pinnacle o f its power in a work fu n d e d b y the
national government.
The repeated utterance o f authorial ow nership over a map establish es legiti­
mate claim to the image and, through the im age, to the dom ination o f the land­
scape it describes. The case o f Pérez’s m ap dem onstrates an attem pt b y a young
engineer to inscribe his own authority as a cartographer w h ile a lso serving
the interests o f a m unicipality eager to consolid ate its control over its outlying
regions. The regular replication o f this ren d erin g in subsequent d ecad es illus­
trates the degree to which the fusion o f religiou s, civic, and scientific authority
resonated as the prim ary qualities o f Q u ito late into the nin eteen th century.
Despite appearing more than a decade a fte r the end o f Garcia M oren o’s rule, the
Pérez map crystallized the Garcian p arad igm . The relevance o f th is fram ework
declined soon thereafter as a new public sphere and visual culture cam e to local
prominence.

Progress, Commemoration, and the Liberal Map

The global fin-de-siglo has been ch aracterized as a moment in w h ich nation­

alism began to be ritualized in mass spectacle. Governments adopted com m em ­
orative gestures that performed a teleological construction o f n a tio n a lity wed­
ded to new or “ invented” traditions. States adopted national anth em s, produced
pageants with actors in native costum e, or h eld parades that h elp ed d issem i­
 M apping the Center o f the World / 37

nate these sym bols to a w id e audience. Som e were o ld er im ages recon figu red
for modern tim es, such as th e réintroduction o f th e French tricolore d u rin g th e
Third Republic. O thers w ere brand new yet attem p ted to adbrn them selves in
the trappings and weight o f the historical past, su ch as the adoption o f h ig h la n d
dress by some m em bers o f the British nobility. T h ese ubiquitou s new sy m b o ls
produced a legible cascad e o f allegorical im agery th a t its e lf inspired a sim p li­
fied view o f national id en tity, one that om itted th e p articip ation o f those w h o
existed outside these m y th sca p e s.27 These in c re a sin g ly com m od ified im ages
appeared on a d izzyin g v a rie ty o f cerem onial a n d fu n c tio n a l goods, in clu d in g
m aps and urban view s. From route m aps to ro ad atlases to tourist guides, th e
niim ber o f com m ercially available m aps increased exponen tially, often in c o rp o ­
rating new graphic sym b o ls illustrating national m etaph ors. The m ap was th u s
re-imagined as a m ass-p ro d u ced com m odity, co n su m e d b y tourists and lo c a ls
alike, that reified pow er relations while encouraging th e developm ent o f specific
industrial, com m ercial, o r to u rist econom ies.28
Ecuadorian visu a l c u ltu re engaged these in tern ation al tropes, reconfigu rin g
and re-im agining th em in d ialogue with local con d itio n s and power relatio n s.
The desire for a p rim o rd ial, authentic, and ro m an ticized folk so prom in ent in
European nationalist im a g e ry produced a local co n u n d ru m due to the perceived
degradation o f the E c u a d o ria n indigenous p o p u latio n . A s in Peru or M ex ico ,
the Ecuadorian state solved th is problem b y ig n o rin g th e contem porary s itu ­
ation o f indigenous com m u n ities while em bracing p re-C o lu m b ian c u ltu res in
the abstract.29 T h is e ffo rt involved the production o f lau d atory portraits o f th e
Incaic sovereign A ta h u a lp a and his lieutenant R u m iñ a h u i, personages d o u ­
bly removed from con tem p orary indigenous peoples as a result o f th eir In caic
(Peruvian) roots. A s im ila r object o f fascin ation w as fo u n d in con tem p orary
A m azonian tribes o n ly recen tly “encountered” b y c ivilizatio n . The exam p les
o f Juan León M era’s no vel Cum andá and the co n tro versial inclusion o f A m a ­
zonian nudes at the 1889 U n iversal E xposition in P aris initiated a fasc in a tio n
with the visual pom p o f an idealized indigeneity. T h ese im ages were c a re fu lly
disassociated from the laborers o f the h ighland h acien d as or cacao p lan tatio n s,
characters portrayed as “ degenerate” in lettered circles. In stead, nostalgic m a ­
quettes and photographs o f the Incaic ru ins o f In gapirca were duly d isp layed
at the nation’s p avilion at M a d rid ’s Exposición H ispan o -A m erican o in 1892, as
was a life-size sculpture o f an A m azonian S h u a r w arrio r (a tribe better k n o w n
at the time as the Jívaros).30 A t the 1893 C o lu m bian E xh ibition in Chicago, th ese
‘heroic” icons gave way to the weavers o f the con tem p orary O tavalo tribe, w h ose
industrious” entrepreneu rship proved an excep tio n to the ru le o f in d igen ou s
barbarism , as Brooke L arso n has eloquently noted.31
The intersection o f th is nationally p roduced v is u a l cu ltu re w ith in te rn a ­
tionally accessible geograph ic and cartographic iconography also began in C h i­
cago. On the occasion o f the 1893 exhibition, a co n so rtiu m o f G u ayaqu il-b ased
bankers tied to the d a ily D iario de Avisos collab orated w ith the governm ent to
38 \ M apping the C enter o f the World

produce an E n glish -lan g u ag e com m em orative to m e, titled Ecuador in Chicago,

docum enting E c u a d o r’s participation in the fair. T h e volum e in clu d ed several
view s o f the n atio n al p av ilio n but also p rovid ed its foreign audience w ith vivid
descriptions o f th e n ation ’s geography, its p o litic a l and economic h isto ry , and
investm ent op p o rtu n ities. A irbrush ed p ortraits o f the directors o f th e D iario de
Avisos and several lo c a l b a n k s, socialites, go vern m en t m inisters, the p resid en t,
an d other notables introd u ced Ecuador’s h igh society to the world. P h otograph s
o f G uayaquil’s p o rt facilities and Quito’s ch u rch es, along with yet anoth er rep ro­
duction o f both th e W o lf and Pérez m aps o f th e tw o m ajor cities, served to illu s­
trate a picturesque c o u n try ripe for investm ent an d frien d ly to foreigners. C o m ­
merce, not religion, w o u ld be at the center o f E c u a d o r’s future role in th e w o rld .’2
Ecuador in Chicago, taken as a whole, a n ticip ated the ethos o f th e m o d e rn ­
ization program a d o p ted a fte r the 1895 L ib eral R evolution and a lso so u n d e d
the death knell fo r G u a lb e rto Pérez’s view o f a sacred yet insular c a p ita l. The
possibility o f develo pin g an alternative m ap in creased when the co n stru ctio n o f
the G u ayaq u il-Q u ito railw ay brought an in flu x o f technically adept en gin eers
and surveyors in to the n ation . One o f these “e x p e rts,” the A m erican e n gin eer
H enry Grant H igley, w as enlisted to c ra ft ju s t su ch a vision o f Q uito. H igley s
reputation rested o n p revio u s cartographic experien ce in N icaragua, w h ere he
had com pleted a m ap o f the M osquito C o ast (1888) as p art o f an endeavor to bol­
ster investm ent in th e B luefields developm ent. L ik e his later work in E cu a d o r,
the m ap o f B luefields w as distinguished by an en gagin g m ulticolor sch em e and
advertisem ents fo r lo ca l businesses placed in th e m argin s and aim ed at a n in ­
ternational audience. S oo n a fter arrivin g in E cu a d o r, Higley com pleted a sim ple
plan o f G u ayaqu il (1899) th at appears to have b e en u sed b y railway w o rkers, and
he followed it u p w ith a m ore elaborate p o rtra it o f Q uito subsidized b y local
businessm an Ju lio E sau Delgado (fig. 2.4).”
Higley s Quito en 1903 p lan , u nlike the w orks o f Pérez and M enten, avo id s the
austerity o f an o rth o g o n a l projection in favor o f a b ird ’s-eye view o r p an o ram ic
m ap. The perspective em ulates the traditional lan d scap e views from Itc h im b ia ’s
slopes yet was m o st lik e ly designed for a foreign audience. Panoram ic m a p s h ad
becom e a vib ran t in d u s try in H igley’s n ative U n ited States d u rin g th e n in e ­
teenth century b e c au se th ey presented an op en an d inviting im age. M a n y o f
these p anoram ic d esig n s exaggerated the featu res o f prom inent s tru c tu re s or
natural m onum ents, m ak in g such m aps m ore accessible as tourist g u id e s.34 T h e
panoram a-type v iew w o u ld therefore have b een fa m ilia r to A m erican or E u ro ­
pean travelers or in v esto rs, who appear to h ave been the audiences. A n in set
m ap o f the p roposed route o f the G u ayaq u il-Q u ito railway, labeled in E n g lish ,
also appears d irected at these groups, as do th e m y ria d advertisem ents fo r “cos­
m opolitan” im p o rt b u sin esses placed on th e m a p ’s border. M oreover, th e p ro ­
jection’s flattening o f th e c ity ’s irregular to p ograp h y w ould have m ad e it easier
to discern the v a rio u s la n d m a rk s and featu res, th u s m aking the m a p a m ore
inviting text.
39
Fig. 2.4. H. G. Higley, Qwito en 1 903 (1903). Courtesy Library of Congress, Geography Sc Map Division.
40 \ Mapping the Center o f the W orld

A n iconological analysis o f th e m ap reveals a city at once traditional and

modern— a beacon o f progress rip e for foreign investm ent yet appreciably h is­
toric. The city’s m onum ental ch aracter is advanced b y th e elongation o f the
spires o f San Francisco, Santo D o m in go, and the N atio n al O bservatory as well
as by the incorporation o f eight photographic vignettes a d o rn in g the city’s out­
skirts. The subjects o f these v ig n e tte s include m odern stru c tu re s such as the
Teatro Sucre and the M ilitary Q u arters and, in a cluster atop the diagram , the
city’s best-known colonial m on u m en ts: the Santo D o m in go an d San Francisco
monasteries', the cathedral, an d th e Governm ent Palace. T h e m erger o f tradition
and modernity continues in th e top right section w ith p o rtra its o f Ecuador’s six­
teen presidents surrounding th e n ation al coat o f arm s, w ith the liberal caudillos
Plaza and Alfaro receiving p laces o f honor at the top and bottom . In the upper
left corner, a swirl o f red flags ro u n d s out the patriotic im a g e ry with a flourish
by marking the spot o f the 1822 B attle o f Pichincha. T h e entire m ap is fram ed
with evocations o f cosm opolitanism in the railway m ap a n d in advertisem ents
for goods such as liquor, ph o to grap h s, and imported clothing.
Higley’s panorama ch allen ged the com m unicentric id eals o f an earlier era
by partially secularizing the c it y ’s m onum entality w ith in th is global visual c u l­
ture o f commemoration and com m erce. This concatenation deepened over the
remainder o f the century’s first d ecad e due to the parallel collaboration between
the Ecuadorian and French m ilita rie s that followed a ca ll in international geo­
desic circles to refine La C o n d a m in e ’s m easurements u sin g m odern surveying
instruments. Both the French a n d E cuadorian go vern m en ts recognized the
public relations benefits in b a n k ro llin g such a scheme, a n d , a fter an exploratory
trip by French delegates in 1899, th e tw o nations initiated a second calculation
of the arc o f the equatorial m e rid ia n in 1901 under the lead ersh ip o f Captain E.
Maurain and Lieutenant G eorges Perrier. Generous fin a n c ia l support for com ­
memorative festivities celebrating th e eighteenth-century legacy went with the
binational mission on its travels th rough the country, a n d th e first volume o f a
lavishly illustrated series o f rep o rts appeared in 1910. M u ch to the delight o f the
governments of Plaza and A lfa ro , archaeological studies conducted by the m is­
sion’s chief medical officer, a d a sh in g intellectual nam ed Paul R ivet who would
later found the Musée de l ’H om m e, received great intern ational acclaim .35When
Rivet’s research gave rise to h is controversial theory th a t th e South A m erican
coast had first been settled b y P olyn esian s, it appeared as th ou gh the nation had
once again risen to the forefront o f th e scientific im aginary.
The mission also provided a p ractical benefit in tra in in g local m ilitary per­
sonnel in modern surveying a n d d ra ftin g measures, w h ich proved particularly
crucial as the early twentieth c e n tu ry saw a renewal o f E c u a d o r’s sim m ering
border conflict with Peru. T h is strife additionally led then-president A lfaro to
reach out to a moderate D o m in ican fria r nam ed Enrique V acas G alindo to con­
duct a study o f national borders d u rin g a journey to Spain . V acas G alindo’s find­
ings appeared between 1901 an d 19 0 3 in exhaustive state publication s designed
 M apping the Center o f the W orld / 41

to make the case again st Peru. A n abridged version was bankrolled in 1905 b y an
o r g a n iz a t io n called the J u n t a Patriótica N acio n al (JPN), which c o u n t e d liberals,
c o n s e r v a t i v e s , a n d several clerics— in clu d in g b oth Vacas G alin d o an d Federico
González Suárez, then bishop o f Ibarra— am o n g its m em bership. E ach o f these
p u b lic a t io n s argu ed for a “Greater E cu a d o r” th at bordered B razil an d whose ter­
ritory included the headwaters o f the A m a z o n . W hen outright h ostilities broke
out in A pril 19 10 , the junta quickly circu lated a separate pam phlet th at included
six maps viv id ly illustratin g the relevant colonial and n in eteenth-century trea­
ties. Am ong these view s was one arg u in g th a t Peru considered E c u a d o r’s ter­
ritory to end ju st o ff the eastern edge o f th e A n d ean spine. T h is cla im proved
particularly effective in rallying the E c u a d o ria n populace to A lfa r o ’s side, and
the map was rep rin ted in various new spapers across the country.36
A longside th is collaboration w ith th e C h u rch , the m ilita ry an d civilia n s
cooperated in th e form ation o f a p u re ly sec u la r b o d y called th e So cied ad
Geográfica de Q uito (SGQ ) that in clu d ed prom inent m ilitary officers such as
the president’s brother, Olmedo A lfa ro , as w ell as G u alberto Pérez and L u is
Tufiño, d irecto r o f the N ational O b servato ry in Q uito’s A la m e d a P ark. T he
group successfully lobbied the governm ent fo r fu n d in g in M arch 19 10 an d was
charged thenceforth with expanding lo ca l cartographic study in su pp ort o f na­
tional security. G u alb erto Pérez q u ick ly engaged in a survey o f the southern
regions under d ispute while the body advocated splitting the vast O riente prov­
ince into two d istricts in order to better a d m in iste r the A m azo n ian region. The
group also em braced the stock liberal m easu re o f creating a civil registry.37 M ost
importantly, th ey called for the inaugu ration o f a m ilitary geographic corps or­
ganized along the French model so as to create a national topographic m ap. A s
articulated b y L u is T u fiñ o in a letter to th e M in istry o f Public W orks, which
was later circu lated as a pam phlet, th is co rp s w ould lead team s o f u n iversity
students into th e field to conduct th e n e cessa ry surveys, thus e n h an cin g the
students’ p ractical knowledge while acceleratin g the m apping process. T u fiñ o
argued that such a move would not o n ly help national defense bu t w o u ld also
increase the p otential for tourism and international investm ent.38
Tufiño’s p am ph let proved to be a b lu ep rin t for the future developm ent o f a
geographic corps, yet the endeavor h ad to b e postponed after A lfa ro le ft office
in August 19 11. However, the SG Q p ro ved m ore successful in ch allen gin g the
clerical vision o f Q uito as a sacred city b y cem enting its own secu lar m arkers in
key locations w ith in the city. This p rocess b egan when A lfa ro bequ eath ed the
group the fo rm er Japanese pavilion fro m the 1909 National E xp o sition (held to
commemorate th e centennial o f E cu a d o rian independence) to u se as a p erm a ­
nent headquarters. The exposition h ad h elp ed develop the old D o m in ican horse
pastures (know n as the Recoleta) into a fash ion able park ringed b y “m od ern ”
structures such as the building in qu estion. A m ore significant event, however,
occurred when Archbishop González S u árez approved the razing o f a p yram id al
observation station erected by the G eod esic M ission on the P an ecillo w ith the
42 \ M ap p in g the Center o f the W orld

Fig. 2.5. P au l Loiseau-R ousseau, G eodesic M on u m en t, A lam ed a Park, Q u ito . Photograph by the
author.

intention o f replacing it with a new church overlooking th e capital. T h e Socie­

dad G e o g rá fica de Quito erupted in fu ry , denouncing the p ro p o sed structure in
the p ress as an “atentado de lesa civilización” (uncivilized attack). T h e archbishop,
h im se lf a n avid archaeologist w ho h a d collaborated w ith P a u l R ivet on digs,
soon b ack ed dow n and destroyed th e alread y laid fou nd ation o f th e new church,
prom ising to b u ild a com m em orative p yram id on the site— a pledge that earned
h im la u d a to ry accolades and h o n o ra ry m em bership in th e S G Q .
T h e d ecisio n to b uild the com m em orative pyram id on th e Panecillo was
the first o f several attem pts to celebrate the Geodesic M issio n ’s jou rney in the
Q uito area. B y th e end o f the year, th e planned site for th e n ew p yram id had
been c h an g ed to A lam eda Park, in th e shadow o f the N a tio n a l Observatory, a
decision th a t sym bolically id en tified th e fru its o f n ation al scien tific pursuits
as the le g a c y o f the French m issio n s. A new tran sn atio n al collective, the C o ­
m ité Fran co-Ecuatoriano, collected fu n d s for a splendid m on u m en t to the two
m issions, a n d President A lfa ro la id the cornerstone th at A p r il. T h e structure
(fig. 2.5) w as designed by Frenchm an Paul Loiseau-Rousseau an d erected by the
S w iss-Italian architect Francisco D u rin i, who was developing a local reputation
as an arch itect o f eclectic tastes.39 It featu red an elongated sq u are pyram id deco­
rated b y th e nam es o f the m em bers o f both m issions as w ell as o f French and Ec­
uad orian donors. The iconographic elem ents included an an gel o f wisdom writ­
ing the on goin g h istory o f nation al science upon the p y ra m id ’s southern face.
A t its su m m it, in place o f the fleu r-d e-lis that had created su ch problem s two
44 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

centuries earlier, an A n d e a n condor was perched w ith a globe upon its w in gs, an
image that cemented th e capital and nation’s em brace o f its planetary centrality.
As the monument w ent up in A lam eda P ark , th e Sociedad G eografica laid
claim to its third sig n ifica n t site w ithin the c ity in u n d er two years, w ith the
first being its inh abiting o f the Japanese p a v ilio n an d the second, its su ccess­
fu l attempt to take con tro l o f the Panecillo. E ach o f these sites existed w ith in
an inhabited sym bolic landscape. A lam ed a Park and the Recoleta each la y on
the outskirts of town n ear the largest swaths o f new construction in th e m od ­
ernizing city. The S G Q th us inserted itself in to m od ernizin g territory, a n act
underscoring the need to p lan for colonizing th e environ s o f the T u ru b a m b a
and Anaquito plains. T h e uproar over the p y ra m id on the Panecillo not on ly
linked the society w ith th e Liberal assault on th e C h u rch but also allow ed it to
claim a site whose p an o ram ic view o f the capital h a d eclipsed the eastern view
from Itchimbia as the m ost “accurate” point o f reference, given the su itab ility o f
its position for surveyin g the southern plains an d its proxim ity to an orth ogonal
projection.
The first urban m ap created by a m em ber o f th e SG Q makes this civ iliz in g
and expansionist gaze exp licit. The work in q u estio n , G ualberto Perez’s Quito
actual y del porvenir, presents a utopian design intended to guide the c ity ’s fu tu re
development. The b lu e p rin t is based on a re g u la r grid frequently in terru p ted
with broad diagonal avenues ending at circu lar p la z a s in a m anner rem iniscent
of Haussmann’s plan fo r P aris, likely from the influ ence o f contacts w ith in the
French mission (fig. 2.6). However, Perez avoids H au ssm an n ’s incisions o n the
traditional city by en sh rin in g the built environm ent at the center o f the fu tu re
city. An unaltered versio n o f his cadastral m ap (the original m ap had recen tly
been updated to includ e new construction, at th e behest o f the m u n icip ality)
thus is the basis for th e c ap ital’s core: the Q u ito “ del porvenir” begins o n ly in
the outer environs. N o su ch consideration for preservation , however, is g iven to
existing communities o n the northern and sou th ern plains. These are colonized
by the grid in a m an ner rem iniscent o f the “ fro n tie r expansion” that M a u ricio
Tenorio Trillo has id en tified for Porfirian M exico C ity.40 A s in M exico, Perez’s
proposed suburbanization o f Quito shifted new developm ent away fro m a pre­
served center and flatten ed outlying h acien d as a n d In dian villages, a ll in the
name of an ill-defined “ del porvenir” that em bo d ied a set o f practices id en tified
with the legitimation o f the orthogonal gaze an d the com m em oration o f Q u ito ’s
place within a pantheon o f capitals.
Perez’s design d id not im m ediately com e to fru itio n , although one cou ld
argue that it anticipated th e dom inant o rien tatio n o f the Plan R e g u la d o r de
Quito drawn up in 19 4 2 b y G uillerm o Jones O d rio zo la. O f m ore im m ed ia te
importance was its e x p a n sio n o f the audience fo r cartographic treatm en ts o f
urban development. T h e m ap circulated widely, app earin g in major new spapers
across the country an d w hetting the public’s ap p etite for a com m ercial strain o f
cartographic imaging.
 Mapping the Center o f the World / 45

T h is phenom enon paralleled a rise in local tourism and th e beginn ings o f

Quito’s transform ation into an in tern atio n al destination. T h e c ity ’s elites had
long m ain tain ed secondary resid en ces in the nearby c o u n try sid e , but, as the
new cen tury began, even fam ilie s o f m odest m eans b egan to engage in tem po­
rary excursions. For instance, th e p o et Jorge Carrera A n d rad e, whose fam ily oc­
cupied a sm all house on the slopes o f the Panecillo near the h om es o f indigenous
laborers, in his mem oirs speaks o f ch ild ho od sum m er d ays spent at h is fam ily’s
“refugio campestre" at their sm all quinta (country house) near El B atán hacienda
in the early 19 10 s.41 Those w ith le sse r budgets rented au tom obiles and lu x u ry
carriages for day trips to n earb y d estinations such as C o to co llao , Sangolqui,
or G uápulo as early as 1908, w h en th e tourist agency “ L a C e n tra l,” on Carrera
Venezuela near the Plaza G rand e, first opened its doors.41 W ith the arrival o f the
railroad that sam e year, m any o f its passengers would have been bo th domestic
and international travelers enticed u p the Andes by the speed o f the locomotive.
Statistics on tourists tra ve lin g to Q uito are hard to com e b y for the early
part o f the century; however, an in crease in publications sp e cifica lly designed as
com m em orative booklets or gu id e b o o k s demonstrates th eir grow in g numbers.
Local photographer José D o m in go L aso , for example, p u blish ed two album s in
concert w ith the 1909 cen ten nial o f th e declaration o f in d epen d en ce.43 These
volumes showcased an idealized cityscap e featuring m ajestic colon ial structures
(mostly churches) and streetscapes in which undesirable elem ents (most likely
Indians) were casually e x clu d e d .44 L aso , having h im se lf pu rch ased advertis­
ing space on H igley’s map, re tu rn e d the favor for local bu sin esses. Those who
bought ads included prom inent con cern s such as the Botica A le m a n , the oculist
L. E. Troya, various clothing im p o rters, and several hotels. P ro u d ly standing in
their Sund ay best before cabinets an d shelves stocked w ith the best national and
foreign wares, these merchants d isp la y e d a contem porary cosm opolitanism that
augm ented the city’s colonial m onum en tality.
Laso’s publications, however gran diose, im parted little p ractical knowledge
about the city, and, despite th e ir h e fty price, they app ear to have been more
suitable as souvenirs. Less e x p e n siv e options for the n a tio n a l or foreign trav­
eler began to appear in the 19 2 0 s, o f w hich H um berto Peña O rejuela’s Guia de
Bolsillo de Quito was the m ost w id e ly distributed. B asically a d irecto ry provid­
ing addresses and listings o f lo c a l businesses, Peña’s p ocket gu id e was reissued
several tim es.45 Its conspicuous la ck o f a m ap was balanced b y the sim ultaneous
expansion o f locally produced a n d com m ercially available p lan s o f the city that
could have served as a cross-reference for a newcomer. T h is abundance o f maps
was p artly the result o f the fo rm a tio n o f a local lithographic service run by the
Estado M ayor General (EM G), a b o d y affiliated with th e m ilita ry that began to
offer topographic courses in 19 17—1918 under the d irection o f L u is Tufiño, one
o f Pérez’s colleagues from the S G Q .46 One o f the first co m m ercially sold maps
appeared in 1920, the same y e a r as Peña’s guide, and it w as produced with an
eye toward L atin A m erican to u rists. Its author was a c o lo rfu l C olom bian travel
46 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

w riter named Froilán H o lgu in Balcázar, whose career as a correspondent had

begun in 1905 with an ill-fated trip to Guayaquil, w here the self-described pen ­
niless gypsy was forced to d rin k water from the c ity ’s public fountains. H is first
foray into mapping Q uito cam e w ith the 1920 Plano comercial de Quito, w hich
included a street diagram listin g the locations o f m ajo r businesses while touting
recent infrastructural advances such as sewers an d w ater tanks, presum ably in
an effort to boost developm ent as well as cater to to u rists.47
The use o f maps to p rom ote investment in ten sified du ring the b u ild u p to
the 1922 centennial of the Battle o f Pichincha, in w h ich Q uito had been liberated
from Spain. With state su pp ort, the m unicipality a n d a new planning com m is­
sion called the Junta de Em bellecim iento de Q u ito stepped up their efforts to
provide infrastructural im provem ents and services. O ne o f their first m oves was
to organize a census o f th e city and county. The 19 21 c h a rt o f population centers
(fig. 2.7) produced for cen sus workers indicated b o th a spatial and a rhetorical
embrace of the im perialist design that had been featu red in Pérez’s 1912 m ap.
Like Quito actual y del porvenir, the city’s limits extend ed far into the T urub am ba
and Añaquito plains. Because o f its function, the m a p necessarily represented
habitations on the city o u tsk irts yet used a color sch em e that perpetuated the
dismissive gaze of a civilized city toward the w ild cou n trysid e. Fully traced city
blocks are represented as p in k squares, covering even the sparsely inhabited ar­
eas on the southeastern edge. O utlying com m unities, however, received fu ll col-
orization only if, as in the case o f a few blocks in the L a M agdalena district south
o f the Panecillo, they h a d b u ild in gs on all sides. O th erw ise, on ly the streets
are shaded with a lighter p in k . The m ap d istin gu ish es between two fo rm s o f
ostensibly equivalent in d ivid u al structures on the p erip h ery: casas sólidas (rep­
resented as black squares) an d casas no-sólidas (represented as white squares).
The common practice o f u sin g squares to represent a ll structures on such m aps
levels difference between these buildings; however, th e choice o f white for the
“non-solid” houses correlates to the color used fo r the undeveloped plain s— one
imagines these “homes” as potential sites for m ore solid futu re con struction.
The iconographical colorization furth er correlates th e non-solid with the ru ral
realm, suggesting these b la n k , “em pty” squares represent chozas— rude in d ig­
enous huts. As with the d ivision between the tw o ty p e s o f city blocks identified
(“constructed” and “ in p rogress” ), the houses (and p resu m ably their in h a b i­
tants) seem to come from two different worlds. T h e identification o f som e o f the
larger haciendas as structures w ith clearly drawn p la n s furth ers a conception o f
civitas that includes the hacendados home but not th e p easan t’s choza as a p art o f
the built urban territory.
The 1921 census m ap w as the first o f three th a t the E M G reproduced and
then sold in honor o f the 1922 centennial. Its second venture featured a m ap o f
the city’s parochial d istricts that had been p repared fo r the m un icip ality and
presented to it in Ja n u a ry 1922 in anticipation o f th e centennial festivities in
May. Lieutenants Luis H errera and Ezequiel R iv ad e n e ira drafted the w ork,
47
Fig. 2.7. Detail, Plano de la ciudad de Quito para los trabajos del Censo (1921). Courtesy Biblioteca Ecuatoriana “Aurelio Espinosa Pólit,” Quito.
48 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

which the city adopted as its official stan d ard . From the start, th e c ity council
saw the m ap not on ly as an education al to ol, as in 1888, but also as a possibly
marketable com m odity, and it ordered red u ced wall-size copies in F e b ru a ry .48
As with the various m aps o f Q uito, b e gin n in g with that o f L a C o n d am in e,
one of the c ru cial features o f the H errera-R ivaden eira m ap (figs. 2.8 an d 2.9)
is the establishm ent o f authorial le g itim acy . The title o f the m ap provides a
summary o f its history, identifying not o n ly the general who ordered the m ap
but also his intention to donate it to th e m u n icip ality precisely fo r th e purpose
of celebrating the centennial. G eneral D o n R afael A lm eida’s sign a tu re figures
prominently beneath the title, flan k ed b y the autographs o f the tw o cartogra­
phers. A second claim to legitim ation lies to the left o f the title, in th e fo rm o f a
reproduction o f the m unicipal ordinance th an k in g the EM G for its fine w o rk.49
The im age o f the ordinance appears as i f etched on an ancient scroll, a nos­
talgic evocation echoing the clim ate o f h isto ricism o f the 1922 celebrations that
was also m an ifested in the production o f a com m em orative vo lu m e pen ned by
Isaac Barrera o f the National A cad em y o f H istory, as well as tertulias or sem i­
nars dedicated to discussing the city’s h isto ry, essay com petitions, an d newspa­
per articles on the independence w ars.50 R h etorically, the m ap’s a u th o rity thus
results specifically from this appreciation o f the city’s glorious p a st alon g with
the author’s technical prowess. In d ivid u a l claim to authorial legitim acy, how ­
ever, has receded in the face o f increasing institutional (military) authority.
Chorographic details incorporate not o n ly the built environm en t b ut also
engage m unicipal planning designs in a com m unicentric statem ent th at again
reinforces class, spatial, and racial d iv isio n s. A color-coded schem e delim its
the city’s p arochial divisions. A s w ith earlier m aps, the southern w orking-class
and mixed: race d istricts o f La M agd alen a and Chim bacalle are n ot presented
as fully developed parts o f the city, an d o n ly the m ain streets are h ighlighted.
In the north, however, the area o f S a n ta P risca parish that w as targeted for
transformation into the upscale M a ris c a l Su cre suburb is p resen ted as i f a l­
ready com pleted, w ith fu ll colorization in d ark green. Its street ou tlin es belie
this designation, as they are identified b y dotted lines representing th eir status
as planned rather than completed co n stru ctio n . The district th u s represents a
paradoxical d u a lity as a “ fu lly u rb an ” area as yet unbuilt. Its sta tu s as p art o f
Quito’s aristocratic civitas starkly contrasts w ith the obscuring o f w orking-class
and rural d istricts. However, this in clu sio n w as not extended to th e entirety o f
the Benalcazar parroquia (civil parish); its outer edges received th e sam e color­
ization as the southern .parishes, in a gestu re sim ilar to the rep resentation o f
chozas in the 19 21 census map.
As with p rio r m aps, featured b u ild in g s also provide great in sig h t into the
image’s com m unicentric values. To b e g in w ith , abstract lines replace bu ild in g
plans throughout, w ith the exception o f p u b lic buildings colored red. There is
no table listing all the structures, bu t a n a ly sis reveals the furth er d im in ish m en t
of religious m arkers and a corresponding grow th in markers o f c iv il adm in istra-
49
Fig. 2.8. Luis Herrera and Ezequiel Rivadeneira, mid-range detail of Plano de la ciudad de Quito levantado por orden del Sr. G en era l Don Rafael A lm eid a , S., Jefe del E .M .G ., y obse­
quiado al Ilustre Concejo M u n icip a l de Quito en H om enaje al C entenario de la Batalla de Pichincha (1922). This view shows the scroll used to document municipal acceptance of the
map. Courtesy Biblioteca Ecuatoriana “Aurelio Espinosa Pólit,” Quito.
5°
 M apping the Center o f the World / 51

tion. One o f the m ost in terestin g facets o f the m ap, however, is the inclusion
o f n u m e r o u s private b u ild in g s, shaded in gray, w h ich collectively declare the
actualization o f in d u strial a n d residential districts even i f they are still und er
construction. To the sou th , fo r instance, nascent in d u stry appears represented
b y the El Retiro m ill and a textile plant. To the n o rth , th is im age is m irrored
b y well-known elite ch alets su ch as Francisco D u r in i’s V illa Trento and V illa
Trieste as well as La C ircasian a , the residence o f con servative politician Jacinto
jijón y Caam año. The sp a tia l dynam ics o f the city’s subsequent zoning divisions
into a southern in d u strial b e lt and the northern su b u rb s are therefore an tici­
pated by the m ap’s iconography.
This m ap also b ecam e th e object o f the th ird o f th e E M G ’s com m em ora­
tive commodities when p oster-sized , red-tinted reproductions appeared in local
bookstores and new sstands th at M ay. These reprints incorporated a thick b o r­
der highlighting local b u sin esses, following the lead o f H igley and Holguin Bal-
cázar’s embrace o f the m ap as advertising space. U n lik e the edition given to the
m unicipality and other in stitu tio n s, this version d id not feature the m unicipal
ordinance and the extended title sum m arizing the m ap ’s history. Instead, it h ad
the simple title “ Plano de la C iu d ad de Quito en el C en ten ario de la Batalla de
Pichincha.” Public b u ild in gs appear as on the earlier version, but this time there
was an accompanying list th at would m ake them e asily identifiable to a tourist
or business traveler. T h is em p h asis on legibility, com bined w ith a smaller size—
the reprint was app roxim ately one-third the size o f th e earlier m ap— increased
their accessibility and p racticality.
The commercial success o f the H errera-Rivadeneira m ap marked the great­
est level o f m ilitary carto grap h ic preeminence to th is p oint; however, its p ro ­
duction would expand e x p o n en tially over the rest o f th e decade. The a rrival
later in 1922 o f an Italian m ilita ry m ission, invited to h elp Ecuador m odernize
its arm ed forces in respon se to a sim ilar French a d v iso ry trip to Peru, accel­
erated this process. T h e Ita lia n com m anders encouraged the developm ent o f
m ilitary engineering an d p ersu ad ed President José L u is Tam ayo to inaugurate
a course in topographical stu d ies under the auspices o f Lieutenant Colonel L u is
T. Paz y M iño, who w ould subsequently rise to prom inence as an adm inistrator
and cartographic h isto ria n .5* O ther Italian initiatives in cluded courses on the
study o f cartography, geodesy, and topography th at led to extensive surveyin g
o f border regions. T h ro u gh th e political turm oil o f the m i d - i 9 2 0 S , calls for a
national atlas became com m onplace both in the m ilita ry and in the press. One
o f President Isidro A yora’s first decrees upon com ing to pow er following the Ju ­
lian Revolution ordered th at such a m ap be created u n d e r the auspices o f m an y
o f those involved in carto grap h ic studies over the p ast decades, including Paz
y M iño, Luis Tufiño, E zeq u iel Rivadeneira, and th e Italian colonel Giácom o
Rocca. Extensive cartographic training took place in 1927 as efforts intensified to
form the special corps th at T u fiñ o had first called for in 19 11. On A pril u , 1928,
Ayora finally inaugurated th e Servicio Geográfico M ilita r (SGM ), which w ould
52 \ M apping the Center o f the World

d om inate cartographic prod u ction in Ecuador through th e rest o f the twentieth

cen tury.52
M ore broadly, one can a rg u e th at the m aps o f the L ib e ra l era illustrate a
tran sfo rm atio n in the conceit o f cartography. Besides e ro d in g the expertise o f
the in d ivid u al in favor o f the institu tion al m ight o f the m ilita ry , the m aps pro­
duced between 1903 and 1922 dem onstrate a m arked ten d en cy to use cartogra­
phy as a tool for ju stifyin g th e im perial expansion o f th e city. T h e relationship
betw een color and the bu ilt environm ent shifted as w ell to designate a sociora-
cial d ivision o f space that an ticipated the class and racial segregation that would
e ve n tu a lly m ark the city’s tw entieth -centu ry schem atics. T h e era also saw the
on set o f the map's com m od ificatio n and the initiation o f an allian ce between
busin ess (especially those b u sin esses catering to tourists), the m unicipality, and
m ilita ry cartographers. T h is relationsh ip would d eep en over the next two de­
cades as the transform ation o f Q u ito’s socioeconom ic sp a tia lity w ould become
concretized.
T h ese changes paralleled a cu ltu re o f public com m em oratio n that was in-
d iv isib ly bound to the p ro d u ctio n o f urban views. T h e te ch n ica l advice o f the
French Geodesic M ission h e a v ily influenced the exp a n sio n o f m apping in the
early years o f the century, a n d th at grow th accelerated fu rth e r in the wake o f
the 19 09 centennial o f the first ca ll for independence fro m Sp ain . The claim ing
o f sites specifically iden tified w ith both the spread o f geo d esy and the m odern
frin g e s o f the city estab lish ed th e legitim acy o f the S o c ie d a d Geografica de
Q u ito while its successors in th e E M G expanded the carto grap h er’s gaze. W ith
the institu tional fram ew ork offered by a separate geo g rap h ical m ilitary corps,
the 19 30s w ould afford the o p p o rtu n ity to consolidate th e d isparate strands o f
carto grap h ic production u n d e r a single roof. The new m ap s produced would
once again build on the c u ltu re o f com m em oration a n d help expand the city,
b o th for business and for th e grow in g tourist trade.

Institutionalization, Tourism , and the Pleasure City

T h e form ation o f the S G M constituted one o f th e m ost im portant events

in th e h isto ry o f E cuadorian cartography. For the first tim e , an institution spe­
c ific a lly geared to the stu d y o f national geography gathered together surveyors,
cartographers, and ad m in istrators. Its leadership represented the cream o f m ili­
ta ry geographers, led first b y Italian m ilitary advisor G ia co m o Rocca and then
b y Ezequiel Rivadeneira, now a lieutenant colonel. C o n tin u in g Italian influence
a lso led to the m odernization o f m an y o f the tech niques u se d in geodesic su r­
veys, which had hitherto b een based m ainly on sim ple ground-level surveys and
trian gu lation . Photogram m etric techniques debuted in E cu a d o r with the onset
o f a cam p aign to com pile a n atio n al atlas. The use o f p h o to grap h y sped up the
research phase, which was com pleted by 1930.53
 M apping the Center o f the W orld / 53

One o f the first o f the new m aps w as an oth er plan o f Q uito, com pleted in
1932 S4 Once a g a in , the m ilitary chose to u n veil and present the fin ish ed work
to the m unicip ality on a national holiday, A u g u st 10 (Independence Day). T he
map represents th e first conspicuous a ttem p t to provide a fu ll to p o grap h ical
description o f th e city. Earlier m aps h a d tend ed to end contour lin es at th e edge
of the constructed area, which had th e e ffect o f m aking m ou n tain s lik e P ich ­
incha, Itchim bia, an d the Panecillo ap p ear as sm all rises that su d d en ly ended.
The S G M ’s m ap , however, weaves to p o g rap h ic a l lines in betw een th e m ajor
constructed areas and preserves the la n d sc a p e ’s irregularity. T h is approach ac­
centuates the d iffic u lty that con stru ctin g th e city m ust have p resented, as can
be seen very clearly b y exam ining th e alteration between p eaks an d flatten ed
city blocks in areas like El Tejar, for exam p le. The contour lines, how ever, also
bespeak the con tin ued presence o f an elite vision o f the city due to selective in ­
terruptions alortg upscale areas such as the M a risca l while con tinuing u nbroken
through the w orking-class housing d istric ts north o f El Tejar.
A sim ilar u n d erstan d in g o f Q uito’s socio spatial divisions app eared in the
national atlas com pleted later that y ear. O n a page dedicated to th e c a p ita l,
the SG M chose n ot to include the en tire c ity b u t to elim inate th e now solid ly
working-class d istric ts o f La M a g d ale n a an d C h im bacalle ju st sou th o f the
Panecillo w hile includin g the northern A ñ a q u ito plains. T h is decision not only
symbolically la id claim to the northern environs but also presented a p articu la r
constitution o f the city’s public im age as form ed b y its colonial core, the upscale
residential n o rth , and a landscape u n sp o ile d b y in d u strial p ro d u ctio n . T he
decision to re tu rn to the colonial c u sto m o f u sin g the Q uito m erid ia n as the
main coordinate o f the graticule rein forced th is identification o f th e c ity w ith
its Spanish, w h ite, and elite past. It a lso su pp orted a growing m ovem ent b y the
local and n ation al governm ent to encourage day trips to the n orth .
As noted earlier, state propaganda d esign atin g Q uito as a c ity o f strik in g
colonial churches h ad been in vo gu e sin ce at least the days o f th e Ecuador in
Chicago com m em orative volume an d w as echoed in the various m ap s produced
through the early 1920s. The governm ent b egan to target a foreign audience o f
business lead ers an d leisure travelers as e arly as 1923, when it b e g a n to edit a
publication title d El Ecuador Comercial. T h e m agazine focused on th e p otential
for international investm ent but also featu red portraits and panoram ic view s o f
the country’s m ajor attractions, b e g in n in g w ith the capital and th en p roceed ­
ing through th e other major cities a n d m onu m ents. R estaurants, d ep artm en t
stores, bookstores, and other establish m ents purchased ad vertising space in the
magazine, o fte n includin g p hotographs o f th eir proxim ity to the c ity ’s m ajor
plazas or colo n ial architectural m on u m en ts. In the late 1920s, A yo ra’s go vern ­
ment produced targeted publications su ch as Ecuador: Revista de Propaganda y
Turismo, w h ich w as targeted to a V en ezu elan audience and overseen b y th e d ip ­
lomatic m ission in Bolivar’s hom eland. T h e serial included statistical in fo rm a ­
tion on the n atio n ’s economic prod u ction w h ile also featuring vign ettes, p ictu r­
54 \ M apping the Center o f the World

esque im agery, and laudatory travelers’ accounts o f visits to Q uito, Guayaquil,

or Cuenca.
The growing number o f L atin A m erican business an d p leasure travelers, to
which these texts catered, also m ean t an expanded m arket fo r cheap m aps o f the
capital without the busy trappings ty p ical earlier in the cen tury. W orks such as
the Editorial Chimborazo’s 19 31 Plano de la ciudad de Quito hecho para actividad
targeted the visitor unfam iliar w ith the city and therefore em ph asized legibility.
Its sim plified plan eliminated m ajor topographical features other than the label-
ing o f the slopes o f Pichincha an d Itchim bia, printed the n am es o f streets in a
large typeface, and had a clear legen d identifying the best-know n m onum ents.55
The possibilities expanded in 19 34, when the S G M in au gu rated a printing press
in order to more easily produce an d distribute the n ation al atlas.56 One o f the
first tourist maps published b y th e new press was the 1935 Plano indicador de
Quito (fig. 2.xo) drawn by the aforem ention ed Froilán H olgu in Balcázar. Hol­
guin’s patented map, popular on th e Latin A m erican b u sin ess circuit, showed
a city enclosed by a circle su rro u n d ed b y advertisem ents an d nam es o f local
landm arks. Codes delineated in the central circular area referred to buildings,
businesses, or landmarks listed on th e right-hand side o f th e m ap and easily
located by aligning a pointer w ith th e corresponding nu m eral. Q uito’s inclusion
among Holguin’s exclusive circu it, which included European capitals like Berlin
and Paris along with Mexico C ity, Buenos Aires, or C aracas, cem ented its grow­
ing international visibility.57
This m ap’s publication coincided w ith that o f the series o f picture postcards
(discussed in chapter 1) that p resented Q uito as a city o f churches w ith invit­
ing environs easily accessible fo r d a y trip s and joy rides. T h e m ap echoes this
perception o f the city’s ou tskirts, inclu d in g as it does im a g e ry showcasing the
forests outside the city and the depiction o f bathing establishm ents, restaurants,
and breweries all located w ith in a short distance. T hese ran ged as far north as
Tulcán on the border with C olom bia, as evidenced b y Plutarco Paz’s advertise­
ment for a branch o f his currency exchange establishm ent, w h ich , significantly,
included images o f A m erican d o lla rs as well as C o lom b ian pesos as available
denominations. The map even included several ads from autom obile vendors
on the o ff chance a visitor w ish ed to purchase or rent a car. A lso significant
were the m yriad ads of tire m an u factu rers catering to the m otorist with a flat, a
ubiquitous occurrence to this day on A n d ean roads littered w ith potholes due to
uneven paving and heavy tropical storm s.
The year after Holguin B alc á z ar drew h is m ap, the state expanded its in­
volvement in the development o f regional to u rism w ith th e inauguration of
a m onument at the Equator in tim e for the 1936 bicen ten n ial o f the original
Franco-Hispanic mission that h ad given the city, and the nation, its first taste of
international notoriety. The p lan s for an equatorial stru ctu re dated back to the
original truce between González Suárez and the Sociedad G eográfica de Quito
in 1911 following the church’s ra z in g o f the second m ission’s observation stations
 M appin g the Center o f the World / 55

Fig. 2.10. Froilán H olgu in Balcazar, Plano indicador de Quito (1935). C ourtesy Library o f C ongress.

on the Panecillo. Besides establishing the n eed for a m onum ent in Q uito itself,
the parties hoped to restore the pyram id o f O yam baro, which had been bu ilt ac­
cording to La C o n d am in e’s original designs (fig. 2.11) the century before but that
had since fallen into disrepair. Moreover, th e y hoped to build a second replica
at Caraburo, a site near the town o f San A n to n io de Pichincha, tw enty kilom e­
ters north o f Q uito, near the Equator.58 T h is latter pyram id represents the first
significant attem pt to create an equatorial d estination on the city’s ou tskirts.
The anniversary provided an op p ortu nity to certify Ecuador’s identification
with the geographic advances o f both the first and second m issions. A bicenten­
nial steering com m ittee was formed in N ovem ber 1935 and consisted o f govern­
ment and cu ltu ral functionaries, representatives from the Servicio G eogrâfico
Militar, and several m em bers o f the C o m ité France-Am érique, an organ o f the
French foreign service that sought to in crease ties between A m erican nations
and France. P resid in g over the com m ittee w as art historian José G ab riel N a­
varro, who strongly em braced Ecuador’s S p a n ish cultural heritage. T h e events
the group plann ed for M ay 1936 included an assortm ent o f galas, lectures, and
pageants, with p rim a ry events occurring in b o th Q uito and R iobam ba, birth-
56 \ Mapping the Center o f the World

Fig. 2 .11. Charles Marie de L a C on dam in e, Plan Profil et Elévation des deux Pyramides. C o u rtesy
Library o f Congress.

place o f Pedro Vicente M aldonado. These events involved the participation o f

General Georges Perrier, the French envoy w ho w as the second m ission’s com ­
mander. He not only penned a detailed h istory o f h is previous visit to the equ a­
torial nation but also laid the cornerstone for a n ew m onum ent celebrating the
two journeys. This stru ctu re, designed by L uis T u fin o , director o f the N ational
Observatory and lon gtim e cartographic ad vocate, w o u ld rise precisely at o°
latitude.”
Tufino’s design referenced both La C o n d a m in e ’s original plans an d Paul
Loiseau-Rousseau’s m onum ent in Alam eda Park. T h e new structure (fig. 2 .12 ,
lower left) featured the sim ple lines o f the eigh teen th -centu ry p yram ids w ith
an abstraction of the global m o tif atop the later w ork. W hile the figurative con ­
dor with its nationalist associations was sign ifican tly absent, in its place T u fin o
substituted variegated steps that are rem iniscent o f pre-Colum bian architecture
and that lead to a single point at the apex up on w h ich the world was balanced.
This subtle indigenist touch significantly in corporated an allusion to E cu a d o r’s
native peoples for the first tim e since La C o n d am in e’s eighteenth-century m ap.
Although Tufino m ay h ave m eant this as a show o f solidarity, it more lik ely ref­
erenced the notoriety th at Paul R ivet’s archaeological studies o f pre-C olum bian
Ecuadorian peoples h ad received worldwide an d th a t w as prom inently cited in
most concurrent publications.
 M apping the Center o f the World / 57

C o rp o ra c ió n de Fomento
HOTEL CORDILLERA
TA C O R P O R A C IO N D E F O M E N T O D E L EL PREFERIDO
ECUADOR,
está ayudando al desenvolvim iento
Agrícola, Industrial y POR EL T U R IS M O
Turístico del País.
F U N C IO N A EN Q U IT O D ir e c c ió n : B flT flN

Venezuela N9 703 T e lé fo n o s: 71—S I

(S o piso) A u to m á tic o : 3 2 261

C a s illa N ó m . 2 8 - 1 6

Fig. 2 .12 . Servicio G eográfico M ilitar, d e ta il (photograph o f m onum ent, low er left) from Plano de
la ciudad de Quito (A pril 1946). C o u rte sy B ib lioteca Ecuatoriana “A u relio E sp in o sa Pólit,” Q uito.

The aesthetic value o f the m on u m en t can be considered as secondary to its

impact in providing a defined d estin ation on the Equator that could be exploited
by the nascent tourist ind ustry. In a series o f booklets it p roduced du ring the
early 1940s, the Servicio G eográfico M ilita r prom inently inclu d ed photographs
of the structure that consolidated the trends o f growing secu larizatio n and the
embrace o f the surrounding lan d scap e evident during the previous decade.
The guides present a to p o g rap h ic projection o f th e fu ll exten sion o f the
city on one side, with city b lo ck s colored in peach, parks in green , and public
monum ents in red. Red capital letters clearly label the m ain neighborhoods and
parks, while a listing o f plazas app ears in the lower-left corner. In keeping w ith
the broader secularization tren d , on ly the prim ary churches are high lighted in
the list o f m onum ents, sh arin g space w ith leisure establish m ents such as the
bullring. O n the other side a p p e ar a flu rry o f im ages th a t clearly indicate a
tourist-friendly city and region . A t the center lies an in set m ap o f the capital
that shows the prim ary roadw ays alon g the A ndean corridor reaching up to the
Equator itself. Photographs o f re s tfu l spas fram e this route m ap on fou r sides,
underscoring the pleasant clim ate o f the city’s environs. S u rro u n d in g this cen­
tral depiction o f a city at peace w ith its environs are tw o rows o f im ages and
58 \ M apping the C enter o f the World

advertisem ents. The la tte r cater to the intern ation al lu x u ry traveler and in clud e
airlin es, travel agencies, an d lu x u ry hotels su ch a s the C olón M ajestic. L o c a l
travel needs are also rep resen ted , w ith ads fo r M ic h e lin tires, car rental co m ­
p an ies, banks, m u seu m s, th e national railw ay com pan y, and Luigi R ota’s rad io
an d electronics store.
In keeping w ith th e gro w in g association o f site-sp ecific photography w ith
cartograph ic p roduction, th e im ages in these tw o row s o f photos and ad vertise­
m ents define a com m u n icen tric identity that com bin es various tropes developed
over the previous several centuries. The first o f th ese identifies Q uito’s religious
m issio n a ry im pulse, s y m b o liz e d b y a p hotograp h o f the c ity ’s cathedral. T h e
second concerns its c o sm o p o litan ism , as represented b y a shot o f the recen tly
erected statue o f S im ó n B olívar, a national sy m b o l despite h is Venezuelan o ri­
g in . T h e third, in v o lvin g p o i traits o f the n earb y m o u n ta in s o f Ilin iza a n d El
A lta r, for the first tim e in corporates a coun tryside w hose “ barbaric” indigen ous
p op u latio n s had been su c c e ssfu lly tam ed and elid ed . L ast, bu t not least, is the
1936 m onum ent raised at S a n A ntonio de P ic h in ch a (see fig. 2.12). Flan k ed b y
advertisem ents for h o tels, a travel agency, an d e ven a developm ent b a n k , the
m on um en t in this p ro d u c tio n crystallized th e ch ron otope o f the c ity ’s g lo b al
cen trality that had b een d evelopin g for centuries yet w h ich could now be d efin ed
th rou gh a shorthand id e n tify in g a specific locale: th e site now know n as mitad
del mundo.

The Chronotope o f M itad del Mundo

M aps have proven to h ave pow er .as a p la n n in g in stru m en t and as a to o l o f

th e state, the m u n icip a lity , an d business. M a p m a k e rs operated as know ledge
brokers who legitim ated th e tran sfo rm atio n o f Q u ito-sp ace according to a leg­
ib ility wedded to social control. By p ortraying th e p ossibilities o f urban e x p a n ­
sion, m aps helped the state steam roll over the n o rth e rn an d southern en viron s
o f Q uito in the nam e o f p rogress, m odernity, a n d su bu rb an izatio n . T h is w as
not always a seam less p rocess, as the indigenous p o p u latio n s elided in the b la n k
land scap es targeted fo r developm ent attem pted, at tim es successfully, to slow
th e city’s im perial in tru sio n . M ore insidious, p erh ap s, w as the colonization o f
those “vacan t” lan d scap es as destinations for to u rists seeking an authentic en ­
coun ter with nature or an escape from the caco ph o n y o f Q uito or their h o m e ­
to w n s in North A m e rica or Europe. However, th e m o st im portant achievem en t
o f the city’s cartographers w ith regard to Q uito’s m o d e rn econom y was to c o d ify
a n d sharpen the lo n g -stan d in g m etaphor o f Q u ito ’s global centrality. B y p re ­
sen tin g the city as a lo c u s o f m odernity, an a rtis tic h aven , an d a site o f sc ie n ­
tific progress, m aps b o lstered the city and its in h a b ita n ts’ claim s to w orldw ide
preem inence.
 Mapping the Center o f the World / 59

The clearest expression o f th is d yn am ic was the elaboration o f an invented

chronotope o f the city as the mitad del mundo, or center o f the world. T h is fram e­
w o r k bu ilt upon the idealization o f Q uito’s geographic p roxim ity to the Equator,

its cultivated im age as a new R o m e, and a reconsideration o f the eighteenth-

century Geodesic M ission. A t the begin n in g o f the tw entieth century, an iconol-
ogy developed that would m an ife st itse lf m onum entally across the city and its
environs. T h e m inuscule geod etic p yram id , used as a su rve y in g instrum ent
in the 1730 s and again during a second French m ission fro m 19 0 1 to 1906, has
become the ubiquitous sym bol o f Q u ito’s place w ithin the global corpus o f un i­
versal science. Today it can be fo u n d in a plethora o f con su m er goods, from
key ch ains to T-shirts and even a fru it liquor called Spirit o f Ecuador, whose
pyram id-shaped bottle can be fo u n d throughout the city and ordered online as
far afield as New Jersey.
M ost fam ously, the sym bolic p yram id has become enshrin ed in a complex,
also know n as M itad del M undo, th at was erected in 1978 in concert with Quito’s
designation as a World Heritage Site. A t that time, T u fiñ o ’s m onum ent was re­
placed b y a thirty-m eter-high replica located at the end o f the so-called Avenue
of the G eodesics, an extended w alkw ay flanked by busts o f the preem inent ge­
ographers from both French m ission s along with their Spanish and Ecuadorian
counterparts.'"’ The com plex, as evidenced by its e x trao rd in ary com m ercial­
ization, represents the logical extension o f a chronotope delivered by its maps
and m apm akers. Despite its ob vio u s com m em oration o f the great study o f the
eighteenth century, the com plex also m aintains its ties to the early colonial ide­
alization o f Q uito as a new R o m e or city o f G od. Besides a restaurant, a plan­
etarium , and a hotel, the com plex bo asts a replica o f a sm all Spanish town built
on the central design-first approved b y Nicolás de O vando in 1502, complete with
central p laza, church, the hom es o f vecinos, and even a b u llrin g. These features
signal an association o f the com plex w ith the pillars o f H ispanic culture and as
such present a refracted and an ach ron istic vision o f the early claim s o f global
centrality sparked by a m issio n a ry zeal. Sim ultaneously, however, it engages
with a separate chronotope, th at o f Q uito as a quintessentially Spanish city.
T h is vision has also proved extrao rd in arily pliable as constru ctions o f na­
tional and local identity have s h ifte d with the times. T h e m onum ent houses
an anthropological m useum th at features m aquettes d epicting the nation’s pre-
Colum bian past. Their em brace o f th e quiescent indigeneity referencing Paul
Rivet’s pioneering research presents a jarrin g image rem oved from the ethnic
struggles that have characterized the decades since the early 1980s, yet could be
referenced as a m ulticultural icon b y embattled national governm ents.
G lobalization has also placed its m ark on the region b y virtu e o f a gargan­
tuan convention center erected to host the 2004 M iss U niverse pageant v irtu ­
ally on the Equator itself. In com in g years, the city’s m yth ical associations with
this chronotope w ill introduce foreign visitors to the new international airport,
6o \ M apping the Center o f the World

whose m ain h a ll w ill featu re a gran diose m u ra l celebrating L a C o n d a m in e ’s

voyage. Ironically, th is structure w ill b e lo cated on the Y aru q u i p la in s th em ­
selves, the site o f the com m em orative p y ra m id adorned with the fleu r-d e-lis that
caused such trouble three centuries ago. N eed less to say, the contested natu re o f
this chronotope w ill be conspicuously absent.
 Chapter 3

Hispanismo
Site, Heritage, Memory

The city of Quito is a precious jewel and spiritual fountain, a witness o f the
linkages between Ecuador and the renewal o f Latin culture. Quito, without
Gothic art, born for the future, must never let itself be defrauded by pressing
modernity and must conserve for posterity the purity in which Latin America
was formed and the spirit in which it was born.
Julio [Giulio] A ristide Sartorio, 1934

Visitors to Q uito in th e 19 20 s and 1930s in c re a s in g ly com m ented on th e

city’s majestic colonial architecture. T h is represen ted a m arked change fro m
nineteenth-century acco u n ts, which often d e c rie d th e c ity ’s in s u la rity or
stressed the physical prow ess o f its indigenous p o p u latio n or the lack o f basic
services.’ T his sh iftin g discourse stemm ed fro m a v a riety o f causes. To b e g in
with, activist m u n icip al authorities vastly im proved th e city’s services and in ­
frastructure during the early twentieth century, m a k in g it easier for to u rists to
look beyond the d u sty streets and poncho-clad In d ian s to note the b u ild in g s
and plazas through w h ich they walked. A n o th er c ru c ia l factor was an e v o lv ­
ing global sensibility in the afterm ath o f W orld W ar I. R ath er than seeking the
energy o f the teem ing c ity centers o f n in eteen th -cen tu ry progress, W estern
travelers began to em brace the prim itive, the p asto ral, the vibrancy o f cu ltu res
unencumbered b y the w eight o f modernity in su ch places as M exico, N ew O r­
leans, or Italy. Q uito, w ith its picturesque churches, red-tiled roofs, and u n iq u e
location nestled in the h eart o f a dramatic in ter-A n d in e valley, appeared as th e
quintessence o f trad ition al Spanish A m erica— a q u ain t idyll sought b y n o sta l­
gic tourists eager to fin d traces o f a simpler past.

61
62 \ H ispanism o

The rh eto rical association o f Q uito w ith Spain sim ultaneously d rew upon
a tw entieth-century global m ovem ent k n o w n as H ispanism , w h ich identified
a common c u ltu ra l raza between S p a in a n d its form er colonies; ad heren ts of
Hispanism b elieved that la raza's spiritu al p u rity would redeem th e w o rld from
its current m aterialistic m orass.2 By conceiving the city as a sp iritu a l, adm inis­
trative, and a rtistic center grounded in its Sp an ish heritage, E cu ad o rian hispani­
stas attem pted to situate the city’s h isto ry on the world stage, p a rtic u la rly with
respect to its g lo rio u s artwork. The m ovem ent also sought to tra n sce n d local
political d ifferences through a u n ify in g rhetoric that m ight supersede the tradi­
tional liberal-conservative and class d ivides. T hese political and so c ia l divisions
were especially sh arp durin g the econom ic and political crisis o f th e interwar
years, an era th a t coincided with the greatest expansion o f the m y th o f Quito’s
Hispanic ch aracter. D u rin g this tim e, Q u ito ’s H ispanists built u p o n an intel­
lectual legacy w ith roots in the colonial p erio d but that found its m o d ern for­
mulation in th e h istorical and religious p hilosop h y o f the city’s arch bish op , Fed­
erico G onzález Suárez. W orking with the institu tion al support o f th e National
Academy o f H istory, González Suárez’s stud en ts put aside regional an d political
debates to ad van ce a scholarly vision o f Q u ito and Ecuador firm ly grounded
in its colonial h eritage. In so doing, th ey n o t on ly sought to h eal th e wounds
of the Liberal R evolu tio n but also attem p ted to lim it the active e x p a n sio n o f
the socialist an d indigenist m ovem ents. Q u ito, as the local sy m b o l p a r excel­
lence o f S p a n ish cu ltu re, becam e th eir can vas and their m u seu m , a c ity to b e
revered and celebrated because o f its redem ptive qualities. By reh abilitatin g the
city center, id e n tify in g and protecting its architectu ral m arvels, a n d elaborating
a complex w eb o f Spanish cultural iconography, the city’s H ispan ists invented a
tradition o f a w h itened and legible S p an ish city th at, paradoxically, contrasted
with its social re a lity as a burgeoning m estizo and indigenous space as the elite
fled to chalets a n d v illa s on the ou tskirts.3

Postcolonial Diplomacy and Anxieties

The early m o d e rn Spanish conceived th e d iscovery and co n q u e st o f the

Americas in bib lical term s, seeing the h a n d o f divine Providence in the glorious
rise o f the h o u se o f H absburg. M ille n a ria n vision s o f the new ru le o f C hrist,
foretold by th e b o ok o f Revelation and b y m edieval scholars o f ren o w n such
as Joachim de Fiore, likew ise abounded. H ardened by the wars o f the Recon­
quista, Ib erian s w ere emboldened by the feats o f Cortés and P iz a rro and clam ­
ored to p articip ate in the great battle b etw een the forces o f go o d a n d e vil. A s
Jorge C añ izares-E sgu erra has w ritten, th e A m ericas were viewed as a territory
in the grip o f th e forces o f Satan, whose conquest, while difficult, co u ld lead to
the establishm ent o f a terrestrial p arad ise .4 T h is was to be a long a n d difficult
slog due to th e entrenchm ent o f the d e v il’s m in io n s, who soon b e g a n to cor-
 Hispanismo / 63

ru t e v e n the Spanish th em selves, as fam ed D o m in ican Bartolom é de Las Casas

a r t i c u la t e d so clearly in h is treatises about the excesses o f the Conquest. A s a
r e s u lt t h e battle was jo in ed b y increasing num bers o f Catholic m ilitants hoping
to b r i n g a swift end to th e co n flict with extensive conversion and diligent action,
i n c lu d in g the vast cam p aign s against indigenous id o latry in the late sixteenth
a n d seventeenth centuries.5 Peninsulars, or those bo rn on the Iberian Peninsula,
c o n t in u e d t o view S p an ish A m erica as a w ilderness d u rin g the eighteenth cen ­
t u r y w h ile creoles, b o rn in th e New World, m ain tain ed their stock in W estern
c iv il i z a t i o n e v e n as they contin ued t o denigrate the savagery o f indigenous and
s u b a lt e r n populations. T h e se tensions contributed to the eventual separation
between colony and m etropole in the fiineteenth century.
The im perial crisis th a t developed follow in g N apo leo n ’s invasion o f the
Iberian Peninsula offered the first chance for A m e ric a n creoles to participate
in imperial governance at th e Cortes de C á d iz (18 10 —1814). In itial patriotic
fervor slowly turned to d isillu sio n for m an y o f the new delegates due to th eir
marginalization at the C o rtes and as a result o f Ferd in an d V I I ’s authoritarian
repudiation o f the lib eral C onstitution o f 18 12 up on h is retu rn to the throne.
The career o f G uayaquil-based poet and C ádiz delegate José Joaquín de O lm edo
epitomizes this stage o f relations. He first learned o f the Napoleonic invasion
while traveling in Lim a a n d , in response, w rote a p assionate poem titled “ El á r­
bol,” which stressed the sacred friendship betw een colony and m etropole.6 T h e
poet’s nationalist fervor b egan to d im inish d u rin g the Cortes, however, as h is
impassioned pleas for so cial reform fell on indifferent ears.7 By the second round
o f independence wars, O lm ed o was a confirm ed rep u blican , leading the ju n ta
that liberated G uayaquil a n d , on October 9 ,18 2 0 , even w riting the city’s d ecla­
ration o f independence. H is enm ity toward S p ain continued after the port city
joined Colombia, a feeling captured in his m ost fam ou s poem , “Canto a Ju n in .”
This extensive ode to th e republican victory over Sp an ish forces at the Peruvian
town o f Junin in 1824 d en igrates the colonial p ast as barbaric while celebrating
Bolivar s glory and even Peru’s Incaic heritage.8
Jaime Rodriguez h a s argu ed that the negative experiences o f Cádiz not only
inspired national resistance m ovements but also helped cem ent transnational
alliances that would b e a r fru it in the series o f defensive alliances set up in the
afterm ath o f independence.5 Beginning w ith the 1826 Panam a congress, at­
tempts to form a un ified front against the threat from Spain developed am ong
the new American republics. Undaunted, Spain attem pted to retake M exico in
1829, only to be driven back b y the forces o f San ta A n n a . Given the unpleasant
prospect o f ongoing c o n flict, the possibility o f com m ercial incursions by other
European powers, an d th e continued im portance o f trade between the Ib erian
power and its form er colonies, Spain initiated d iscu ssio n s to norm alize rela­
tions with the A m erican republics in 1832, an effort th at, by the decade’s end,
had led to the establishm ent o f diplomatic ties w ith M exico and Ecuador.
Clashes between S p a in and its form er colonies continued to flare up from
64 \ Hispanismo

tim e to time, particularly in 1846, when it was revealed th at Q ueen M aria C ris­
tin a had been plotting w ith fo rm e r Ecuadorian p residen t Ju a n José Flores to
reestablish a monarchy in the A n d ea n republic.10 T h ese tensions briefly paled in
light o f the imminent threat p osed by the United States, whose trium ph in the
1846—1848 war with M exico in sp ire d a newfound sen se o f H ispanoam erican-
ism voiced at the second tran sreg io n al congress in L im a .“ However, antipathy
resum ed following Spain’s 1864 invasion o f Peru’s C h in ch a Islands in an attempt
to restrict British access to th e lucrative Peruvian gu an o trade. The incursion led
to a display o f hemispheric so lid a rity by the nations o f S p a n ish Am erica, which
broke o ff relations with S p ain as a bloc in order to su p p o rt Peru.
Nevertheless, the 1860s a lso saw progress in c u ltu ra l d ialogu e through the
efforts o f institutions like th e R e a l Academ ia Española de la Lengua. Following
extensive restructuring in 1858, the once exclusively p e n in su la r organization
began offering corresponding m em berships to S p a n ish A m e rican intellectu­
a ls.12 Although the A rgentine D om ingo Sarm iento fa m o u sly refused m em ber­
ship, six prominent in tellectu als, including P eru vian Felip e Pardo A liaga and
M exicans Bernardo Couto a n d Joaq u ín Pesado, h a d Join ed b y 1865.13 In 1871,
the Real Academ ia moved to th aw relations, iced b y th e C h inch a invasion, by
callin g for corresponding n a tio n a l chapters in the fo rm e r colonies— the first
tim e that Am erican linguists h a d been treated as cu ltu ra l equ als by the mother
country. The overture soon b o re fru it as first C olom bia an d then Ecuador em ­
braced the initiative, follow ed b y the other republics o ver the next several de­
cades.14 A fter 1885, the Real A cad em ia’s efforts received su p p o rt from the Unión
Iberoamericana, an organization seeking greater com m ercial and cultural unity
and headed by Iberian sen ator an d form er Cuban in ten d an t M ariano Cancio
V illaa m il. A s a consortium o f lib eral persuasion, th e gro u p advocated open­
ing up trade barriers betw een S p a in and its colonies. W h ile its more fan cifu l
notions, such as the call fo r a new transatlantic state, w ere doom ed to failure,
it succeeded in fostering c lo ser ties with the form er colonies. For exam ple, its
m em bership successfully lobbied for the participation o f m ost A m erican states
in the 1892 M adrid H istorical A m erican Exposition celebrating the quadricen-
tennial o f Columbus’s vo yage.15
These Iberian appeals fo r transnational political an d cu ltu ral structures co­
incided with calls for n ation al regeneration in the w ake o f decades o f civil war.
These considerations built u p o n a m etanarrative celebrating an eternal Spain
whose civilizing force had tran sfo rm ed the world. H ow ever, Spain’s own region-
a list divisions and a general su spicion o f M ad rid ’s c en tralizin g tendencies led
m an y to espouse a hybrid n atio n alism building upon m ed ieval notions o f vecin­
dad in which each province or kingdom o f Spain had a stak e in national identity.
Barcelona-based conservatives lik e M anuel M ila y Fontanels or Joaquin Rubio,
for instance, sought the roots o f Spain ’s glory in its lo ca l custom s, particularly
the vibrancy o f Catalan C ath o lic ism .16 These precepts w ere taken up by one o f
 H ispanism o / 65

the most in flu en tial figures o f late n in eteen th -cen tu ry S p a n ish letters, M a r­
celino M enéndez Pelayo, whose H istoria de los heterodoxos españoles (1880—188?)
la u d e d Spain ’s divinely inspired role a s lead er o f the eternal,' n a tu ra l, and C ath ­
olic spirit w h ile also underscoring th e heterodox com m unity th a t m ad e up its
people. O ther fervent believers in th e p o ssib ility o f Spanish regeneration fol­
lo w e d a p o litically liberal line in w h ich C atholicism was replaced b y n atu re as a
unifying force. Intellectuals such as L eop old o A la s (Clarín) or Fern an d o del Rio
m o v e d away fro m the Church to em brace the teachings o f G e rm a n philosopher
Karl Krause regarding nature’s fu n d a m e n ta l spirituality. S im ila rly , the h isto ­
rian Rafael A lta m ira noted the p o ssib ility o f science reflecting n a tio n a l reality
but held that local personality a n im a te d th e national body.
The lo c a list strain in these a p p e a ls to a higher c o n cep tu alizatio n o f the
Spanish people helped build a b rid ge to th e A m erican rep u b lics a n d to th eir
reconsideration as vibran t p artners w h o cou ld regenerate the fo rm e r m other
country. Figures such as M enéndez P elayo delved into Sp an ish A m e ric a n p o ­
etry, even ed itin g an anthology o f A m e ric a n works, while A lta m ira p ublicly
extolled the energy that cultural re u n io n w ith the Spanish A m e ric a n republics
could offer an aging peninsula. T h ese ideas o f global redem ption b u ilt upon the
founding m ythologies o f Iberian c o n q u e st as w ell as the stark app reciation o f
economic d isaster represented by S p a in ’s loss o f its last colonies in 1898.
The “ desastre del 98,” as the S p a n ish -A m erica n -C u b a n w ar w as kn ow n on
the p en in sula, also propelled S p a n ish A m e ric a n intellectuals to declare their
solidarity w ith Spain. A t tim es, th is p o sitio n m anifested in v iru le n t antipathy
to the colossus o f the north, as in N ic a ra g u a n Rubén D ario’s fa m o u s w arnings
to Theodore Roosevelt about the sp e c te r o f “a thousand cu b s o f th e Spanish
lion” to the south. Perhaps m ost in flu e n tia l w as U ruguayan José E n riq u e R o d ó ’s
m onumental essay Ariel (1900), w h ich p rovid ed an intellectual d efen se o f anti-
Am ericanism by contrasting the s p iritu a l v ita lity o f p an -H isp an ic you th with
the m aterial decadence o f the U nited States. Ariel becam e a rapid international
best-seller, as p op u lar on the p en in su la as in the A m ericas. In te lle ctu al giants
like M iguel de U nam uno or R afael A lta m ira echoed Rodó b y a llo w in g th at pen­
insular regeneration would come th ro u gh collaboration with the vib ra n cy across
the ocean. A lta m ira ’s extensive p raise o f the book led to its em brace across the
political sp ectru m , by intellectuals as v a ried as the aging liberal C la rín and the
conservative A ntonio Goicoechea.17 O ver th e next two decades, A rie lism o and
pan-H ispanism becam e increasingly im p o rtan t m ovem ents across th e region,
and they w ould begin to determ ine state cu ltu ral policies in the 1920s.
The m ovem ent grew more p ervasive. In Spain , the P rim o de R iv era d icta­
torship adopted a H ispanist p olicy fo c u se d on developing a role as a cultu ral
leader o f th e H ispanic world. A n n u a l celebrations o f C o lu m b u s’s d iscovery,
now renam ed “ D ía de la R aza,” p la y e d a large role in th is end eavor. Populist
governments in Spanish A m erica a lso em braced the holiday, w h ile sim ultan e­
66 \ H ispanism o

o u sly in se rtin g hispanista tenets in to n ationalist d iscou rse. A ttem p ts by the

A u g u s to L e g u ia regim e in Peru to b rin g K ing A lfo n so X I I I to the centenary
o f in d epend ence in 1921 represent a p articu larly ironic e xam p le o f the depth of
reco n ciliatio n . A lth ou gh the S p a n ish m onarch canceled at th e la st m inute, he
sent a con gratulatory letter rep rin ted in all local newspapers p raisin g Lim a as a
“v a lu a b le fru it o f the civilizin g an d C h ristian force o f the H isp a n ic race.”'8 This
fo rm o f expan d ed cu ltu ral co m m u n icatio n came to an e a rly zenith in 1929 at
the Ib ero -A m erican E xposition in S eville, which featured e xh ib its from all the
L a tin A m e ric a n republics and a sh ared glorification o f the d isco ve ry o f America
as w ell as the future possibilities fo r the H ispanic world.15
T h is fo rm o f state-sponsored integration suffered a n exten d ed challenge
d u rin g th e Span ish C ivil War, w h ich politicized p an -H isp an ism . M ost Spanish
A m e ric a n governm ents sought to rem ain neutral, given th e in ten sity o f local
class c o n flict. The notable exceptions included A rgentina, w h ich supported the
N a tio n a lists, and M exico, w h ich w elcom ed scores o f refu gees an d sold arm s to
the R ep u b lic. It is w orth notin g th at each o f these states h a d extrem ely strong
d etracto rs am ong the A rgentine L e ft an d M exico’s fascist elem en ts, such as the
G o ld en S h irts.20 Following the d eclin e o f fascism after W orld W ar II, collabora­
tion w ith Franco’s regime becam e inscribed in cold war p olitics.
H isp a n ism ’s global reach a lso exp an d ed in the 19 20s as intellectuals out­
sid e th e H ispan ic world in co rp orated its lexicon. S om ew h at strangely, one of
the b u rgeo n in g centers for th is p ro -Sp a n ish and Spanish A m e ric a n sentiment
w as th e U nited States. The su rge b egan in the early tw en tieth cen tu ry with an
in crease in academ ic studies o f the h isto ry and culture o f th e region .21 The great­
est e x p o n en t o f A m erican su p p ort fo r pan-H ispanism cam e fro m W aldo Frank
in h is w orks Virgin Spain (1921) an d Am érica Hispana (1930), w h ich embraced the
p o e try a n d vitality o f H ispanic cu ltu re .22 Fran k ’s career a n d travels through the
region forged bridges between le ad in g intellectuals w ith w h om he m aintained
an e x te n sive correspondence, in clu d in g José Carlos M a riá te g u i and M exican
essayist A lfo n so Reyes. He also translated num erous S p an ish A m erican novels,
such a s Don Segundo Sombra and M artin Fierro, into E n glish .23
D espite H ispanism ’s w orldw ide reach, local circum stan ces played a signifi­
can t p a r t in attracting m an y in te lle c tu a ls to the m ovem en t. W h ile concerns
a b o u t A m e ric a n im perialism stron gly influenced R odó a n d D ario, for others
th is issu e was not a determ ining factor. Jeanne Delaney, fo r in stan ce, argues that
fo r A rg e n tin e M anuel G álvez, h is experience as a ru ral ge n tle m an confronting
se c u la r B uenos A ires gave rise to El Solar de la Raza (1913), h is influential pan­
e g y ric to the Spanish p rovin cial to w n .24 Sim ilarly, the e m b race o f H ispanism
in E c u a d o r becam e em broiled w ith in th e regional and p o litic a l divides o f the
fin-de-siglo, particu larly in the a fte rm a th o f the 1895 L iberal R evolution.
 Hispanismo / 67

“Transcending” Regionalism

Spain’s attem pts to overcome its region alist divisions through an appeal to a
hybrid trans-A tlantic cultu ral com m unity h ad a strong resonance in E cu ado r­
ian politics. The regionally biased strife o f the nineteenth century had exposed
severe divisions alon g ideological, cu ltu ra l, and geographical lines. N ostalgia
for the colonial p eriod found early adherents am ong conservative p olitician s
and clerics, o f w h ich form er president Ju a n José Flores is a vivid exam ple. A s
mentioned earlier, h is disillusion with the state o f the nation after h is exile in
the 1840s led h im to em brace the idea th at on ly a m onarchy could restore the
republic to som e m od icum o f stability. A fte r visitin g the courts o f Europe, he
found a sym pathetic ear in Spanish queen M a ria C ristin a, who flirted w ith the
idea of outfitting an expeditionary force to retake the form er A ndean province.
Out of desperation following the 1859 civil war, even G arcia Moreno, whose p er­
sonal antipathy toward all things Spanish w as well know n, invited N apoleon III
to make Ecuador a G allic protectorate. W hen that failed, he installed a neocolo-
r.ial regime built upon the old pillars o f church and landowner.
To nurture th is alliance, Garcia M oreno held his nose and approved the fo r­
mation of a local chapter o f the Real A cad em ia Española de la Lengua (R A E )
in 1874. This action paved the way for d iplom atic rapprochement, bolstered his
support'with conservatives, and expanded cu ltu ral ties between the two cou n ­
tries. The Q uito chapter o f the R A E w orked to reestablish form al diplom atic
ties over the next decade, a goal achieved in Feb ru ary 1885, which was earlier
than most o f E cu ad o r’s neighbors were able to accom plish that feat. The group
also provided a local forum for H ispanophilic cultural events, including public
discussion o f lin g u istics and readings o f cu rren t and classical literature. Two
of the R A E ’s m em bers, Julio Castro and th e am ateu r historian Pedro Ferm ín
Cevallos, expan d ed the reach o f its activities when they founded the Q uito
chapter o f U nión Iberoam ericana in 1885. L o c a l chapters in G uayaquil and the
southern city o f M achala followed. In 1889, the group inaugurated a newspaper
that published laud atory portrayals o f Sp an ish culture and called for a H ispanic
trade com m union.25 Despite the group’s obvious energy and initial enthusiasm
from the public, financial difficulties resulted in the newspaper’s early dem ise,
though the center continued its activity.
The grow th o f H ispanophilia soon p erm eated liberal ranks as regard for
the nation’s S p an ish heritage expanded. Even Ju a n M ontalvo, staunch op p o­
nent of Spain’s colonial occupation o f C u b a , began to underscore the vita lity
of the Spanish spirit and the heroic deeds o f the conquistadors in his later w rit­
ings. This reverence for the rigor and independence o f the Spanish spirit was
most vividly depicted in his posthum ously published Capítulos que se olvidaron
68 \ Hispanismo

a Cervantes. More th a n sim p ly an appreciation o f Sp an ish culture, th is satire

channeled the la m p o o n in g spirit o f C ervantes in its depiction o f the knigh t-
e rra n t’s travels through sm a ll “ Spanish” towns w ith an uncanny resem blance to
those o f Ecuador’s A n d e a n corridor. The corru p t politicians, stodgy p riests, and
greedy landlords D on Q u ixote encountered in M o n talvo ’s depiction o f th e tour
through La M ancha a lso spoofed contem porary E cu ad o rian leaders.
Significantly, the d o m in a n t figure in the fin-de-siglo boom in H isp a n ist lit­
erature was Federico G o n zález Suárez.26 G onzález Suárez was also a p rom inent
h isto rian , and it was p rim a rily in this capacity th a t he influenced the d evelo p ­
m ent o f Ecuadorian H isp a n ism . His early w ork in cluded essays on the ecclesi­
astical history o f E cu a d o r and an archaeological stu d y o f the indigenous C añ ari
trib e, but it was h is H istoria general de la República del Ecuador that m ad e his
nam e as a scholar. T h e y o u n g priest conducted h is research in Spanish archives
between 1884 and 1886, years González Suárez sp en t in Spain under th e w ing
o f h is mentor, Bishop O rdóñez o f Cuenca. H e even cajoled his way into th e re­
stricted Archive o f th e In dies in Seville. He also traveled throughout th e cou n­
try, meeting prom inent intellectuals such as M a rc o s Jim énez de la E sp a d a and
M enéndez Pelayo. H e developed a cordial acad em ic friendship w ith th e latter
follow ing their m eetin g in M adrid the su m m er o f 1885 and sent h im copies of
the multiple volum es o f th e Historia general, n ot a ll o f w hich reached th e ir desti­
nation. Their com m u nication ceased in the early years o f the century, o n ly to be
re-ignited through th e intervention o f a M ad rid -b ased bookseller, G a b riel Sán­
chez, who in 1907 offered M enéndez Pelayo a cop y o f Historia de las fylohedanos so
th at he could write th e introduction to the Ib erian edition o f González S u árez’s
Hermosura de la naturaleza y sentimiento estético de ella.27
M enéndez P elayo ’s in tellectu al im pact is .re a d ily apparent in G o n z ále z
Suárez’s Historia general, particu larly in the E c u a d o ria n ’s shared em brace o f A u ­
gustin e’s conception o f h isto ry as the m easure b y w hich Providence w o u ld judge
h u m an ity.28 H istory th u s represents a ciencia moral in which the h isto ria n , by
interpreting the p ast, facilitates national developm ent in accordance w ith divine
law .29 The desire to recou n t the national past fro m the pre-Colum bian era to the
present engages th is philosophy. In this c o n text, th e extensive archaeological
studies o f indigenous cu ltu res serve as a b ackd ro p when accentuating th e civi­
lizin g mission o f S p a n ish colonization. G o n zález Suárez argues against a n y sig­
nificant indigenous contribu tion to national d evelopm ent following th e initial
struggle for suprem acy.30 Since the Spanish p redom in ated , it was th eir in stitu ­
tions and culture th a t created Ecuador, and th e indigen ous cultures so p ain s­
takingly docum ented fo r the pre-C olum bian era fad e in the rest o f th e work.
Equ ally striking is th e resistance to docum en ting the struggle for independence
and the national p erio d , a choice that reflects G o n zález Suárez’s H isp an ist belief
th at Spanish culture form ed the core o f n ation al identity.3*
González S u árez’s retreat from a racially h y b rid constitution o f national
identity also takes o n region alist overtones, as th e seven volumes o f th e Historia
 Hispanismo / 69

general display an overw h elm ing fo cu s on the a d m in istrative and clerical d e­

velopment o f Quito. T h is b ias can be explained at least p a rtia lly b y the greater
availability o f docum entation on the city, which, as the cap ital o f the Audiencia,
c o n t i n u e s to overshadow scholarship on the colonial era. H ow ever, his m inim iz­
ing o f crucial events that o ccu rred outside the city’s p u rview , such as the rise o f
Guayaquil and Cuenca as alte rn a tive power centers in th e eighteenth century,
demonstrates the degree to w h ich the prelate considered the capital to be a syn ­
ecdoche for the nation. One o f the m ost glaring exam ples o f h is Q uito-centric
approach occurs in a chapter, osten sibly devoted to the fo u n d in g o f the capital,
in which he dispatches the estab lish m en t o f G u ayaq u il a n d Portoviejo in ju st
a few concluding paragraphs. W h ile these were indeed lesser cities during the
sixteenth century, the sym b o lism o f this decision w ould not have been lost on
contemporary readers. In sn u bbin g Guayaquil— the econom ic base o f the L ib ­
eral Party— and Portoviejo— th e birthplace o f its m ost ch arism atic leader (Eloy
Alfaro)— González Suárez u n d e rc u t the p arty’s claim to a su bstan tial portion
of the national m etanarrative.32
Despite this slight, liberals em braced the prelate’s w ork a fte r it raised con­
servative hackles as a result o f h is m oderate views on social issues. The first few
volumes inspired some criticism d ue to his treatment o f th e excesses o f the C o n ­
quest. However, denunciations eru p ted in 1894 upon th e release o f the fourth
tomo, in which he recounted th e sex u a l m isbehavior o f seventeenth-century D o­
m inican friars.33 The work created an overnight scandal, an d G onzález Suárez,
then archdeacon o f Quito, w as labeled an anti-Catholic, h eretical liberal seeking
to destroy the power o f the E c u a d o ria n church. The lou dest detractors were fel­
low clergy members, p a rtic u la rly R egin ald o D u ran ti, a D o m in ican prior, and
Pedro Schumacher, the G e rm an -b o rn bishop o f Portoviejo. D u ran ti published a
pamphlet challenging the veracity o f González Suárez’s research and the skewed
treatment o f the D om inican ord er w hile Schum acher c ircu lated a letter con­
dem ning the work’s educational va lu e.34 The scandal colored G onzález Suárez’s
subsequent appointment to th e em p ty bishopric o f Ib arra, a position afforded
him due to his international sc h o larly reputation an d th e V atican’s desire to
place an Ecuadorian nation al in the post. He refu sed th e appointm ent three
times due to the controversy, o n ly to be overruled b y R om e. T h e trium ph o f the
Liberal Revolution and exile o f th e m ajority o f the n atio n al episcopacy by the
end o f 1895 led him to reconsider, an d he was ordained th a t Decem ber, three
months after Alfaro took Q uito.
The Liberal governm ent lo o k e d favorably upon th e m a n whose supposed
liberalism prompted ram p agin g m obs to clam or for h is app ointm ent as arch­
bishop during the battles o f 1895. In office, González S u árez w ould prove to be
more o f a moderate, using h is repu tation as leverage to ch allen ge the erosion
o f church prerogatives d u rin g A lfa r o ’s and Plaza’s first p residential term s. He
took a pragm atic approach a n d sought to avoid the ch arge o f p artisan sh ip, an
attitude that served him w ell d u rin g such volatile tim es. For instance, in 1900,
70 \ Hispanismo

he publicly condemned a planned invasion by conservative forces m assed at the

Colom bian border, arg u in g that patriotism w as a C h ristia n virtue th a t over­
ru led partisan affiliation s. W hile this statem ent engendered another ro u n d o f
reactionary criticism , it helped defuse a potential c iv il w ar by delegitim izing the
insurgency. In addition, it bolstered his standing w ith the Liberal governm ent.
The Vatican recognized a star in the m aking an d elevated h im to archbishop o f
Q uito in 1906. The prelate used his leverage to m itigate anticlerical reform s and
rebuild the episcopacy. H e also turned his atten tio n to pedagogy, p assin g the
torch o f historical criticism to a new generation o f scholars who would c ry sta l­
lize his vision of a nation rooted in local m ores, H isp a n ist pride, and C atholic
universalism . These stud ents would eventually becom e the founders o f a new
and critical institution in the development o f E c u a d o rian Hispanism .

The National Academ y of History

Although he con sisten tly avoided em b racin g a political party, G o n zález

Suárez was m indful o f the political role that h isto ric a l study played. T h e scan­
dal surrounding the publication o f his h istory, a fte r a ll, had precipitated the
fall o f a government and demonstrated the pow er th at the past had on th e con­
tem porary mind. W hile he had remained silent w hen attacked by D u ran ti and
Schum acher at the tim e, in a posthum ously p u b lish ed treatise on his m eth o d ­
ology he defended the decision to include the scan d a lo u s m aterial in ord er to
levy the judgment o f h isto ry upon the developm ent o f the nation. T he uproar,
however, convinced h im that the sores o f independence and nation bu ild in g re­
m ained too raw to be an alyzed im partially, as m u c h b y h im se lf as his audience.
This lack o f critical distance, despite almost a c e n tu ry having passed, m ad e the
continuation o f his general history “ in o p p o rtu n e.” H e therefore b ro u gh t his
opus to a truncated close on the eve o f independence and shifted his energies to
his clerical responsibilities, which had increased d ram atically after the L iberal
Revolution.35
The historian’s perspective does not com pletely drop out o f the serm ons and
political tracts he penned furiously during the e arly tw entieth century. M a n y of
these pieces reveal the an alytical line he would p rob ab ly have followed regarding
the national period and reflect his embrace o f C a th o licism as the p rim a ry boon
from Spain and best hope for national redem ption. T h is is well su m m arized in
a 1908 encyclical entitled “ De la actitud que conviene a los católicos seglares en el
Ecuador en las circun stancias presentes.” In th is essay, González Suárez reviews
the trajectory of nineteenth-century politics a n d its relationship w ith religion.
He argues that liberals avoided anticlericalism p rio r to i860 because th ey found
their definition in a strictly antidictatorial stance. W hile G arcia M oreno briefly
managed to unite p olitics and religion, his a d m in istratio n has been criticized
because o f the p artisan sh ip subsequently g r a fte d onto spiritual m atters. In
 H ispanism o / 71

his essay, González Suárez seeks an end to this m uddle b y ad van cin g Catholi­
cism as a path to national u n ity, notin g that even the m ost rab id ly anticlerical
m e m b e r s o f the Radical Liberal P arty were closet Catholics. He also exhorts the
bishops and priests o f the lan d to disengage from the p olitical squabbles o f the
day to accelerate this process o f u n ification .36
The intellectual roots o f th e p leas m ade in this 1908 essay are varied and
deep There is a clear resonance w ith the calls for national an d transnational re­
generation typical o f the H ispan ist vernacular. A n additional influence, which
w o u ld prove a bridge to the new generation, was the endorsem ent o f Catholic
social action advocated by Pope Leo X III in his encyclical Rerum Novarum, a
text'thát González Suárez regu larly cited in sermons and w ritin gs. These ideas
i n s p i r e d a short-lived attem pt to fo rm a Catholic workers’ organization led by a
k r a i tailor, M anuel Sotom ayor y L u n a, and a num ber o f students at the Colegio
San G abriel, Quito’s premier Jesu it secondary school. A lth o u gh the Centro Ob­
rero Católico devolved into squ abbling between the organization’s membership
of artisan al laborers and elite, largely conservative teenagers, the experim ent
s e r v e d to cement a friendship betw een González Suárez an d som e o f the coun­
try’s fu tu re intellectual leaders, in clud in g the im portant figu res Jacinto Jijón
y Caam año and Julio Tobar D on oso.37 The architects o f a restored Conserva­
tive Party in the 1920s that also bu ilt alliances with labor, these tw o individuals
would be am ong the leaders in c ra ftin g a consideration o f local and national
identity that stem m ed directly fro m G onzález Suárez’s th eory o f history.
G onzález Suárez began to prom ulgate his conception o f E cu ad o r’s Hispanic
roots w ith Jijón and other yo u n g in tellectu als at tertulias, or literary salons,
concerning historical and archaeological studies that he b egan hosting in 1908.
The following year, in part to draw Jijón’s m ind away fro m the recent death of
his m other, the archbishop fo rm a liz ed the group as the S o cied ad Ecuatoriana
de Estudios Históricos A m erican o s (SEE H A ). The m em bership also included
the art historian José G abriel N avarro, Jijón’s cousin and genealogist Cristóbal
Gangotena y Jijón, and C arlos M an u el L arrea. Though m ostly o f conservative
political orientation, with G angotena’s m oderate liberalism tem pered by his ob­
session w ith aristocratic lineage, the group sought to avoid p artisan historical
writing in deference to their m entor, who circulated his m ethodological treatise
among h is charges. M ore m oderate liberals joined in 1915 w ith the addition o f
Celiano M onge and a literary critic from O tavalo nam ed Isaac Barrera, best
known for his enthusiasm for avant-garde literature and for h is well-regarded bi­
ography o f liberal founding fath er Vicente Rocafuerte. W hen G onzález Suárez
died in 1917, Jijón took the helm and expanded the society’s activities to include
the publication o f a bulletin he ban krolled . Their self-proclaim ed professional­
ism, based largely on a penchant for extensive citation and th eir contention that
previous work was m ired in legend and hyperbole, received n ational acclaim.
Their reputation as the prem ier school o f historical research encouraged Con­
gress to declare them the N ational A cadem y o f H istory (A cadem ia Nacional de
72 \ H ispanism o

H isto riad or A N H ) in 1920, ju st in tim e for the cen ten n ial festivities marking
G uayaquil and Quito’s liberation fro m Spain, events th at invited extemporane­
ous p an e g yrics to national greatn ess. T h is prestigious title as a national acad­
emy p rovid ed a platform from w h ich to m ake their osten sibly impartial view of
Ecuador’s Spanish and Catholic roots the official national saga.’8
Perhaps the defining work o f th is era is a Jijón essay published in 1919 that
challenges the eighteenth-century claim s o f Jesuit Ju a n d e Velasco concerning
the existence o f a pre-Incaic K in gd o m o f Quito. Follow ing th e earlier writings of
G onzález Suárez, Jijón disputes the notion o f an autochthonous, proto-national
p olity o r econom ic confederation. He dism isses V elasco fo r having based his
claim s on oral legend rather th a n on archaeological evid ence.-Jijón also critiques
a contem porary study by Paul R iv et (who had hosted th e precocious youngster a
few years earlier in Paris) rep ortin g th at bronze tools h ad been in use prior to the
arrival o f the Incas, another con troversial statement h in tin g at the possibility of
a c iviliz in g im pulse among the “ b arb aric” Ecuadorian indigenes.
T h e obvious politicization o f Jijón ’s article drew com plain ts from the Left—
p a rtic u la rly from the pen o f th e L oja socialist Pío Ja ra m illo Alvarado, whose
polem ical El indio ecuatoriano in sp ire d futu re indigenist w ritings.’5The ongoing
controversy propelled Jijón to th e forefront o f the C onservative Party, for which
he stood as presidential candidate in 1924. His loss in th is disputed election ledto
a failed coup attempt, a short exile in Colom bia, and h is official distancing from
the A N H . In the afterm ath o f the Ju lia n Revolution, Jijó n returned to Ecuador
as the undisputed leader o f the C onservative Party. T h e platform he engineered
from th is position gave rise to a tw o-volum e id eolo gical treatise titled Política
conservadora (1929). Besides d elin eatin g the p arty’s p osition s on economic and
social m atters, the text presented a historical account o f th e formulation of na­
tion al identity arguing that the C onquest and C h ristia n devotion transformed
the A m e ric an continent and b ro u gh t its aboriginal inhabitants into the cradle
o f civ iliz a tio n .40 Jijón view ed Q u ito as the epicenter o f th is civilizing Catholic
nation because o f its ability to evolve beyond its p rovin cialism by becoming an
a rtistic and spiritual fou n tain h ead for the rest o f the H ispanic world during the
seventeenth century.41
Jijó n ’s articulation o f Q u ito’s u n iqu e cultural m erits deployed a trope that
o rigin ated with González S u árez b ut was largely p o p u larized by his former col­
leagues in the National A cad em y o f History. Jijón’s fello w conservative, Julio To­
bar D onoso, for instance, w rote a series o f essays d escribin g the Catholic sensi­
b ility o f the Ecuadorian nation along with biographical sketches of outstanding
m em bers o f the colonial creole elite .42 Isaac Barrera suspended his modernist
lean in gs to contribute a p a n e g y ric to Q uito’s eighteenth-century cultural de­
velopm ent. Published in h onor o f the centennial o f th e Battle of Pichincha, this
vo lu m e recounted the celebratory events and d ocu m en ted the beautification
m easures pursued by the Ju n ta d el Centenario, an independent committee that
B arrera le d .43 He also included a n extended ru m in atio n on the artistic glory of
 Hispanismo / 73

the city’s colonial m o n u m en ts— the churches an d p alaces that Barrera claim ed
o v e r s h a d o w e d its m od ern façade. Perhaps the m o st ardent H ispanophile w as Ji-

jó n ’s cousin, Cristobal d e G angotena y Jijón, w h o com piled genealogical stu d ies

o f t h e city’s original vecino fam ilies, including th e Fernandez Salvador clan , th e
Ic a z a s , and the Borjas. P u b lish ed in the N ational A c a d e m y o f H istory’s b u lle tin ,
th e se works were in ten ded to form the basis o f a n u n fin ish ed m agnum o p u s
r o v i d i n g a com prehensive h isto ry o f “ la raza blanca" w ith in Ecuador.44
^ G a n g o t e n a is best k n o w n , however, for a p o p u la r work t h a t grew fro m h is
self-described “an tiq u arian m a n ia .” This was a collectio n o f tradiciones— sa tiri­
c a l costumbrista vignettes pioneered by Peruvian R ic a rd o Palm a in the 18 70 s—
th a t h e ig h te n e d the n o sta lgic qualities o f colonial an d independence era Q uito.
G a n g o te n a ’s Al margen de la historia: leyendas de picaros, frailes y caballeros (1924)
p r e se n ts an idealized a n d nostalgic portrait o f th e city, a com m unity o f c o u r­
te o u s a n d pious people w hose troubles seem ed fa r fro m the burgeoning so c ia l
c h a o s of the present d ay. T h is is a picaresque w o rld in which colonial officials
m ig h t discover im ages o f th e V irgin M ary in a sp o t o f lard on their em p an ad as,
h o t air balloons m igh t la n d in the m iddle o f n u n n eries, and ghosts cou ld offer
chivalric greetings to w o m en , the elderly, and th e in firm . In the end, these ra m ­
bunctious antics com e to a close, order is resto red, an d a rom anticized Q u ito
endures.45
Gangotena and h is colleagues coupled th eir p o p u la r appeals to H isp a n ist
sensibilities with a c tiv is t c a lls for historic p re se rv atio n couched as n ecessary
for the survival o f la raza. A g a in , this was an end eavo r pioneered by G o n zález
Suárez, who, in his d iscu ssio n o f colonial arts in th e Historia general, had alread y
espoused protecting th e stone façades o f local churches from the late nineteenth-
century practice o f w h itew ash in g.46 The p rim a ry advocate in this endeavor w as
art historian José G ab riel N avarro, one o f the o rig in a l m em bers o f the So cied ad
Ecuatoriana de E stu d io s H istóricos A m erican os an d an enthusiastic expon en t
of the Hispanic o rigin s o f Q uito’s architectural m onum entality, whom w e have
already met due to h is role in the Com ité F ran ce-A m ériq u e’s com m em oration
of La Condamine’s eighteenth-century visit.
Born in 1881, N a v a rro w as a young p ro d ig y w h o stu d ied w ith the greatest
quiteño painters o f the late nineteenth century, R a fa e l Salas and the costumbrista
Joaquín Pinto. He w as am o n g the first students to register at the newly created
Escuela de Bellas A rte s in 1905, eventually jo in in g th e facu lty and then b e co m ­
ing its director for fifte e n years. In 1925, he p u b lish ed the first volu m e o f an
extensive history o f c o lo n ia l art titled Contribuciones a la historia del arte en el
Ecuador. He followed it u p w ith La escultura en el Ecuador (siglos X V I al X V III),
which won the gran d p riz e in the 1927 C o n cu rso d e la R aza hosted b y th e R eal
Academia de B ellas A rte s in M adrid. On th e stren g th o f this résum é, he was
appointed consul general to Spain in 1928 and resid ed in M adrid and S e v ille for
the next three years. H e acted as Ecuador’s c u ltu ra l representative at th e 1929
Ibero-American E xp o sitio n and helped organize a M ad rid exhibition dedicated
74 \ H ispanism o

Fig- 3 .1. T he fa ç ad e o f S an Francisco in Q uito a llu d e s to th e towers o f Sp ain ’s P atio de los Reyes
at El Escorial. C o u rte s y L ib ra ry o f Congress, P rin ts & Photographs D ivision, lo t 2779.

to Spanish a rt in the Indies and h eld in M a y and June 1930. H e w as named

m inister o f fo reig n relations in 1933 an d represented E cuador a t v a rio u s pan-
A m erican su m m its throughout the d eca d e.47 H is political a c tiv ity decreased in
the 1940s, but he continued to travel an d p u b lish w idely through th e 1960s.
N avarro’s m a in argu m en t, reiterated in num erous b o o k s, a rtic le s, and
speeches, c la im s th at colonial Quito sto o d as an artistic center riv a le d in the
A m ericas o n ly b y M exico .48 He attrib u tes this- phenom enon to th e quickness
with which Q u ito ’s indigenous inhabitants were able to absorb th e teachings of
European artists, esp ecially the able scu lptors w ho developed the polychrom atic
sculpture fo r w h ich Q uito was fam ou s. In so doing, however, N a v a rro m ini­
m izes the a rtistic contribution m ade b y th ese artisan s. He h ig h lig h ts the city’s
Spanish roots b y em ph asizin g the role o f Fran ciscan training sch o o ls and the
use o f Sp an ish con stru ction practices. H e underscores Spanish a n d Moroccan
features in Q u ito ’s colonial m onum ents, su ch as the obvious d eb t th e bell tow­
ers o f San F ran cisco (fig. 3.1) owe to those on the western façad e o f El Escorial
abutting the Patio de los Reyes (fig. 3 .2 ).49 T h e influence o f in d igen o u s artistic
traditions in featu res such as the gold le a fin g ad orn ing San F ra n c isc o ’s inte­
rior colum ns h e d ism isses as m in im al a n d incidental. A lth o u g h th e colonial
architecture o f Q uito exhibits fewer traces o f indigenous iconograph y th an that
o f other region al centers, Navarro exaggerates th is aspect to s u p p o rt a view of
Spain as a c iv iliz in g force.50
The im age o f Sp ain as a benevolent p atro n not only ad d ressed Ecuador’s
race problem b u t also responded to a co n cu rren t m ovem ent b a ttlin g the Black
 Hispanismo / 75

Fig 3.2. In addition to the b ell tow ers, elem ents from the en try w ay o f the western façade o f the
royal monastery o f El Escorial in S p a in , shown here, appear in Q u ito ’s San Francisco. C ourtesy
Library o f Congress, Prints & P hotograph s Division, lot 7736.

Legend, which originated in th e work o f Las Casas and concerned the m erciless
Iberian conquistadors. T h e D om inican fria r’s castigatio n s had long inspired
Anglo-Saxon antipathy to S p a in while Spanish A m e ric a n intellectuals saw
Las Casas as an early ad vocate o f im perial reform . H owever, as C hristopher
Schmidt-Nowara has dem onstrated, figures like C u b an José Antonio Saco and
Honduran Carlos G utiérrez referenced Las C asas not on ly to dem and social
reforms but also to assert th e generosity o f a Spanish civilizin g m ission based
on conversion and fratern ity between Spain and the A m ericas. While jingoistic
nationalists continued to v iew Las Casas as a traitor, som e intellectuals such
as conservative Antonio M a ría Fabé and M adrid philosopher Em ilio C astelar
began to propose a co u n tervailin g “ White Legend” alon g these lines.51 M enén-
dez Pelayo helped p op u larize this approach, which b egan to grow increasingly
bellicose after 1898. T h is version o f the argum ent was m ost succinctly expressed
in Julián Juderías y Lo yo t’s 19 14 work, Leyenda negra y ¡a verdad histórica, w hich
held that Spain’s devotion to religion and art m ade it the greatest civilizing force
the world had ever know n.
Navarro embraced th is strid ent version o f the W hite Legend and elevated
Quito as a symbolic p illar o f the defense. For exam ple, he delivered a speech in
1929 suggesting that Q uito, w ith its “splendid ed ifices, convents and churches
of rare m agnificence, p a in tin g s and statues, form id ab le am ounts o f civil and
religious furnishings, jew els w ith delicate silverw ork, etc. . . . was a m ute w it­
ness advocating [in S p a in ’s d efense].”52 The follow in g year he extended this
 76 \ Hispanismo

e m p h asis on the value o f S p a n ish construction in a testam en t to m unicipal

' o rgan ization . For N avarro, th e founding and con stru ction o f cities like Quito,
“ th e m ost Castilian in A m e ric a ,” displayed the su p erio rity o f a raza whose focus
on c u ltu ra l development elevated it above the econom ic view o f colonization
p revalen t in other powers, su ch as Britain or France.53
T o promote this vision o f Span ish cultural su periority, N avarro highlighted
sp e c ific exam ples o f Q u ito ’s h igh baroque arch itectu re. M ost com m only, he
m ain ta in ed that the c ity ’s ch u rch es, especially th o se o f S an Francisco and La
C o m p a ñ ía , embodied the sp iritu a l artistry o f the city. Em phasizing church
arch itectu re not only gave a religiou s resonance to th e identification o f Quito
as S p a n ish but also served to p inpoint the spatial lo catio n o f Spain’s presence
in th e old center. N avarro a lso contrasted the em blem s o f colonial architecture
w ith m od ern styles. A lth o u gh he stopped short o f ou trigh t criticism o f contem­
p o ra ry trends, he deplored th e alteration o f trad itio n al construction and the
m a n y m odernizing fac e -lifts given to colonial stru c tu re s. He thus advocated
stric t conservation o f Q uito’s treasures, arguing that d oin g so would have practi­
cal benefits by encouraging to u rism .
A good example o f N a va rro ’s critique o f m odern architectu re can be seen in
a 1926 article titled “ De cóm o Q uito sería siempre u n cen tro de turism o.” In this
te x t, he recalls the Italian p ain te r G iulio Sartorio, w ho h a d praised the city as
the A th en s o f the New W orld. N avarro argues that Q u ito is owed a place in the
p an th eo n o f world arts n ext to Florence, Venice, or C onstantin op le despite the
recent onslaught o f an avalanche o f modern v u lg arity th at threatened the city’s
d istin ctiv e Andalusian p o rta ls, C astilian porticos, an d m onochrom e green-tile
p atio s. N avarro suggests “quiteño u n ity in the c u lt to th e p a s t” to arrest this
p rocess, calling on the state to help preserve the d isap p earin g traces o f the past,
su ch as the fountains that once adorned the city’s p lazas bu t had been removed
fo llo w in g the introduction o f potable water. T h ro u gh active conservation, Na­
v a rro hoped that “Q uito’s extrao rd in ary beauty w ill prom ote its preservation,
since the devotion o f cu rio u s strangers w ill ensure th at the city is always a center
o f to u rism .”54
N avarro’s project to d efe n d Q uito’s artistic h eritage h ad few adherents in
the 19 20s, as modern eclectic styles that avoided S p a n ish colonial architectural
trop es rem ained popular. H ow ever, his fellows in th e A N H began to follow his
le ad , first through studies o f oth er colonial m onu m ents, such as Juan de Dios
N a v a s’s writings on the ch ap el o f Guápulo in the c ity ’s eastern environs. Julio
T o b ar Donoso also echoed N avarro ’s plea for con servation in h is speech induct­
in g N avas into the A N H , c la im in g that m odern arch itectu re threatened to de­
stro y “el genio peculiar de la ciu d a d ” unless checked b y conservation efforts.55
T h e identification o f Q uito w ith Spain and in p a rtic u la r w ith the artistic glories
o f its colonial architecture, however, got its greatest b o o st in 1934, when the city
celebrated the four-hundredth anniversary o f its S p a n ish founding.
 H ispanism o / 77

The Invention o f Seis de Diciembre

Travelers w h o visit Quito today d u rin g the m onth o f D ecem ber can e x p e ri­
ence the elaborate festivities held to celebrate the city's fou nd in g. W in e, beer,
and aguardiente flow in abundance as revelers in Spanish costu m e g a ily cavort
across the city in open-air buses called chivas w hile singing th e c ity ’s anthem s.
Until b u llfigh tin g’s abolition this year, m atad o rs from across the w orld w ould
descend on the capital for a w eeklong series o f corridas, where th e y were m et
b y performative protests by defenders o f a n im a l and indigenous righ ts seeking

a national p la tfo rm in which to advance an alternative vision o f lo c a l h istory.

The party th at h as becom e both a n atio n al h olid ay and a d efin in g m om ent in
Quito’s civic calendar, however, has its o rig in s m a gim m ick prom u lgated b y the
National A c a d e m y o f H istory— w ith th e su pp ort o f th e n -m u n ic ip a l coun cil
president Jacinto Jijón— which hoped to p o p u larize its H ispanist visio n o f local
and national identity.
The 1934 com m em oration o f the quad ricenten nial o f Q uito’s S p an ish fou n d ­
ing on D ecem ber 6 was the first tim e th e an n iversary was officially celebrated.
The largest p u b lic holidays o f the n in eteen th and early tw entieth c en tu ry re­
mained religious festivities, especially th e m yriad costum e b a lls h eld betw een
Christmas and Epiphany and even th e C a rn iv a l water fights. T h e m ain civic
holidays included the anniversaries o f A u g u s t 10 ,18 0 9 (Independence Day) and
of the Battle o f Pichincha, when Q uito w as liberated from the S p a n ish on M a y
24,1822. C ivic holidays grew more im p o rta n t in the early tw entieth cen tu ry, as
the state held n ation al expositions to celebrate the first centennials o f these in ­
dependence holidays in 1909 and 1922. T h ese celebrations anticipated the p oliti­
cization o f 1934 as th ey provided a ration ale fo r state and m un icip al b eau tifica­
tion and developm ent projects in the cap ital. The new Decem ber 6 h olid ay thus
represented the continuation o f a trend b u t w ith a slightly different orientation.
Instead o f p rod ucin g a m ythscape h igh lig h tin g the city and nation’s m od ern ity
and liberal cosm opolitanism , as h ad e arlie r centennials, the new celebrations
elevated the p ast to a position o f honor an d proclaim ed Quito a fu n d am e n ta lly
Hispanic city.56
A key issu e in th is project con cern ed w h ich date to celebrate. A lth o u gh
Benalcázar h a d first entered the city on D ecem ber 6, 1534, D iego de A lm a g ro
first ordered th e creation o f an a d m in istrative center on the ru in s o f the pre-
Columbian citad el on A ugust 28 o f th at year. Beginning with G o n zález Suárez,
historians h ad fo cu sed on the earlier d ate because, under Sp an ish law, the in ­
stallation o f a cabild o determ ined the legal autonom y o f an u rb an settlem ent.
The A ugust date was still favored b y A N H president Celiano M on ge in a Jun e
1931 com m unique to the m unicipality su ggestin g they plan a celebration w or­
78 \ H ispanism o

th y o f th e c ity ’s four-hundredth birth d ay.57 However, a stu d y published in the

Caceta M unicipal the follow ing y e a r b y José R um azo G o n z ále z , assistant to the
m u n icip al archivist, favored th e celebration o f B enalcázar’s entry. R um azo chal­
lenged the traditional p rio ritizin g o f the adm in istrative fram ew ork by arguing
instead th at it was the grid th a t B en alcázar had traced u p on h is arrival that had
d eterm in ed the future shape o f the city. Im plicit w ith in th is contention was a
d ism issa l o f the lasting im p o rtan ce o f the Incaic settlem ent in the Q uito valley,
a p o sitio n th at expanded tra d itio n a l H ispanoph ilia b e y o n d the civilizational
a rg u m e n ts u su ally advanced.5“ A sligh tly expanded versio n o f the article was
rep ublished in August 1933 in th e Q uito daily El Comercio, fu elin g ongoing con­
troversy. In January 1934, the m u n icip a l council attem pted to address the issue
by a sk in g its newly appointed president, Jacinto Jijón y C a a m a ñ o , to prepare a
rep ort establishing the proper d a te o f the centennial.59 Jijó n presented his opin­
ions tw o m onths later.
Jijó n ’s report agrees w ith G o n z á le z Suárez’s selection o f A u g u st 28. Ever
the arch aeo logist, Jijón b egin s th e stu d y with a b rie f in tro d u ctio n to the vari­
ous p re-C o lu m b ian tribes th a t liv ed near Quito, co n clu d in g th at, prior to the
S p a n ish a rriva l. Incan invaders incorporated the city in a frontier zone between
two establish ed populations. H e th u s acknowledges th at it is im proper to speak
o f th e “ foun d in g” o f a new con u rb ation in 1534 becau se an existin g population
h ad a lread y settled the area. H e therefore prioritized th e ad m in istrative step as
h ad h is forebears, arguing th a t the establishm ent o f the first m unicipal council
m ark e d the initiation o f the S p a n ish era for the city and the nation.60
D esp ite Jijón s scholarly p o sitio n , the m u n icip ality op ted to celebrate both
dates w h ile em phasizing B e n a lc á z a r’s a rrival, in e ffect ad van cin g R u m azos
c la im th a t a new city and c iv iliz a tio n began w ith th e p h ysical arrival o f the
S p a n ish an d their spatial colo n izatio n o f the te rrito ry .6' T h e national govern­
m ent follow ed suit, d eclarin g a civic holiday for b o th d ates, noting that “ the
fo u n d in g o f the city o f Q uito h a s to be considered the b e g in n in g and even the
b asis o f the Ecuadoran n a tio n ality.”62 M onths o f celebratory events ensued, in­
c lu d in g d a ily parades, p ageants, and parties during D ecem ber. A lthough many
o f th ese events consisted o f se c u la r celebrations, such as in terprovincial football
gam es or charitable balls, celebration o f the city’s S p a n ish heritage dominated
the so c ia l calendar. Several o f these m em orials exten d ed the identification of
the c it y ’s religious m onum ents as the key to its H ispan ic sp irit. On December 5,
for in stan ce, the city governm en t placed six plaques d isp la y in g the names and
coats o f a rm s o f Quito’s first 2 4 0 vecinos not on th e p resid en tial palace or the
m u n icip a l h all itself but on th e cath ed ral’s façade. A n exhibition o f the artistic
treasu res o f San Francisco, L a M erced , and San A g u s tín opened on December
6 w ith special papal p erm issio n , while the day’s celebrations were capped with
the u n ve ilin g o f a m assive sto n e statue o f a stern G o n z ále z Suárez overlooking
the cobblestones o f San F ran cisco ’s plaza. O ther events h eld du ring the month
in clu d e d the dedication o f a p la q u e to Jodoco R icke, th e c ity ’s first Franciscan
 H ispanism o / 79

VA Xl( IIV'I.
o r g a .n o

DEL CONCEJO l)E QV1T0

PVBLICAI>0 POR*
. L A S E C R E T A R IA
M V N IC 1 P A L ■

Fig* 3-3- Cover, Gaceta M unicipal 19:77 (August 2 8 ,19 3 4 ). C ou rtesy A rchivo H istórico M etropoli­
tano, Quito.

friar, and a design contest to produce colo n ial architecture “using m odern c o n ­
struction techniques.”6’
Perhaps the m ost im pressive element o f the centennial, however, concerned
the sheer am ount o f m aterial published to com m em orate the an n iversary .
It ranged from special issues o f literary jo u rn a ls to the six-section edition o f
the Quito daily, El Comercio, to collections o f historical essays b y schoolchil­
dren. The m u n icip ality, however, ou tp aced th e others in its celebratory zeal.
8o \ Hispanismo

For exam ple, it in itiated a series o f reprints o f h isto ric docum ents th a t contin­
ues today. The first fo u r volum es appeared in 1934 and reproduced th e “ Libro
Verde,” which con tain ed the earliest records o f th e city cabildo.64 Besides these
collectors’ item s, th e Gaceta Municipal p rin ted com m em orative ed ition s for the
A ugust and D ecem ber anniversaries in w h ich th e H ispanist bias o f th e m unici­
p al council, th en led b y Jijón, can be e asily n o ted . The cover o f b o th editions
for instance, replaced the m agazine’s earlier m in im a list form at w ith a baroque
design, fram ed b y an ornate border, w ith th e c ity ’s coat o f arm s su rrou n d ed by
inset portraits o f A lm a g ro and B enalcázar. A n im age o f Francisco P izarro at
the bottom edge com pletes this tribute to Q u ito ’s Spanish heritage, w hich was
retained over the n ext tw o decades before th e m u n icip ality suspended publica­
tion o f the gazette altogether (fig. 3.3). T h e con ten t o f the two vo lu m es, one for
the August a n n iv ersa ry and one for the D ecem b er anniversary, also exhibits a
strong desire to id e n tify the city with its S p a n ish heritage.
The A ugust issu e focuses exclusively on th e c ity ’s colonial p ast.65 It includes
essays on Jodoco R ick e, the first m inutes recorded b y the colonial cabild o, and
González Suárez’s account o f his research trip to Seville. T ributes to th e con­
quistadors b y p ro m in en t intellectuals su ch as literary h istorian Isaac Barrera,
the conservative essayist Rem igio Crespo T o ral, and the director o f th e National
Library, Zo ila U garte de Landivar, round ou t th e volum e.
The illustrations and photographs in clu d ed throughout con firm the empha­
sis on the c ity’s colo n ial m onum ents and S p a n ish heritage.66 A p ic to ria l essay
on San Francisco b e g in s w ith a rep rod u ction o f a 1785 p aintin g d ep ictin g the
c ity ’s first F ran cisc a n fria r, Jodoco R ick e, b a p tiz in g an indigenous fa m ily in
an evocative reference to N avarro’s ad vocacy o f th e W hite Legend. Portraits of
the church’s celebrated architecture follow , in clu d in g both a street-level image
o f the oft-photographed m ain façade and a som ew hat more u n u su a l overhead
shot o f the c irc u la r stairw ell o ff the p laza. T h e n ext im age, w hich d ep icts the
yet-to-be-erected statu e o f González S u árez, fu rth e rs the square’s identification
with the heroism o f the city’s H ispanist in telligen tsia. Sim ilar spotlights on the
architecture o f th e nearby churches o f L a M erced and Santo D o m in go come
next. The photographs conclude with p o rtra its o f the m onarchs who ru led from
Iberia during Q u ito’s colonial era, from C h a rle s V to Ferdinand V I I .67
While the Gaceta Municipal from A u g u s t 1934 em phasized the colo n ial era,
the December issue attem pted to draw a brid ge between that past an d the mod­
ern present. T h is e ffo rt began with the in tro d u cto ry rem arks, in w h ich the editor
notes his intention to evaluate whether th e c ity h a d advanced fa r enou gh over
its four hundred years. The issue includes a m u ltitu d e o f essays, photographs,
paintings, and oth er item s that attem pt to referen ce the past bu t a lso elevate
the present. The ju xtap o sition can seem stran ge, such as the in terru p tion o f an
essay about the fa m o u s colonial painter M ig u e l de Santiago w ith photographs
o f recently erected w orker housing in th e B a rrio Obrero, on the so u th ern edge
 Hispanism o / 81

f th e city.68 N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e issu e posits a continuum betw een the splendors

o f th e city’s golden age and its fu tu re, suggesting an active engagem ent with the
. an ist tenet that redem ption com es by way o f em bracing h istory. In effect,
th e issue theorizes tradition as the redeem ing force b e h in d genuine national
owth a stance articulated b y Jijón in Política conservadora an d one that form ed
die basis for his adm inistration’s social policies. Q uito’s cen ten n ial thus becam e
a rallying point for the p u rsu it o f a regenerating tradition in accord w ith a his-
oanista conception o f the past an d th e possibilities for fu tu re glory.
M any other com m em orative publications follow ed a sim ila r structure. El
Comercio, for example, introduced its special issue w ith a N avarro essay elaborat­
ing his p e r e n n i a l call for p reservin g the city as a relic o f colonial architecture.6’
T h e editors bolstered his conten tion w ith a series o f im ages p ictu rin g the jew ­
els o f the centro and the grow in g architectonic segregation o f the city. The first
set depicted “Quito trad icio n al” and ju xtaposed som e o f th e first nineteenth-
century photographs o f Q u ito w ith contem porary im ages. S ign ifican tly, the
editors buried only an occasional shot o f modest m odern b u ild in gs am ong the
more grandiose and num erous shots o f colonial stru ctu res. A second set o f pho­
tographs titled “Quito nuevo” com plem ented this edited visio n in reverse— b y
including contemporary stru ctu res on the northern an d sou th ern edges o f the
city.70 The one exception to th is ru le was a rather lovely shot presenting the in ­
tersection o f Garcia Moreno a n d Sucre streets as a m ixtu re o f the old and new.
Four centuries are represented in th is photograph: an early colonial hom e b e ­
longing to R . Vásconez Góm ez an d probably from the seventeenth century, the
e d g e o f La Compañía (completed in 1765), Rosa C h iribo ga’s nineteenth-century
neoclassical mansion, and Fran cisco D u rin i’s Banco C en tral headquarters. T h is
last structure, despite being th e on ly tw en tieth -cen tury ed ifice represented,
was the exception that proved th e ru le, for D u rin i h a d p aid lovin g tribute to
La Com pañía in his façade, u sin g the same andesite stone and abstracting its
ornamentation.7'
El Comercio also high lighted the civilizin g force o f th e Sp an ish co n q u is­
tadors in its com m em orative vo lu m e, echoing the fra m e w o rk u tilized in the
Caceta Municipal publication fro m A u gu st. G u illerm o B u stos h as highlighted
t h e particular significance o f a dram atization o f B en alcázar’s en try into Q uito
drawn b y contemporary a rtist José Yépez and reprod uced on the fron t page
o f t h e newspaper’s second section, which was devoted to th e cen ten nial.72 T he
foreground features the conquistador astride a horse, w hich is flanked b y fellow
soldiers and a friar, presum ably R icke..Th e inclusion o f a p air o f A m erin d ian s'
kneeling on the ground to offer food and drink to the Sp an iard clarifies the m es­
s a g e o f the artwork as a reification o f the civilizing narrative ty p ical o f E cu ado r­
ia n H ispanism . A s Bustos notes, its prom inent placem ent in the special section
o f t h e newspaper crystallizes the innate superiority o f the Sp an ish p ortion o f
t h e nation’s character.
82 \ Hispanismo

The Chronotope o f Hispanic Heritage

Despite the m erits o f h is analysis, Bustos m ista k en ly argues that the celebra­
tion s o f 1934 represented a n isolated com m em oration w ith m inim al connection
to contem porary celebrations o f Decem ber 6.73 O ver the next two decades, the
H isp a n ist m em bership o f th e N ational A cadem y o f H isto ry and the conserva­
tive leadership o f the m u n ic ip a lity system atically cod ified their interpretation
o f th e c ity ’s role as the rep o sito ry o f the Spanish center o f national identity even
as th e celebrations d ro p p e d fro m the pu blic con scio usn ess. T h is system atic
e ffo rt started in the late 19 30 s as the council b e g a n to hold an an n u al “sesión
solemne" to com m em orate th e founding. The c u lt to B enalcázar’s m em ory ac­
com pan ied this ritu al, b e g in n in g with Jijón’s p u blicatio n o f the first volum e of
h is exhaustive (and u n fin ish ed ) biography in 1936.74 In Novem ber 1942, the city
in au g u rated a special d ecoration nam ed the O rden de H onor de Caballeros de
Q u ito Sebastián de B en alcázar, which was given a n n u a lly to citizens who had
contributed in an o u tstan d in g m anner to the c ity ’s developm ent in the previous
year.75 In 1949, the city u n ve ile d a statue in B en a lc á za r’s likeness in front o f an
eighteenth-century n eoclassical structure bu ilt on the site where the conquista­
d o r’s ow n house had once sto o d , w ith the jo u rn a list, diplom at, and hispanista
G o n z alo Zaldum bide presen tin g the introductory rem arks at the unveiling.76 In
subseq uent years, th is so -c a lle d C asa de B en alcázar w ould becom e a p ilg rim ­
age site for local H isp a n ists, and today it houses th e In stituto E cu atoriana de
C u ltu ra H ispánica as w ell as a m useum o f c o lo n ia l sculpture.77 By 1959, the
identification o f Q uito w ith th is recently invented h o lid ay had become so strong
th a t the afternoon n ew sp ap er Últimas Noticias p u b lish ed a call for the entire
c ity to celebrate the a n n iv e rsa ry , which it d id , w ith riotou s m errym ak in g in
th e streets.78 The p o p u lar celebrations that ensu ed never abandoned the stately
em brace o f a H ispanic sen sib ility, as evidenced b y the yearly bullfights, Iberian
garb , and political strife th a t continue to m ark the holiday in its present form .
T h e vision o f Q u ito’s centro as a livin g m u se u m prom ulgated by N avarro,
Jijó n , and others garn ered exten sive in stitu tio n al su p p ort. The postcards d is­
c u sse d in chapter 1 an d m ap s from chapter 2 represent some o f the earliest ef­
fo rts b y the national g o vern m en t to apply this id ea b u t certain ly not the last,
as th e m ovem ent to p rom ote the city’s tourist p oten tial continued. By 1938, the
fo reig n press had so in te rn a liz e d Q uito’s S p a n ish identity that the New York
World-Telegram presented a photograph o f the P laza de la Independencia h igh ­
ligh tin g the cathedral (fig. 3.4), w ith San Fran cisco’s towers in the background,
a n d an accom panying cap tion encouraging A m e rican tourists to experience this
“c o lo rfu l” city where “ th e cam era virtu ally shows a bit o f Spain transplanted in
Q u ito .”79 Two years later, th e priests o f San Fran cisco emerged from the cloister
 H ispanism o / 83

>ain in South America

Fig. 3.4. “ Bit o f Sp ain in South A m erica," New York World Telegram. C o u rtesy Library o f C on­
gress, Prints & Photographs D ivision, N Y W T S

to authorize a visitor s guide that m arketed the quaintness o f their monastery,

previously o ff lim its to all but its resid en ts.80
This international profile dovetailed with an expansion o f preservation laws
adopted b y the city and national governm ents and overseen b y figures such as
Navarro and Gangotena y Jijón. B y th e end o f the 1930s, the m unicipality re­
quired special perm its to build in the centro, even from clerical groups repairing
or altering their structures.8' Perhaps the m ost im portant m om ent in the history
of the old city center’s survival h ap p en ed when N avarro w ooed a young U ru ­
guayan architect nam ed G u illerm o Jones Odriozola to provide a comprehensive
zoning plan for the city, which w as fo rm ally adopted in 1942 and enshrined the
colonial core, or casco colonial, as a protected zone. A lth ough the district later
became a lower-income neighborhood and m any o f its m onum ental structures
deteriorated, the integrity o f th e colo n ial city rem ained unm atched among
South A m erican capitals. A s a resu lt, th is architectural showcase hosted an in­
84 \ H ispanism o

ternational gathering in 1967 to bo lster L a tin A m erican m onu m ents, which in

tu rn gave rise to the so-called C h arter o f Q uito calling for reh abilitation o f co­
lonial centers. The Ecuadorian governm ent followed this m ove w ith the forma­
tion o f a com m ittee to study the p oten tial for rehabilitating the h isto ric center.
U N E S C O fu n d in g subsidized the gro u p a fter the global agen cy’s 1972 summit
establishing th e W orld Heritage p ro g ram . B y 1977, the group’s effo rts led to the
Coloquio de Q uito, a m eeting at w h ich th e centro was declared a n ation al heri­
tage site along with several other sites o f interest in the su rrou n d in g regions. In
addition, officials at the colloquium ad op ted the “ Plan piloto de Q u ito” as the
blueprint fo r a new cycle o f p reservatio n . U N E S C O cap italized on the city’s
nam e recogn ition and the follow ing y e a r honored Quito as the first city to be
nam ed a W orld Heritage Site, fin ally a ctu a liz in g N avarro’s desire th a t it achieve
global recognition as one o f the a rch itectu rally great capitals o f th e world. The
city governm ent has slowly em braced fu rth e r preservation over th e last thirty
years, in clu d in g a m ajor push since th e early 1990s under a series o f progressive
m unicipal adm in istrations that have p ersu ad ed m any local a n d international
businesses to reinvest in Quito’s core.
T h is h is to ry o f preservation h a s continu ed to reinforce th e chronotope
m arking Q uito as a Spanish city. H isto rian s such as Ernesto de la O rden Miracle
and José M a ría Vargas took up N a va rro ’s a rt historical work th ro u gh the 1970s.
These in tellectu als conferred w ith arch itectu ral preservation ists, such as To­
ledo’s J. M . G onzález de Valcárcel, w ho drew up the volum e accom pan ying the
1970s restoration pilot p lan .82 The S p a n ish governm ent has co n tin u ed to sup­
port these sorts o f efforts, esp ecially d u rin g the 1990s. Together w ith the mu­
nicipalities o f A nd alucía and o f Q uito, the Spanish produced a series o f studies
o f the m onum ental core’s history, stru c tu ra l problems, and th e possibilities for
its long-term conservation, echoing th e w ork that Navarro began in the 1920s.
The conservation o f the city advocated b y the city’s H isp an ist intelligentsia
would h ave been im possible w ith ou t th e active collaboration o f th e municipal
governm ent, which represented the e ffo r t’s single m ost im p o rtan t institutional
advocate. T h is support was partly due to th e fact that m any p rom in en t Hispan­
ist preservationists also sat on the c o u n cil, p articularly d u rin g th e 1930s, when
figures such as Gangotena, N avarro, an d Jijón served m ultiple term s as cabildo
m em bers, w ith Jijón acting as president d u rin g the 1934 q u ad ricen ten n ial cele­
brations. The embrace o f city politics b y these intellectuals, th ou gh inform ed by
a desire to protect architectural treasu res and m anipulate the c u ltu ra l mythol­
ogy o f Q uito’s H ispanic character, a lso grew out o f a detailed p olitical program
espoused b y Jijón’s Conservative P arty. T h is agenda advocated th e restoration
o f m unicip al prerogatives over local p la n n in g and resource m an agem en t across
the nation. T h e Conservatives’ prog ram launched a new incarn atio n o f a tug-of-
war betw een the Quito cabildo and the national governm ent th a t started in the
nineteenth century but grew in creasingly urgent with the b u rgeo n in g real estate
m arket in the city’s environs.
 Chapter 4

Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

In September 1895, the d ay a fter his victorious e n try into Q uito, the new p resi­
dent, Eloy A lfaro, pen n ed a letter to Carlos Freile, th e new ly appointed govern or
of Pichincha, bem oaning the capital’s lack o f b asic services. Bristlin g at the c ity ’s
underdevelopment, he declared his im m ediate inten tion to authorize up to fifty
thousand sucres for the construction o f a cen tral m arket. T he Viejo L u ch ad o r
also pledged future fu n d in g for other badly need ed public works, argu in g th at
“ this capital has been q uite bad ly m aintain ed.” ' T h e bluster o f this c o m m u n i­
qué, intended to d iscredit the Progressive go vern m en ts o f the previous decade,
obscured A lfaro’s e q u a lly im portant com m itm ent to b u ild in g an allian ce w ith
the municipal council. Each prom ised reform h a d been requested yearly b y the
city council during the previous decade on ly to b e refu sed by a state b ereft o f
funds. In offering to su p p o rt the realization o f th ese reform s, A lfa ro h op ed to
establish a loyal follow in g am ong m em bers o f th e local governm ent o f a c ity
long known as a conservative bastion.
The cabildo benefited from the patronage o f th e Liberal state, but th is a lli­
ance did not last. The pressures and potential p ro fits occasioned b y the ca p ita l’s
growing population, exp an d in g real estate m ark e t, and developing sociospatial

85

k
86 \ Governance and the Sovereign C abildo

segregation in ste a d led the Concejo M u n ic ip a l de Q uito to play a lone h an d as it

attempted to sa fe g u a rd its autonom y over u rb an planning. T h is prerogative had
been guaran teed u n d er the Spanish C ro w n b u t slowly eroded d u rin g the nine­
teenth cen tu ry a s p a rt o f state cen tralization efforts. In attem pting to restore its
previous p riv ile g e s, the city governm ent sought to develop a n a rra tiv e recast­
ing local govern an ce as a quintessential va lu e o f national identity a n d universal
progress. T h is chronotope engaged in tern atio n al debates regarding u rb an form
and p lan n in g th a t were reconsidered an d revised to conform w ith a n d respond
to local p olitical, econom ic, and racial con flicts.
The quest fo r autonom y achieved its zen ith u nd er the auspices o f revamped
C onservative lead ersh ip during the 19 3 0 s. D u rin g a m om ent o f n a tio n a l po­
litical and eco n o m ic chaos, leaders lik e Ja cin to Jijón y C aam añ o an d Gustavo
M ortensen su c c e s s fu lly engineered Q u ito ’s em ergence as an a u to n om o u s re­
gional center. T h e ir program offered b o th a reconsidered vision o f th e m unici­
p ality’s h isto ric role as caretaker o f n a tio n a l fortu n e as well as su sta in e d pater­
nalist engagem ent w ith the pressures o f em ergin g class conflict. T h e ir resulting
clout allow ed not on ly for the achievem ent o f long-sought m u n icip al autonomy
but also the c rysta lliz a tio n o f a h ierarch ical sociospatial order h a rk e n in g to the
racial and cla ss segregation o f the c o lo n ia l era. T h e ir crow ning achievem ent,
the 1942 P lan R e g u la d o r de Q uito d ra fte d b y U ru g u ayan architect G uillerm o
Jones O driozola, provided a b lu eprin t fo r th e c ity ’s fu tu re d evelopm en t along
these lines.
Q uito’s p la n n in g process has long b een understood as a p o litic a l struggle.
M ost o f the stu d ies that have appeared since 1980 have built up on M an u el Cas-
tells’s contention th at urban p lann ing system atically operated as elites colluded
to lim it su b altern access and op p ortunity, in the m odern city. L u ca s A ch ig and
Fernando C a rrio n , fo r exam ple, m ain ta in th at real estate speculation in the city
during the 19 30 s successfully enabled elite in cu rsions into the n o rth e rn environs
and set the stage fo r racial segregation across the city.2 Eduardo K in g m a n fol­
lows sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to ch arge th at the creation o f an internationally
legible con stitu tio n o f an urban habitus b o lstered b y considerations o f hygiene
and beautification dim inished public consideration o f indigenous a n d subaltern
contributions to Q uito’s social m ilieu in th e early tw entieth cen tury. L ik e Achig
and C arrión , he considers the m u n icip a lity a n atu ral ally w ith elite developers
and the n atio n al state in this endeavor.3 D em arcatin g sh iftin g p ow er arrange­
ments— in w h ich the city governm ent re g u la rly clashed w ith its su pp osed col­
laborators— dem onstrates that the m u n ic ip a lity followed an in stitu tio n al logic
that transcended p artisan affiliations in w h ich the search for auton om ous con­
trol over p la n n in g w as param ount.
The success o f th is effort depended on articu latin g a specific v isio n o f both
history and m o d e rn ity that placed th e m u n ic ip a lity at the cen ter o f a broader
m etanarrative o f global im port. Q uito’s displacem ent by G u ayaqu il as the dom i­
nant political a n d econom ic center o f th e co u n try com plicated th is ta sk , as it ne­
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 87

cessitated the negotiation o f an identity and politics com m ensurate with Q uito’s
simultaneous status as “c a p ita l” and “second city.” In th is regard, Quito ought
to be considered a relatively u n iqu e specimen am ong Latin A m erican capitals.
Unlike Mexico City, B u en o s A ires, or Lim a, the E cu ad o rian m etropolis never
had hegemonic prim acy. In d eed , its particular b ra n d o f tradable historicity can
be more fruitfully com pared to the positioning com m on to secondary centers
whose economic and p o litic a l im port has largely fad e d , for exam ple, Cuzco or
Oaxaca.4 These cities, h ow ever, never experienced the sim ultaneous responsi­
bilities and opportunities th a t accompanied the status o f national capital, w hich
provided greater state im p e tu s for sustaining local developm ent.
Several factors affected the success o f this b alan cin g act, including the rela­
tionship between the c ity a n d national governm ents, access to and control over
planning funds, and, p erh ap s m ost im portantly, the ab ility to articulate the m u ­
nicipal council’s dual n atu re as a bastion o f both m od ern ity and heritage. These
three factors had a collective im pact on the process o f urban planning du ring
three distinctive epochs. D u rin g the late nineteenth century, Progressive local
governments strained a g a in st both state-im posed b u d getary lim its as well as an
internal ambivalence as to th e value o f “progress” in the isolated Andean polis.
A fter 1895, the Liberal R evolu tio n ’s sustained m odernization program affected
the relationship between c ity and state. Despite the great advances fostered b y
collaboration between th e tw o levels o f governm ent, the state utilized public
works to accentuate its o w n prestige at the expense o f urban autonomy. B y the
late 1910s, this nepotistic system had bankrupted the city council and led to the
inauguration o f an in d ep en d en t but congressionally brokered planning com ­
mission that crippled u rb a n self-governance. D u rin g the late 1920s and 1930s, a
moment in which a w eak n ation al government suffered from the ill effects o f the
Great Depression, m u n icip a l governm ents sought to restore their control over
planning. This struggle cam e to fruition under a series o f activist m unicipali­
ties dominated by a resu rgen t Conservative P arty th at deployed a selective re-
imagining o f the city’s colo n ial history and fom ented fears o f unregulated real
estate speculation to ju s t if y a paternalist reorganization o f urban space u nd er
their control. The cro w n in g event in this program , the adoption of Jones O drio-
zola’s master plan in 19 42, codified a new sociospatial and political order in the
city that would dom inate Q u ito’s subsequent tw entieth-century story.

The Rise and Fall o f the Cabildo .

The empire that S p a in b u ilt in the A m ericas lin k ed a series o f urban out­
posts ruling over vast ru r a l holdings, the su rv iv a l o f which depended on the
stability o f the m un icip al governm ent, or cabildo. T he conquistadors were the
initial members o f the cab ild o, but m em bership soon expanded to include m a­
jor landowners and entrepreneu rs. Cabildos th us fu nctioned as key cogs in the
88 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

interlocking chains o f colonial b u r uucracy, '■ v e ! : Uly coveted

fo r th eir influence and power, p- rticu! dyaa- vajor cities
like M exico City, Lim a, or Q u ito , '.inship nci % s • '• •' ' determine
the shape o f these spheres o f o ; a :nce, v.'dr1:. -y, le im m e­
d iate hinterlands to lin k toy. d: -lites rt d ,■ 1im perial
level.5
In th e case o f Q uito , the cal Sos ren n it ontrolaver
la n d gran ts, or mercedes, in id . ■ an i a .d u-d. The largest
beneficiaries were the m on. dw- ! r; a n 1 r x -dl tycouncil,
in clu d in g the Pérez Guerr o. , 1 ' is. a -d S : d . ' dies. M u­
n icip al m em bers amassed h uyo un--whu • .¡do an d sand
th e p urch ase o f the cabildo d la :! utionai ! - d at regu­
lar in tervals throughout a ¡ * tc .: •> She cabildo
th u s becam e a crucial step tow; die ¡jot- a or nower, and
th at lo ca l governm ental e aaa-a y, : ests o f the
local elite.6 This dynam ic i a ¡ ü 'y . e colonial
p eriod . Indeed, even the B o u rb o n attempts to -• --odd: • jy.d control across
the em pire ultim ately expanded x,uniebx d yo.a^r ¡ d --. r io re , vii following
the R ebellion o f the Barrios in j ; x x this u r r x :: i i lassive cross­
class protest over new royal taxat a-a measures. T'.. a- .‘ c .a ’ a, dee L>resident o f
the A u d ien cia was forced to ad v h im s e lf with t a ;d o i4.! a •• dioh ! ; n to enjoy
greater autonom y as a ¡ 1 : . :y:’i ,s a. aa . ;ra a; to (an ad­
m in istrative unit responsil !e for collecting indi-..a -oi;í ‘ r ’! a effectively
elevated m unicipal power, as no r placement ... yy. a .-.a; iuu \.i under the
new taxatio n system. Inste ,d o: vvertiny to l ie :'i esid r o f da: Audiencia,
control over rural tribute ara; ad : lislrsdxo .• . 1 >.' 3y the eve
o f independence, the city cc-u' ;o i , not only ecu a ! dx.e di . rea a cion but also
d o m in ated regional taxation. ", do a r e o ínsib-lbi es c. a d xod to be exercised
follow in g 'independence, ad, ■i - , a m e d ia n . .ad .-.ti'.. . . a ! a , :hty during
the transition to the rep’d a n
However, the second h a lf oi die nine ox nth c .aiiura ; y •esented a period o f
state consolidation o f power in Ecuador. The pro: ex '.a aa. 1 cui ' a ding m unic­
ip al econom ic leverage, b yi .a i a a;:, , 1 u strib u tein
1857. T h e replacement for trib u t e, the so -cal!, a a a xd>sa!: iria, allowed
fo r uncom pensated indigenous labor drafts but a n o 1: a. e. -usly eliminated the
collection o f specie. G o v e rn m e n t oversight expanded d u rin g Garcia M oreno’s
p u sh to overcome Ecuador's regionalist politics bade- in . the chac dc 1859 civil
war. A lth ough the conservative c a u d illo s investment in ide power ot provincial
governors did little to ha lt regd ..al divides, ull a ties budget­
a ry pow ers crippled local in it ia t i. a." Carooi .a expanded
in a n 1878 legal code (the first La tie ae on a 1 restricted
u rb an fund raising powers by dy alio win. . . . a n o h :\u ry items,
en tertainm ent, and a n im a l dan liter.10 A lthc. . ' r e, .. ned Concejo
 Governance id Hie S c v c í c ‘¿ - i C aído / 89

Municipal could still set indirect fees fo r services such other

former privileges were revoked. T hese in clud ed the .•’. biliJyto?:uyadbdl land ­
holdings— still the greatest revenue so u rce for m ost cities—ftftbo£the prior
approval o f the national legislatu re." These con iraintíca-.íeiíáÉfcbetween
the state and m unicipalities across Ecuador but ore rate in Quito
and G uayaquil, neither o f which felt its share of natioirií vt revene w as su f­
ficient given the cities’ status as the n ation 's two largest oeor.otaxrnSers.12
The m ain source o f conflict con cern ed the an .ountsof is\»vpástined for
m o d e r n i z a t i o n o f urban in frastru ctu re. G arcía \ o renos piwiic dcs projects
a n d those he inspired in the m id -n in eteen th c u v ory, w’m'hf* a? íü stan tially
i m p r o v e d the national transportation netw ork, ii :<! .one iiWeto'sgrade urb an

services. Even m onum ental edifices su ch as Q u >d Adroeen d d Jbservatory

and the p anopticon prison had little pr. cti-; Ú« ;•-on i viSies. T h is
fact was not lost upon the city coun cil. In 1 o i, :h>s muinvi" gawernment
desperately hoped to upgrade the u rb a n :abrd: d v 'jb:-i*8os and
1890s presented yearly petitions to th e n a t on al . ;rn:s:;«tS. •.- * ty o f p u b ­
lic works. T h e m ost critical needs w ere a cenh'.u ¡ -:del. 1 Bypass, and
p u b l i c services such as sewers, tra m w a y s. and el : r'ciijiitiii;. 1 'eongh these
appeals were su m m a rily rejected or u n c erf u 11 1. 'he project *sveal a great
deal concerning the city governm ent’s cos eifi.xbhio .;.^iiiestate and
its internal am bivalence regarding m od el l e d. . í eehi;»;’v¿:V i ivan ces and
hygienic regulation fascinated m an y con; : ii t; 1 ers; tav.vwcdieES viewed
these innoyations with suspicion, a r g u ■ * ;,a ¡ -á n< iint-i'.sñ ¡cítadition al
organization o f social space.
Attem pts to regulate com m ercial spar _• as o ei a bní 'd rs'iia tio n cam ­
paign dem onstrate the com plexity o f thi s ; On ide m e had,, as E d u ­
ardo K ingm an has argued, these p ro g ra r .on . 1 >.bMfern spaces
of socialization and economic exchange. '( he de bypass, dr im p le , was
intended to elim inate the presence o f ru ra l in ,enous inon:;»itfc&nd their
livestock) in the central urban g rid . A ; ;-;i I! d eaver are ;o aifc the slow
eradication o f chicherías, which were pope: !ar e e 1■ ¡shnw.t-.;{ii*«ig:corn beer
and catering largely to an indigenous p op u lad o -:, in so>!c V.;«, 'Á-’dXy govern­
ment helped encroach upon periu rban spaces 1! could tí?« d. tsjs& rm ed by
“progress” into arenas stripped o f th e ir piensia i n éleiKínt*. !'<; :rvsr„ these at­
tempts frequently met with sustained oppos'd é romtr.Khffer-aisSi.the state,
or subaltern entrepreneurs them selves.
The case o f the m arketplace ep itom izes th is complex frccesslSe m u n ici­
pality couched the project as necessary to bring O n ¡to iniitwv»it?o*fcer South
American capitals, each o f which b o asted an i : or rn uiet, M *«ith G u aya­
quil, which h ad ju st completed its o w n .14 President Antonio l%rey#jpjón, h im ­
self a quayaquileño and m em ber o f th e Progress i- e Party, approvetliis request
just after tak in g power in 1888, p erh a p s in a bid to qiwtt rcgwoiihary. Flores
earmarked the m unicipally owned Santa Clara pLuíieh j s thesdábr th e new
go \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

b u ild in g an d passed on the requ est for congressional app ro val. T he legislature,
how ever, balked at the expropriation o f the lots su rroun d in g th e tin y square, de­
layin g approval for two years u n til the m unicipality was ch arged w ith raising the
n ecessary m onies.15 Given its in a b ility to levy a direct ta x o r sell unwanted prop­
erty, th e coun cil had few options oth er than taxing the ven d o rs who regularly
gath ered before the San Fran cisco church, a m easure th a t h a d first been raised
in 1887 b u t abandoned because th e lack o f fixed stalls in the m arket would make
regu latio n d ifficu lt.16 The idea gathered renewed traction follow in g congressio­
n al ap p ro val o f the m arket in 1890, eventually resulting in a m odified proposal
that respond ed to the problem o f im plem entation. The new m easure called for
b u ild in g a series o f kiosks to house th e larger m erchants in th e inform al markets
fo u n d in Plaza Bolivar (a new n am e fo r the plaza in fron t o f S an Francisco) and
P laza M ejia on the eastern edge o f tow n. These would b e rented out for up to a
tw o -year period w ith the p o ssib ility for fu ture renewal, w ith the proceeds ear­
m ark e d toward the eventual p u rch ase o f the private hom es su rrou nd ing Santa
C la ra .17 Vendors, however, b a lk e d at occupying these k io sk s, w hich ultim ately
led th e m u n icip a lity to attem p t to entice them to agree to perm anent stalls
b y o ffe rin g a m onth free o f ren t an d taxes.'8 Once th ey b e g a n to be occupied,
fu rth e r conflicts arose in 1894, w hen a local meat m erchant tried to bypass the
m u n ic ip a lity b y building his ow n k iosk , arguing that he w as th u s exem pt from
rents o r taxes. The city m agistrate w anted the rest o f the co u n cil to declare this
k io sk a th reat to public hygiene, b u t the group’s w o rry th a t th is w ould neces­
sitate o u tlaw in g all meat sales in public plazas led th em to reject h is petition.19
S u b a lte rn resistance to these effo rts to restructure com m ercial space also
took ad van tage o f traditional conceptions o f social an d sp a tia l order designed
to a p p e a l to conservatives on th e cou n cil. A clear e xam p le o f th is process can
be seen in an 1892 case involving soap m akers from the low -incom e San Roque
neigh borh ood on the southw estern edge o f the city. W om en d om inated the field,
c o o k in g the rank m ixture on the patios o f their houses. S o o n a fter the m unici­
p a lity p assed a law relegating th e in d u stry (and the sm ell) to the outskirts of
to w n , a num ber o f San Roque jaboneras sent a firm re fu sa l to obey an ordinance
they considered tantam ount to the destruction o f their livelih o od . They couched
th eir cla im in both spatial and h isto rical term s. A lleg in g th a t the industry had
been critica l to the local econom y since the days o f Q ueen Isabella o f Spain, they
cited tw o objections to the p roposed transfer. First, th ey argu ed that the law did
not exp ressly call fo r the rem oval o f all soap m an u facto ries b u t only for those
w i t h i n th e recinto (enclosure) o f th e city, w hich they d e fin e d as m eaning “ the
c ity cen te r itself.” Since San R o q u e lay on the sou th w estern edge o f the city,
th ey a rg u e d that m oving the w orksh op s was u n n ecessary. Second, they cited
the e x trem e difficulty o f tran sp o rtin g their operations, n o tin g that their heavy
k ettles necessitated sedentary con d itions, unlike candle m an u fa ctu re.20
T h e m unicip ality categorically dism issed the second argu m en t proffered by
th e jaboneras as an example o f retrograde underdevelopm ent. T h e precise spatial
 Governance and the Sovereign C abildo / 91

argu m en t o f th e ir charge, however, in sp ired heated discussion. Several cou n ­

cil members serio u sly considered app roving the soap m akers' p etition as their
logic rested upon the traditional understanding o f local spatiald yn am ics, under
w h ich the central parishes received d istin ctively different treatm ent (e.g., higher
taxes). The m u n icip al attorney, Diego R o m á n , ultim ately produced a report d is­
missing the c la im o f residence since the days o f Isabella as an absurdity, given
that Ecuadorian territo ry had not been explored u n til a generation later. M ore
importantly, he noted that sanitary m easu res could not be applied piecem eal
due to the need to protect the entire u rb an pop u lation. This argu m ent carried
weight and led to a consensus that the b ill referred to the entire city, a d eci­
sion that represents the first conscious attem p t to radically alter the p revailing
spatial hierarchy b y incorporating the ou tskirts into the defined territory o f the
city. Im plem entation o f the considered op in ion o f the concejo, however, contin­
ued to be a problem . A s late as 1900, city inspectors still encountered the p u n ­
gent odors o f un d ergrou n d soap m an u factories in their traditional location s.21
The am b igu ity surroundin g urban sp atial d yn am ics colored con flicts w ith
wealthy entrepreneurs as well, particu larly w ith regard to the increasingly vague
distinction betw een urban and rural p arish es under the cabild os ju risd ictio n .
Despite the c ity ’s extension into its en viron s, these outlying areas were never­
theless governed u n d e r separate legal codes. A n incident from 1886, involving
aguardiente m a n u fa c tu re r A ntonio H errera, h ighlighted the stakes involved.
Herrera resided in the ostensibly rural p arish o f Santa Prisca in Q uito’s n o rth ­
ern environs, w h ich h ad recently received a spate o f construction on its southern
limits abutting A la m e d a Park. A rg u in g th at Santa Prisca could no longer be
considered p art o f the rural hinterland, he com plained about p aying a one-peso
tax for in tro d ucin g liq uor into the city. T h e debate concerning th is m easure
lasted more th a n a m onth as the council tried to establish the m erits o f H errera’s
view of urban lim its. A special study b y th e m u n icip al attorney agreed w ith
Herrera’s ch aracterizatio n , yet the m ajo rity o f the council ferven tly disagreed
that Santa P risca w as an urban neighborhood, due to the preem inence o f farm s,
meadows, and forests outside the few blocks im m ediately n o rth o f A la m e d a
Park. D etractors a lso noted that gran tin g H errera’s request w ould effectively
remove any ta xatio n on his liquor, as the d istillery was not charged the regular
urban indem nities, w hich, in any regard, were lower than the duties levied on
imported sp irits. A s the request w ould therefore have called for the com plete
reworking o f th e ta x code, Herrera’s request was ultim ately den ied.22
Like the case o f the jaboneras, H errera’s request for an urban tax base d em ­
onstrates the d eg ree to which the c ity ’s exp an sio n h ad begun to contest trad i­
tional spatial organ ization at both the social an d economic levels. One o f the
most extensive debates sparked by these am biguities arose w ith an attem pt to
introduce a tra m lin e into the city. L ik e th e m arketplace issue, th e in troduc­
tion of a tram w ay h ad been approved b y Con gress (1883) but lan gu ish ed due to
underfunding. A ft e r vigorous lobbying b y newly appointed cou n cil president
92 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

Francisco Andrade M arin-— a prom inent law yer a n d moderate liberal w h o had
challenged the cou n cil’s leth argy for years— C o n gress finally released the funds
in 1888, pending a d etailed study regarding im plem entation. The project proved
to be a more d ifficult ven tu re than o rigin ally exp ected as the council divided
sharply over the scale o f the tram network. A g a in , the key issue concerned the
relationship o f the c ity to its hinterland. M a n y cou n cil m em bers h op ed that
the trains would not b e lim ited to urban p arish es an d could therefore serve to
integrate commerce at th e coun ty level. T h en th e coun cil attorney, Ju lio Paz
y M iño, charged th at tra in s that traversed o n ly th e c ity ’s 174 hectares w ould
be m erely recreational vehicles, given the ease o f navigating the city on foot.
His arguments included a convoluted d iscu ssion on the etym ology o f th e word
tranvía, which he considered to m ean a road (via) th at knows no lim its (trans).
A ndrade M arin and others, however, noted th at th e original authorization had
specifically called fo r ferrocarriles urbanos, w h ich necessitated re strictin g the
trains to the country’s u rb an zone, an argum ent th at persuaded his fellow coun­
cil m em bers.23
A s with other p rojects, the tram s were e v e n tu a lly cut due to fin a n cin g is­
sues— one o f the reasons m an y viewed m od ern ization with disdain. T h e roots
o f this fiscal crisis lay in A nd rad e M arin’s taste fo r expensive projects as w ell as
in the ongoing national political strife. A fte r years o f challenging the co u n cil’s
lethargy, he finally succeeded in securing election on ly after offering a virtu a l
bribe in which he p rom ised to donate a parcel o f la n d he owned behind the ca­
bildo headquarters to b u ild a sm all plaza. T h e active m odernization agenda
he followed led to the initiation o f tram ways, electrical lighting, and th e cattle
bypass road as well as th e cobblestone paving o f cen tral streets and substan tial
repairs on the d ecayin g aboveground sew ers.24 H owever, a sim ultaneous eco­
nomic slide led to the contraction o f governm ent fu n d s, fiscal decline, an d the
coun cil’s rejection o f A n d ra d e M arin ’s bid fo r reappointm ent as p resident in
December 1889.25 The go vern m en t’s failure to rep ay a ten-thousand-sucre ad­
vance that had been u sed to suppress an in su rrectio n the year before aggravated
the crisis and led to th e revocation o f alm ost eigh t thousand sucres’ w o rth of
expenditures budgeted fo r the marketplace, tra m s, debts, and public ligh tin g.26
A gain, the coun cil responded to this fu rth e r erosion o f its p la n n in g pre­
rogatives with com p rom ise m easures, w hich can b e seen m ost clearly in the
drawn-out saga to im prove nocturnal lighting. B o th the council and th e C o n ­
gress viewed the city’s continued use o f candlelight as unbefitting a nineteenth-
century capital and th u s authorized an illu m in a tio n property tax in 1883, with
lots levied at on e-th ou san d th their value. T h is le v y (unsurprisingly) proved
insufficient to raise the fu n d s necessary to in stall th e centralized gas or electric
system the m unicipality h ad in m ind. Fu rth erm ore, Congress granted exclusive
development rights to th e expensive V in u esa-O n tan ed a firm , thus exclu d in g
bidders from less costly ou tfits.27 A n interim solu tio n suggested by local entre­
preneur Pedro M anuel Pérez Quiñonez and su p p o rted vocally by council m em ­
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 93

ber Juan José N arváez, a la n d o w n e r from the nearby to w n o f T um baco, was

to adopt tubular kerosene la n te rn s m an ufactured b y the R . E. D ietz Com pany
in New York.28 These lam ps u se d a process developed b y Jo h n 'lrw in in 1869 in
w h ic h kerosene vapor and a ir p u m p ed through a series o f tu bes com bined in a
c e n t r a l chamber. The resultin g com bustion allowed fo r a flam e th at was easily
four tim es brighter than a sin gle can d le, m ore efficient, a n d , best o f all, afford­
able 29 Eighty lanterns were th u s ordered as a stopgap m easu re in 1887.
The city did not entirely ab an d o n the possibility o f in stitu tin g centralized
public lighting. Although m o st E u ropean and A m erican cap itals'still used gas
lighting because o f the p o ten tia l fo r centrally located re g u la tio n , Q uito’s m u ­
n i c i p a l governm ent was in trig u e d b y the prospect o f electricity. Edison’s perfec­

tion o f the lightbulb in 1879 a n d th e opening o f the first cen tral pow er stations
in London and New York in 1882 inspired m any coun cil m em bers.30 The m ost
aggressive push cam e in late 1888, w hen a com m ission h ead ed b y then—vice
president Andrade M arin serio u sly reviewed V in u esa-O n tan ed a’s proposal for
illum inating the blocks su rro u n d in g the Plaza de la In dependencia w ith twenty-
two electric bulbs. The com m issio n ’s report, which recom m end ed adopting the
measure in order to bring Q u ito to the forefront o f global technological m oder­
nity, sparked a tense d iscu ssio n . D u rin g the debate, A n d ra d e M a rin squared
off with Narváez, who interrogated the u tility o f the new tech nology given that
not even Paris had adopted electric lighting. A s he pu t it, “ O u r tow n is poor and
does not need to be bothered b y su ch lu xu riou s con tribu tion s. Later, when the
invention is perfected, it w ill co m e to ou r land on its o w n , w ith ou t ou r h aving
to th ru st ourselves into co n je ctu re s.” 3"
N arváez’s call for p atience an d opposition to ad o p tin g an as yet untested
technology articulated a w id esp read concern am ong m em bers o f not only the
council but also the legislature. G iven the city and state’s lim ited m eans, w hat
was the h arm in waiting u n til m ore am bitious cities abro ad h ad perfected the
new invention? A ndrade M a r in ’s enthusiasm could n ot overcom e this p rag­
matic objection— so he backed d ow n . However, he attem pted to save face before
agreeing to the proposed alte rn a tive — m ore Dietz lam p s-—b y noting that the
number o f bulbs from the V in uesa-O ntaned a proposal w o u ld not allow for the
city wide illum ination that he h op ed Q uito would soon enjoy.32
The institution o f k erosen e ligh tin g, while fo re sta llin g electricity, h ad a
broader impact due to a su b seq u en t challenge to congressional control over u r­
ban taxation policies, perhaps th e greatest lim itation on an y m odernization p ro ­
gram. Instead o f retaining the fla t tax on property slated fo r illu m ination, the
m unicipality had long ad vocated a variable levy based on th e length o f a b u ild ­
ing s street frontage. Follow in g the city’s refusal to p ay b ack its ten-thousand-
sucre loan in 1889, Congress offered an olive branch b y agreeing in principle to
this m easure. It took another tw o years o f frequent h a ra n g u in g and the return
o f Andrade M arfn to the co u n cil presidency for this ch ange to be im plem ented.
Nevertheless, the ensuing system dem onstrated an increasing sense o f the u til­
94 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

ity o f urban security an d th e need for the local a n d national public to share the
fin a n cia l burden o f m o d e rn iz in g the capital.
However, this new ta x system also revealed th e continuation o f the trad i­
tio n a l radial construction o f social power. U nlike the m easure to eradicate soap
m an u factu re, the duties th at p aid for public ligh tin g were set on a sliding scale,
w ith the highest levels (eight centavos per meter) in th e eight blocks surrounding
th e Plaza Grande and th e low est (two centavos) o n th e ou tskirts o f tow n.33 The
proceeds went to p u rch asin g ever m ore Dietz la m p s, the placem ent o f w hich ra­
d iated outward from the cen tral plaza. Finally, in 1894, the council could boast
th a t the entire city’s d im can d leligh t had been rep laced w ith a warm kerosene
glow .34
T he process o f im p le m en tin g the new lig h tin g system dem onstrated the
ob stacles that needed to be overcom e to achieve su stain ed progress in an era
o f bud getary constraints. T h e biggest barrier con cern ed the lim its set fo rth by
th e central governm ent, b u t e q u ally im portant w as th e am bivalence regarding
m o d ern ization itself. A lth o u g h im provisation a n d com prom ise allow ed for
som e advances, m ajor p rog ram m atic alterations sta lle d without state support.
T h is dynam ic sh ifted w ith th e advent o f the 1895 L iberal Revolution b u t was
n ot fun d am en tally tra n sfo rm e d . T he increased su p p o rt for local developm ent
projects initiated b y E loy A lfa ro an d Leonidas P la z a allow ed for the realization
o f m ajor projects th at h a d been considered, d eb ated , and quashed d u rin g the
Progressive era. H owever, th e m u nicipality co n tin u ed to depend on the central
governm ent, w ith m ajor ad vances only o ccu rrin g d u rin g m om ents o f height­
en ed state concern ab ou t th e shape o f the n a tio n a l cap ital. T h is included the
im m ed iate afterm ath o f the 1895 revolution, w h en th e new governm ent sought
to legitim ate its auth ority, as w ell as during th e 19 09 and 1922 celebrations o f
th e centennials o f the d eclaration o f independence an d liberation from Spain,
respectively.

Liberal Spending

O ne o f the cru cia l pieces o f th e Liberal P a rty p rogram concerned its su p ­

p o rt for fiscal d ecen tralizatio n o f public w orks p ro jects. The ensuing system
established independent ju n ta s empowered to o rg a n iz e development program s
according to local needs. A lth o u gh plagued b y in efficien t oversight and bloated
b u d gets, the Liberal era strength en ed m u n icip al p ow er in collusion w ith the
state rather than at its exp en se.35 Quito, as the ca p ita l and the city m ost visib ly
in need o f m od ernization, w as a particular ta rg e t, w h ich , as noted previously,
A lfa ro had addressed im m ed iately upon entering th e capital in 1895. W ith the
su p p ort o f the new n a tio n a l governm ent, the c ity w o u ld be transform ed in the
n e x t two decades.
It would be a m istak e, however, to view this alteration as u nq u alified sup-
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 95

ort for local autonomy. Rather, the Liberal era perpetuated political partisan­
s h ip e v e n as Liberals sought to d istu rb the historic regional bases o f the C on­
s e r v a t i v e and Progressive parties. A s K im Clark has noted, new initiatives such
as t h e national railroad were p roclaim ed as redemptive w orks th at would rescue
t h e nation from decades o f stagnation , corruption, and inefficiency.36 The city
g o v e r n m e n t w holeheartedly em braced its role in this stru g g le , adopting the
m o t t o “Querer es poder" (Desire enables).37 W hile it would tak e longer for major
reforms such as the building o f the m arketplace, the new cabild o rapidly com ­
p le t e d a series o f sym bolic gestures underscoring its com m itm en t to progress
and the transform ation o f society. One o f the first actions w as the relaunch­
ing o f El Municipio, the co u n cil’s w eekly that had been in terru p ted during the
battles o f 1895- A num ber o f changes to the publication p roclaim ed a symbolic
s h i f t , including a banner read in g “ Nueva Era” that appeared beneath the title,
the addition o f page num bers, and the resetting o f issue n u m b ers.38 Another act
concerned new landscaping fo r the dam aged gardens o f the Plaza de la Indepen­
dencia, which a local newspaper h ad term ed “un potrero gratis" (a free horse pas­
ture).39 The council also encouraged private citizens to actively engage the new
era through in-kind donations to rebuild civil society, an im provised measure
calculated to spur support fo r the new government. Those w ho did so included
form er council engineer and cartographer Gualberto Pérez, who completed his
embellishment o f the Plaza Sucre, begun in 1893, f ° r free, and local elite Juana
Naranjo, who donated extra p ipin g to carry water from A la m e d a P ark’s foun­
tain to homes nearby.40
The new cabildo also sought to m atch its rhetoric w ith m ore substantive re­
form s, particularly with regard to m odernizing the city’s in frastru ctu re. These
program s largely echoed the desires o f m unicipal governm en ts controlled by
the Progressive Party in the 1880s— after all, the city’s needs h ad not changed.
Not surprisingly, given A lfa ro ’s early endorsement o f the proposed marketplace
structure, the council began w ith that long-desired project. T h e first step in­
volved securing an additional hundred-thousand-sucre loan to match A lfaro’s
pledge and to fund a second m arket on the city’s north sid e.4* Advertisem ents
calling for designs appeared in El Municipio beginning in late 1895, and a special
com m ission began reviewing the proposals the following A p r il.42 By September,
the fin alists had been selected and presented to President A lfa ro , who worked
with the com m ission to select the design presented by a recen tly arrived Ger­
m an ém igré nam ed Francisco Sch m idt. Sch m idt’s attractiveness as a candidate
stem m ed from not only h is im peccable credentials but also h is recent partner­
ship w ith Gualberto Pérez, w hose pro bono labor on the P laza Sucre was fresh
in the m inds o f the council m em bers.43 The loans were approved in February, a
contract w ith Schmidt and Pérez signed in A pril, and b y M a y 2 ,18 9 7, construc­
tion had finally began on a project first approved fourteen years earlier.
T h e new cabildo m eant fo r the proposed structure to be quite imposing. Its
outer m asonry walls took up an entire city block and su pported a vaulted glass-
96 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

and-iron ceilin g th at rose to a height o f 32.5 m eters and reflected th e design of

Les Halles in P aris. Four m assive doors op en ed onto the ground flo o r, w hich was
dom inated b y a central octagonal p laza. E igh t corridors led fro m th is space to
the second floor, where 156 individual sta lls housed m erchants. E a c h stall took
up 4 square m eters and was separated fro m the next by w ooden p a n e ls fram ed
in iron. The fa c ility also boasted 32 w areh ou ses, indoor p lu m bing, a n d restroom
facilities. T h e project had a total cost p rojected at S/-73,500 a n d a n estim ated
completion tim e o f 28-months. The com pletion date ultim ately h a d to be pushed
back because o f ongoing conservative u p risin g s and delays in d e liv e ry o f the
im ported iron an d woodwork.44
Expensive projects such as the m ark etp lace depended on firm governm ent
backing and fin a n c ia l support, w hich ca m e in the form o f state g ra n ts, loans,
and new taxes follow ing the restoration o f local fundraising p rero g atives. The
Quito m u n ic ip a lity celebrated the re a liz a tio n o f its longtim e g o a l b y passing a
flu rry o f new fines, duties, and other revenue-producing devices. T h e se included
sales taxes, o th er com m ercial levies, a n d increased rates on p o p u la r diversions
such as theaters, pool halls, and cock figh ts. Perhaps their m o st im p o rta n t new
source o f in co m e cam e from the resto ratio n o f control over m u n ic ip a l prop­
erty, which h ad been the prim ary m ea n s fo r raising revenue p rio r to the mid­
nineteenth cen tury. In exultant glee, th e coun cil resolved to sell all its property
in 1897, regard less o f whether it was occu p ied . Although the c o u n cil ultim ately
did not d ivest itse lf o f all these h old in gs, the body took steps to d o so, ordering
an audit to d eterm in e the extent o f its assets in preparation. P u b lic auctions of
several o f th e m ore lucrative properties were held in ensuing y e ars an d provided
significant cash flow.45
Over th e next two decades, the m u n ic ip a lity was able to u se th is m assive in­
flux o f resources to begin providing an im pressive num ber o f u rb a n services that
radically altered the fabric o f the city. Com pleted a few years b e h in d schedule, in
1904, the S an ta C lara m arketplace created a centralized c o m m e rc ia l zone that
could be e a sily regulated, both as a sou rce o f revenue and in te rm s o f hygiene
and safety. A n im proved com m u n icatio n network arrived w ith th e organiza­
tion o f a m u n ic ip a l postal service in 1899 and the in tro d u ctio n o f telephones
the follow ing year. Electric arc ligh tin g appeared on the centros streets between
1900 and 19 0 1, followed by dom estic electrical lighting service in 19 0 4 . The new
Junta de A g u a Potable y C an alización inaugurated piped p o tab le w ater service
in 1905 w h ile also organizing a d rain age system that ran alo n g sid e th e Quebrada
Jerusalén, a creek th at lay at the fo o t o f the Panecillo and d iv id e d the city in
two. The grou p also oversaw the d evelopm en t o f sewers in th e c en tra l p art of the
city in 1906 and eventually turned to a c ity wide drainage sy ste m in 1919. Trans­
portation advances included the a rriv a l o f the railroad fro m G u a y a q u il in 1908,
which in sp ired the final developm ent o f electric tram s b y 19 14 . T h e beginnings
o f w id espread automobile usage d u rin g the end o f the 19 10s a lso led to asphalt
 Governance and the Sovereign C abildo / 97

pavem ent in the central p arts o f the city by 1919. Both the drainage and p av in g
projects were com pleted b y 1922.46
The im provem ents in urban in frastru ctu re altered the pace o f quiteno life ,
a ffo r d e d the possibility fo r growing suburbanization, and form alized system s o f
public commerce by elim in atin g the need fo r c a su a l m arkets and water ca rriers.
These changes have led num erous analysts to con sider the Liberal R evolu tio n a
transformative m om ent in the city’s history. T h is an alysis, however, d ow n plays
the continuity betw een the alterations o f this era and the intentions o f th e P ro ­
g r e s s iv e m unicipalities o f the 1880s and 18 90 s. S eve ra l m ajor players fro m th e
P ro g r e s s iv e period, in d eed , returned to service soon a fter the revolutionary tr i­
umph. These included staunch m odernizers lik e A n d rad e M arin , who retu rn ed
to his ro le as m u n icip al attorney in early 1896 an d later reclaim ed the co u n cil
presidency, as well as m ore cautious bureaucrats, such as Juan Jose N arvaez and
Domingo Gangotena.
The stability in cou n cil m em bership across tim e paralleled continuity in so-
ciospatial outlook, at least through 1910. A s in p revio u s decades, poorer regions
of the urban p eriphery, such as El Tejar, on th e u p p er slopes o f P ich in ch a, the
mostly indigenous settlem ents south o f the Q u eb rad a Jerusalen, an d th e s till
developing m ixed-incom e housing east o f San to D om ingo, received scan t atten ­
tion. Instead, m od ern izin g reform s tended to b e restricted to central streets and
plazas along the trad ition al centers o f power. For instan ce, an 1897 law re q u irin g
the installation o f g u tters was restricted to th e forty-tw o blocks su rro u n d in g
the Plaza de la In dependencia, a zone d em arcatin g the old colonial c ity center
of churches and elite residences, and to a single a rtery leading northw ard fro m
the Sucre Theater alon g Carrera Guayaquil th a t presaged subsequent su b u rb an
development along the sam e route.47 Projects u n d ertak en by the m u n ic ip a lity ’s
briqada ambulante, or m obile workers, paved th o se sam e areas with cobblestone
and instituted a cen tralized street-sweeping p ro g ram fun d ed with a ta x sim ila r
to the street frontage le v y used for kerosene ligh tin g a decade earlier.48 T h e sam e
rationale lay behind th e m ap o f the electric arc ligh tin g instituted in 19 0 0 —19 0 1,
which divided the city into four sections, each ch arged according to its p ro x im ­
ity to the Plaza de la Independencia.49
Nevertheless, the grow ing population in th e c ity ’s environs m ade a s h ift in
administrative ord er necessary. O f p a rtic u la r im po rtan ce were the e m e rgin g
suburbs along C arrera G uayaquil to the n orth a n d near the Recoleta, th e fo rm er
horse pasture affixed to a solitary convent on th e c ity ’s southeast. T hese valu ab le
Belle Epoque chalets on the city’s outskirts necessitated a sh ift from th e rad ial
orientation o f urb an services and property ta x codes. The possibility o f m a k in g
this change was first raised in 1904 in a short-lived contract with local d eveloper
Luis Felipe Carbo to b u ild urban trams. A lth o u g h the agreement fell a p a rt the
following year because C arbo had underestim ated the costs, the cou n cil fo r the
first time agreed th at an y urban system w o u ld be incom plete w ithout p u sh in g
98 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

into the osten sibly ru ral parishes o f C h im b acalle on the south and S an ta Prisca
to the north, w here m uch o f the new c o n stru ctio n was located.50 T h e advent of
Ciudadela L a rre a , the first planned c o m m u n ity erected in Santa P risc a , intensi­
fied debates abou t extending m odern services to the parish. In 19 0 6 , as a result
o f these d iscu ssio n s, the parish was ch osen to receive can alization fo r potable
water along w ith th e rest o f the urban g rid .5'
The southern environs o f the city b egan to receive greater state a n d m unici­
pal attention aro u n d the same tim e, largely becau se o f outbreaks o f typh oid fe­
ver and bubonic plagu e in isolated pockets on the coast. The cou n cil authorized
several m easures designed to m inim ize sa n ita ry risks, including con tin u ed at­
tem pts to restrict com m ercial ventures, su ch as outlawing m ilk ve n d in g in the
central d istricts. A num ber o f these efforts, inclu d in g a move to d ep u tize the po­
lice as a tem p o rary street-sweeping force, targeted im poverished neighborhoods
on the south side.52 T h e m ost im portant issu e, however, concerned the fate o f the
Quebrada Je ru salen , the last o f the creeks th at had once crisscrossed the Quito
valley. Its deep ravin e ran along the P an ecillo and had for centuries d ivid ed the
indigenous to w n sh ip s o f La M agd alena a n d C h im bacalle fro m th e southern
reaches o f th e c ity and had also served as an in form al d u m p in g gro u n d . For
the health-conscious council, the gorge th u s represented a cesspool o f stagnant
water, refuse, an d excrem ent that desperately needed clearing.55
However, as w ith other public service ventures o f the early tw entieth century,
the successful d ra in in g o f the Q uebrada Je ru sa len depended on th e w h im s of
the national governm ent. The state h a d m an d ated the need to p rovid e a drain­
age canal as early as 1899 as part o f its p rogram to beautify Q uito, d o in g so upon
the recom m en dation o f m unicipal h ealth inspectors. C ontinu ed conservative
uprisings in 19 0 0 as well as a split betw een A lfa ro and his successor, Leonidas
Plaza, delayed th e securing o f con gressional fu n d in g until 19 02. D espite Presi­
dent Plaza’s strong backing, it took three m ore years for the fu n d s to be freed.
The ap p ro val o f fu n d in g in 1905 stem m ed p artly from th e sta te ’s preoc­
cupation w ith the plague scare along w ith the continual a d vo ca cy .o f Francisco
A ndrade M a rin , who had returned to th e council presidency th e p revio u s year.
W hile strongly prom oting the im portance o f the work due to p u b lic h ealth con­
cerns, A n d rad e M a rin also stressed its im plications for the c ity ’s m odernization
agenda and th e potential benefits for sec u rin g foreign investm ent in the capital.
He diverted fu n d s earm arked for o th er projects toward the c a n a l’s com ple­
tion, such as m on ies rem aining a fter th e com pletion o f the rin g road bypass
for cattle b o u n d fo r the slaughterhouse.54 H is energetic supp ort fo r th e project
continued a fte r h is appointm ent as in sp ecto r general o f h ealth a n d hygiene in
1908, the sam e year in which the plagu e spread to Guayaquil a n d A la u s i, a criti­
cal transfer p o in t on the nearly com pleted G uayaquil-Q uito railw ay.55 Besides
m aking progress on Jerusalen drainage, A n d rad e M arin took a d van tage o f the
public h ealth fears to conclude a series o f other sanitary ad van ces, including
the o rgan ization o f wastewater collectio n in the centro, p avin g th e centro with
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 99

and im p ro v in g a ir circulation in p u blic gathering spaces such as

c o b b le s t o n e s ,
th e m ilitary barracks a n d restaurant kitchens.56
The transform ation o f th e southern edges o f the city did'not stop w ith the
Q u e b r a d a Jerusalén. O ne o f the key factors in th is p la n n in g trajectory co n ­
c e r n e d the decision to locate the central term in al o f th e G uayaquil-Q uito ra il­
way in the town o f C h im b acalle ju st across the M ach ân gara River from the capi­
tal This decision was m ad e in September 1906, w hen A rch er H arm an, director
o f the Guayaquil-Q uito R a ilro a d Com pany, m et w ith m unicipal officials and
Eloy Alfaro, who had ju st returned to the presidency. Prior to that date, a station
closer to the city, ab u ttin g Santo Dom ingo or in th e north ern Ejido, had been
favored] However, the cost o f circling the city to reach the Ejido made the no rth ­
ern choice problem atic, w hile the need to expropriate u rb an property to place a
train station right in th e m id dle o f the colonial c ity m ade the Santo D om ingo
location financially u n feasib le.57 New construction follow ed alongside the C a r­
rera del Sur, a highw ay th at connected C h im bacalle w ith Santo Dom ingo, an d
intensified once the new station was com pleted in 1908. A lfa ro also prom oted
the region by resu scitatin g a d efu nct plan fo r an international exposition to
celebrate independence, w h ich would be held in the Recoleta in A ugust 1909-58
With a budget o f m ore th an a h a lf m illio n su cres to pay for lavish item s
such as imported ironw ork for the kiosks and exposition palace, the exposition
both bolstered real estate speculation in the sou th ern environs and provided a
chance to give the cap ital a sym bolic landscape.59 T h e gran d event responded
to the international fascin ation w ith w orld’s fairs, w h ich had engaged E cu ado r
since the 1889 U n iversal Exposition in Paris, bu t it also fu rth ered the L iberal
desire to dram atically tran sfig u re Quito. T h e first o f these com m em orative
symbolic gestures, a co lu m n b y Sw iss-Italian im m ig ra n t Lorenzo D u rin i, a p ­
peared in 1906, a n tic ip a tin g better-know n cen te n n ia l m onum ents, su ch as
Mexico City’s A ngel o f Independence (1910) or B uenos A ires’s Obelisk (1936,
erected to celebrate th e quadricentennial o f the c ity ’s founding). Like its peers,
Durini’s column in Q uito created a h istoricist alleg o ry that both responded to
and critiqued European considerations o f global centrality. However, the m on u ­
ment to independence did not represent a cro w n in g jewel visible for m iles along
a monumental avenue lik e M exico C ity’s Paseo de la R eform a, Buenos A ire s’s
Avenida 9 de julio, P a ris’s Cham ps-Elysées, or V ien n a ’s Ringstrasse:60 In stead,
it resided smack in th e m id dle o f the Plaza G rand e, surrounded by icons o f the
colonial age, from the cathedral to the archbishopric to the Governm ent Palace.
The decision to place the m onum ent there arose fro m the financial lim itations,
but it meant the creation o f an allegorical scene th at celebrated Quito’s hybrid
nature: colonial gran d eu r w ith m odern accoutrem ents.
Durini’s colum n featured a golden w inged V icto ry heralding Quito’s c ry for
independence at its apex, while at the base sat a bronze sculpture o f a retreating
Spanish lion, w ound ed in the flank by an arro w shot by an Ecuadorian con­
dor perched h alfw ay u p the pillar. Ironically, th e design had been the work o f a
îoo \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

Salesian priest named Juan B au tista M inghetti, who h ad d rafted it for the Pro­
gressive governm ent prior to leavin g for exile in 1895, an d D u rin i m odified that
design on ly slightly. N evertheless, its execution u nd erscored the Liberal ability
to efficiently complete projects where others had failed (thus echoing their cho­
sen m otto , “Querer es poder”).
T h is m onum ental sem io lo gy, in which Liberal p ro g re ss contrasted w ith
sta g n a n t (Conservative) co lo n iality, also influenced th e decision to locate the
Exposición Nacional in the R ecoleta. Although the sq u are lay at the center o f a
developing modern neighborhood and near the C h im b acalle station, it had pre­
v io u sly housed the D om inican ord er’s stables. The state’s transform ation o f the
old potrero into a finely lan d scap ed park was a triu m ph o f Liberal antielerical-
ism , fu rth e r underscored b y th e renam ing o f the square as Parque R ocafuerte,
a fte r th e first great hero o f nin eteenth-century E c u a d o ria n liberalism . The
lan d scap in g began with the su rro u n d in g streets, w hich w ere leveled and paved
to provid e easy access for the n ation al and foreign notables attending the exposi­
tion. T h ese dignitaries w ould reach the pavilions b y stro llin g through sculpted
gard en s, one o f which featu red an artificial w aterfall. T h e largest pavilion was
the P alace o f the E xpo sition , w h ich housed the E c u a d o ria n , Peru vian , and
French exhibits. Fram ing the sou th ern entry to the p a r k , th e palace was an elon­
gated neoclassical structure w ith two wings and, risin g in the m iddle, a dom ed
tower th at featured a patriotic icon at its pinnacle— th e fly in g condor from the
n ation al coat o f arms. To th e n o rth and east o f the p alace were pavilions erected
b y oth er nations, including th e U nited States, C h ile, Ja p a n , Spain , Colom bia,
and Italy. The governm ent a lso constructed a fine a rts p av ilio n , a m usic kiosk,
and a concert café. The last piece w as one o f the h igh lig h ts o f the fair because o f
its elaborate art nouveau d esig n s.6*
T h is sym bolic landscape n ot on ly cemented L ib e ra l design s on the capital
but a lso heralded a shift in the c ity ’s sociospatial order alo n g a north-south axis.
For exam ple, a January 1910 ord inance that reorganized street cleaning proce­
d ures d ivided the city into tw o adm inistrative zones fo r th e first tim e, one for
the north ern h a lf and one fo r thé south.6* A num ber o f decisions to incorporate
the im m ediate environs into the u rb an Jurisdiction follow ed th is break from the
trad ition al radial organization o f the capital. The first o f these decisions was to
in clu d e the hitherto rural p arish es o f A lfaro (C h im b a çalle ’s new nam e, given
the fo rm er president’s en th u siasm for the railroad), L a M agd alen a, and Santa
P risca for a special tax on chicherías passed in late D ecem ber 1909.63 A more im ­
p o rta n t m easure followed in Ja n u a ry 1910, when the fin a l contract for tram con­
stru ctio n with A m erican b u sin essm an E. Hope N o rto n called for the building
o f a cityw id e rail network th at w ould ru n from the C h im b a calle station to the
new A ven id a Colón in the h ea rt o f “ru ral” Santa P ris c a .64 Finally, in February
19 10 , the three parishes were fo rm a lly incorporated in to th e city.65 Santa Prisca’s
p eriu rb an and rural expanses, however, were reorganized as a ru ral parish, and,
 Governance and the Sovereign C abildo / 101

in answer to criticism since the 1880s fo r its inclusion w ithin th e u rb an fabric,

officials renam ed the parish Benalcázar.
A lthough th e projects pursued b y th e m unicipality in the 19 10 s continued
to focus on th e city center, they also in creased the possibility o f fu tu re develop­
ments beyond its cloister. For in stan ce, th e new cadastral m ap com m issioned
from G ualberto Pérez in 1911 was to in clu d e b oth existing con stru ction as w ell as
recently p lan n ed areas such as the L a rre a an d U rrutia ciudadelas (suburban de­
velopments) on the northern borders. C o n solid atin g interparochial in fra stru c­
ture also rem ain ed a concern,'w ith th e tra m system fin ally com pleted in 1914
and im proved canalization im plem ented across town. These ch an ges prom pted
increased investm ent in the developm ent o f the capital’s en viron s, p articu larly
on the read ily available A ñaquito p la in s to the north. Foreign investors began to
enter this m arket in 1913, when a B ritish grou p called the A n glo -F ren ch S yn d i­
cate granted a pow er o f attorney to C la u d e W aterhouse Taylor to p u rch ase plots
in Quito.66 H owever, it would take u n til th e end o f the decade fo r th e northern
regions to see m ajor investment. A s in 19 0 9 , th is phenomenon a lso derived from
extensive governm ent intervention.
The m ain reason for this slow d evelopm en t was an ongoing b u d g e ta ry prob­
lem. The lack o f central oversight d u rin g the early Liberal years h a d led to ex­
cessive b o rro w in g to complete w orks su ch as a m unicipal ch em ical laboratory
and the tram lin es. The latter project w as esp ecially expensive given the need to
widen the n arrow streets o f the colonial core enough for train s to p ass. B y 1915,
the council fo u n d itself more than S /.2 4 0 ,0 0 0 in arrears, and therefore it drasti­
cally reduced spen d in g.67 In fra stru c tu ra l im provem ents stalled in subsequent
years as con stru ction halted on w o rks su ch as the Eugenio E sp ejo M u n icip al
Hospital and the new avenue over th e in fa m o u s Quebrada Jeru salén .
The u p co m in g centennial o f G en eral S u cre’s 1822 victory over th e Span ish at
Pichincha, however, persuaded the state th at these were necessary beautification
efforts that cou ld not be allowed to la n g u ish . Rather than su p p o rt th e nearly
bankrupt m unicip ality, however, C o n gress opted to create a te m p o ra ry in stitu­
tion to oversee urb an em bellishm ent fo r the upcom ing centenary. Its reputation
in tatters, the coun cil was forced to accede to the creation o f the Ju n ta del C en­
tenario, as the new body was called.
With th e firm backing o f the state a n d free from m u nd an e task s su ch as
street cleaning or policing, the new gro u p successfully u su rp ed th e p lan n in g
prerogatives o f th e city governm ent. Its leadership included c u rre n t cou n cil
members, lo ca l architects, and d evelopers, along with prom inent intellectu als
and politicians, including the h isto ria n s Isaac Barrera, C ristó b al G an go ten a y
Jijón, and Jacinto Jijón y Caam año. T h e gro u p ’s first tasks included establishing
a stable urb an grid along the old Ejido on Q u ito’s northern ou tskirts in order to
facilitate the exposition.68 Independent u rb an izin g efforts soon follow ed , begin­
ning in 1919 w ith C . A . Alvarez’s p ro p o sa l to bu ild the C iu d a d e la A m é ric a in
102 \ G overnance and the Sovereign C abildo

the c ity ’s north eastern environs. Tw o years later, the A n glo -F ren ch Syndicate
and th e governm ent reached a n acco rd on the com pan y’s p la n to develop the
region ju st n orth o f the Ejido, in b etw een Avenida 18 de septiem bre and Avenida
M a ria n o A g u ile ra , to form the B a rrio del Centenario.69 U n d er the term s o f the
con tract, th e B ritish firm w o u ld n o t o n ly establish a street p attern but also be
in ch arge o f installing a w orking sew er system and p rep arin g the neighborhood
to receive e xistin g m unicipal se rv ic e s.70 These successes led the national gov­
ern m en t to a m p lify the ju n ta’s p ow ers to allow it to exp ro p riate lands, dictate
re g u la tio n s concerning urb an aesth e tics, im pose fines fo r violation s o f these
rules, a n d approve plans for a n y n ew construction.7' E ach o f these had histori­
cally been the responsibility o f th e m unicipality, w hich, w eakened by its fiscal
m ism an agem en t, made little fu s s over the changes.
T h e m ost impressive project com pleted b y the Ju n ta d el Centenario was the
in fillin g o f the Quebrada Je ru sa lén , w hich had continued to be used as a dum p­
ing g ro u n d despite the in tro d u ctio n o f sewerage in 1908 a n d som e decorative
fa c e lifts (m ostly the addition o f n eoclassical lintels) on n earb y buildings. The
p roject in volved filling the g u lly w ith hundreds o f to n s o f d irt brought in by
tru ck , d u m p e d b y m echanical sh ovel, and spread b y m a n u a l labor— an epic
effort th at took several years to com plete. The clam orous process fascinated the
c ity ’s residents, m an y of w hom congregated to gaze at p rogress in action. On at
least one occasion, however, a n on loo ker ventured too close to one o f the mon­
ster m ach in es, which accidentally d ra g g e d h im to his d eath in the depths below.
T h u s con secrated b y technology, sw eat, and blood, th e com pleted boulevard
over the once stagnant creek represented the greatest triu m p h o f local engineer­
ing to th is point.
T h e new thoroughfare con sisted o f two lanes for v e h icu la r traffic interrupted
by a n e x p a n sive m edian th a t se rv e d as a prom enade. R o w s o f trees flanked
the d iv id e r, w hich led u p h ill tow ard a graceful colu m n designed b y Francisco
D u rin i a n d dedicated to the u n k n o w n heroes o f 1822. T h e statue allegorically
lin k e d th e Battle o f Pichincha to th e recent cataclysm o f W orld W ar I, which
h ad spaw n ed W estm inster A b b e y ’s “ U nknow n W arrior” m em orial in 1920 and
the A rc de Triom ph e’s fam ed “ T o m b o f the U nkn ow n S o ld ier” the following
year. It a lso dialogued w ith th e p illa r D u rin i’s fath er L o ren zo had erected in
the P la z a de la Independencia a d ecad e earlier. A s in the p rio r work, a defiant
cond or w ith wings outstretched gazed to the east tow ard a defeated foe. Rather
th a n th e im perial Spanish lio n , the vanquished in th is case was the erstwhile
creek— a hideous environm ental eyesore.
T h e m onum ents to heroic sa crifice did not end at the su m m it o f the grand
avenue b u t also m ade an ap p earan ce ju st above, at th e C im a de la Libertad on
P ich in ch a , where Sucre’s forces h a d engaged the S p a n ish a cen tury earlier. At
th is site, the ju nta erected a v a s t ob elisk , follow ing p la n s d raw n up by Sucre’s
v ic to rio u s b u t cash-bereft re g im e n t. T he m onolith fo llo w e d the nineteenth-
c e n tu ry design in m inute d e ta il, in clu d in g plaques d ed ica tin g the structure to
 Governance and the Sovereign C abildo / 103

B o lív a r and to the vanquish ing troops.72 M o st conspicuously, at the base they
included a special decoration honoring C a p ta in A bdón Calderón, a hero o f lo­
cal mythology. W ounded m ultiple tim es in the battle, Calderón perished days
later at the San Ju a n de Dios Hospital, possibly o f complications from dysentery.
S e r e ’s praise o f th e young officer in a letter to his grieving m other, however,
transformed the m em ory o f this fiery E c u a d o ria n patriot into the s tu ff o f leg­
end Retelling h is tale h ad become a staple in Q uito’s anniversary celebrations
in the nineteenth cen tu ry and was cod ified into popular form in a ch ild ren ’s
b o o k of historical legends penned in 1906 b y Liberal Journalist M an uel J. Calle.
Calle’s m elodram atic story, in which the w o un d ed captain races ahead o f the
c h a r g i n g arm y w ith his sword clam ped firm ly in his teeth before a cannonball
takes his legs, w ould have been the best k n ow n version o f the tale in 1922, as it is
today.7’ As a sym b ol o f regional valor, C ald erón was unrivaled and thus received
his position o f honor.
The Junta del C entenarios successful rehabilitation o f the city led Congress
in October 1922 to appoint the junta m em bers to head a perm anent plann ing
commission. T h e new Ju n ta de Em bellecim ien to de Quito acted as a shadow
government. Its responsibilities consisted o f augm enting Q uito’s com m em o­
rative statuary w ith a m ajor m onum ent to Sim ón Bolívar while continuing its
labors in beautification and planning. In ad ditio n to its earlier powers, the new
junta earned the right to charge a fee for app ro vin g new construction blueprints
and to levy a lim ited am ount o f ind epend ent taxes, h a lf o f w hich w ould be
turned over to the concejo for day-to-day op eration s.74 In effect, this decision
signaled the end o f the alliance between the m u nicipality and the state that had
characterized the first tw o decades o f the tw entieth century. H enceforth, the
two institutions w ould rem ain at loggerheads, w ith the council once again in
a defensive role, as it h ad been in the late nineteenth century. Som ew hat para­
doxically, however, the later restoration o f m u nicip al privileges w ould com e as
a result of sustained action by those con servative and moderate reform ers who
had cut their teeth as members o f the Ju n ta del Centenario. A s m em bers o f the
establishment, figures such as Jacinto Jijón y C aam año and G ustavo M ortensen
sought to reestablish local control over Q u ito ’s development during the 1930s.

Conservative Regeneration and M unicipal Autonomy

The m assacre o f perhaps hundreds o f strik in g cacao workers in G uayaquil 1

five months after the 1922 centennial shocked the nation and consecrated the na­
scent workers’ m ovem ent in blood. A s ru ra l m igrants freed from their conscript
duties increasingly m oved to the cities, new political possibilities em erged. The
growing conservative and leftist m ovem ents each sought to capitalize on the
growing presence o f the recently arrived, en gagin g them in their varied attacks
on the reigning liberals. These m atters cam e to a head following the 1924 elec-
104 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

tion and the subsequent trium ph o f the 1925 Ju lia n Revolution, which brought
an end to unm itigated Liberal hegemony th ro u g h a m ilitary revolution loosely
tied to a socialist agen d a. Perhaps the m ost im p o rtan t reform ist m easu re was
the introduction o f a graduated income ta x a im ed at decreasing the pow er of
A n d ean landow ners an d coastal bankers. A s a sign o f the new g o vern m en t’s
com m itm ent to so c ia l change, salaried w o rkers w ith annual incom es under
twenty-four h undred sucres, such as day laborers, transportation w orkers, and
dom estics, were exem pt from this new t a x .75
Equally im po rtan t efforts at reform , th o u gh , were attempts to c u rta il waste­
fu l governm ent sp e n d in g and trim the n u m b e r o f autonom ous p u b lic works
projects. The new governm ent identified the p o p u la r Junta de Em bellecim iento
as an example o f L ib e ra l excess and su sp en d ed its efforts in Sep tem b er 1925.
T h is move led to an u p roar in the local press b u t little else. A s early as N ovem ­
ber, planning fu n ctio n s such as expropriation righ ts and oversight o f construc­
tion blueprints h a d b een returned to the d o m a in o f the concejo. 76 R a th e r than
an altruistic act fo r m u n icip al benefit, the s h ift, together with decrees central­
izin g fundraising, ad van ced state d om ination o f the planning process. B y the
end o f the year, m u n icip a l levies on new b u ild in g s, public spectacles, billiards,
telephones, public ligh tin g, and the sale an d slau ghter o f cattle had b een eradi­
cated. In their stead cam e a series o f new, c en tra lly controlled p ro p erty taxes,
registration fees (for exam ple, for autom obile registration), m u n icip al service
duties, and entertainm ent and lu xu ry ta x e s .77 In addition, the national govern­
m ent prom ised to p rovid e a yearly dispersal o f fu n d s for public beautification,
which for Quito m ean t an additional one m illio n sucres per year, a su m th at the
governm ent began to distribute in 19 26 .78
Ironically, th is new regim en o f expan ded state control was put into place by
Isidro Ayora, a p rom in en t Quito physician a n d form er council president who
was nam ed acting president o f the country follow in g the restoration o f civilian
rule in February 1926.79 A native o f Loja, A yo ra first cam e to Quito in 1897, in the
wake o f the L iberal R evolution, to study m ed icin e at the university. He followed
th is program w ith ad vanced degrees fro m B e rlin and Dresden, re tu rn in g to
Quito in 1910 to h ead the state’s new m atern ity hosp ital before in au gu ratin g his
own m edical p ractice the following year. A y o ra ’s shim m ering m o d ern ist clinic
on the city’s o u tsk irts catered to the w ell-to-do and elevated his local prestige.
H is election to th e m u n icip al council in 1918 an d subsequent service paralleled
the decline o f its lo c a l control, though as c o u n cil president from 1924 to 1925
he did push th rou gh th e expansion o f d ra in a g e an d sewerage service to hith­
erto m arginalized neighborhoods— progressive m easures that endeared h im to
the revolutionary ju n ta . Once in power, h e in stitu ted policies th at com bined
social liberalization (e.g., the extension o f th e fran ch ise to wom en in 1928, be­
fore any other L a tin A m erican governm ent d id so) w ith centralized fiscal poli­
cies. His program led to the form ation o f th e C en tral Bank on the Kem m erer
m odel, which h ad a lread y been put in place in C olom bia, and was also evident
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 105

in the J u n e 1929 m u n ic ip a l c o d e .80 T h e new c o d e ’s c o m p r e h e n s iv e d e lin e a tio n o f

m u n ic ip a l re sp o n sib ilitie s p a r a d o x ic a lly a ffirm e d m u n i c i p a l c o n tr o l o v e r d a ily
ta sk s w hile stre n g th e n in g g o v e r n m e n t oversigh t.
The tasks outlined gen erally corresponded to stan d ard duties that m u n ici­
palities had been p erform in g fo r centuries, such as a d m in iste rin g local ta x a ­
t io n , cleaning the streets, an d overseeing law and order. H owever, the code a lso t
s t ip u la t e d that the types o f m o d ern izin g reform s th at the Q u ito council h ad
embraced the previous fo rty years needed to be adopted b y all o f the nation’s
cities. These included the sto ck liberal platform o f sa n ita tio n , ration al street
layout, improved transportation , and the construction o f electrical grid s. The
code also demonstrated the gro w in g legislative strength o f the extrem e L e ft and.
Right, w ith provisions such as c a llin g for the preservatio n o f h isto ric m on u ­
ments (courtesy o f the conservatives) or tax breaks fo r w o rker com m u n ity d e ­
velopments (backed by the so cia lists).81
The planning m easures th em selves were not p a rtic u la rly controversial and
would indeed be im plem ented b y m ost cities during the 1930s. M ore p roblem ­
atic was the m assive exp a n sio n o f governm ent su rv e illa n c e . O stensibly, the
council enjoyed autonomy over the procedures determ ined by the national state
to be its raison d ’etre, that is, p la n n in g , sanitation, an d security. However, the
law also created a new m in istry expressly devoted to oversight, both facilitating
communication with the n a tio n a l governm ent and ch allen gin g local au th ority
to m ake independent p lan n in g decisions. Since the governm en t also controlled
the purse strings, m any local officials viewed the code w ith suspicion. Coupled
with the economic d istu rban ces o f the Great D epression, th is resentm ent o f­
fered the chance for alternative political projects.
Ultimately, it was the C o n servative Party that benefited m ost from the d is­
content. W idespread d istru st o f the new social legislatio n , esp ecially incom e
redistribution, naturally d isp o se d m an y in the gro w in g u rb an m id d le and
professional classes toward a less centralized system . T h ese d isaffected groups
gravitated toward the C o n servativ e Party as a result o f its staun ch opposition
to state expansionism at the exp en se o f local autonom y. A t the u rging o f con ­
servative ideologue Jacinto Jijón y Caam año, the p a rty h ad adopted a platform
galling for municipal autonom y in October 1925.82 Jijón hoped that the creation
of a constellation o f conservative m unicipalities could lead to an o p p ortu n ity to
challenge the revolutionary ju n ta for national suprem acy. W h ile an attem pt to
oust Ayora in 1927 (Jijón’s second coup attempt in three years) failed m iserably,
the p arty’s fortunes rose d u rin g the Great Depression. U n lik e the national state,
which entered a period o f in ten se upheaval, Conservative P a rty —ru led m u n ici­
palities throughout the c o u n try provided a m odicum o f sta b ility d u rin g th is
period.
One o f the greatest stren gth s o f the new conservative p rogram was a sound
theoretical justification for lo ca l bases o f power, w h ich Jijón h ad based on the
writings o f contemporary S p a n ish urban theorist A d o lfo Posada. In works such
io6 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

as El regimen m u n icip al de la ciudad m oderna, P o sa d a argued that the contem ­

p o ra ry city’s size an d com plexity necessitated th a t the m unicipality be granted
exclusive control o ver its own affairs, a m ove th a t he argued w o uld lead to
greater national h ealth an d prosperity. A critic a l com ponent o f the S p a n ia rd ’s
argum ent stem m ed fr o m h is understanding o f th e prem odern cabildo as a ra­
tion al agent that h a d tem pered m onarchical a u to cra cy in the same w ay th at he
h op ed the con tem p orary m u nicipality cou ld te m p e r the overw eening central
bureaucratic app aratus o f the state.85 Jijón’s p o lem ical tract Política conservadora
(published in two vo lu m es, in 1929 and 1934), m erged Posada’s urban h istorical
analysis with p atern alistic labor policies gro w in g out o f the work he an d fellow
conservative academ ics C arlo s M anuel Larrea a n d Ju lio Tobar Donoso h a d been
engaged in since 19 0 6 .84
Jijón’s extended e ssa y on the subject ru m in a te s on the im portance o f the
m unicipality to the form ation o f the E cu ad o rian nation. Echoing Posada, Jijón
argues that the m u n ic ip a lity represents m ore th a n a piece o f local territorial
adm inistration and sh o u ld be understood as a critica l building block o f national
identity. He bases th is cla im in a h istorical re view o f the developm ent o f the
Spanish cabildo, w h ic h he portrays as a c iv iliz in g agent organized according
to a variegated stru c tu re b u ilt upon the E u ro p ean m odel— “ de blancos y para
blancos”— in w hich lo c a l politics engage h arm o n io u sly with a national center.8’
Elsewhere, he cla rifie s that the founding o f th e Q uito m unicipality in 1534 not
on ly “engendered” a n ew nation but also p rovid ed an adm inistrative a x is giving
shape to a variegated association o f sem i-autonom ous cities.*1’ Jijón lam ents the
nineteenth-century d isappearance o f this system due to aspirations fo r a central
bureaucratic stru c tu re , itself the antithesis o f a supposed natural Ecuadorian
em brace o f self-governance. In particular, he ra ils against contem porary state
budget centralization, a m easure that he feared w ould perpetuate bureaucratic
responses to urban problem s without regard fo r local conditions.
Jijón’s w orries d e riv e d from h is o b se rv a tio n s o f Q uito’s lon g-stand ing
struggle with the sta te over resources, p a rtic u la rly during his service on the
Ju n ta de E m b ellecim ien to. The onset o f th e G re a t Depression co n firm ed his
w orst fears as the sta te decreased funds e a rm a rk e d for local developm ent. In
1931, for exam ple, Q u ito ’s budget was slashed fro m one m illion to a m ere three
hundred thousand sucres. The following y ear, the city saw its fed eral funding
disappear altogether. C ap italizin g on the situ atio n , the C onservatives pointed
to this fiscal crisis acro ss the nation as evidence th at their analysis w as accurate,
and they then in itiated a sustained propaganda cam paign that q u ickly affected
city governm ents. A s early as 1931, for in stan ce, Q uito’s Caceta M u n icip a l ran a
series attacking th e n atio n al governm ent w h ile pressing for local control over
planning allocations, a p olicy identified for th e first tim e as a proposed “ Ley de
autonom ía m u n icip al,” a designation that p arroted the Conservative platform .87
The subsequent C o n servative trium ph in th e 1933 m unicipal elections gave the
p arty the right to n a m e a new council p residen t who would fight fo r m ore ex-
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 107

tensive financial independence. N ot surprisingly, the in d ivid u al they chose for

this preem inent position was the loudest local advocate on this issue, the newly
elected council member Jacinto Jijón y Caam año.
The activities o f the Jijón-led coun cil aim ed to restore p u blic faith in m u­
nicipal control over local a d m in istratio n while encouraging a heroic vision o f
the colonial city’s autonomy— strategies designed to bu ild leverage for a return
to local governance. The celeb rations o f the city’s q u ad ricen ten n ial not only
proclaimed the city’s Spanish ch aracter but also sought to expan d personal and
partisan loyalty among the w o rkin g class. A s A na M aria Goetschel has pointed
out, m easures such as the b u ild in g o f worker housing on the c ity ’s south side
echoed Jijón’s earlier p aternalistic construction o f barracks at th e Chillo-Jijón
textile m ill in the Chillo V alley to the c ity ’s southeast.88 T h e housing initiative
also had the secondary goal o f cem enting support am ong m id dle- and upper-
class moderates with growing fears o f working-class violence.
T h is disquiet had been in creasin g as thousands o f m igran ts moved from
the tu m ultuous countryside d u e to a deepening a g ric u ltu ra l recession. The
squalid conditions in the p eriu rb a n suburbios in which m an y o f them resided
were featured in the m ainstream press in the late 1920s. T h is coverage began in
the moderate socialist daily El D ia, an exam ple being a 1925 editorial contrasting
the streets recently widened b y th e Ju n ta de Em bellecim iento w ith the poor hov­
els on deserted side streets th at lacked even an “ idea o f good m an ners.” 89 Other
newspapers followed suit once the U niversidad C entral’s resident hygienist, the
sociologist Pablo A rturo Suárez, began conducting research forays into the city’s
slums in 193o.90 Suárez’s condem nation o f these abysm al h abitats appeared fre­
quently in the capital press a fte r the G uerra de los Cuatro D ías, a four-day riot
in 1932 that pitted the m ilitary again st worker cells from bo th the Left and the
Right following a disputed p resid en tial election. A s m ore an d m ore editorials
expressed horror at the violence a n d d isgu st at the livin g conditions that had
sparked it, an opportunity for p u blicly funded housing arose.
The Conservatives m oved q u ic k ly to capitalize on th is situation. Scores
of editorials appeared in 1933 as the p a rty m ade its p u sh to w in seats on the
Quito m unicipal council. Jijó n ’s ally, L uis A . Páez, gave an im passioned plea
before Congress that em ph asized the w ide variety o f in tern ation al responses
to social inequities. Páez un derscored the nonpartisan natu re o f his challenge,
citing efforts m ade by the so cialist m ayoralty o f “ Red V ien n a” along with a more
traditional panegyric to p la n n in g com m issions in S p a in , Fran ce, Argentina,
and U ruguay.9' Once in power, Jijón wasted no tim e introducin g a resolution to
construct new housing blocks fo r w orkers. A fter the m easure passed in January
*934 >he even hosted an open h ou se at his m ansion in order to display a selection
o f blueprints for the proposed constru ction. The design u ltim ately chosen fea-“
tured single-level white stucco b u ild in gs graced with red-tile roofs that evoked
the neocolonial paternalism em braced by Jijón and his fellow patrones.92
The com m itm ent to the B a rrio Obrero also strengthened the Conservative
io8 \ Governance and the Sovereign C abildo

hand in its cam p aign for m u nicip al autonom y. Two events in p a rtic u la r dem­
onstrate th e p a r ty ’s growing power. T h e first concerned the restrictio n s placed
on m unicip al fundraising in the 1929 legal code, which the co u n cil sidestepped
in early 1934 b y securing a loan fo r S /.32 0 ,0 0 0 from the B anco d el Pichincha.
M in d fu l o f public opinion and crip p le d b y its now chronic in stab ility, the state
turned a b lin d eye. Sim ilarly, C o n g re ss avoided a p otential co n fro n tation in
October 1935 concerning the c o u n c il’s com m itm ent to sellin g th e new houses
directly to workers. This policy c o n flicted directly with A rticle 17 o f the munici­
pal code, w h ich called for city p rop erties to be sold at public au ction . A s in 1934,
the state q u ick ly approved Jijón’s requ est th at an exception be m ad e .93
The city governm ent then tu rn ed its eye squarely on the q u estion o f real es­
tate developm ent in the burgeoning n o rth ern suburbs and its lu crative business
potential. T h e 1929 code had requ ired m u n icip al approval o f a n y new construc­
tion in the city, but private firm s an d entrepreneurs regularly ignored this provi­
sion. The c ity had attempted to en fo rce the regulations in 19 31 b y challenging
a plan th at local m ogul D am ian M ira n d a h ad drawn to co n stru ct a new neigh­
borhood over the grounds o f the old Jo ck e y Club o ff A venida C o ló n , ju st a few
blocks d ow n from Jacinto Jijón’s residen ce. The council alleged th a t M iranda’s
expansive developm ent required h im to la y down urban in fra stru c tu re , such as
water pipes an d drainage canals, a n d it issued an order to th at effect. Miranda
ignored th eir order, however, and fo u g h t the case to the S u prem e C o u rt, argu­
ing that th e tasks required o f h im w ere m unicipal resp o n sib ilities.94 The high
court agreed w ith this ch aracterizatio n , noting that the c ity governm ent was
not auth orized to require in d ivid u a ls to update urban in fra stru c tu re but only
to approve aboveground b lu ep rin ts.95 A lth o u gh incensed w ith a decision that
d im in ish ed the degree to which th e co u n cil could set the co u rse o f the city’s
developm ent, it was forced to com ply.96
Jijón a n d h is successors C a rlo s A n d ra d e M arin and G u s ta v o Mortensen
began a stead y cam paign to e xp an d p u b lic support for m u n icip a l control over
planning in order to combat this fo rm o f evasion by business in 1934. Mortensen,
who w as also the rector o f the U n iv ersid ad Central, organized a series o f pub­
lic lectures on urban revitalization b y national and in tern atio n al experts, dis­
courses re p rin ted in the Gaceta M u nicipal and El Comercio. T h e gazette also
reprinted w ell-know n treatises on p la n n in g m easures, in c lu d in g w ritings by
Peruvian architect Em ilio H arth-T erre and Chilean engineer D an iel Zam udio’s
work on m od ern urbanism .97 T h ese articles were often deployed strategically, as
in the case o f J. Benitez’s su m m ary o f zoning laws and m o d ern p lan n in g from
H aussm ann to Le Corbusier, w hich app eared in January 1938.98 T h e piece argued
that local control over urban developm ent allowed for san itary a n d harmonious
developm ent, and new council p resid en t Carlos A ndrade M a rin cited it when
he petitioned reform ist dictator G e n e ra l A lberto Enriquez in 1938 to approve a
new m aster plan to rectify the scattered nature o f the ca p ita l’s grow th over the
previous quarter-century. T his fra m e o f reference helped p ersu ad e Enriquez, as
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 109

d id A n d r a d e M arin’s s a v v y decision to drop th e oft-repeated call for m unicipal

fis c a l autonomy in fav o r o f reinstating the go vern m en t-fu n d ed m illio n -su cre
a llo w a n c e to underw rite th is plan. Enriquez s u m m a rily issued'an A u gu st 1938
d e c r e e calling for a new m aster plan for the cap ital and reaffirm in g the co u n cil’s
c o n tr o l o v e r parceling ou t lan d s for u rb a n iz a tio n ."
T h e n e x t y e ar sa w in c r e a s in g p u b lic f a s c i n a t i o n w ith th e n ew m a s t e r p la n .
B y Ja n u a ry 1939, o n ly f o u r m o n t h s a fte r th e p r e s id e n t ia l d e c re e h a d b e e n i s s u e d ,
th e fir s t rep orts o n th e n o r t h ’s c o m p re h e n siv e u r b a n iz a t i o n w ere u n d e r w ay in
th e u n iv e r s it y a n d in m u n i c i p a l h e a d q u a r t e r s . T h e c o u n c il it s e lf in v ite d tw o
n o ta b le U ru g u a y a n u r b a n is t s , arc h ite ct A r m a n d o A c o s t a y L a r a a n d A m é r ic o
R ic a ld o n i, the d ir e c to r o f M o n te v id e o ’s P lan R e g u la d o r , to co m e stu d y Q u it o ’s
f u t u r e n e e d s th a t J u n e .100 A lth o u g h R ic a ld o n i d e c lin e d , A c o s t a y L a r a s p e n t
th re e w e e k s in th e A n d e s d u r i n g th e o n se t o f t h e d r y s e a s o n th a t S e p te m b e r. H e
m e t w it h local p la n n e r s , g a v e a le ctu re a t th e u n iv e r s ity , a n d p ro v id e d a c o m p r e ­
h e n s iv e re c o m m e n d a tio n s u g g e s t in g th a t a “ G a r d e n C it y ” a p p ro a c h w o u ld b e
m o s t efficient, g iv e n t h e s tr o n g e q u a to r ia l s u n a n d t h e la c k o f s h a d e tre e s (o n e
w o n d e rs w hat h is o p in io n s w o u ld h ave b e e n h a d h e c o m e d u r in g th e ra in y d a y s
o f A p r il). Th e a d d r e s s a l s o c o m m e n d e d th e c it y ’s s t a u n c h p r e se r v a tio n is ts , s u c h
a s Jo s é G abriel N a v a rr o , a n d in sis te d th a t th e d e s i g n o f th e new city e n s u r e th e
s a n c t it y o f the c o lo n ia l m o n u m e n t s o f th e centro.'0'
These public events d id not im m ediately lead to th e inauguration o f a new
plan; however, they d id help forestall a subsequen t challenge to Enriquez’s d e­
cree. Local real estate specu lators had in terp reted th e new regulations as an
attack on their ability to freely exploit the real estate m arket. M in d fu l o f M i­
randa’s success in p etitio n in g the Suprem e C o u rt in 19 31, they took their case
to the new Congress soon a fter the dictator resto red dem ocracy in early 1939.
The Senate opted to h ear th eir petition in late Sep tem b er. T h is decision cam e so
soon after Acosta y L a ra ’s successful visit th at it prom pted a m ass outcry. E d i­
torials supporting the m u n icip al right to d eterm in e the course o f Quito’s fu tu re
urbanization appeared in each o f the city’s m a in new spapers, some penned b y
council members and som e b y professors at the U n iversid ad Central. The Caceta
Municipal collected an d reprinted each o f these op in ion s in a special N ovem ber
issue devoted to the controversy. A reproduced grap h ic, which had earlier a p ­
peared in El Comercio a n d El Día, contrasted the ordered progress o f growth over­
seen by the m unicipality d u rin g the previous fo u r centuries with the haphazard
nature o f the newest neighborhoods. The acco m p a n y in g text disdains the ca ­
pricious speculators w hose indiscrim inate greed created serious technical an d
social problems for a m u n icip a l governm ent seek in g the cultured, civilized, and
hygienic growth o f the city, all o f which were q u alitie s th at had been prom oted
by the city governm ent fo r the previous h a lf cen tu ry. T h is uproar persuaded the
Senate to drop the m atter, th u s tearing down th e la st barrier to city control over
the urbanization p rocess.102
The city g o v e rn m e n t’s in sertio n o f its e lf in to n a tio n a l an d in tern atio n al g e ­
n o \ Governance and the Sovereign C abildo

nealogies o f u rb a n plann ing, w hich h a d su ccessfu lly tru m p ed th e opposition

o f first the state and then private en terp rise, continued to drive the creation of
the m aster p la n th at followed. T h e d irecto r o f the new project tu rn e d out to be
A costa y L a ra ’s yo u n g protégé, G u ille rm o Jones O driozola, w ho h a d ju st won
the 1939 G ra n d P rize o f the M ontevid eo A rch itectural Factory to stu d y in Eu­
rope. W hen h is proposed trip was canceled by the outbreak o f w ar, Jones opted
to tour S o u th A m e rica instead and contacted José G abriel N a va rro , whom he
had m et at a conference in Brazil in 1937. U pon Jones’s arrival in Q u ito in 194^
N avarro in tro d u ced h im to G u stavo M orten sen , who h ad h eard o f the young
architect fro m A co sta y Lara. M orten sen , who had been elected president o f the
m unicipal co u n cil, saw Jones as a p oten tial director o f the new m aster plan and
invited h im to tak e p art in the u n iversity ’s lecture series on u rb an plan n in g. The
U ru g u ayan p rep ared a detailed ta lk o n fu n ctio n alism in u rb an p lan n in g and
its p otential application to Quito. In a m om ent o f en th usiastic “spontaneity,”
a m em ber o f th e audience, council m em ber Eduardo Pólit M oren o , suggested
that Jones w o rk on a d raft o f a re g u la tin g plan for Q uito. M o rten sen quickly
acted u p o n P ó lit’s recom m endation an d persuaded the cou n cil to hire Jones,
who b egan to w ork on the new p lan in M arch 1942. Nine m onths later, the first
draft was com p leted .“>î
The b asic precepts behind Jones’s p lan concerned the fu n c tio n a lism o f each
urban zone, ideas that he had a rticu lated in his university speech the previous
year. T h is speech noted the need to e xp an d Q uito’s recreational space so as to
achieve a h a rm o n ic environm ent. T h is effort w ould involve p ractical measures
such as e asin g traffic flows and w ritin g zoning laws on the one h a n d and en­
h ancem ent o f th e c ity’s sp iritu al core on the other. T he latter included both
extensive atten tio n to parks and oth er green space and a p rovision to maintain
the city’s m on um en tal colonial b u ild in gs, again dem onstrating a hybrid sense of
Quito’s sp irit as m odern and h isto ric a l.“ 4 The cru x o f the resu ltin g blueprint lay
in d ivid in g th e city into three m a in zones. To the north w ould be a largely resi­
dential a re a d om inated by the u p p er classes and ch aracterized b y broad, tree-
lined avenues. Public green space w o uld be provided by a m assive park (today’s
Parque C aro lin a) to be built over the m ak esh ift Quito airp o rt, the operations of
which w o u ld be sh ifted northw ard in to what was still u n d evelo ped farmland.
The south w o uld becom e a largely w orking- and m iddle-class region, chosen to
coincide w ith the already developing industrial belt. In the colonial center, Jones
foresaw a m ixed-incom e neighborhood dom inated by ad m in istrative functions
and p o ten tia lly b y tourism . In essence, the plan subm itted in 1942 imagined a
m odern c ity segregated by race an d class w ith a cloistered m u se u m devoted to
ad m in istratio n , finance, and to u rism at its center.
S p a tia l a n a lyse s o f Q uito’s p la n n in g h isto ry at the m acro level tend to
consider th e Jones O driozola p lan as the codification o f e x istin g tendencies—
nam ely, th e grow in g sociospatial segregation and the e m e rgin g longitudinal
orientation o f the city.1“5 Its im p o rtan ce as a political statem en t, however, has
 Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo / 111

not often been considered. T h e plan’s adoption ca m e follow ing a decade-long

struggle spearheaded b y conservative m unicipal governm ents seeking to restore
th e city’s control over p la n n in g . Their success ow ed m uch to the social disloca­
tio n o f the Great D epression, i n particular the sta te ’s declining legitim acy and
m id d le - and upper-class concerns regarding w o rker dissatisfaction. H owever,
given that periods d u rin g the previous cen tury h ad also been m arked b y ch a­
o tic politics, other facto rs need to be considered in evaluating the success o f
th is c a m p a ig n . The con servative reconceptualization o f the m unicipality as an
a lte r n a tiv e center o f pow er and national identity m ay be com pared with the u n ­
even embrace of progress earlier city governm ents follow ed. Such a com parison
underscores the radical natu re o f this challenge an d its synchronicity w ith the .
re w o rk in g o f history a lre ad y identified in other in stitu tio n al chronotopes.

The Chronotope o f M unicipal Sovereignty

From the m id-nineteenth century to the ad op tio n o f the Jones O driozola

plan in 1942, the Q uito c ity governm ent attem pted to wrest control over public
works and planning prerogatives from the state a n d private enterprise. The abil­
ity o f the m unicipality to control these processes depended on both its relation­
ship with the state an d its ability to craft a p u blic im age o f itself as a local and
national engineer o f ord er and progress. W h ile th e past provided leverage for
urban planning initiatives, only the reconstituted Conservative governm ents o f
the 1930s successfully cra fte d a narrative locating the Q uito cabildo at the heart
of national identity. W h y w as this the case?
As noted earlier, m u n icip a l control over p la n n in g decisions faded as a result
of the strong-arm tactics o f the Garcian state d u rin g the m id-nineteenth cen­
tury, particularly the elim in ation o f cabildo-controlled budgets. W hile Q uito
continued to receive som e financial backing fro m the national governm ent, the
legislature routinely reneged on proposed fu n d in g for critical infrastructure im ­
provements. This b u d g e ta ry shortfall severely lim ited the potential for urban
modernization, led to un su ccessfu l yearly protests, and resulted in a variety o f
small-scale measures, at tim es enterprising an d at tim es im provisational. One
of the critical problem s w ith city control over in fra stru ctu ral change developed
from severe cleavages am o n g the city’s ru lin g cou n cil m em bers, who were d i­
vided over how m uch to p u sh the Congress an d h ow necessary the “advances”
were. Disagreements c o n ce rn in g urban lim its an d sp atiality, for exam ple,
tended to create open strife , which would then be resolved by delaying d ifficult
decisions concerning th e c ity ’s incursions into form erly ru ral zones or the e f­
ficacy of its traditional ra d ia l socioeconomic m ap.
The Liberal R evolu tio n o f 1895, while p ro vid in g state support for m any o f
the projects that were o u tlin ed during the Pro gressive era, did not u ltim ately
resolve these more fu n d a m e n ta l challenges. In essence, the capital’s cabildo
112 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

controlled local developm ent projects; however, in p ractice, the state continued
to dom inate the allocation o f fu n d in g and to d eterm in e the pace o f reform. At
m om ents o f intense interest in showcasing the cap ital, such as during the cen­
ten n ials o f 1909 and 1922 or d u rin g the public health c rise s o f 1905, the national
governm ent loosened the p u rse strings for a v a riety o f m od ern izin g ventures.
O th erw ise, the m ain interest appears to have been la rg e ly in lim ited symbolic
gestures (such as the co n stru ctio n o f the indoor m arketp lace) that echoed the
d istin c t lack o f attention to in frastru ctu re that ch aracterized the nineteenth-
cen tu ry state.
T h is dynam ic sh ifted sligh tly w ith the state’s b a n k ro llin g o f the Junta del
C entenario (later the Ju n ta de Em bellecim iento de la C iudad ), which can truly
be considered Quito’s first relatively independent p la n n in g com m ission. How­
ever, as noted above, this b o d y itself represented th e m o st strident government
attem pt to curtail the pow er o f city governm ent, op eratin g as a shadow cabildo
w ith the right to determ ine th e shape o f the city, p ass new legislation, and im­
p ose its own taxes. It sh ou ld th us com e as little su rp rise that Isidro Ayora, for­
m er council president, ra p id ly elim inated the b o d y as red u nd an t excess. But
th e new governm ent’s ad op tio n o f the 1929 m u n icip al cod e, which detailed the
specific responsibilities o f the city governm ent, u n d e rc u t its control over alter­
nate policies and u ltim ately increased its dependence on state funding. When
th is budget was later erad icated , the door opened fo r th e alternative proposed
b y the Conservative-dom inated council o f 1934 an d its subsequent crusade to
restore urban autonomy.
A t this point, it b eh ooves us to recall the im p o rta n c e the Conservatives
p laced on taking control o ver the Q uito coun cil in 19 34 , particu larly the spe­
cial role played by Jacinto Jijón. T h is was the first tim e Jijón stood for local of­
fice, but it was not his first experience with city p la n n in g ; he had been working
w ith the Junta de E m b ellecim ien to since its in ceptio n , even acting as its head
in 1923. T h is experience d ecid ed ly influenced th e C o n servative platform and
w o uld also have attuned h im to the m obilizing p o w er o f public commemora­
tio n . The subsequent p u b lic cam p aign to not o n ly erect substantive public
h o u sin g but also refram e th e city, and its cabildo, a s th e instigator o f national
identity ought to be seen as a necessary first step in a tta in in g national political
power. W hile Jijón h im se lf retreated from active p o litic a l life in the next several
years, he furthered the in tellectu al justification fo r th is conception of the capital
b y p enning the m ultivolu m e biography o f Q uito’s S p a n ish founder, Sebastián
de Benalcázar. Sim u ltaneously, figures like G u sta v o M ortensen built a bridge
between the cabildo and an educated public versed in th e virtu es o f urban plan­
nin g. T h is network strengthened the city governm ent, which capitalized on the
state’s ongoing struggles to refashion Quito’s p la n n in g organization, restore its
b u d g e t, and move tow ard th e adoption o f th e Jo n es O driozola plan. These
resu lts came at the exp en se o f b oth private e n te rp rise and the national state,
w h ich had been eclipsed b y the m unicipal cou n cil as th e d riving force behind
 Governance and the Sovereign C abildo / 113

Q u ito ’s developm ent by 1 9 4 2 , a situ a tio n ju stified precisely b y Jijó n ’s restor­

ative nostalgia.
On the national level, however, th e p lo y ultim ately b ackfired . In 1 9 4 1 , the
Quito cabildo did m anage to bring togeth er a national conference o f m u n icip ali­
ties that successfully called for coo rd in atin g p lann ing im provem ents. However,
th e hoped-for network o f conservative m u n icip a l governm ents d id not propel
national dom inance.'06 The largest problem appears to have been a m iscalcu la ­
tion as to the im portance o f the u rb an m asses, whose support Jijón and Tobar
Donoso had long courted but who defected to populist orator José M a ría Velasco
Ib a r r a during the 1 9 3 0 s . Following a d isp u te d 1 9 3 9 election in w h ich Liberal
C a rlo s A rroyo del Rio topped both V elasco and Jijón, the p o p u list em erged as
th e most viable national alternative to th e reigning Liberals. T h e C onservative
movement suffered furth er h u m iliation w hen Tobar Donoso, then m in ister o f
fo re ig n relations in a compromise cab in et A rroyo had constructed, su ffered the
ignominy o f signing the 1 9 4 2 Protocol o f R io de Janeiro, in w hich E cu ad o r ceded
h a lf its territory to Peru following a d isa stro u s 1 9 4 1 border w ar.107 President A r ­
royo del Rio deflected one coup attem pt in 1 9 4 3 but fell to Velasco Ib arra the fol­
lowing May. The trium ph o f the so -calle d G lorious Revolution o f 1 9 4 4 m arked
the consolidation o f populist dom inan ce in national politics an d the on set o f a
decline in the associative fram ework th a t Jijón and his fellow coun cil m em bers
h a d envisioned.'08
However, the chronotope lin k in g th e h istoric nature o f m u n ic ip a l auton­
omy and its role in the restoration o f u rb a n order continued to hold sw ay in
local politics and to influence the fu tu re shape o f the city. Jijón h im s e lf took
advantage o f the new political reality a n d becam e the city’s first m ayor in 1945,
a n ew popularly elected post that rep laced the old position o f president o f the
concejo. From this position he oversaw th e creation o f the new g rid o f ra d ia l av­
en u es and parks that traversed the A ñ a q u ito plains in the first m an ifestatio n
o f Jones’s plan— one that has rem ained largely intact for alm ost seventy years.
Subsequent revisions to the basic schem a em ulated Jijón’s coordination o f m ajor
planning initiatives with public com m em orations o f the city’s legen d ary h isto ­
ricity, even during an era suspiciously b e re ft o f centenaries. T h u s, the 1967 Plan
Director de Q uito, which rezoned th e M a risc a l, m aking it a fin a n c ia l center,
b u t otherwise largely upheld Jones’s p la n , arrived on the h eels o f the U nited
Nations call for sustained attention to p reservin g historic centers. U N E S C O ’s
1978 designation o f the city center as a W orld Heritage Site u nleash ed a surge o f
commemorative planning, beginn ing w ith 1980s Plan Q uito (largely relegated
to preservation efforts in and around th e city) and leading to m ajor initiatives
fro m the city governm ent on the tw en tieth and tw enty-fifth an n iv ersaries o f
th e UN s designation, which have seen th e colonial city cen ter app ro xim ate
th e m useum city” first envisioned b y a rt h isto rian s but concretized b y Jones
Odriozola. The contemporary Plan G e n e ra l de Desarrollo T errito rial appeared
in 2 0 0 6 . One o f its major concerns is th e su bu rb an expan sion into th e C h illo
H4 \ Governance and the Sovereign Cabildo

and T u m b aco valleys that b e g a n d a rin g the 1980s bu t h a s been “characterized

by uncontrolled expansion a n d speculation in residential aren as.” '09 W hile this
new docum ent appeared p o ised to rectify this “ d isastro u s” situation in time for
the 2 0 0 9 bicentennial o f in d epend ence, perhaps its m o st d irect ancestor was the
city cam p aign to arrest ju st su ch grow th back in 1934.
T h e three chronotopes e sta b lish in g Q uito as a site o f official historical
m em o ry are essentially v isio n s — that o f the city as to u riste d global center, as
redem ptive Spanish center, or as autonom ous city-state— an d each played a role
in c ra ftin g the form al face o f Q u ito according to an in stitu tio n a l framework.
T h ere is also the question o f la n d speculation itself. B o th th e D urin i architec­
tu ra l fam ily and the Santa C la ra de San M illan in d igen o u s com m une crafted
perso n al genealogies that en abled them to navigate th e s h iftin g spatial orienta­
tion o f the city and, in p a rtic u la r, the burgeoning real estate m arket on the city’s
n o rth side. Like their in stitu tio n al counterparts, the D u rin is and the commune
m em bers had to recognize th at th is navigational exercise depended on the ar­
ticu latio n o f collective h isto ries at once cfuiteno and u n iversal.
 Chapter 5

The Durini Cosmopolis

Crafting a Hyphenated Vernacular Architecture

In an undated photograph, attributed o n ly to “ Pazm ino” (fig. 5.1), a m u sta­

chioed man attired in a dark suit and straw boater, brandishing a cane, poses
in profile, gazing past two sim ilarly clad figures deep in conversation a few feet
ahead of him . In his hands is a sm all p arcel, wrapped in white paper, which sug­
gests that he h as ju st emerged from the great arcade beyond. The m ajestic arch
rising above h im provides a window into this grand com m ercial space filled with
bustling shoppers illum inated by the su n sh in e stream ing through the vaulted
glass-and-iron roof. A police officer and h is daughter anim atedly focu s on the
shops beneath the sum ptuous th ree-story colonnade that fram es the h all. A
middle-aged m an in black homburg and rum pled suit clutches his ow n package
near a women’s clothing store, perhaps deliberating over the Edw ardian costum e
of a mannequin b y the door. M any sim p ly stroll, ignoring the cam era. N ot so a
tijad immaculately dressed in knickers and eight-quarter cap h a lfw a y dow n the
he stares, transfixed. Even m ore in trigu ed are the several porters loiter­
ing near the e n try way, ready in an in stan t to help a gentlem an or lad y whose
purchase m ight be too large to carry hom e unassisted. Two in decent attire lean
itily against the pillars o f the great arch ; however, tucked beh ind those col-
ii6 \ The Durini Cosm opolis

Fig. 5 .1. Pasaje R o y al, Q u ito (early 1920s). C ou rtesy A rc h iv o H istórico, Banco C en tra l d el Ecuador.

um ns on the le ft, a shabbier pair— in clu d in g a poncho-clad In d ian — is almost

invisible in the fa d in g light. One can a lm o st h ear the photographer ordering
them to m ove ou t o f the fram e. A fte r a ll, th is w as to be a portrait o f th e Pasaje
R oyal, the triu m p h a n t m asterpiece o f S w iss-Ita lia n ém igré F ran cisco Durini
Cáceres, and the one-tim e center o f Q uito chic.
Like few oth er b u ild in gs in Quito, D u r in i’s passage (1912—1914) articulated
a scenography o f m o d ern ity and con su m p tio n located a scant b lo ck from the
 The D urini Cosmopolis / 117

plaza Grande, the heart o f th e colonial city and hom e to state and city bureau­
crats Customers strolled on a m osaic constructed o f N o rth A m erican ceram ic
tile en route to the central la n d in g , which boasted gard ens, a m arble fountain,
and a kitschy m ural o f V en u s aligh tin g upon a veran d a in the Italian cou n try­
side The doors nestled in th e delicate colonnades were th em selves elegant con­
fections crafted from lu x u r y w ood s prepared in D u r in i’s ow n workshop and
outlined in shim m ering cop per trim . The display cases an d counters inside the
shops echoed this décor, w h ile the lighting fixtu res featu red stripped copper
reminiscent o f the Secessionist stirrings that had in vaded V ien n a, Prague, and
Turin over the previous decade. These stores boasted im po rted fashions, haber­
dashery, and eyeglasses straigh t from H am burg and L on don. A fte r a busy after­
noon shopping, businessm en, socialites, or dandies could relax b y sam pling the
Gallic delicacies of the Pasaje R o y al restaurant (whose m en u w as even printed in
French) or taking in an evening o f theater, dance, or cin em a at the Teatro Eden.1
Some even went so far as to relocate to the building’s spacious apartm ents on the
third floor while the city’s b est firm s rented berths dow n the hall.
One o f those com panies w as that o f the b u ild in g arch itect h im self, whose
offices overlooked V enezuela Street from the central archw ay. Like his gran di­
ose structure, Francisco D u rin i Câceres profited from an au ra o f consum m ate
modernity. Along with h is fath er, Lorenzo, and brother Pedro, D u rin i built the
largest architectural concern in the capital at least p a rtia lly based upon their
ability to promote a worldly im age o f European ga lla n try coupled w ith exquisite
technical expertise. This p erso n a afforded the D u rin is th eir first com m issions;
however, the firm ’s lasting p ow er rested upon Fran cisco ’s ab ility to integrate
him self and his architecture into the cultural sphere o f h is adopted home. The
Pasaje Royal epitomizes these tw o characteristics: not o n ly did it afford elites
an opportunity to p erform cosm op olitanism a lo italiano b u t it also reflected
Francisco’s personal ties, as th e site belonged to the Palacios fam ily, who h ap ­
pened to be the architect’s in-law s. Later works con tinued to reap the rewards
of personal connections but a lso introduced a search for an A n d ean vernacular
modernism. This transition reflected Francisco’s d eveloping hybridity, which
advanced without elim inating h is Old World élan. A s su ch, the D urin i oeuvre
can be viewed as an attem pt to lin k an ecum enical p erso n al h isto ry w ith the
spirit o f national renewal th a t su ffu sed Q uito’s political an d cu ltu ral landscape
in the early twentieth century.
The D urini firm ’s b u sin ess practices m irrored th is aesthetic developm ent,
which can be seen th ro u gh a n an alysis o f its corresp on d en ce, w orkbooks,
sketches, drafts, and the fir m ’s library. These d ocu m en ts have on ly recently
been donated to the M useo de la Ciudad in Q uito b y Fran cisco D u rin i’s ch il­
dren, and this study is the first to utilize them . T h e y d em on strate both the
tenuous nature o f arch itecture as enterprise as w ell as the m ultiple strategies
the Durinis employed to overcom e the difficulties o f b u ild in g in a peripheral
Along with the firm ’s u rb an e im age and the p rin cip al architects’ constant
u8 \ The Durini C osm opolis

refinem ent o f their tech nique, three other factors proved invaluable in produc­
ing a vibrant firm . T h e first concerned the aforem entioned drive to perm eate the
inner sanctum o f th e quiteño upper class. E ach o f the three D urinis diligently
cultivated relationships w ith m em bers o f the c ity ’s upper classes, both socially
an d aesthetically. Seco n d , they persistently sou gh t to develop local sources for
the fine woodwork, m eta ls, and m arble scu lp tu re ad orn ing their structures in
order to elim inate th eir reliance on foreign artisan s, a strategy that allow ed them
to significantly u n d ercu t their com petition. Perhaps m ost im portant, however,
was their w illin gn ess to experim ent so as to f u lfill the w him s o f an eccentric
elite with at times exotic tastes.
T his analysis o f the firm ’s successful cu ltu ral integration efforts focuses first
on the elements o f m im esis and hybridity in colo n ial and nineteenth-century
Ecuadorian architecture. It also homes in on th e D u rin i fam ily’s developm ent of
a cosm opolitan ve rn a cu la r architecture. T he sto ry begins w ith two brothers, Lo­
renzo and Francisco D u rin i V asalli, who im m igrated to Costa R ica fro m their
native Switzerland, where Lorenzo had b efrien d ed exiled Ecuadorian politician
Leonidas Plaza d u rin g the 1890s. Seduced b y P laza’s offer o f patronage, Lorenzo
m igrated to Q uito in 1904. Plaza’s com m issions largely evaporated a fter Loren­
zo’s arrival, leading to the form ation o f a new com p an y with his sons, Pedro and
Francisco D urini C áceres. Lorenzo died p rem aturely, in 1906, likely due in part
to exhaustion and overw ork, but the business practices o f his new firm and the
im portance that the p erform ance o f cosm op olitan ism played, both personally
and professionally, in its success is worthy of-study. Francisco’s developm ent of
an A ndean vern acu lar m odernism unified h is p ersonal heritage and historicist
training, and h is h a n d lin g o f Italian stile floreale, the c ity ’s colonial palate, and
the universal aspirations o f his clientele are o f p artic u la r interest.

Historicism and Mim esis in Quito’s Nineteenth-Century

Architecture

N ineteenth-century W estern architecture reflected a rom antic em brace of

h istory and a n ation alist search for origins. T h e fascination with progress advo­
cated by Hegel and C om te inspired a stylistic lan gu age in which architectural
form displayed p atrio tic teleologies. The h isto ric ist ethos boisterou sly trans­
form ed European an d A m erican capitals into allegorical landscapes, as in the
fam ous exam ples o f H aussm an n’s Paris or the V iennese Ringstrasse. A s noted
by C arl Schorske, am o n g others, V ienn a’s R a th a u s q u arter perhaps exem pli­
fies the ideal vision o f architectural style as “ th e em bodim ent o f h isto ry,” with
an ideational m osaic includ in g neo-R en aissance (learning) for the university,
neo-Gothic (em ergent burgh er identity) fo r th e m unicipal head qu arters, and
baroque (artistic patronage and elegance) for th e theater.2
 The D urini Cosm opolis / 119

The historicist pageant a lso appeared in great A m e ric an capitals as elites

and state actors attempted to d isp la y their national pride and glory in a m anner
sim ilar to that o f the old con tin en t. The earliest exam ples o f such centralized
display occurred in form er viceregal capitals such as M exico C ity and R io de Ja­
neiro. The latter was a special target o f m onum ental construction following the
1808 arrival o f Portuguese em p eror Joâo V I, whose exile d u rin g the Napoleonic
wars was largely spent tra n sfo rm in g the Brazilian capital into a “ tropical Ver­
sailles” (curated by a French com m ission) whose bo tan ical gardens can still be
enjoyed.3 These didactic co n stru ctio n s and reconstructions o f sym bolic urban
centers reappeared in Pierre C h a rle s L’E n fan t’s plan for W ashington, D C, the
Belle Époque reconstructions o f Buenos A iresa n d R io de Janeiro, and the alle­
gorical statuary along M exico C ity ’s Paseo de la Reform a, which served as a veri­
table pageant o f nationalist h is to ry during the Porfirian p erio d .4 A s in Vienna
or Paris, these state m onum ents anticipated nearby h aute bourgeois housing
enclaves, which also em braced a fo rm al language rooted in historic revivalism .
The widespread nature o f these p ositivist spectacles led to Jorge H ardoy’s in flu­
ential form ulation claim ing th at no autochthonous arch itecture developed in
Latin A m erica until experim entation with m odernism began there in the 1930s.5
Hardoy's argument has been echoed in the popular notion th at the fin-de-siglo’s
historicism ought to be view ed as a m om ent o f intense cu ltu ra l dependency
driven b y a state acting as sty listic interlocutor in allian ce w ith m odernizing
elites, who had gained tractio n in the m ajority o f urban h istories w ritten about
the fin-de-siglo. O f particular im p o rt was the eradication o f “any trace o f Spanish
or colonial o rig in . . . as a rem in d er o f a past o f shame and backw ardness,” as one
contemporary scholar has p u t it.6
W hile one can indeed id e n tify a broad translocation o f styles— at times
even o f buildings, as in the celebrated case o f the iron m an sion G ustave Eiffel
sent in pieces up the A m a z o n to Iquitos for the P eru vian ru b b er baron A n-
selmo del A guila— this in terp retatio n oversim plifies the process o f cultural
exchange represented by h isto ricist and eclectic architecture. Roberto Segre has
m aintained that the consideration o f Latin A m erican eclecticism as inherently
m imetic obscures its beneficial im pact as an op p ortu nity for local architects,
European im m igrants, and legio n s o f workers and a rtisan s. He also notes the
palpable potential for aesthetic innovation offered by the utilization o f historic
styles as a template for a wide v a riety o f stylistic com binations while calling for
relational unity with the stylistic palate o f the surroundings.7
T h e development o f Q u ito ’s architecture during the n in eteenth century
echoes the dialectic between m im esis and hybrid innovation. T he earliest ad­
vocates for m odernizing the c it y ’s architectural palette h ad frequently traveled
in Europe and recommended ad o p tin g French and Italian styles.8 Nevertheless,
few alterations occurred d u rin g the first h a lf o f the nineteenth cen tury with the
exception o f the neoclassical rem od elin g o f the Palacio de C arondelet, previ­
120 \ The D urini Cosmopolis

ous seat o f th e A udiencia president, follow ing the split from G ra n Colom bia in
1830. C h ange cam e about suddenly in 1868, when a devastating earthquake left
m any b u ild in gs badly dam aged an d destroyed the towers o f th e S an Francisco
church.9 President Gabriel G arcia M oren o, whose penchant fo r pu blic works has
been noted, took advantage o f th is situation and not only fu n n e le d state funds
into the reconstruction o f the ch urch b u t also took steps to d evelop a local in­
frastructure for m odern construction an d design. A s such, h is adm inistration’s
efforts ought to be considered both an im portation o f European know-how and
the establishm ent o f a local cadre o f train ed architects and a rtisa n s heralding
the expansion o f m odern historicist construction in the last th ird o f the century.
One o f the first steps in the e ffo rt w as the establishm ent o f the Polytech­
nic U niversity in 1870. Its Jesuit professors not only revolutionized cartography
but also taught d raftin g and a rch itectu ral design. Juan M en te n ’s im pact was
particularly instrum ental given h is role as chief architect fo r the National Ob­
servatory, the first built in South A m e ric a. Garcia M oreno in vited not only the
university’s Jesuit professors but oth er European architects, in clu d in g English­
m an T h o m as Reed and the G e rm an Francisco Schm idt, to p articip ate in state
projects. R eed , though a transient, produced several m on u m en tal works in the
early 1870s, including the panopticon prison , the garden path s o f A lam ed a Park,
and the im posing stone La Paz B rid ge crossing the M a ch á n g a ra R iver at the
city’s so u th ern entry.10 Schm idt, w ho began his stay in Q uito b y erecting the Es­
cuela de A rte s y Oficios, an artisan school ru n by the C atholic C h u rch , became
one o f the critical figures o f quiteño construction over the n e x t several decades,
eventually joining forces with the engineer, architect, and carto grap h er Gual-
berto Pérez in one o f the city’s m o st im portant arch itectu ral concerns o f the
fin-de-siglo. Sch m id t’s historicist roots are reflected not on ly in the Romanesque
o f the E scu ela de A rtes y O ficios (and its incorporation o f G o th ic arches) but
also in h is choice o f a neoclassical ethos for the Teatro N acion al Sucre, perhaps
his m ost im portant project o f this period . Begun in 1879, yet not com pleted until
the centennial o f independence fro m Spain in 1922, the w o rk ’s m ain entry incor­
porated the original arches o f the slaughterhouse that had p revio u sly dominated
the square.11
A lth o u gh both Reed and S ch m id t offered classes at the Polytech nic Univer­
sity, arch itectural studies and m on u m en tal construction stagn ated during the
Progressive era as the national go vern m en t moved away fro m u rb an revitaliza­
tion. T h e few changes to the c ity ’s architectural landscape ca m e in the form of
m od ernizin g face-lifts for the agin g structures o f the colo n ial city center. Few
and far betw een, they nevertheless preoccupied the m u n icip ality, which passed
an early zoning law (as part o f an 18 90 ordinance) seeking to encourage regular­
ity am ong new and extant buildings b y preserving horizontal continuity, requir­
ing w hitew ashed or painted façad es in sensible colors, an d ro u n d ed corners.11
A ttem pts to create new m onum ents d id occur, notably when a statue o f Marshal
 The Durini Cosm opolis / 121

A n t o n io José de Sucre w as com m issioned to a d o rn Santo Dom ingo P laza. O th er

v e n tu re s were b e gu n b u t not completed, such as a proposed colum n celebrating
th e birth o f independence that was first p rop osed b y the Congress in 1888. T h e
p ro je ct languished u n til 1894, when President L u is Cordero appointed Ju a n B a u ­
tista Minghetti to design the m onum ent. A lth o u g h M inghetti d ra fte d p la n s,
th e Liberal Revolution stopped the project.*’
The new Liberal governm ent that cam e to p ow er in 1895, however, stro n gly
supported the creation o f m onum ental arch itectu ral works reflecting co n tem p o ­
rary trends, o f w h ich the m ost fam ous is S ch m id t and Perez’s Merca'do d el Su r,
w h ic h was the first stru ctu re in the city to m ak e su b stan tial use o f glass a n d iron
in its roof: These effo rts by the Liberal go vern m en t grew exponentially d u rin g
Leonidas Plaza’s a d m in istratio n , particu larly a fte r the establishm ent o f th e new
Escuela de Bellas A rte s (EBA ) in 1903, which p ro vid ed a training groun d fo r new
local architects a n d d raftsm en along w ith p a in te rs, m usicians, and sc u lp to rs.
The school’s o rgan izin g force was the author, lan d scap e portraitist, a n d lib eral
ideologue Luís A . M a rtin e z. M artinez secu red th e Italian architect G iá c o m o
Radiconcini to h ead a fledgling program th a t tra in e d a num ber o f stu d e n ts in
neo-Renaissance aesthetics. Radiconcini h a d m ix e d results in developing local
expertise; however, he d id encourage an em brace o f historicism that fostered the
careers of other foreign architects. These in clud ed the Russo brothers, Pablo and
Antonino, and the G e rm an priest Pedro H u b erto B rü nin g. The R u sso H e rm a ­
nos firm, for instan ce, was particularly su ccessfu l in residential b u ild in g, even ­
tually winning th e m u n icip ality’s Prem io al O rn ato in 1920 for the R en a issa n ce
revival G angotena-M ancheno house on S an F ran cisco Squ are.'4 O n th e oth er
hand, Brüning, w ho arrived in 1899, w hen relatio n s between the L ib e ra l state
and the Church n o rm alized , transform ed sacred space throughout the c o u n try
by incorporating a n u n ad orn ed n eo-G oth ic style, u su a lly in brick, th a t c o n ­
trasted with the fam o u s exam ples o f high b aro q u e churches that are so co m m o n
in the Ecuadorian A n d e s.'5 By 1910, this im p o rted h istoricism had b ecom e the
dominant school in quiteño architecture, w ith a p a rtic u la r em phasis on French
and Italian styles.
The D urini fa m ily represented one o f th ese early arch itectu ral im p o rts
whose technical know led ge and m asterfu l w o rk on the C osta R ican N a tio n a l
Theater attracted L e o n id a s Plaza d u rin g h is e x ile in the Central A m e ric a n
nation. Unlike th eir p eers, however, the D u r in is sh ifted their app roach fro m
academic h isto ricism to eclecticism , show in g a strong influence o f Ita lia n stile
floréale considered in dialogu e with Q uito’s colo n ial m onum entality. M oreover,
the development o f a h ybrid vern acu lar arch ite ctu re represented not o n ly an
aesthetic innovation but also a response to th e potential pitfalls o f a tigh t m a r­
ket in which representation o f one’s co sm o p o lita n ism and local c o m m itm e n t
proved necessary to navigating E cu adorian elite society and attractin g clien ts
and patrons.
122 \ The Durini Cosmopolis

Lorenzo Durini and “el arte del martillo”

The crucial element o f hybridity, w h ich eventually appeared in the Durinis’

architecture, stem m ed from a d yn am ic fa m ily h istory that h ad th rived on both
sides o f the A tlantic since the m id-nineteenth century. The p atriarch o f the fam­
ily, Giovanni D urini (normally referred to as Ju an in existing docum entation)
was born in Lom bardy but relocated to T rem o n a in the Italian sectio n o f Swit­
zerland as a result o f his involvem ent in R isorgim ento u p risin g s.16 There, the
youth m et his future wife, Elizabetta V a sa lli, w ith whom he h a d tw o sons, Lo­
renzo and Francisco (the Elder). Ju an D u r in i garnered some renow n in Tremona
for his sculpture. However, a regional recession led h im to join th e legions o f ma­
sons, sculptors, and architects im m ig ra tin g to the A m ericas at th e height of the
export boom . M ost o f those em igrating fro m Europe to Latin A m e ric a settled in
the great com m ercial entrepots o f A rg e n tin a , B razil, or M exico. D u rin i was an
exception, instead m igrating to L im a , d u rin g its moment o f g u a n o prosperity,
where he profited from the w him s o f th e freew heeling local soph isticates. He
soon saved enough money to send h is son s back to Genoa to com plete their own
training before returning to Lim a to collaborate w ith their fath er.17
Lorenzo, Juan’s elder son, m arrie d a limeña, Ju ana C áceres, d u rin g this in­
terlude, and the couple returned to T rem o n a in the late 1870s. H is tw o children,
Francisco M anuel and Pedro, were b o rn in the old cou n try b u t w o u ld spend
their form ative years in Costa R ica . T h e fa m ily ’s move to S a n Jo sé stemmed
from the activities o f Lorenzo’s brother, Francisco the Elder, w h o le ft Lim a for
the possibilities afforded by the C en tral A m erican republic’s coffee boom . There,
he developed a niche as an im porter o f h igh -q u ality statu ary a n d mausoleums
from Italy. Lorenzo, h im self an acco m plish ed sculptor, con trib u ted pieces but
increasingly farm ed out contracts to associates in Genoa and Sw itzerland . Once
this system was established enough to w ork independently, he m oved to Costa
Rica. There, the brothers form ed a new firm nam ed D u rin i H erm an o s, whose
rapid turnaround o f high-quality e ffo rts garnered them a local reputation, par­
ticularly am ong Lorenzo’s contacts in freem aso n ry circles. T h e ir greatest re­
nown, however, came as a result o f th e ir fortuitous involvem ent w ith the Costa
Rican N ational Theater.
The theater proved a staging gro u n d fo r the business tech n iq u es the Durini
family w ould later employ to great su ccess in Q uito and is therefore worth dis­
cussing in detail. The project o rigin ated as a result o f a series o f earthquakes in
1888 that destroyed the capital’s e legan t Teatro M ora, also k n o w n as the Mu­
nicipal Theater, a spot frequented b y th e u rb an elite. The event coincided with
a national election during which p residen tial candidate José Jo a q u ín R o d r íg u e z
stressed the im perative o f rebu ild in g a stru ctu re that could sym b o lize the na­
tion’s com m itm ent to arts and cu ltu re . U p on taking office in 18 9 0 , R o d r ig u e z
 The Durini Cosmopolis / 123

Fig. 5.2. Lorenzo D u rin i, S a n José N ational Theater, stairw ell (1897). C ourtesy D urini C ollec­
tion. Museo de la C iu d a d , Q uito.

appointed his son-in-law, Secretary o f War and M in in g Rafael Iglesias, as m an ­

ager o f the project. A no m in ally independent com m ission selected a com posite
Italianate plan incorporating aspects o f several designs subm itted by local arch i­
tects. However, Iglesias preferred to incorporate Beaux A rts decorative elem ents
and challenged the p la n upon his own ascension to the presidency in 1893. T h is
124 \ The Durini Cosmopolis

position bred sustained c o n flict w ith the director o f p u b lic w orks, Nicolás Cha­
va rria , who ultimately resigned fro m his post, the first o f th ree such resignations
over the next two years. In 18 95, the exasperated a d m in istratio n finally looked
abroad, inviting Italian engineer R u y Cristóforo M o lin a ri to repair the damage.
T h e D urini brothers to ok advantage o f this pow er v a c u u m to increase their
profile. The firm had been en gaged w ith the project sin ce 1890, when portions
o f Francisco the Elder’s design h a d been incorporated in to th e initial Italianate
p roposal. D urini H erm anos secu red a subcontract in 1893 to provide stairwells
for the m ain foyer o f th e'theater (fig. 5.2), but, w ith ou t a cen tral overseer on the
p roject, Lorenzo’s role ste a d ily increased. These new responsibilities included
b u ild in g dressing rooms an d p rovid in g ever more s ta tu a ry (including one piece
that h ad originally been d estin e d for a private m au so leu m and accidentally got
w rap ped into the budget). B y th e tim e M olinari a rriv e d , Lorenzo had become
de facto director o f the project a n d was hoping to b e able to continue working
on th e interior. Indeed, th e D u rin is subm itted a p ro p o sa l to finalize their ef­
forts; however, their insisten ce on continuing paym ents to Italian vendors when
p rod ucts h ad yet to be received poisoned the public to th e ir case. The contract
u ltim ately went to M o lin ari’s m ore established firm , b u t the D urinis had suc­
c essfu lly raised their n ation al p rofile.'8
A n o th er by-product w as th e grow ing attention th at Loren zo D urini received
from a fellow mason and p ro m in en t Ecuadorian e x ile, G eneral Leonidas Plaza
G utierrez. Plaza was a m em b er o f Eloy A lfaro’s R a d ic a l L iberal Party who had
left Ecuador for exile in S a n José in 1884 after a failed u p risin g . His fascination
w ith Lorenzo’s statuary led to conversations concerning va st public projects, in­
clu d in g a m agisterial Legislative Palace, that he h o p ed to erect when he finally
retu rn ed to Ecuador. W hen P la z a received news o f th e L ib e ra l Revolution in late
1895 and returned to h is h o m ela n d , Lorenzo and F ran cisco D u rin i expected to
soon follow their friend to tra n sfo rm the A ndean cap ital.
T h is large-scale project lan gu ish ed during the first years o f the Liberal R ev­
olu tion, however, due to c o n tin u in g political strife in E cu a d o r and a growing
r ift betw een Plaza and E lo y A lfa r o over the speed w ith w hich the separation
o f church and state sh ould b e instituted. Plaza’s v ic to r y in the 1901 presiden­
tial elections not only accelerated the passage o f a n ticle rical laws but also led to
h is extended patronage o f th e a rts. Besides estab lish in g th e E B A and recruit­
ing the conservative acad em icist Giácom o R ad iconcin i to h ead its architectural
p rog ram , Plaza hoped to m a k e a dram atic m ark on th e capital by keeping his
pledge to Lorenzo D urini. P la z a soon invited him to su b m it blueprints for a vast
new Legislative Palace.
Loren zo’s blueprints, w h ic h were completed b y P la z a ’s inaugural in 1902,
m et R ad icon cin i’s preconditions by virtue o f his stric t adherence to neoclassical
id io m w hile also bowing to P la z a ’s desire for a m o n u m e n t to secular society.
H owever, the split in L iberal ra n k s m eant that sec u rin g congressional approval
w o uld take tim e, regardless o f th e design’s m erit. P la z a opted to introduce his
 The Durini Cosm opolis / 125

protégés to the capital’s powerbrokers throu gh a back channel in 1902 by inviting

Francisco the Elder to subm it a p ro p o sal for a new waterworks the m u n icip al­
ity had decided to construct. D espite th e deadline for proposals h a vin g passed,
D u r i n i ’s assurance that he could fin d an A m erican partner to p a rtia lly cover the
cost, coupled w ith Plaza’s support, p ersu ad ed the council to accept the D u rin i
application th at December.*9 In Ja n u a ry 1903, Francisco the E ld er traveled to
Quito to sign th e contract, an d d u rin g th is Journey Plaza in tro d u ced h im to
several m em bers o f the traditional an d Liberal elite. The visit secured the com ­
mission for the waterworks; however, it also appears to have le ft Francisco con­
vinced that Plaza had been exaggeratin g local support for the L egislative Palace
project and the availability o f liq u id capital for future com m issions. Indeed, he
warned Lorenzo o f this potential d iffic u lty soon after dep artin g. N evertheless,
his older broth er opted to tru st in th e presiden t’s friendship, an d he em barked
for Quito in June 1903.2°
W hen Lorenzo arrived in the E c u a d o ria n capital, how ever, he soon cam e
to rue his decision. Although he ad m ired the exquisite scu lptu re o f the anony­
mous indigenous craftsm en evident in the city’s fine colonial churches, Fran ­
cisco the E ld er’s assessment o f the c ity ’s problem s appeared accu rate. M odern
façades graced isolated buildings d am aged during the 1868 e arth q u ak e that had
also dem olished the bell towers o f S a n Francisco, yet the m a jo rity o f private
homes still h ad their cru m b lin g c o lo n ia l featu res.21 T he few new stru ctu res
mostly ignored basic tenets o f the E B A ’s historicist ethos, w ith w h ich Lorenzo
was intim ately fam iliar; m ost o b vio u sly flouted was the tenet o f arch itectu ral
cohesion w ith in a single stru ctu re. T h e m u nicipality had attem p ted to regu ­
late this situation in 1890 w ith a zon in g ordinance that called fo r whitewashed
exterior w alls, rounded corners, an d th e inclusion o f ch im n eys rather th an the
open fires th at typically graced the in terio r patios o f colonial hom es as w ell as
informal indigenous c h o z a s T h e m ajo rity o f the population cou ld not afford
the luxuries decreed by a state fascin ated w ith the prospect o f a u n ified archi­
tectural fram ew ork, however, and th u s routinely ignored these strictu res. The
few exceptions, which included F ran cisco S ch m id t’s still u n fin ish e d neoclas­
sical Sucre Theater and M anuel Jijo n ’s m an sion in the n orth w estern environs,
appeared as isolated jewels, u n d erscorin g the difficulty o f m a k in g a livin g as a
society architect.
Lorenzo expressed his deepenin g a n x ie ty in a series o f letters, penned over
the course o f the sum m er o f 1903, in w h ich he bemoaned h is d w in d lin g bank ac­
count and the lack o f a new com m ission .23 He wrote his son Pedro as early as July
30,1903, com plaining o f his fear th at he would need to retu rn to stonem asonry,
which he term ed “el arte del martillo,” w h ich inspired only excru ciatin g headaches.
This strikin g adm ission suggests h is later illness was both p sych olo gical and
physical. H is early September hosp ital stay after spitting up blo od fu rth ers this
interpretation, considering th at h is first correspondence u p o n e xitin g, which
was to his father, highlighted not the p ain but instead the m ed ical b ill o f S/.273
126 \ T h e Durini Cosmopolis

Fig. 5.3. Com m em orative photo o f th e P laza de la Independencia o n the occasion o f the 1906
d ed ication o f the m onum ent. C o u rtesy D u rin i Collection, M u seo d e la C iu d a d , Quito.

that he could not afford.24 In d eed , b y the end o f the m on th , he considered mov­
ing to L im a to work near his fath er since no opportunities h ad yet opened up in
Q u ito .25
A grow in g rift with Fran cisco the Elder, who h ad yet to fin d an American
p a rtn e r fo r the waterworks, exacerbated the situation. A n g r y confrontations
betw een the siblings ended w ith Fran cisco storm ing ou t o f L oren zo s house dur­
ing one o f h is periodic visits to Q u ito and em barking fo r C o sta R ica, vowing to
d issolve the partnership.26 T h ese challenges finally in sp ired Lorenzo to enact a
p la n he h ad long contem plated, one that involved fo rm in g a partnership with
h is son s to com pete for the scan t com m issions available in h is adopted home.
T h is idea appears to have o c c u rre d to h im as early as Ju ly 19 0 3, when he ex­
h orted Pedro to quickly liquidate the com pany in San José an d join him in Quito
as soon as possible.27 Pedro’s b u sin ess background w o u ld provide welcome re­
lie f fro m the d aily grind for Loren zo, yet the key to th e endeavor concerned his
older son, Francisco M an uel, w ho w as then a student at the Instituto Técnico
di M ila n o . A s Lorenzo explain ed in a letter to his fath er that October, forming
the com p an y would allow “ M an u elito ,” who was m ak in g rapid progress through
h is p rogram in M ilan, to su p p lem en t his income w ith side projects and gain
valuable experience as both a d ra fte r and as a liaison w ith Lorenzo s Italian con­
ta cts.28 Unspoken was the sim ple consideration that th e m ove would drastically
 The Durini C osm opolis / 127

Fig. 5.4. D etail o f com m em orative photo o f the P iaza de !a Independencia fro m the centennial
celebrations o f 19 0 9 . C ou rtesy D u rin i C ollection , M u seo d e la C iu dad, Q uito.

decrease L oren zo’s overhead by m in im iz in g the need to hire a representative in

Italy, a critical issue given the fam ily’s u n certain finances.
The o p p o rtu n ity to im plem ent th is p lan cam e w ith the revival o f the long-
dormant m u n icip al project to bu ild a h erald ic colum n celebrating Q uito’s 1809
declaration o f independence from Sp ain . Congress had first approved the effort
in 1888, and M in g h etti, the Salesian p riest, h ad com pleted his design in 1894. In
addition to its w inged Victory, Span ish lio n , and A ndean condor, M in g h etti’s
design featu red bas relief panels d ep ictin g the heroic m artyrs o f the m assacre
of August 2 ,1 8 1 0 (figs. 5.3 and 5.4). M in g h etti joined the m yriad clerical exiles
who left E cu ad o r following the Liberal triu m p h , but after stability returned at
the dawn o f the new century, Plaza p u lle d strings to allow a D u rin i project to
be considered b y the m unicip ality in th e sum m er o f 1903. Loren zo im m ed i­
ately shipped M in g h etti’s diagram s to M ila n for h is son Francisco M anuel to
review. T h e latter reworked the o rigin al project into a classical m odel, soften­
ing several o f the figurative features a fte r consultation with A d riático Froli, a
Milanese scu lptor with whom Lorenzo h a d previously collaborated. He also al­
tered several elem ents to dialogue w ith the surrounding square. T h ese changes
included tran sfo rm in g the central p illa r into an assortm ent o f fou r C orinthian
columns, w h ose orientation toward the corners o f the plaza h elped accentuate
128 \ The Durini Cosm opolis

the monument’s sy m m e try despite its fig u ra l em phasis on the east. T h e shift
also amplified the piece’s cultural specificity b y incorporating a repeatin g global
motif along the base’s perim eter, thus both rein forcin g the balance betw een the
monument and the p laza and also trading u p o n the nation’s and the c ity ’s equa­
torial associations. T h e global m otif was rep eated at the apex, where it served as
a base for the w inged V ictory herself. Both o f these elements m ight h ave been
Lorenzo’s suggestion, given the recent a rriv a l o f the second French Geodesic
Mission, which had reintroduced the idea o f th e c ity ’s global cen trality into the
national public sphere.
Given the conceptual strength o f F ran cisco M an u el’s final d esign fo r the
project, Lorenzo persuaded him to visit Q u ito to present the plans in the name
of L. Durini & H ijos, the new com pany he h op ed would replace th e disinte­
grating Durini H erm an o s. Francisco m ad e the trip from M ila n , m a k in g a
strong pitch to a closed-door session o f the m u n icip a l council in M a rc h 1904.
Surprisingly, given the inclusion o f prop osals b y the likes o f Frédéric-A uguste
Bartholdi, fam ed d esigner o f New Y ork ’s S ta tu e o f Liberty, D u r in i’s scheme
emerged victorious, p artly as a result o f its m oderate price tag.29 A n o th er im por­
tant facet appears to have been the burgeoning frien d sh ip between Pedro D urini
and the young entrepreneur Genaro L arrea, w h o recently had taken th e reins of
the committee in charge o f the project. A co n tract followed in M ay, w h ich ap­
peared to secure the first lin k in a num ber o f fu tu re endeavors.30
The new com pany proved to be m ore su c c essfu l than D u rin i H erm anos,
partly because o f Plaza’s continued support b u t also because o f a sym b iotic busi­
ness model. Despite w orsening stomach illn e ss, Lorenzo operated as th e chief
sales representative, given his contacts in th e u p p er echelon o f the governm ent.
For example, in 1905, he secured congressional support for his d esign s for the
new Legislative Palace and also a new c o m m issio n to erect a sm a ll m u n icip al
market on the north side o f the city, in the S a n B ias neighborhood. T h ese works
were accentuated b y Francisco M an u el’s fin ish in g touches, sent fro m M ilan ,
where he had returned to continue his stu d ies. There, he acted as a lia iso n with
local artisans, p urch ased lu xu ry m aterials su ch as marble and iron elem ents,
and continued to refine h is drafting tech n iq u es. For exam ple, he collaborated
with Froli on the revision o f the design for th e interior o f the Legislative Palace
that was finally accepted b y the Congress, in th e process accentuating ornam en­
tal elements to take advantage o f the sc u lp to r’s idiom . Back in Q u ito , Pedro
provided logistical su pp ort for the co o rd in atio n o f m aterial tra n sp o rt w ithin
the country and courted influential young peo ple, involving them as a resource
for the design team . A case in point can be seen in an expedition he o rgan ized to
hunt an Andean condor w ith the objective o f em balm ing it to send to A d riático
Froli, who had a poor grasp o f the physiognom y o f the bird. A lth ou gh no condor
was found, the expedition helped cement P ed ro’s local contacts an d reputation
as a sporting aficionado, which would later p rove advantageous.3'
But the spirit o f collaboration could not h elp the firm contend w ith the grave
 T h e D urini Cosmopolis / 129

litical situation that d evelo ped in 1906. Plaza’s te rm in office ended in S e p ­

tember 1905, when his h an d-picked successor, L izard o G a rc ía , cam e to power.
A l f a r o ’s wing o f the p a rty h a d nothing but contem pt fo r th is new leader an d
s o o n staged a local in su rre ctio n . B y January 1906, th e su p p ort for G arcía h a d
diminished, leading to A lfa r o ’s successful coup. H is re tu rn to power led to the
e x ile o f his opponents, in clu d in g Leonidas Plaza. For th e D u rin is, these events
abruptly removed their p rim a ry patron, whose backin g h a d secured their m ost
lucrative contracts. The new adm inistration quickly p u lle d the funding for the
L e g is la t iv e Palace, by fa r th e m o st exorbitant o f P laza’s prom ised com m issions.
By A pril 1906, the state h ad defau lted on its paym ent fo r even the initial studies,
and the firm faced a serious fisca l crisis.32
These pressures took th e ir to ll on Lorenzo, w hose stom ach ailm ent, w hich
was probably cancer, w orsened to the point that he fin a lly acceded to fa m ilia l
requests that he return to Ita ly for m edical treatm ent. Fran cisco M anuel opted
to interrupt his studies a g a in an d return to Q uito to oversee the final elevation
of the monument while h is fath er prepared to travel to M ila n for treatm ent an d
to manage the Italian con n ection s. Lorenzo’s w eakened state did not, however,
stop him from continuing to o ffer his son su ggestions for fu tu re projects, in ­
cluding a lengthy epistle con cern in g a project to en close a park in R io bam ba
honoring the eighteenth-century cartographer Pedro V icente M aldonado, the
design o f which was also tied to the com m em oration o f L a C o nd am ine’s v o y ­
age.33 His trepidation con cern in g the journey and com m itm en t to the ind epen­
dence monument led to a clandestine stay in G u ayaq u il follow ing M an u el’s a r­
rival. Only when the m on u m en t was dedicated on A u g u st 10 ,19 0 6 , did Lorenzo
Durini finally embark fo r M ila n . He died there the follow in g October.34

Cosmopolitanism as Com m odity

Lorenzo’s death presented a m ajor challenge for th e D u rin i firm . Faced w ith
the prospect o f d im in ish in g retu rn s, given the tigh t arch itectu ral m arket, the
brothers spent the next several years attem pting to d iv e rsify operations, w ith
mixed results. Pedro, who h a d lon g been charged w ith coordinating the firm ’s
finances, attempted to d evelo p a store specializin g in lu x u ry and im po rted
goods, particularly sp o rtin g accessories. A lthough h is contacts am ong the cap i­
tal’s playboys did not ga rn er enough income for th is endeavor to succeed, th ey
did bring him several com m ission s for m ausoleum s, w h ich proved a relatively
profitable but enervating ven tu re, ultim ately abandoned.
Francisco continued to stress the technical e x p e rtise he h ad gained in M i­
lan when wooing clients, b u t, u n lik e his brother, he sou gh t local, hybrid m ean s
of nourishing his business. T h is involved deepening h is relationships w ith the
municipality, the national governm ent, and the elite, w hose ranks he u n equ ivo­
cally joined following h is 19 08 m arriage to Rosa Palacios. He also developed an
130 \ The Durini C osm opolis

a r t i s a n a l w o rk sh o p t o p r o d u c e le sse r - g ra d e s t a t u a r y a n d w o od w ork in o r d e r to
c u r b th e c o s ts a s s o c i a t e d w ith th e h ig h ly t r a n s n a t i o n a l o p e r a tio n t h a t L o re n z o
h a d fa v o re d . E v e n tu a lly t h e s e d e c isio n s w o u ld l e a d t o s h i f t s in h is a r c h ite c tu ra l
s e n s ib ilit y , w h ich d e v e l o p e d a h y p h e n a te d A n d e a n - I t a l i a n v e r n a c u la r . T h e
t e c h n iq u e s th a t e a c h o f t h e D u r in is d e p lo y e d t o s c r a p e to g e th e r c o m m is s io n s
in a t ig h t m a r k e t t h u s b u i l t u p o n c u ltiv a te d p e r s o n a s a s c o s m o p o lit a n a r tis ts
a n d te c h n ic ia n s. A D u r i n i s t r u c t u r e re p re se n te d m o r e t h a n a b u ild in g — it rep ­
r e s e n te d a w ay o f life d e f in e d b y a m o d e r n s e n s ib ilit y t h a t w a s c o n s tr u c te d w ith
m o d e r n te c h n iq u e s.
Pedro D urini, in p a rtic u la r, tended a rep u tatio n as a detached cosm opolite
w ith a flair for ad ven tu re th at dovetailed w ith h is com m ercial interests in im­
p o rtin g lu xu ry goods. A s a you th o f sixteen he h a d le ft C osta Rica to develop an
im p o rt store in G u a te m a la , w h ich su m m arily fa ile d . Undeterred, as the century
d aw n ed he traveled to H am b u rg — then one o f th e w o rld 's largest p o rts, with
sh ipp in g com panies tra d in g w ith South A m e ric a, A fr ic a , and A sia— to perfect
h is business acum en. H e stu d ied at its u n iversity, took advantage o f the city’s
sp o rtin g culture, and p erfected his linguistic sk ills (he could com petently speak
a n d w rite French, G e rm a n , Italian , Spanish, a n d English ). He also appears to
h ave engaged w ith th e a rch itectu ral inn ovation s develo pin g am ong th e Wag­
n e r school in V ien n a a n d w as m ost likely th e so u rce o f a series o f m agazines
on th is work that u ltim a te ly found their way in to Fran cisco D u rin i’s p rivate li­
brary. Upon his retu rn to S an José in 1902, Pedro su ccessfu lly acted as business
m an ag er for the fa m ily firm w h ile also d ab b lin g in ready-m ade construction
m aterials purchased fro m Europe and the U n ited States.55 H is sm all inventory
o f m arble and iron o rn a m e n ts, paint, and w o o d w o rk in g tools followed h im to
E c u a d o r in early 19 0 5, a n d th ey becam e the b a sis fo r a'store that w as soon an
im p o rtan t side venture fo r the firm .’6 A s early a s S ep tem b er 1905, L . D u rin i &
H ijos was filling orders fo r extensive interior rem od elin g. A particularly adven­
tu rous client, M igu el P áez, decided to outfit h is en tire hom e, including a dining
ro o m , various sittin g ro o m s, and a m usic ro o m (w ith piano). Páez picked the
desired items out o f a c a ta lo g featuring the p ro d u cts o f distributors as far-flung
as Paris, H am burg, an d N ew York but that were d eliverable w ithin a scan t seven
m onths.37
T h e store operated la rge ly as a sideline fo r P ed ro, who appears to have de­
voted m ost o f his tim e to sp o rt and leisure. T h ese activities, however, expanded
h is social contacts a n d e v e n tu a lly led to h is first independent com m issions.
Soo n after arriving in Q u ito, he helped organize a n d fou n d the Polo C lu b at the
H ippodrom e in the c ity ’s north ern environs. T h e re , he and his fellow playboys,
in clu d in g his brother F ran cisco , in co n gru ou sly d em o n strated E u ropean flair
w ith overly long polo m a lle ts ill suited for u se w ith m in u scu le A n d ean horses
(fig. 5.5). Pedro also fen ced , h ik ed , and, in A p ril 19 0 7, founded the A n d es Tennis
C lu b , which today is th e old est country club in th e city.38
 The D urini Cosmopolis / 131

pig. 5.5. Pedro D u rin i, one o f the fo u n d ers o f the Polo Club at the H ipp od rom e, w ith his long
European m allet and m inuscule A n d e a n polo pony. Courtesy D u rin i C ollection , M useo de la
Ciudad, Quito.

Pedro D urini’s style appears to have endeared him to the quiteno upper crust
and made him one o f the risin g stars o f a widespread m ovem ent geared toward
adopting a sophisticated c u ltu re o f leisure. The new leisure class provided a
source o f amusement and a n a tu ra l clientele for the lavish m ausoleum s Pedro
designed. The earliest and the best know n o f these projects cam e to him through
his debonair colleague G enaro L arrea, whose im portant role in the realization
of the independence m onum ent has already been noted. A fte r Larrea’s father,
Teodoro, perished while visitin g C an nes in 1905, the you ng m an persuaded his
mother, Teresa Valdivieso, to h ire Pedro to build a fin a l resting place in San
Diego cemetery, home to the rem ain s o f Quito’s best fam ilies.39
Pedro had already established his credentials as a producer o f m ausoleums
when, following his fath er’s illn e ss, he completed anoth er S an Diego resting
place that Lorenzo had d esign ed fo r the Palacios fam ily. Pedro now worked
diligently on the Larrea com m ission in the hope that he w ould be able to set
up an independent operation sp ecializin g in these elaborate m onum ents. He
presented more than a th ousan d draw ings to M rs. L arrea, who proved to be a
particularly finicky patron. S h e fin ally chose a p articu larly lovely plan featur­
ing a winged angel resting b y a cross, her head propped up b y her left arm , her
132 \ The D urini Cosmopolis

Fig. 5.6. P ed ro D u rin i, Larrea M ausoleum (1908). C ourtesy D u rin i C o llectio n , M u seo d e la
C iudad, Q uito.

right a rm ly in g still against h er b o d y, holding a garland (fig. 5.6). By January

1907, Pedro h a d sent the designs to h is brother, who h ad re tu rn e d to M ilan, to
share w ith h is schoolmate, Pietro C a p u rro , who had becom e the firm ’s prim ary
sculptor follow in g Lorenzo’s illn e ss an d death. Last-m in ute ad d itio n s by the
Larreas a rriv e d in a num ber o f o th er letters, including tw o on Ja n u a ry 16, and
the clients’ num erous specifications an d fears that the piece w o u ld be less than
adequate b egan to frustrate P edro.40 W hen the fam ily decided th at they wanted
 The Durini Cosm opolis / 133

the mausoleum project com pleted earlier th a n o rig in a lly planned, Pedro b egan
to p a n ic . He thus exh o rted Francisco to en ergize C ap u rro while also cau tion in g
the s c u lp to r to tak e p artic u la r care with th is piece, given the' recent a rriv a l in
Q u ito of his form er riv a l, Carlo Libero V alen te, w hom Pedro feared w o u ld tr y
to t a r n is h C apurro’s local reputation. M ore d isa stro u s news followed w hen one
of the angel’s w in gs broke o ff during packing— luckily, the dam age w as m inor.
A lt h o u g h it took u n til the following A p ril fo r th e th irty-five crates h o ld in g the
w o rk to reach G u a y a q u il, they arrived sa fe ly in Q uito by M ay 1908 an d were
quickly assem bled.41
Pedro’s d ifficulties m anaging the w him s o f h is patrons and designers illu m i­
nate several o f the obstacles that needed to be overcom e in order to su ccessfu lly
manage the type o f transnational operation th e D u rin is ran. C h ief am o n g these
w e re the frequent h in d ran ces to the sh ipp in g o f b u ild in g m aterials, sta tu ary ,
ornament, ironw ork, an d so forth. W hile th ese often stem m ed fro m u n a v o id ­
able transportation problem s, they resulted in p rod u ction delays. T o fo restall
impatient clients lik e the Larreas, the com p an y took precautionary m easu res to
avoid defaulting on th eir contracts or ru n n in g over budget. These p recau tio n ary
practices began d u rin g Lorenzo’s era as a re su lt o f the problem s that h ad cost
Durini Herm anos th e com m ission on th e N a tio n a l Theater but b ecam e co d i­
fied when it appeared th at his frequent collaborator, A driático Froli, w o u ld not
be able to com plete h is work on the in d epen d en ce m onum ent on tim e. W ith
Pedro’s help, Lorenzo com piled a copybook rep rod u cin g the entire series o f co n ­
tracts and correspondence w ith the scu lptor in preparation for p o ssib ly su in g
him for breach o f contract, which was u ltim a tely unnecessary in that in sta n ce .42
A more problem atic situation developed w ith regard to C apurro, F ran cisco ’s
intimate friend fro m h is days studying in M ila n . T h e two had first collaborated
on a monument to th e poet, Juan M ontalvo, in the central A ndean c ity o f A m -
bato. The design featu red a bronze statue o f th e liberal w riter atop a p ed e sta l,
quill in hand, w ith a m arble Apollo secretively crouchin g over h is ly re below
so as to share h is in tim ate knowledge on ly w ith the genius h im se lf.43 E ven at
this early stage, a m ild conflict developed as C a p u rro ’s paym ents w ere delayed
during the 1908 fisca l crisis. The friends co n tin u ed to collaborate over the n ext
three years un til C a p u rro subm itted his o w n design for a m onum ent th at w as
to be erected in L a ta cu n ga to honor a d eceased philanth rop ist n am ed V icente
León. The fact th at th e design was subm itted th rou gh the E cuadorian co n su l in
Genoa, Leonidas P allares A rteta, whom F ran cisco h ad introduced to C ap u rro ,
compounded h is sense o f betrayal. Fran cisco th u s q uickly drafted h is ow n d e ­
sign, along w ith a n extensive letter to the h e a d o f the com m ittee e x p la in in g
his philosophy as an architect. The c u ltivatio n o f the client worked; F ran cisco
was granted the com m ission . However, the b reach w ith Capurro delayed oth er
projects until an ad eq u ate replacement w as fo u n d the follow ing y e a r (1912) in
another Italian, R ica rd o B. Espinosa.44
Francisco’s r e s p o n s e to th is on going d iffic u lt y b u ilt u p o n a s o lu tio n h is f a ­
134 \ The D urini Cosmopolis

ther had in itiated soon after arrivin g in Q uito, which was to d ev elo p h is own
workshop. A t first, this enterprise w as dedicated to w oodw orking, w ith a focus
on furniture m ak in g , but it u ltim ately developed into a m ore ro u n d ed enter­
prise. Francisco’s developm ent o f th is w o rksh op was facilitated b y the growing
availability o f trained m asons and a rtisa n s who studied at the E scu ela de Artes
y Oficios. Som e o f these individuals becam e long-term collaborators, such as the
stonecutter Pedro Condor, who w o u ld becom e best know n fo r h is w ork in the
1920s on the C ircu lo M ilitar, a social fa c ility bankrolled by the a rm e d forces and
featuring an orn ate stone façade and in terio r décor with A n d ean m o tifs, such as
the repeated im age o f a condor, evoking the national coat o f a rm s.45 T h ese skilled
workers contributed greatly to d im in ish in g the reliance on fo reign artisan s ex­
cept for the m ost delicate o f tasks. M oreover, D urin i took advan tage o f his own
technical sk ills as an engineer to lim it h is expenditures. He h a d acqu ired this
technical know ledge during his stu d ies in M ila n , where the In stitu to Tecnico
represented th e on ly institution in Ita ly w here one could sim u ltan eo u sly learn
the craft o f the designer and that o f th e capomaestro, or m aster bu ild er. This
multifaceted exp ertise allowed Fran cisco to build a reputation as a n engineer as
well as an arch itect, which expanded h is opportunities in the A n d e a n citadel.46
One o f th e m ost im portant clients Fran cisco courted as an e n gin eer was the
Quito m un icip ality, which respected h is talents as a result o f h is efforts with
the colum n to independence but w h ich still harbored some resen tm en t toward
the fam ily fo llo w in g the w aterw orks debacle. The city go ve rn m en t hoped to
beautify Q uito fo r the 1909 cen ten n ial an d as a result engaged in a number
o f im provem ents to the local in fra stru c tu re an d recreational space. Francisco
D u rin i’s M ila n e se experience w o rkin g w ith iron helped p ersu a d e the m unici­
pality to hire L. D u rin i & Hijos to b u ild m onum ental gates en closin g the Plaza
de la Independencia as part o f the p a r k ’s reconstruction in 19 0 5. Follow ing his
father’s d eath , Fran cisco took the le ad o n th is project and a lso persu ad ed the
body to gran t h im and his brother o th er sm all jobs, such as le velin g the streets
around the p la z a and quickly b u ild in g a m odest m arketplace in th e northern
neighborhood o f S an Bias. Francisco com pleted the latter ahead o f schedule and
under budget as a result o f a successfu l negotiation o f a 50 percent reduction in
the transportation costs o f m aterials fro m G u ayaqu il to Q uito.47
These m in o r contracts began to p ay o ff in Novem ber 1906, w h en Francisco
was hired as a consultant to ascertain the possibility o f renovating th e municipal
headquarters. In his report, D u rin i arg u e d that any attem pt to sim p ly provide
a m odernizing facelift would fail b ecau se the w alls could not su p p o rt an addi­
tional story an d because the proportions o f the façade were u n b a la n ced and did
not follow “el estilo queostenta” (the style it purports). A s such, he recommended
razing the C a sa M un icipal, e x p ro p ria tin g som e adjacent la n d , a n d im m edi­
ately in itiatin g a contest to design a n appropriate venue for th e au gu st body.
The budget w o u ld be substantial: S /.12 0 ,0 0 0 . Although there w a s in itially some
resistance to h is suggestions, an im p assio n ed speech by the procurador sindico
 The Durini Cosmopolis / 135

( secutor) associatin g D u r in i’s recom m endation w ith the advent o f m o d er­

nity and the necessary transform ation o f Q uito in accord with the advancem ent
of humanity persuaded the council o f the need fo r urgent action.«* T h eir first
move was to hire D u rin i as m unicipal engineer to oversee the im plem entation
of public construction an d p lan s for a new p alace, w hich D urini executed ac­
c o r d in g to a n eo-R en aissan ce m odel that w as in lin e w ith the ideal o f u rb an
order and governance. A lth o u gh the b u ild in g’s cost proved to be prohibitive,
i t remained one o f D u r in i’s favorite designs an d opened up private interest in

his workmanship and e x p e rtise.49 A s early as 1907, he w as consulted to approve

plans for Ram ón B arb a N aran jo’s house on the P laza G rande, which featu red
interior patios and an iron-and-glass roof and also provided a facelift to a v illa
belonging to Carlos A lva re z .
While Francisco ap p ears to have cem ented h is position as an established
architect by 1907, Pedro’s design program la n gu ish e d over the next two years.
He did receive anoth er com m ission for a m au so leu m in Am bato, but h is tra ­
vails persuaded h im to d iv e rsify his entrepreneurial activities, still his greatest
strength. In A pril 19 08, he began im porting sam p les o f photographic e q u ip ­
ment from Dresden, ta k in g advantage o f h is G e rm a n contacts. This w as fo l­
lowed with a flu rry o f lu x u r y sporting goods, in clu d in g billiard supplies fro m
New York, tennis b a lls an d tennis shoes from N ew O rleans and London, an d ,
randomly, cardboard boxes, also from New O rleans. N ew construction m ateri­
als such as bulk cem ent cam e next, along w ith typ ew riters and ever m ore p ara­
phernalia for the rap id ly expand ing Andes T e n n is C lu b.50 In the m idst o f th is
flurry o f com m ercial p la n n in g , for reasons not fu lly clear, Pedro opted to retu rn
to Costa Rica in 1909 to establish his new store. Fran cisco the Elder, however,
had begun to operate m ore extensively in oth er C en tral A m erican republics
and in Mexico, w hich lim ited Pedro’s prospects in S an José and forced h im to
return em pty-handed to E cu ad o r in 1911. H is a rriv a l in Guayaquil coincided
with a m ilitary u p rising again st President A lfa ro ,'w h o se term was just com in g
to a close but who w as not w illin g to give u p pow er peacefu lly. The im pu lsive
Pedro joined the m ilitias attem pting to overthrow the president. In the en su ing
coastal cam paign, he caugh t yellow fever, p erish in g in February 1912 at the age
of twenty-nine.
Ironically, Pedro’s rootless and erratic final years ultim ately led him back to
Quito as a result o f F ran cisco’s integration w ith in the quiteño elite. The Palacios
family, one-time patro n s w hose m ausoleum Pedro h im se lf had com pleted in
1906, offered their son -in -law the option to h ave h is brother share the fa m ily
crypt. Pedro’s rem ains w ere d u tifu lly tran sferred to Q uito and buried in the
San Diego cem etery in close proxim ity to his m ost accom plished architectural
work.5’ Henceforth, F ran cisco ’s developing h y b rid ity w ould become the w atch­
word o f Durini con stru ction in Ecuador’s capital. Increasingly, his engagement
with the city’s culture w o u ld im pact his architectu ral experim ents as well as his
commercial exploits.
136 \ T he Durini Cosmopolis

Beyond Historicism

W hen the D urinis a rriv e d in Ecuador, they faced m a n y com m ercial chal­
lenges— difficulties that th e y w ere able to overcom e b y con vin cin g clients of
the q u a lity o f their technical tra in in g and by cultivatin g an air o f m odern cos­
m opolitanism . They also h a d the advantage o f being able to insert themselves
seam lessly into the m ain stre a m o f Ecuadorian arch itecto n ic circles by virtue
o f th eir facility within the a cad e m icist style then in vo g u e in the capital. The
p o p u larity o f this academ icist style was partly due to th e prevalence o f positiv­
ist p hilosop h y w ithin state circles as well as to the presence and influence of
G iacom o Radiconcini in the E scu ela de Bellas A rtes. L oren zo’s extensive expe­
rience working within h isto ric ist traditions h ad served th e D u rin is well in this
regard, as did Francisco’s tra in in g in M ilan, a city w ell kn ow n for its conserva­
tive architectural clim ate. H ow ever, by the early 19 10 s, Fran cisco had begun to
alter h is tectonic language to tak e m ore advantage o f th e possibilities o f modern
con stru ction techniques, in c lu d in g the use o f pou red concrete and an altered
fo rm a l language that b e g a n to be influenced by a rt n ou veau elem ents. These
changes would be incorporated into the Pasaje R o yal a n d developed further in
h is m ature eclectic works, p a rtic u la rly in com m ercial b u ild in gs such as the Cir-
cu lo M ilita r and the B anco d el Pichincha h ead q u arters alon g with the m any
residential villas that dotted th e M ariscal and other p a rts o f the old city.
A lth o u gh Francisco D u r in i never fu lly abandoned the form al language of
European historicism, these later structures m arked h is increased desire to form
a seam less integration w ith e x istin g buildings in th e case o f those in the centro
and a grow ing interest in ever m ore elaborate and im agin ative ornam entation in
the new villas. This g rad u a l change was partly a resu lt o f h is personal interests
but largely developed fro m h is deepening involvem ent w ith in the social circles
o f h is adopted hom eland. O ver the next two decades, therefore, D u rin i emerged
as a practitioner o f what o u gh t to be considered a h yph en ated architecture that
incorporated his roots in E u ro p ean historicism an d sen sitivity to the whim s of
h is new compatriots and clientele.
T h e projects that L o ren zo D u rin i had arranged fo r h is sons had ru n their
course b y 1912, a year th at m u st have been traum atic fo r Francisco due to not
o n ly Pedro’s death but a lso th e recent alienation o f P ietro Capurro. Francisco
em erged from this crisis w ith help from the P alacios fa m ily , who acceded to
h is request to build on th e ir la n d a m assive shopping arcade, the Pasaje Royal.
T h e piece was indebted to th e great nineteenth-century passages and in particu­
la r responded to M ilan ’s G a lle r ia Vittorio E m anuele II, w ith which Francisco
w o u ld have been quite fa m ilia r from his school days. A t the sam e tim e, however,
its scale and approach to orn a m e n t m arked a great d ep artu re from Francisco s
 The Durini C osm opolis / 137

earlier h isto ric ist work. It was b y fa r the largest com m ercial establish m en t in
the city, w ith dozens o f stores, a theater, restaurants, and cafes— a p lace to see
and be seen. For a tim e, the Pasaje w as Q u ito’s tallest b u ild in g , w ith its four
stories ou tstrip p in g the horizontality o f a city whose p roxim ity to several fault
lines still lim its its potential for a ve rtic a l cityscape. In addition, it incorporated
aspects o f contem p orary m ovem ents in its use o f art nouveau’s decorative lan ­
guage in the floral designs affixed to th e entrance archway and first-floor lintels
along with the use o f Secessionist-inspired display cases and ligh tin g fixtu res in
the interior.
The m ove from a conventional h isto ric ism toward an eclectic approach ref­
erencing the early m odernist m ovem ents probably had been brew in g for som e
time but b een delayed by the need to fu lfill Lorenzo’s c o m m issio n s. Pedro
Durini m ay h ave been an early sou rce o f interest in the revo lu tio n ary form al
language o f th e Jugendstil, as h is stu d ie s in H am burg (1899—1902) coincided
with the m o ve m en t’s beginnings, a n d he w as m ost likely th e p ro cu rer o f the
several early issues o f Der Architect th a t b ecam e part o f the D u rin i library. These
journals featu red a variety o f designs fro m the W agner school, in clu d in g works
by Josef H o ffm a n n and Joze Plecnik a m o n g others. By the tim e o f h is a rrival in
Milan the follow in g year, Francisco w o u ld have been well aware o f the inn ova­
tions occurring in Europe.
Moreover, he cam e to the L o m b ard m etropolis im m ediately a fte r th e 1902
Turin exposition o f decorative art, w h ich established the Italian presence o f art
nouveau, k n ow n locally as stile floreale o r stile Liberte. A lthough it is u n lik e ly that
he experienced the exhibit firsthand, he w o u ld surely have b een exp o sed to its
repercussions w ith in the M ilanese a rc h ite c tu ra l establishm ent and b een fa ­
miliar with the vangu ard production th a t figures such as R aim o n d o D ’A ronco,
Joseph O lbrich, and Charles R ennie M ack in to sh unveiled th at year. He w ould
certainly have experienced the M ila n e se experim entation o f G iu sepp e Som m a-
ruga’s Palazzo Gastiglione (1901—1903), w ith its flam boyant th ree-d im ensional
floral decor.52 O ver the next several y e ars, Francisco appears to have continued
reading abou t th e new style in m a g a z in e s such as L’Edilisia M oderna an d to
have secured th e com m em orative issu e o f L’A rchittetura Italiana d ed icated to
the 1911 w o rld ’s fair in Turin. He a lso p rocu red a copy o f E m erich Fellin ger’s
Das moderne Zim m er (1907), which fea tu re d Secessionist fu rn itu re and interior
decoration an d w hich could be show n to clients w ishing to p arta k e o f the m ost
contemporary innovations.53
D urin i’s venture into a hybrid b len d o f his.toricism and th e stirrin g s o f a
modernist aesthetic reflected these in flu e n ces, introduced a new fo rm a l la n ­
guage into the city, and established h im as an independent voice exp an d in g the
possibilities o f local architecture beyon d th e academ icism o f the E scu ela de Bel­
las Artes. The m unicipal council m em bers, w ith whom D urini still enjoyed close
contacts, reified this position by presen tin g h im w ith an award in 1915— the re-
138 \ T h e Durini Cosmopolis

Fig. 5.7. Fran cisco D urin i, C írcu lo M ilita r under con struction (1920s). Note also the pilaster
a d o rn m e n t on the crum bling co lo n ial next door. C ourtesy D u rin i C o llectio n , M useo de la
C iu d a d , Q uito.

cen tly approved Premio al O rn ato . T he popularity o f h is arcade as a nexus for the
p erfo rm an ce o f m odernity a lso persuaded other patro n s to place new projects in
h is h a n d s. T h e earliest con tract cam e from the C írcu lo M ilitar, a social club or­
g a n iz e d in 1916 by officers fro m the arm ed forces. President A lfred o Baquerizo
M oren o granted the group the exclusive use o f an e xistin g structure to develop
as a gatherin g space, a p ro ject th at the group’s d irecto r, G eneral Moisés Oliva,
o p ted to grant to Francisco D u rin i. A s in his 1906 negotiation s with the munici­
p a l co u n cil, the architect m ain ta in ed that the e xtan t stru ctu re would be unable
to b ear the load o f a third sto ry. T h is tim e, the b u ild in g w as prom ptly razed to the
g ro u n d — a reflection o f the g ro w th in his reputation over the intervening decade.
 The Durini C osm opolis / 139

Although th e plans for the new stru ctu re were approved in 1917, it took u n­
til 1926 for th e b u ild in g to open for p u blic functions, while fin al touches were
implemented as late as 1936. The re su ltin g facility was the m ost d ram atic ex­
pression o f leisu re space in Quito and soon becam e a favorite spot not on ly for
the m ilitary b u t also for private galas a n d state balls. The ground floor boasted
spacious reception h alls and a fine restau ran t while amenities such as a library
and guest ro om s were to be found on th e second story.
The C írcu lo M ilita r (fig. 5.7) represented the first o f D u rin i’s structures to
extensively featu re regional m aterials a n d the craftsm anship o f local artisan s;
it was a strategy th at anticipated the incorporation o f autochthonous m ateri­
als by architects lik e M exico’s Juan O ’G o rm an in his search for an alternative
modernism d u rin g the 1930s.54 Its façad e evoked the city’s colonial architecture
through the incorporation o f andesite, a light-gray stone used extensively in La
Compañía an d in the central nave o f S a n Francisco but which h ad fallen into
disuse until a new q u arry in L atacu n ga w as inaugurated in the early tw enti­
eth century. D u rin i had already experim en ted with this stone in the base for a
statue o f A n to n io José de Sucre that s till sits before the Santo D om ingo m on­
astery, and he chose it for its relationship to the city’s m onum ents. W hile the
main thrust o f the façade thus referenced the past, its tectonic and decorative
elements addressed the present and fu tu re. The fram e as well as the ro o f incor­
porated the first local usage o f reinforced concrete, which was left untreated on
the roof. The lintels and capitals o f the second floor included three-dim ensional
floral ornam entation typical o f stile floreale w hile the m ain iron-and-glass door
was based on a design by Joseph Trier, a fu rn itu re m an ufacturer then residing
in Darmstadt, hom e o f the fam ed Ju gen d stil colony and Technical University.55
This door, however, was not an elaborate im port, as would have been the case
only a few years earlier, but was instead the product o f local sculptors Segundo
Ortiz and M anuel A yala, who also cast th e letters identifying the b u ild in g above
the central arch and the bronze condors on the interior stairw ells. T h e latter, a
late addition to the plan, expanded the b u ild in g’s stylistic m elange b y evoking
art deco’s geom etric abstraction. T he lu sh interior palate in golds and browns
accentuated the bronze ornam entation w h ile an iron-and-glass cu po la provided
a dance o f natural light typical o f a D u rin i structure.
This m erger o f autochthonous m a te ria ls and nationalist sym b olog y with
a dynamic eclecticism incorporating a rt d e co an d stile floreale m o tifs also per-
meated D u rin i’s other major com m ercial structure from this era— the Banco
del Pichincha headquarters (fig. 5.8). Fo u n d ed in 1906, the bank h ad been wait­
ing to build a central location for som e years and had co n d u cte d p relim in ary
% talks with D u rin i a s early as 1916. U ltim ately, regional com petition w ith the

. G u ayaquil-based Banco A grícola, w h ich co m p le te d its head qu arters in 1920,

gave the project greater urgency and led to D u rin i s being hired. T h e building
was to rise at the c o rn e r o f Garcia M oren o and Sucre streets, a d ja c e n t to the
140 \ T h e D u rin i Cosmopolis

Fig. 5.8. F ra n c isc o D u rin i, Banco del P ic h in c h a (1920s). C ou rtesy D u rin i C o lle c tio n , M useo de
la C iudad, Q u ito .

ancient C o m p a ñ ía de Jesus church. T h e narrow ness o f the lot a n d surrounding

streets n ecessitated an irregular d e sig n th at D u rin i sought to d eem ph asize so
as to relate to th e sym m etry o f th e fa ç a d e o f the Jesuit m o n u m e n t n ext door.
He u ltim ately selected a neoclassical p la n that was folded alon g th e intersection
so as to p ro v id e a monumental e n try w a y that w ould exist in d ia lo g u e w ith the
convent. A s in the Círculo M ilitar, D u r in i chose to use andesite as thè prim ary
tectonic elem en t, which deepened its relationship with the tem ple.
The d o m in a n t entrance from th e c o rn er o f Garcia M oreno a n d Su cre streets
begins w ith a n elegant stone stairw ay lead in g to a doorway fla n k e d b y tw o Doric
colum ns su p p o rtin g the entablature. A n g u la r condors evoking a n early art deco
aesthetic fla n k the curved architrave, g u a rd in g a pair o f fre ersta n d in g caryatids
that hold a lo ft electric torches illu m in a tin g a metope (initially p la n n ed to iden­
tify the b a n k in g establishment) th a t w a s left blank until the b u ild in g passed to
the C en tral B an k in 1929. A n o rie n ta list them e, perhaps in sp ire d b y D ’Aronco,
can also b e identified in the m in aret-lik e tu rrets on the n o rth e rn façad e. A s in
the C írcu lo M ilita r, these elements resp o n d ed to continental tren d s, as d id the
 The Durini C osm opolis / 141

which w ere dom inated by a c u rv e d stairw ell in gran ite, m arble, and
in te rio rs ,
an d esite. The vast low er level com prised te lle rs’ windows fram ed in iron, again
the workmanship o f local artisans, while th e second floor com prised offices and
meeting spaces. A s in 1916, the com pletion o f the building and its re sp e c tfu l at­
titude toward the venerable Jesuit church, L a C om pañía, won the c ity ’s highest
architectural p rize u p on its completion in 19 24 .56
These prom inent accolades expanded D u r in i’s visibility at precisely the m o ­
ment in which p rivate com m issions b e g a n to balloon as a resu lt o f th e c ity ’s
northward push in th e 1920s and 1930s. D u r in i q uickly engaged the new m arket,
completing two Italian ate villas, the T re n to an d the Trieste, b y 19 22, correctly
gauging the sh ift in dem and. His p rom inence was accentuated b y h is ties to the
military and m u n icip ality; these two stru c tu re s appeared as beacons o f m od er­
nity on the Battle o f Pichincha com m em orative m ap elaborated b y these groups.
The lower prices associated with D u r in i’s m atu re structures as a resu lt o f his
growing use o f lo c a l m aterials and c ra fts m e n (many o f whom w o rk ed in h is
woodworking studios) also attracted clients desiring to advertise th eir sop h isti­
cation at home as w ell as at entrepots lik e th e Pasaje Royal.57
Stylistically, D u r in i’s villas corresp on d ed to a trend in Ita lia n dom estic
construction tow ard a greater emphasis on th e vernacular; this tren d coexisted
with futurism a n d the decorative novecento m ovem ent during th e 19 20s. W hile
his colleagues in Ita ly based their stru ctu res on local vernacular fo rm s, D u rin i
continued to em u late European m odels even as he adopted the p rin cip le o f u ti­
lizing local m ate ria ls and skills. He w as n ot alone in this practice, w h ich has
given some critics cause to decry the a rch itectu ral developm ent o f areas such
as the Ciudadela M a risca l Sucre as an exercise in the im portation o f styles w ith
little grounding in local custom s or in d igen o u s form s. In the 19 40 s, A m e rican
travel and c h ild re n ’s w riter Ludwig B em elm a n s lam basted the neigh borh ood
as the product o f “a pastrycook o f an arch itect who . . . has c a re fu lly assem bled
everything that is bad and aw ful.” 58 The m ore recent evaluations o f figu res such
as Manuel E sp in o sa Apolo, Paul A g u ila r, or Eduardo K in gm an have also la­
mented the lack o f authenticity within th e neighborhood as a result o f its separa­
tion from the “ in d igen ous” culture.
But these ch arges sim plify the point b e h in d the visu al lan gu age an d ad op­
tion o f the foreign vern acular by “p astry c o o k s” such as Francisco D u rin i. H is
buildings, w h ich included Italianate v illa s , Basque cottages, French chateaus,
and even an A n d a lu sia n Arabesque p alace, corresponded to a p a rtic u la r vision
of the search for origin s that fram ed Q u ito’s en try to m odernity and dovetailed
with the coveted visio n o f cosm opolitanism as both playfully exotic an d dem on­
strably rooted— q ualities that D urini em b o d ied both personally an d aestheti­
cally. His gro u n d in g in M editerranean vern acu lar, coupled w ith the m alleab il­
ity o f his stylistic em brace, afforded clien ts th e ability to transpose th eir desire
for the “cu ltu ral transvestism ” o f cosm o-m o d ern ity without le av in g h om e or
142 \ T h e D urini Cosmopolis

Fig. 5.9 . F ran c isc o D u rin i, G em m a D u rin i H ouse (1940s). Photograph b y the author.

a b a n d o n in g a respectable sta tu s in society.59 A D u rin i v illa th u s displayed a

m od ern sen sibility grounded in h isto rical precision w ith in a society and land­
scape o f global and local reach.
A s m ig h t be expected, p atrons facin g this wide choice o f styles reacted with
energy. S tan d ard local practice d ictated that design w ork b e g in w ith a session
in w h ic h a series o f stock d raw in g s, photographs, or p lates be presented as po­
ten tial m od els. D urini chose to p iqu e the interest o f a p rosp ective buyer in a
fa m ilia r lan gu age first; only afterw a rd w ould he begin to d iscu ss the possibility
o f arch itecto n ic experim entation. For that purpose, Fran cisco D u rin i, like his
com petito rs, kept a num ber o f catalogs, m agazines, an d classic texts in his of­
fice b e c au se they could co llectively speak to the variety o f vern acu lars within
w hich he felt competent to w o rk .60 A s would be expected, m a n y o f these models
featu red neoclassical and R en aissan ce form s but also m y ria d alternate styles.
M o d e rn ism was represented b y th e Secessionist literature alread y noted and was
later supplem ented by m agazin es docum enting m od ern ist Span ish Am erican
tren d s. T h ese publications in clu d ed the several editions o f th e C u b an review
Arquitecto from 1928 and o f th e A rgen tin e publication Casas y Jardines from a
d ecad e later.61 Other p ossibilities included a wide asso rtm en t o f contemporary
S p a n ish v illa s , which featu red p o p u lar C astilian and B asq u e exam ples— the
latter w as even selected by Fran cisco ’s sister G em m a fo r h er ow n M ariscal villa
 The Durini C osm opolis / 143

Fig. 5.10. F ran cisco D u rin i, V illa V illagom ez, 1932 (restoration, 2007). Photograph by the
author.

in the early 19 40 s (fig. 5.9). A n orien talist sensibility, first explored in the m in a­
rets of the B an co del Pichincha, echoed not on ly D ’Aronco’s Istanbul-influenced
stilefloreale b u t also the A ndalusian v illa s in D u rin i’s stock catalog. T h is flavor
dominated a 19 30s design for a b u llrin g bu t was most d ram atically realized in
the V illa V illag o m ez (fig. 5.10), a testam en t to A n d alu sian styles featu rin g a
144 \ T he Durini Cosmopolis

wide v a rie ty o f mosaic tiles, in tricate woodwork in the sta irw e lls and lighting
fixtures, and an extraordinary a rra y o f playful natural ligh tin g com ing in from
the glass roof. This was perhaps th e pinnacle o f D u rin i’s experim entation and
the best expression o f the desire fo r localizing a cosm opolitan vernacular. The
project once again garnered h im th e m unicipal Prem io al O rn ato in 1932.62
M ore recently, the Villa V illagom ez has earned the contem p t o f Paul A gui­
lar in h is comprehensive su rve y o f quiteño architecture. A s an exam ple o f the
“gran desconcierto” (great disorder) o f the eclectic 1930s, A g u ila r m aintain s, a
p rofoun d dissonance lies in a con tem p orary assertion in E l Comercio that the
stru ctu re reflects architecture th a t w as “verdaderamente nuestro" (truly ours).6’
H owever, the claim that an A ra b e sq u e chalet truly represented an autochtho­
nous E cu ad o rian spirit squares w ith the local elites’ am b ition s to showcase their
own cosm opolitanism while seek in g their origins in a d ista n t European past. In
realizing th is work, which reflected ow ner Jorge V illagom ez’s recall o f a journey
to A n d a lu cía , D urini produced fan ta sy , thus serving as a n enabler buoyed by
his ow n hybrid eclecticism. Su ch w as h is stock in trade.

The Chronotope of a Hyphenated Vernacular

T h e m ost virulent opponent o f the new architecture developing during the

1920s an d 1930s was the art h isto ria n José Gabriel N avarro, w hose embrace o f a
H isp a n ist aesthetic and m oral cod e has been discussed previou sly. Curiously,
this cham pion o f Quito’s colonial m onum ents was close frie n d s w ith Francisco
D u rin i and regularly invited h im to lecture for his arch itectu ral h isto ry classes
at the U niversidad Central.64 T h is pedagogical collaboration o f the conservative
H isp an ist and the modern eclectic at first glance appears ironic. However, as has
been d iscussed , D urini’s em brace o f a cosmopolitan ve rn a c u la r could easily co­
exist w ith the preservationist ethos o f his colleague. In w o rks such as the Banco
del Pich inch a and the C írculo M ilita r, for instance, D u rin i consciously sought
to p lace m odern structures in to a c ity known for its c o lo n ia l m onum entality.
T h is attem pt to integrate h is architectonic language into th e existin g cityscape
w ould have no doubt appealed to N avarro. Moreover, D u r in i’s embrace o f ver­
n a c u la r architecture with o rig in s in contemporary S p a n ish v illa s and even the
inculcation o f an A ndalusian style w ould also have appealed to the venerable art
h isto ria n , who frequently lau d ed the M oorish origins o f th e ornam ental details
o f m an y o f Quito’s religious icons. In a sim ilar m anner, D u rin i m ost likely un­
derstood and possibly applauded th e city’s architectonic s h ift toward a colonial
revivalist style in the 1940s, even as it lim ited his own p ro d u ctivity. A fter all, his
work and possibly his lectures h a d helped spark the ve ry in terest in the vernacu­
lar th at was now returning to a local form ulation o f cosm op olitan principles.
T h e creation o f a h yph en ated architecture that co u ld e x ist as sim ultane­
 The Durini C osm opolis / 145

ously E c u a d o ria n and cosm op olitan sta n d s as the p rim a ry e m b le m o f the

Durini fa m ily ’s oeuvre, p articu larly F ran cisco ’s m ature works. T h e success o f
this endeavor stem s from two p rim a ry causes. The first is the tecton ic incorpo­
ration o f local m aterials to inflect an d redefine a European m o d e rn ist aesthetic
existing in d ia lo g u e with the m on u m en ts in Q uito’s historic center. A s noted
above, this strategy anticipates the h ig h ly touted m odernist exp erim en ts by fig­
ures like Ju a n O ’G o rm an , Oscar N iem eyer, or Roberto Burle M a rx . A s Valerie
Fraser has em p h asized , these arch itects’ deploym ent o f native p la n ts, volcanic
stone, or colo n ial azulejo (glazed tile) facilitated their tran sfo rm atio n o f fu n c­
tionalism fro m an architecture rooted in L e Corbusian theory to a p articu larly
Mexican or B ra z ilia n statem ent, in d e e d , an alternative m o d e rn is m .65 W hile
Durini never fu lly embraced fu n ctio n a lism or indigenous re viva lism , as did the
giants o f L atin A m e rican m odern ism , h is m ature works ought to b e considered
in the sam e vein .
The second reason the D urinis su ccessfu lly negotiated a tigh t m arket and in
the process b u ilt lastin g works m arked b y th eir hybrid nature stem m ed from the
very business m od el they followed. A s a fam ily, the three D u rin is collaborated
in producing not on ly works o f art b u t a lso a public image. Each facet o f their
private and public lives helped develop th is conception, from L oren zo’s M asonic
contacts to Pedro’s leisurely lifestyle to Fran cisco’s focus on c ra ft an d technical
expertise. T h e cu ltivation o f these p erso n a s represented m ore th a n ju st sen si­
bilities; th ey served a practical fu n c tio n in the developm ent o f relation sh ips
with prospective clients eager to d isp la y th eir own m odernity. T h e subsequent
diversification o f the establishm ent, an d Francisco’s eventual m o ve tow ard in ­
corporating lo ca l elem ents and a rtisan s, grew out o f a m aterial need as m uch as
an interest in contem porary arch itectu ral trends.
In e va lu a tin g the im pact o f th e D u r in is on Q uito’s c u ltu ra l fram ew ork,
one need on ly p o in t to the extensive recen t renovations to several o f th eir best
known w orks, in clud in g the V illa V illag o m ez , the C ircalo M ilita r, an d G em m a
Durini’s v illa . In th e globalized present, th eir restoration has becom e a critical
facet in the constitu tion o f a rom anticized view o f Quito’s past. T h e h a n d s o f the
m unicipality an d the state lie heavily u p on th is m easure, as is p robably to be ex­
pected. No m atter the potential im p act o f the D urini oeuvre on local interest in
vernacular architecture, the fact rem ain s th at theirs was a d ecided ly elite project
despite the b ro ad er developm ent o f lo c a l a rtisan al production. T h e M ariscal
Sucre itself, as h as been noted, represented the pinnacle o f the im p e ria l designs
of the exp an d in g city, eager to sw allow u p the surrounding cou n trysid e.
Their elite centrality, however, does not m ean that they have not becom e an
inextricable p a rt o f the city’s urban fab ric. Even in the cases o f b u ild in g s that no
longer exist, su ch as the Pasaje R o y al, th e ir production stands as th e im age o f
an era w hile, in at least one case, th ey continue to m ark the p o p u la r cu ltu re o f
today. The piece in question is a statu e o f a large globe held a lo ft b y tw o power­
146 \ The Durini Cosm opolis

fu l A tla se s— exquisitely cra fte d stone figures th at once gu ard ed the entrance to
th e B anco de Prestam os, an oth er o f D u rin i’s 1920s com m ercial establishm ents.
T o day, they hold aloft a n im age o f Ecuador’s eq u a to rial position and greet the
th o u san d s o f revelers w h o p o u r into the Estadio O lim p ico A tahualpa, the great
fo rtre ss where E cu ad o r’s n atio n al football team h a s secured its recent ru n s to
th e W orld Cup and an en d u rin g cosm opolitan aren a fo r th e d isplay o f local c u l­
tu re on a global stage.
 Chapter 6

A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

Eloy A lfa ro ’s 1895 arrival in Q u ito as leader o f the triu m p h an t Liberal Revolu­
tion inspired the relocation o f scores o f partisan jo u rn alists, intellectuals, and
politicians clam oring to b u ild a new society. The m igrants included a young sat­
irist from Cuenca nam ed M an u el J. C alle, known for his lam p oonin g portraits
of conservative ideologues.1 U p o n the appearance o f C a lle s m agazine, Revista
de Quito, in the A ndean citadel, however, the publication tu rn ed its attention to
the b an al provinciality o f C a lle ’s adopted home. His chronicles challenged the
cherished notion o f Q uito’s tradition alist image by describing it as a veneer for
an outm oded way o f life at od d s w ith the dem ands o f m od ern ity and progress.
Calle’s caustic pen rendered quiteños gullible fools ignorant o f the outside world,
as stated in an 1898 colum n ab ou t a swindling m atador w ho persuaded the su­
perintendent o f police to establish an im prom ptu b u llrin g, where the vagabond
never appeared. Instead, the c it y ’s bum bling citizens p iled into the m akeshift
clearing to try to fight the b u lls them selves, with “un cholo de los nuestros" (one
of our m estizos) receiving w a rm accolades and a broken arm fo r his troubles.
As C alle p ut it, Quito rem ain ed “el país de los chinos" (the lan d o f Chinam en),

14 7
148 \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

im p o verish ed and bereft o f th e h a llm a rk s o f progress n e cessa ry to attain the

oft-invoked status o f nostalgic w o rld capital.2
C a lle s tales o f the city’s fa ilin g s form part o f a b ro a d er them e in liberal
an d s o c ia list fiction that la b e le d Q u ito’s tra d itio n a lism a phantasm agoria
th at m ask ed its recalcitrance a n d underdevelopm ent. In vertin g the heritage
p arad igm , these radical auth ors— first liberals and then so cialists— instead ac­
cen tuate the capital’s social te n sio n s and estrangem ent fro m global progress.
T h eir p artisan portraits elaborate an urban guide that recasts the cityscape as a
h yp o c ritic a l necropolis o f m iso g y n y , racism , and econom ic exploitation rather
th an a testam ent to earlier glories an d future developm ent, a situation generally
attrib uted to constrictive, co n servative mores.
B eyo n d sim ply casting th e c ity ’s failures w ithin the bro ad er scope o f global
revolutionary processes, these n ovels feature the city’s relatio n sh ip with its rural
su rro u n d in g s, inverting the Ib ero -A m erican convention o f an enlightened city
and b arbarou s countryside. In stea d , they recast these p asto ra l landscapes as a
space w here redemption o f u rb a n decadence is possible. T h is trope appeared
sp o rad ically during the colo n ial era, particularly in d en u n ciation s o f the city’s
reb elliou s nature by colonial o r clerical officials. H ow ever, its m odern m ani­
festatio n s began with Ju an L e ó n M era’s cou n ter-cartograph ic national epic,
C um andá (1879), which lam en ted th e passing o f G arcia M oren o’s conservative
project. Liberal novelists lik e R o b erto Andrade and L u ís A . M artinez inverted
M era’s politics while refining th e conceit o f a redem ptive countryside he intro­
d uced. L ater generations evoke th e im plicit elevation o f th e ru stic experience
b y fo c u sin g on the role o f th e c ity as the engine o f p ro v in c ia l exploitation, a
m otive p articularly present in th e indigenista writings o f Jorge Icaza or the social
realism o f Humberto Salvador. A secondary theme con cern s the insularity and
alienation o f the city, which is largely developed through a naturalistic obsession
w ith sex u a l traum a and exploitation .
O ne u se fu l way to en cou n ter the generic fram ew ork th at dom inates these
d en u n ciato ry writings can b e seen in a chronotope B ak h tin refers to as the idyll.
B ak h tin considers the id yll to b e a setting ch aracterized b y a hum drum exis­
tence th at is dominated by c y c lic a l continuity over generation s, thus expanding
th e te rm from its com m on p a sto ra l associations. H ow ever, he adds that this
cyclical tim e appears largely “as a n ancillary tim e, on e th at m ay be interwoven
w ith oth er noncyclical tem p o ral sequences or used m erely to intersperse such
sequences that are more ch arged w ith energy and event.” 3 Sim ilarly, in a world
sh ap ed b y liberal positivism a n d M a rx ist dialectics, th e id y ll represents a foil
o f p o sitivist, cosm opolitan, o r revolutionary desires. A s su ch , these denuncia­
to ry dystopias not only ch allen ge the encom ium s c irc u la tin g through the public
sphere bu t also elaborate an ticip ato ry images o f a revo lu tion ary era o f redemp­
tive potential.
 A Phantasmagoric D ystopia / 149

Idylls and Polemics

In spite o f th e conceit o f Q u ito’s lo y a l and m essianic role, th e c ity was

a frequent site o f insurrection d u rin g th e colonial period. It w as o f course in
the plains o f A n aq u ito that G onzalo P iz a rro defeated and decapitated Viceroy
Blasco N unez Vela in 1546. In 1591, cabild o resistance to royal tax p o licy inspired
the Rebellion o f the A lcabalas, w hich not on ly resulted in in creased viceregal
oversight o f th e c ity ’s cabildo for m ore th a n a century but also exten d ed Q uito’s
rebellious rep utation. Seventeenth-cen tu ry com m entators as diverse as Aya-
cucho noble G u a m an Poma de A y a la an d the Jesuit Pedro de M ercad o high ­
lighted the c ity ’s in iquity while Jorge Ju a n and A ntonio de U lloa reported on
pervasive tax evasion and abuse o f indigen ous com m unities in th eir 1748 work,
Noticias secretas. These charges in sp ired a series o f reform s m ean t to m inim ize
the perceived corrup tion o f the city a n d its hinterland, w hich in tu rn fostered
increased instability. A s M artin M in ch o m has noted, the city h osted a score o f
insurrections over the long eighteenth cen tu ry, o f which th e m ost im portant
are the 1765 Rebellion o f the B arrios an d the 1809 declaration o f independence,
each o f which w ould have continental repercussions.4 H owever, p erhap s more
instructive, given its resonance in later revolutionary w ritin g, w as a 1747 clash
inspired b y the first direct attem pt b y th e Crow n to clam p d ow n on the city’s
tax evasion.
This conflict emerged after the establishm ent o f a royal m on opoly over the
sale of aguardiente in 1746, a decision lik e ly inform ed b y Ju a n ’s and U lloa’s ob­
servations o f ta x evasion during th eir sojourn in the A ud iencia.5 T h e next year
saw a visita, or inspection, b y G regorio Ibanez Cuevas, an A rago n ese fria r and
commissary o f L im a, whose presence provoked opposition am ong local church
officials, who h ad probably been sellin g the liquor illegally. Ibanez arrested the
mission’s leadership upon arrivin g in Q u ito; however, the A u d ien cia hierarchy
conspired w ith the D om inican m on astery to free the prelates, lead in g the visita-
dor to rally a group o f plebeians fro m th e San Roque neighborhood on Q uito’s
southwestern frin g e to stage a sym b olic protest. The com m issary an d h is band
donned h a n g m a n ’s nooses as th ey p rom en aded the c ity ’s b read th , from San
Francisco d ow n h ill to the D om inican m onastery, where they took several turns
around the p laza while chanting a h y m n based on the psalm , “ In exitu Israel du
Egipto.” The grou p followed this ritu a listic association o f Q u ito an d Hebrew
enslavement w ith an “exodus” to the Fran ciscan sanctuary o f San Diego, located
at San R oque’s southern extrem ity h igh on Pichincha, where th ey bunkered for
the next m onth. Tensions rose anew d u rin g the celebrations o f N ew Y ear’s Eve,
when a zambo (m ixed A fric a n -In d ia n ra cia l type) tailor nam ed M an u el de la
Parra assaulted a city guard patrolling th e S an Roque ou tskirts. T h e ensu in g r i­
150 \ A Phantasm agoric Dystopia

ots saw a d eterm ined band attacking the h ou se o f the president o f th e Audiencia
and van d alizin g the local prison. C ityw id e carou sing spread, as crow d s publicly
pronounced th eir faith in the Franciscan fria rs, their antipathy to th e peninsu­
la r A udiencia leadersh ip, and their p rid e in the barrio o f San R o q u e. T h e dis­
turbances cam e to an end only when a rm ed soldiers dispersed the crow ds along
the deep ravines o f the aptly named Q u eb rada Jerusalén.
The m ille n n ia l fervor inspired b y Ib áñ ez C u evas’s inversion o f the tradi­
tional im age o f Q uito as a new Rom e slum bered after this incident b u t w ould be
periodically reconfigured by reform ist m ovem ents. In 1771, for exam p le, Jesuit
M ario C icala d ecried Q uito’s ram pant gam b lin g and theft, w hich h a d reduced
the city to p o ve rty and m isery so egregious it h ad led to dem ographic collapse.6
N o less a p ersonage th an the fam ous p h ysician Eugenio Espejo fre q u e n tly sati­
rized the c ity ’s m iserable health con d itio n s and its m istreatm ent o f the poor
and indigenous in pasquinades, essays, p lays, and sermons while advocating for
autonom y or even independence.7 Even the great nineteenth-century champion
o f Q uito’s artisto cratic landow ning class, G abriel Garcia M oreno, got his start
as the reform ist rector o f the city’s u n iversity and dedicated h im s e lf to purging
its hidebound professoriat.
However, th is tenet failed to take root, perhaps as a result o f th e particular
relationship betw een Q uito and its im m ed iate indigenous h in terlan d . Instead,
it took the fa ll o f the G arcian autocracy to develop its reconceptualization. Para­
doxically, th is revam pin g emerged in th e w ritin gs o f G arcia M o ren o ’s staunch
ally, Juan León M era. Although know n p rim a rily in his age as a p oet— indeed,
he authored th e lyrics to Ecuador’s n ation al anthem — Mera is best remembered
today for h is rom antic novel Cumandá (1879). T h is m elodram atic piece has often
been hailed as the first Ecuadorian n a tio n a l epic; however, its im po rtan ce for
the p h an tasm agorical chronotope stem s fro m its perennial d econstru ction by
radical auth ors seeking to inform an altern ative national im age paradoxically
indebted to M era’s own interrogation o f urb an civility.
W ritten a ft e r G arcia M oreno’s a ssa ssin a tio n , M era’s novel featu res the
doomed love sto ry o f a white A ndean nam ed Carlos and the b e a u tifu l A m azo­
nian p rincess C u m an d á. The p air first encounter each other fo llo w in g a deci­
sion by C a rlo s’s father, Orozco, to fo u n d a m issionary station in th e Amazon.
T heir m u tu al attraction n o tw ith stan d in g, they are soon sep arated when Cu-
m an d á’s fath er travels downriver to p ledge h is allegiance to the violen t Jívaro
chief Y ah u arm aq u i. Carlos saves C u m a n d á from m arriage to Y ah u arm aq u i but
cannot u ltim ately defend her from the headhunters, a tragedy com pounded by
the m elodram atic revelation that she is in fact his sister, k id n a p p ed years ear­
lier. The trad ition al scholarship on the novel highlights the them es o f incest and
racial tension in the book while u n d ersco rin g the lyricism o f M era ’s depiction
o f the A m a z o n ia n rainforest. Recent w ork by Ricardo Padrón an d Fernando
B alseca, h ow ever, em phasizes the re g io n a l cartography at th e cen ter o f the
 A Phantasm agoric Dystopia / 151

n o v e l. Padrón in p a rtic u la r h as stressed the “cou n ter-cartograph y” developed

by the course o f the A n d e a n core’s failed evangelization o f the periphery, a m o tif
that reflects M era’s d esp a ir at the end o f the G a rc ia n reig n .8
Mera’s vision o f A n d e a n impotence represented a critique o f the Liberal in ­
telligentsia, yet h is counter-cartographic stan ce w o u ld be appropriated d u rin g
the heady trium ph o f th e Liberal Revolution. A s K im C lark has em phasized,
the government coun terp oised A ndean stagnation w ith coastal movem ent in an
attempt to prom ote its p o sitivist social p ro g ram .9 L ib eral activists argued th at
Quito’s insularity reflected both economic isolation an d the constrictive pow er
o f an outmoded so cial stru ctu re dom inated b y the C h u rch — a trope first d e ­
veloped locally by E u gen io Espejo.10 Despite the p atriarch al attitude o f m an y o f
these reformers, th eir w o rries regarding the co n strictio n o f women’s econom ic
and social activities u n d e rla y the state’s concern w ith providing fem ale edu ca­
tional facilities and o p en in g access to labor m a rk e ts.11 A sim ilarly paternalistic
and economic argu m en t und erlay the concom itant opposition to concertaje, the
land tenure system b a sed on peonage ties to A n d e a n h aciendas that b a sica lly
prevented indigenous people from entering th e m arket econom y.12
Whereas each them e form ed part o f the b road er Liberal m odernization p ro ­
gram, the attention to w h at Francine M asiello te rm s the “perversity o f gender
relations" evoked the tenets o f fin-de-siqlo m elo dram a across Latin A m erica. A s
in works like José M a r t i’s novel Amistad funesta (1885), Ecuadorian liberals a r­
gued that insular jealo u sies and rivalries am o n g th e h igh lan d elite h am pered
national progress w h ile echoing the obsession w ith gossip in works such as C a ­
bello de Carbonara’s Blanca sol (1889).13 In the E cu a d o rian case, liberal activist
writers like R oberto A n d ra d e and Luís A . M a rtin e z upended M era’s counter-
cartographic trad ition b y ju xtapo sin g the th em es o f urb an depravity and the
liberating potential o f natu re in order to argu e a g a in st the Conservative cause
Mera had strongly ad vocated . In the process, th ey bolstered the image o f a dys-
topic Quito whose red em p tio n could come o n ly throu gh reconciliation w ith its
rural hinterland an d an em brace o f the d estiny o f progress and development.
Roberto A n d rad e, a lon gtim e liberal pam ph leteer notorious for his p erip h ­
eral involvement in th e plot to assassinate G arcia M oreno, presented his ind ict­
ment in Pacho V illam ar (1900), a sem i-autobiographical novel that depicts the
title character’s com ing o f age in Garcian Q uito. Its central conflict concerns the
stifling o f im poverished Pacho’s courting o f the b e a u tifu l M agdalena G utierrez
by the city’s conservative orthodoxy. A lth o ugh she retu rn s his affections, her
parents arrange a m a rria g e to a wealthy lan d o w n er fro m Latacunga. Pacho’s
subsequent ch allenging o f h is Jesuit teachers la n d s h im in exile, where he m eets
the liberal icon Ju a n M o n ta lvo in Colom bia. M a g d ale n a ’s cloistered existence
thrusts her into Pacho’s a rm s following his d a zz lin g retu rn . They have a child
that Magdalena ab an d o n s to a m onastery, where th e bo y is taught to abhor his
father’s libertine valu es. Learn in g o f his son’s existence years later, Pacho seeks
152 \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

him out, only to be rejected by th e conservative lad, w ho th en escapes to Guaya­

quil accompanied by a Jesuit m entor. Pacho follows bu t is arrested and executed
as a would-be assassin by a firin g squad acting on the p rie s t’s fabrications.
The novel dovetails w ith a regionally charged m etap h o rical cycle linking
M agdalena’s spiritual em ptin ess to her isolation in Q u ito whereas Pacho’s ad­
venturous spirit stems from h is regular encounter w ith ru ra l clim es— an inver­
sion o f traditional associations o f urbanity with civ iliz a tio n . There is a racial
tinge to this inversion, as the countryside appears as a va ca n t and virginal land­
scape despite its harboring the m ajority o f the nation’s indigenous population.
Andrade instead transposes In d ian s onto the squ alid cityscap e as part o f a de­
graded panoply, including “a barefoot and disheveled m estiza, an elderly man
of ruinous appearance, som e w h istlin g rascals and . . . tw o p etty bureaucrats
with long, frayed frock coats, to rn old boots, and h a ts th a t h ad known several
heads.” 14
Although marred b y u n even passages o f p o le m ic a l invective and layers
of overt melodrama, Pacho V illa m a r set forth a basic p atte rn repeatedly emu­
lated in liberal fiction. One o f the earliest exam ples w a s b y L uis A . M artinez,
a landscape portraitist an d L ib eral bureaucrat in volved in the establishment
of the Escuela de Bellas A rtes. H is novel A la costa (19 0 4 ) features the trials of
the respectable but im po verish ed Ram irez fa m ily .15 T h is w ork expands A n ­
drade’s condemnation o f the m isogyn istic violence p erp etrated against women
in insular Quito, invoking th e naturalistic sensibilities o f nineteenth-century
Spanish American m elodram a, in which “sex-crim es [underscore] the corrup­
tion o f national values.” 16 A s in Pacho Villamar, class d ifferen ce doom s a short­
lived romance between S alv ad o r’s sister, M ariana, a n d h is wealthy classmate,
Luciano. This restriction exacerbates Luciano’s covetou s desire for the nubile
M ariana, who is blatantly exoticized for her erotic c h a rm s (round breasts, full
lips, and rumored ancestors fro m the largely A fro -E c u a d o ria n Chota Valley).17
Luciano abandons the deflow ered girl after satisfyin g h is lust. She then retreats
into a desolate loneliness u n til revived by the serm ons o f a young priest named
Justiniano. The corrupt cleric then lures the girl to h is boudoir, a rendezvous
that leaves her the disgraced m other o f an illegitim ate ch ild and leads her to
prostitution.
For Martinez, the m ost tragic consequence o f M a ria n a ’s fall can be seen in
her family. The second h a lf o f the novel features S alv ad o r R am irez’s attempts to
escape the capital’s obsession w ith the stigma o f his siste r’s corruption. The sub­
sequent journey a la costa b egin s with his joining the op p osition to one o f Eloy
A lfaro’s earliest cam paigns. Besides landing on the w ro n g side o f history, the
battle reunites him with L u cian o , who still hides h is cu lp a b ility for M ariana’s
decline. He then joins the scores o f serranos (highlanders) relocating to the cacao
fields o f the littoral, d escribed in lush passages re m in isce n t o f M era’s tropical
fixation, aided by M artin ez’s experience as a travel w rite r, m ountaineer, and
paisajista (landscape artist).18 T here, Ramirez finds s a tis fy in g employm ent and
 MOHOCS;

A Phantasmagoric D ystopia / 153

ev en a lovin g rom ance with C o n su elo G ó m ez, the comely d au gh ter o f a fellow
highlander who lost his m oney and la n d s in the stock m arket. T h e ir happiness
is short-lived, as a rival suitor assassin ates C onsu elos father arid a sn ake bites
R a m i r e z , w ho re-encounters L u cian o w hen rushed to find m ed ical treatm ent
in G uayaquil. Luciano confesses to h is role in M ariana’s d ish on o r d u rin g this
e n c o u n t e r , w h ich inspires Salvad o r’s fin a l realization that h is fr ie n d ’s betrayal
pales before the crush in g codes o f quiteño society.
Both o f these novels displayed m elodram atic tendencies; how ever, th ey also
argued for the Liberal m odernization program ,-as would befit p a rty stalw arts
like A nd rad e an d M artinez. H owever, th e split in the L iberal P a rty follow ing
Plaza’s ascend ancy to the presidency in 1902 drove a wedge into the h eart o f the
movement. A lfa ro ’s coup in 1906 encouraged a brief alliance betw een conserva­
tives and placistas, who backed u p risin g s in Cuenca and Loja. T h ese u n lik ely
bedfellows broke ranks in 1907 due to ideological differences an d placista sy m ­
pathy for the A lfa ro governm ent’s stron g m anagem ent o f p u blic h ealth crises
that year, in clu d in g the outbreak o f bu b o n ic plague and typ h oid on the coast.19
These tu rbu len t tim es fueled a tu rn toward radical p olitical and aesthetic
alternatives am ong students seeking to transcend the obsessive p olem ics o f the
previous gen eratio n s.20 C o n servative seco n d ary students lik e Ja cin to Jijón y
Caamaño an d Ju lio Tobar Donoso, m entored by Archbishop G o n zález Suárez
under the aegis o f the Sociedad E c u a to ria n a de Estudios H istó rico s A m e rica ­
nos, founded the Centro Católico de O breros as early as 1906 in a bid to build
alliances w ith th e grow ing w orkers’ m ovem en t.21 Socialist-inclin ed U niversity
of Quito stu d en ts sim ultaneously d eveloped ties with the a rtis a n a l Socied ad
Artística e In d u stria l de Pich in ch a (S A IP ), whose leaders stro n g ly endorsed
Plaza’s secu la rist agenda. Bolstered b y deepening anarchist a c tiv ity in G u aya- .
quil, scores o f students and artisan s m arched across Quito on A p r il 2 5 ,19 0 7 , to
challenge the legitim acy o f A lfa ro ’s new governm ent. In a h arb in g er o f a cen­
tury o f con flict between the state and th e U niversidad Central,-the m ilita ry met
the m archers in a bloody confrontation th at left three students d ead an d scores
more w ound ed .22
These conflagrations alienated the m o st innovative w riters o f th is era. D is­
affected b y w h at C ath y Jrade term s th e “sp iritu al and aesthetic v a c u u m ” left
by declining cap italism and the rise o f p ositivist hegem ony, th ese detractors
sought to tran scen d vitriolic polem ic th rough modernismo, a S p an ish A m erican
aesthetic re v iv a list m ovem ent p erso n ifie d b y José M a rti an d R u b é n D a río .2’
These poets ow ed their public p latfo rm to an im poverished scion o f the O tavalo
creole class n am ed Isaac Barrera, w ho parlayed a scholarship to Q u ito’s conser­
vative C olegio de S an Gabriel into a career as essayist. One o f h is pieces, an El
Comercio colu m n published in 1910, p rovid ed a genealogy o f modernismo and also
cemented h is career. His passionate d efen se o f experim ental w ritin g endeared
him to a cadre o f w ealthy creole p oets w hose patronage facilitated th e publica­
tion o f a review titled Letras (1912—1914). T h is m agazine published the first verses
 154 \ A Phantasm agoric D ysto p ia

o f f i g u r e s lik e A r t u r o B o r ja , H u m b e r t o F ie rr o , E r n e s t o N o b o a y C a a m a ñ o , a n d
M e d a r d o A n g e l S ilv a — a r t i s t s w h o e v o k e d V e r la in e , P o e , B a u d e l a i r e , a n d R i m ­
b a u d , a l o n g w ith D a r io a n d M a r t i . P o e t r y t u r n e d t o p r a c t i c e a s m e l a n c h o li c
a f t e r n o o n s a t t h e A lc o c e r t a v e r n s o a k e d w ith b e e r a n d a g u a r d ie n t e b l e d in t o e v e ­
n i n g s a t t h e s w a n k y C lu b P i c h i n c h a . U ltim a t e ly , t h e i r a b u s e o f e t h e r a n d m o r ­
p h i n e a c c e le r a t e d a s e r ie s o f e a r l y d e m i s e s t h a t h a v e le d t o t h i s g r o u p ’s m o n i k e r
a s t h e gen eració n decap itada . T h i s m e l a n c h o l i a is p e r h a p s b e s t c o m m u n i c a t e d b y
E r n e s t o N o b o a y C a a m a ñ o ’s “ H a s t i o ” ( T e d iu m ):

V iv ir d e lo p a s a d o p o r d esp recio a l p re se n te L iv in g fro m th e p a s t , d e s p is in g th e p resen t

m ira r h a c ia el fu tu ro con u n h o n d o te r ro r, terro rized b y a g lim p s e o f th e fu t u r e
s e n tirse e n v en en ad o , sen tirse in d ife re n te p o iso n e d , in d iffe r e n t
an te el m a l d e la v id a y an te el b ie n d e l a m o r. b efore the e v il o f lif e a n d th e g o o d n e s s o f lo v e .14

D e s p it e t h e i r im p lic it c a s t i g a t i o n o f Q u i t o ’s l a n d s c a p e , N o b o a a n d h is fe llo w
“ d e c a p i t a t e d ” p o e t s l o c a t e d t h e s e n t i m e n t o f p a r a ly s i s a n d a p o r i a a s a c o n t i n u a l
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c o f m o d e r n l i f e w it h o n l y a m i n i m a l s p a t i a l r e f e r e n t . H o w e v e r,
th e lo n e n o v e l a s s o c i a t e d w it h t h i s m o v e m e n t , J o s é R a f a e l B u s t a m a n t e s P a ra
m a ta r el gu san o (1913), e v o k e s a n d s u b v e r t s t h e p o s i t i v i s t p a r a d i g m s e s t a b l i s h e d
b y M e r a , A n d r a d e , a n d M a r t i n e z t o c r e a t e a c a r t o g r a p h y o f d eca p ita d o e n n u i.
P u b l i s h e d s e r ia lly in L etras, t h e w o r k r e v i s i t s th e c o n s t r i c t i v e id y llic p a r a d i g m o f
th e l i b e r a l n o v e ls o f th e t u r n o f t h e c e n t u r y y e t e c h o e s t h e m o d e rn ista i m a g e o f
t h e c i t y a s a c a g e o f le c h e r y a n d d e b a u c h e r y .25 U n li k e i t s d e p i c t i o n in p r e v io u s
E c u a d o r i a n n o v e ls, th e c o u n t r y s i d e , i n B u s t a m a n t e ’s v ie w , h a d l o s t i t s r e d e m p ­
tiv e p o t e n t i a l a n d i n s t e a d h a d b e g u n t o c o n f o r m t o t h e i n c a p a c i t a t i n g p a r a ly s is
o f t h e e n c r o a c h in g m o d e r n c ity .
B u s t a m a n t e r e a liz e s t h i s c r i t i q u e t h r o u g h s p a t i a l l y c h a r g e d n a r r a t i v e s in t e r ­
r o g a t i n g t h e r e la tio n s h ip b e t w e e n t h e m e t r o p o li s a n d i t s h i n t e r l a n d . T h e f ir s t
n a r r a t i v e c o n c e r n s a lo v e t r i a n g l e b e tw e e n a r c h e t y p e s — t h e u r b a n e lite (Jo rg e ),
t h e p o o r y o u th (R o b e r t o ), a n d t h e s i m p l e c o u n t r y g i r l ( I n é s ) — t h a t c o n t r a s t s
u r b a n d e c a d e n c e w ith p a s t o r a l p u r i t y . In a c i r c u i t o u s a n d p r e d i c t a b l e p lo t , th e
t i m i d R o b e r t o f a lls fo r I n é s , w h o is in t u r n s e d u c e d b y w e a l t h y J o r g e ’s v ita lity .
H e r f ir s t lo v e r le a r n s o f h e r b e t r a y a l f r o m a n e ig h b o r a n d t h e n f a l l s i n t o a c y c le
o f d r i n k a n d d e s p e r a tio n t h a t e v e n t u a l l y le a d s to h i s d i s s o l u t i o n : h e b e c o m e s a
b e g g a r liv in g in th e i r o n ic a lly t i t l e d Q u e b r a d a J e r u s a l é n , t h e p o l l u t e d r a v in e o n
t h e s o u t h e r n e d g e o f t h e c ity .
R o b e r t o a t t e m p t s t o e s c a p e Q u i t o ’s c lu tc h e s t h r o u g h a s e r i e s o f m o v e s f r o m
o n e d w e llin g t o a n o t h e r — d w e l l i n g s t h a t p a r a ll e l h i s m e n t a l s t a t e , d o c u m e n t
t h e c i t y ’s m o d e r n iz in g p a t h , a n d r e v e a l t h e c l a s s b i a s e s o f m u n i c i p a l a n d s t a t e
p l a n n i n g m e a s u r e s .26 A s a c h i l d , h e a n d h i s m o t h e r , R o s a , liv e in a c r u m b l i n g
c o l o n i a l in s q u a lid S a n M a r c o s . S o o n a f t e r h e m e e t s J o r g e a n d I n é s , R o s a m o v e s
to a m o d e r n h o m e w ith a g a r d e n in t h e b u r g e o n in g m i d d l e - c l a s s n e ig h b o r h o o d
 A Phantasmagoric Dystopia / 155

of La T ola o n Q uito’s eastern edge. H owever, Roberto secretly lon gs to flee to

the n o rth ern environs, by the E jid o or A lam ed a parks, w ith th eir captivating
views, an d b e find s the perfect spo t a fte r his engagement— the h igh point o f his
life. The lo n g hours he spends in th e Ejido cannot stem his en su in g disintegra­
tion follow in g Ines’s betrayal an d R o sa ’s death. In the last tw o chapters o f the
novel, we see h im in a dark, stu ffy b a r surrounded by other low lifes and , finally,
on the sou th ern back streets n ear th e S an Diego cem etery an d in a cave in the
Q u e b r a d a , w here he lives. The d escrip tio n o f the street on w h ich he is crouch­
ing when h e m eets his fin al co m p an io n , a stray dog, exem plifies th e equation
between u rb an space and R oberto’s sp iritu al state:

The s h ifty and solitary alley rises, hides and disappears into the austere h ill, flee­
ing from the m istreatment it h as suffered as it exits the city to becom e a heap o f
dung a n d rubbish. A tired and repu gnant corridor between the cem etery and two
or three low and melancholic huts that are h a lf paved with uneven cobblestones
riddled w ith soapy water flowing from the nearby homes and h a lf in d irt, weeds,
trash a n d excrem ent. And there w e see a m an, a ghost, a specter that sleeps and
dream s, grum bles and babbles, scratches his fleas and lice, sitting on the thresh­
old o f a closed door. For such a street, such a m an .27

Like the alley, Roberto has been co n su m ed by his fellow m an , a hopeless ghost
of his fo rm e r self, trapped in a d esp erate cycle o f filth and ru b b ish . A m an de­
filed by h is environm ent.
B u stam an te, unlike his lib e ra l forebears, interrogates the p o sitiv ist para­
digm b y d ep lo y in g signs o f progress as signifiers o f internal d isru p tio n at key
points in th e novel. One m otive d em onstrating this effort concerns the changing
standards in public nocturnal ligh tin g. For instance, while trad itio n al candle-lit
streets are rem arked in early p assages in the book, Roberto’s en cou n ter w ith a
lurid kerosene lam p occurs just a fte r he discovers the potential lia iso n between
Ines and Jorge. Sim ilarly, it is b y th e ligh t o f the new electric streetlam ps years
later that he glim pses her betrayal. A second exam ple can be seen in the m eta­
phor o f m od ernization’s vacuity. T h is them e dom inates the closin g pages o f the
book, w hen the old beggar R o b erto h app en s upon his ch ild h o o d hom e in San
Marcos. L ik e so m uch o f Quito, it h as received a m odernizing fa c e -lift that con
ceals a com pletely unchanged interior. T he anciano (old m an) collapses before
the realization th at his happiest m em ories are o f a despicable h ovel th at betrays
the un scath ed idyll, despite his lifelo n g turm oil and steady d estru ctio n .
This com bination o f the liberal im age o f Quito as backw ater w ith a critique
of m od ernization’s uneven reach is b o th the cause and result o f B u stam an te’s
essentially nostalgic understanding o f the contemporary world. Y e t th is is not a
nostalgia th a t seeks to restore a p ast w orld but instead uses R o b e rto ’s search to
comment u p o n the uneven results o f progress. Indeed, B u stam an te’s interroga­
 1
156 \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

tion notes more th an the decadence o f m od ern ity. H is protagonist’s tru e flaw is
his idealism , identified as an anachronism in contem p orary quiteño society, for
Roberto is no vecino o f th is dystopic city or o f th e m odern world.
Bustam ante’s d esp airin g condem nation, w h ile reflective o f the broad er mo­
dernista antipathy to p o sitivist m odels, a lso an ticip ated two fu tu re trends
in literary portraiture o f the capital. T he first, largely restricted to th e 1920s,
w o uld explore a h ed o n istic and su rrealist c ity sc a p e rooted in th e grotesque
descriptions o f R o b erto ’s fin al days. T his critiq u e originated w ith in a cadre of
vangu ardists asso ciated w ith two reviews— Caricatura (1919—1922) a n d Hélice
(1926)— that echoed an d reconsidered the D a d a ist and surrealist tren d s then
in vogue in Europe. A u th o rs such as A lb erto C o lo m a Silva, Pablo Palacio, and
H um berto Salvador cra fte d a vision o f a b a n a l c ity oscillating betw een its per­
p etual insularity and a desire for cosm opolitan centrality, a representation sup­
ported by the disjo in ted structure o f their w ritin g s. T he work o f the latter two
w riters dovetailed w ith intense social c ritic ism , a characteristic ty p ic a l o f the
indigenista and so cialist critiques o f E cu ad o rian social relations o f the 1930s.

Vanguard Dreams

A s noted previously, the centennial o f th e B attle o f Pichincha in 1922 pro­

pelled the reconstruction o f Quito under th e aegis o f the Junta del Centenario.
Besides establishing new services and erecting sta tu ary and m arkers o f a heroic
sensibility, the ju n ta also sought to reh ab ilitate the im age o f the colo n ial city
center as a h a rm o n io u s antecedent for th e L ib e ra l m odernization program .
Isaac Barrera, chosen to be ju nta coordinator in p art because o f h is induction
into the Sociedad E cuato rian a de E studios H istó rico s A m erican os d u e to his
well-respected b io grap h y o f n in eteen th -cen tu ry lib eral Vicente R o cafu erte,
elaborated this a rgu m e n t in his introductory essay to the com m em orative vol­
um e celebrating the centennial. Barrera’s essay echoes his literary repudiation of
contemporary society b y idealizing the c ity ’s b aro q u e glory as the h arbin ger of a
contem porary ren aissan ce.28 Barrera’s call reverberated throughout th e Liberal
academy, and a vo gu e fo r tributes to Q uito’s h a lcy o n days emerged thereafter.
The m ost con sequ ential early p an egyrics are the writings o f th e diplom at
an d genealogist C ristó b a l Gangotena y Jijó n an d the nostalgist A leja n d ro A n­
drade Coello, w h o fo r long tim e held a p o st at th e Instituto N a cio n a l Mejia.
Gangotena’s A l m argen de la historia (1924) co llects colonial picaresqu e adven­
tures encountered d u rin g his genealogical stu d ie s. The tales featu re a quaint,
idyllic city o f p rie sts and caballeros w h ose q u ie tu d e is in terru p ted m om en­
tarily by the appearan ce o f a rogue or fool, as is often the case in fo lklo ric tales.
Despite the som etim es bawdy hum or o f several pieces that are rem in iscen t of
the lively sketches o f coastal culture p o p u la riz e d the previous d ecad e b y José
 A Phantasm agoric Dystopia / 157

Antonio Cam pos in G u ayaq u il, in Gangotena’s Q uito, the ram bunctious antics
c o m e to a close, order is resto red, and the idyll e n d u re s.29 For exam ple, in “ L a
virgen de la em panada,” G an go ten a relates the story o f a colonial official w ith a
mania for the occult who discovers an image o f the V irg in M a ry in a spot o f lard
on the wrapper o f his em p anad a one m orning. His a m u se d neighbors encourage
his devotion to the m iracle— w hich is placed in a venerated u rn — until fin ally a
prankster burns the rotting parchm ent and restores order.30
Whereas Gangotena firm ly located the idyllic c ity in the colonial past, the
guided tours com piled by h is liberal colleague A leja n d ro A n d rad e Coello and
published regularly in El Comercio as “Cronicas de Q u ito ” offer a w indow onto
the past from the perspective o f the contem porary city. In these vignettes, A n ­
drade ambulates through th e old center until a “ch an ce” encounter with a site o f
memory initiates a digression to docum ent the h isto rical im portance o f m on u ­
mental churches, to recite a co lo rfu l legend, or to explore a personal m em ory.
These reminiscences becom e m ore com m on in his later colu m n s, as do a series
of ludic characters from “ the old Quito, gone and never to retu rn .” 31 A s in G a n ­
gotena’s writings, these ro g u e s—-a one-man band, a b lin d aguador (water c a r­
rier) who answered insults in verse, a cross-dressing m estizo who deceived th e
city’s well-to-do into en tru stin g their daughters to h is care— not only decorate a
bleak landscape but also provid e an essential social fu n ctio n b y helping the city
to overcome regret w ith laughter.33
One o f the crucial elem ents o f these chronicles con cerns their setting, w hich
focuses on the picturesque neighborhoods o f the colo n ial center. Public spaces
such as the Plaza San F ran cisco and the Plaza de la In dependencia app ear as
markers o f heroism and c ivility , while streets such as th e in fam o u s La R o n d a,
home o f m any n in eteen th -cen tu ry poets, becom e th o se enchanting, “ b a d ly
paved streets, narrow and d a rk , but rich in m em o ries.” 53 U n lik e in B arrera’s
holistic centennial essay, these chronicles purge the new er d istricts that serve
as foils to the worthy stru ctu res o f the centro. T h u s, arch itectu re and tradition
form a unified front again st m odernization. In deed, in A n d ra d e ’s account o f
Quito’s colonial churches, he even im agines the u n sp eak ab le pains o f previous
generations (“recondito dolor de nuestros abuelos” ) w itn essin g the d isap p ear­
ance o f the artistic relics o f ancient Quito.34
W hereas the Liberal cau se h ad at one time garn ered the support o f Q u ito’s
radical fringe, these stale n o stalgic pieces fru strated a new generation o f van -
guardists who considered Q u ito ’s sanctification to b e an absurdity. T h eir c r i­
tique found expression in an expand ing culture o f indepen dently produced liter­
ary m agazines. A s H um berto R obles has argued, these new reviews represented
a national phenomenon b u t were particularly active in Q uito, Loja, C uenca, an d
Guayaquil due to the universities in those areas. In Q uito, the Escuela de B ellas
Artes also proved an incub ator for avant-garde art stu d ents inspired b y the b irth
of m odernist trends in Europe, the United States, an d , increasingly, M exico. Far
158 \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

Je . CH /To^l da V
er) Vlftvdi vq/Tbt-K,

Fig. 6.1. G uillerm o Latorre, “ N uestros historiógrafos. Sr. de G an gotena de C ristóbal de Jijó n
de— ExC ónsul en V lad ivo sto k ,” Caricatura 2:57 (F eb ru ary 2 9 ,19 2 0 ). C ourtesy Banco C e n tra l del
Ecuador.

from simply com m unicating foreign m ovem ents, however, these collectives de­
veloped a critical art, caricature, and satire th at interrogated the ongoing liberal
hegemony with an increasingly radical van gu ard ist position.”
The first o f these new collectives coalesced aro u n d a satirical review nam ed
Caricatura, which was founded by art students in 1918 and would prove p op u lar
enough with the c ity ’s progressive fringe to ap p ear m onthly for the n ext three
years. Its popularity stem m ed not only from its attention to reporting cu rren t
literary and artistic trends but also its lam p oo n in g o f local notables, as in G u ill-
 A Phantasm agoric Dystopia / 159

e r m c Latorre’s portrait o f C ristó b a l Gangotena (fig. 6 .1) .36 Besides these carica­
tures, the m agazine inclu d ed a series o f incisive parodies b y A lb e rto Colom a
Silva, an art student at th e E scu e la de Bellas A rtes who w o u ld prove a direct
in flu e n c e on future iterations o f the phantasm agorical chronotope.
C olom a’s p rim ary literary contribution to the m agazine consisted o f a col­
um n titled “Crónicas de Q u ito,” w ritten under the p seu d onym R am iro de Sylva,
that appeared before he w on a scholarship to study p ainting in France and Spain
in 1920.37 These chronicles tu rn th e universal ethos into an in tern al critique as
Don R am iro lam poons the pretension s o f an isolated A n d e a n h am let despite
its un iversal desires. C o lo m a’s in au g u ral colum n, for in stan ce, features Don
Ram iro’s doomed search fo r am u sem ent in a fu nd am en tally m undan e cityscape
considered poetic by in su ffe ra b le rom antics unaw are o f contem p orary condi­
tions. In deed, Colom a's a lter ego encounters a preening hombre de talento (an
intellectual or bohem ian), w h ose pom posity brings a ch uckle to the chronicler
as he realizes that the m an ’s risib le visage is as absurd as h is ow n.1* In a later
colum n, Don R am iro explores th e city streets searching fo r som e newsworthy
scandal, perhaps a crim e. In ste a d , he finds little o f note, o n ly p riests gesticu­
lating w ith their cigarettes, a fittin g at the tailor’s, and a frie n d ’s car splashing
through a pothole. A t hom e, faced w ith the blank page, he lam ents the need to
invent the grotesque in order to sa tisfy his own and the p u b lic’s yearn ing for the
sensational.” S im ilar jo c u la rity appears in a piece u n d er th e bylin e o f Henry
Nick (most likely also Colom a) th at scoffs at the Junta del C entenario s attempts
to fill in potholes b y em p h asizin g the potent sunshine o f the S h y ri capital that
dries the pooled rainwater b e tter th an any paving efforts c o u ld .40
C olom a and h is Caricatura collaborators largely avoided explicit political
posturing. The traum a o f th e 1 9 2 2 G uayaquil m assacre and the trium phant 1925
Julian Revolution, however, recast the struggle over Q uito’s idyllic landscape as
part o f a national and in tern atio n al class conflict. A fte r C o lom a m oved to Eu­
rope to stud y painting, a new collective sought an appropriate response. Led by
essayist R aúl A ndrade and indigenista painter Cam ilo Egas, the cohort included
Caricatura veterans Carlos A n d ra d e (Kanela) and G u ille rm o Latorre, the poet
Gonzalo Escudero, and a y o u n g law student recently arrived fro m Loja named
Pablo Palacio, who would becom e one o f the foremost E cu ad o rian authors o f the
twentieth century.41
Propelled b y Egas, the collective began publishing a new review nam ed Hé­
lice in 1926. The publication engaged the implosion launched b y T ristan Tzara’s
Dadaist proclam ations bu t, in stea d o f abandoning art altogether, sought to find
a new fo rm al language to c ritiq u e the European fascin ation w ith exotic indi-
geneity that Egas had b egu n e x p lo rin g during an earlier sojou rn in the City of
Light.42 A s Escudero put it in th e opening editorial to the first issue, “We under­
stand th at the A rt is the a lc h e m y o f the im probability, becau se i f the A rt was
true, the artistic expression w o u ld not exist.” Modernismo w as dead; instead,
i6o \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

the editors sought “cosm opolitanism , adventurousness, au th enticity.” 43 Michele

Greet has underscored the p olitical nature o f this call. In p articu la r, she cites the
im portance o f Egas’s indigenist revolutionary im pu lse, w h ich not only antici­
pated José Carlos M ariátegui’s call for recasting the in tern atio n al class struggle
in A ndean terms but also represented one o f the first co n tin en tal acknowledg­
m ents o f the radical artistic in n o vatio n s Diego R iv era w a s spearheading in
M exico. Despite these inn ovation s, the quiteño public p roved indifferent to the
journal and largely ignored the exhibits in Egas’s gallery, a situ atio n that led him
to leave Ecuador and relocate to N ew York, where he w o u ld becom e a leading
faculty member of the New Sch ool for Social R esearch.44
Hélice folded follow ing E g a s’s d epartu re, yet the a lte rn a tiv e m odernism
it h ad espoused proved fo rm ative fo r two o f the m ost in n o vative authors of
twentieth-century Ecuadorian literatu re: Loja-born Pablo Palacio and Guaya­
quil native Humberto Salvador. T h e ir experim ents in th e late 1920s reworked
the trope o f Quito as p h an tasm agorical site by e x p lo d in g the generic fram e­
works o f the liberal and modernista novels o f denunciation to incorporate a sur­
realist ethos with an attendant awareness o f social conditions.
Palacio began this process in h is contributions to later issues o f Hélice, which
included “ Un hombre m uerto a puntapiés” and “ El an trop ófago,” each o f which
would be reproduced in his 1927 collection, also nam ed Un hombre muerto a pun­
tapiés, 4 5 The title piece, often cited as the quintessential Palacio tale, begins with
the narrator encountering a new spaper account o f a vicioso (a delinquent) found
dead the night before, apparently a fter being kicked to d eath . Fascinated by the
im plausibility and horror o f the incident, the narrator traverses the city trying
to learn more about the vice-rid d en corpse. A fte r v isitin g th e police station—
where he learns the m an’s su rn a m e (Ramirez) and receives tw o photographs (in
which Ram irez is shown to h ave h a d a large nose)— h e re tu rn s to his arm chair
á la Sherlock Holmes to re co n stru ct the crim e. The n a rra to r proceeds by lu­
dicrous induction to conclude th at the subject’s nam e w as O ctavio (due to his
large nose, supposedly a ch aracteristic o f the R om an em p eror O ctavian), that
Ram irez was a foreigner (who ever heard o f a quiteño n am ed Octavio?), and that
his vice was homosexuality, w h ich had led to the attem pted rape o f a passing boy
(no rationale). The puntapiés (kicks) cam e from the la d ’s fath er, whose powerful
blows culm inate in murder.
T h e grotesque hedonism o f th is tale tests the lim its im po sed by the regu­
lated idyll, which is abandoned as a fundam ental ch aracteristic o f the city. In­
stead, Palacio reveals a Q u ito dom in ated by the flu ctu a tio n o f a rootless and
surreal landscape indebted to th e R abelaisian carn ivalesq u e. “ E l antropófago”
indeed provides homage to R a b e la is, as the cannibal on d isp la y in a m useum
shares Gargantua’s fate o f h a v in g spent an extra tw o m o n th s in the w om b.46
W hile at first horrified, the stu d en t narrator soon excu ses th e cannibal having
bitten h is wife’s breast and b itten the face o f their y o u n g son due to his father
having been a butcher. A s B a k h tin has noted o f the rib a ld r y o f the folkloric
 p? p.ibiiniSCTt
A Phantasmagoric D ystopia / 161

Fig. 6.2. G u illerm o L atorre, cover for Pablo P ala cio ’s novel Debora (1927). C o u rte sy L ib ra ry o f
Congress.

humor that d ro ve R abelais, in Palacio, glu tto n y loom s ever present an d there
are only “c h e e rfu l deaths.”'17
Palacio’s su rre a list abstraction reached its pinnacle in his cu bistic 1927 novel
Debora, which incorporates greater attention to social conditions in flected b y his
burgeoning investm en t in socialism .48 T h e novel presents a fragm en ted account
of a day in the life o f a superfluous m an k n o w n only as the Teniente, or Lieu ten­
ant. The book d em an d s a new form al conception o f the city as it satirizes the
nostalgic c ircu its o f an Andrade C oello or Gangotena. Instead o f rom antic tales
of yore, the T en ien te’s stroll reveals a vicio u s landscape where progress is under
attack by the e xcu ses o f the reactionary gemebundos (howlers). T h ere is n o point
i 62 \ A Phantasmagoric D ystopia

Fig. 6.3. K an ela. back cover art fo r D ébora. C ou rtesy Library o f C o n g re ss.

to su c h rom anticism , co n sid e rin g the te rrify in g state o f the poor. And even
w h en m em ory does in tru d e, it is o f a dystopic m om en t, fa r rem oved from the
p ictu resq u e and frivolous, th a t causes the Teniente to retreat into his dreams.
T h e first edition o f Débora p aired Palacio’s h a llu c in a to ry prose with prints
b y h is com rades from Hélice, G u ille rm o Latorre an d K a n e la , which introduced
th e T e n ie n te s Janus-faced w o rld . T h e cover featured L a to rre’s vision (fig. 6.2),
w h ich centers on the d ise m b o d ie d m ilitary figure w h o se face nuzzles into a
w o m a n ’s thigh, just below h er n aked buttocks. Slices o f the c ity form his coat,
fro m L a Ronda’s picturesque hom es to the m ountains above. O ther images from
th e sto ry shuffle about h im , in clu d in g money, stam p s, b o ots, and the number
57, h is address. On the back cover is Kanela’s interpretation o f the story (fig. 6.3).
N o w the Teniente appears as th e m arionette G u ig n o l, a p o p u lar nineteenth-
c e n tu ry French puppet sh ow an d also the to ngue-in-ch eek nam esake for the
 A Phantasmagoric D ystopia / 163

G r a n d - G u i g n o l , a French theater o f h o rro r stories that began app earin g d ur­

ing the 19 20s.49 T h e clownish figure pierced by a bent arrow carries a m oneybag
and a sword th at harnesses a hobbyhorse. A naked wom an again accom panies
the soldier, th is tim e arising from a stam p as i f she were a jack-in-the-box. A
church spire an d stone bridge represent traditional architecture w h ile a m olar
(Guignol’s creator Laurent M ourguet at one point pulled teeth for a living) acts
the part o f a cu m u lou s cloud.
P alacios novel m erges these two v isio n s o f this character— kaleidoscopic
cityscape an d carnivalesqu e puppet— in a fractured stream o f consciousness
developed in th ree sections. The first an d third focus on the characters o f an
anonymous c ity that has been denied riches and is frustrated b y sex u a l urges.
Here, the T eniente is alone with ram bling thoughts that course through the rou­
tine tasks o f a bureaucrat and becom e b o th a lengthy rum ination on poverty
and a ram bling r iff on what one could d o w ith a m illion sucres. The m onologue
ends with the vap id conclusion that life as a m illionaire would be com fortable,
wouldn’t it?5° T h e b o ok ’s final pages retu rn to the forlorn frustrations o f love as
the Lieutenant consorts with wom en he find s unsatisfying, in clu d in g a prosti­
tute and h is la n d la d y ’s hom ely daughter. A n im agin ary m use, the D ébora o f
the title, fin a lly appears in the novel’s closin g page, where we also learn that the
soldier has d ied , absurdly, from a p ap er cut. A s Elizabeth C o on rod M artinez
has pointed out, the Teniente’s in ab ility to reach his own m ystical creation m ir­
rors the n o velist’s frustration w ith a ch aracter that refuses to com e to life and a
plot in which we are forewarned that n oth ing w ill happen.51
These d e su lto ry ru m in atio n s b o o k en d a parody o f the ro m an tic stroll
through Q u ito ’s livin g m useum o f co lo n ial gran deur that owes m u ch to the
counter-cartographies o f A n d rad e, B u stam an te, and C olom a.52 A panoram ic
view from th e h illy neighborhood o f S an M arcos— already hom e to Roberto
Andrade’s Pacho V illam ar and B u stam an te’s Roberto— inspires a digression on
the hunger o f its thousands o f im poverish ed dwellers rather th an th e ennui o f
thè romantic chronicle. Palacio quickly drops th is critique when another anony­
mous lieutenant (Teniente B) in terru p ts the protagonist to im part an asinine
tale o f h avin g been interrupted in flag ran te delicto by his lover’s h u sband the
day before. Together, the two officers visit L a R onda, fam ed m use o f nostalgic
poets, and th e y find it under assault fro m “ El Relleno," that is, the in fillin g o f
the old brooks th at once traversed the city. Palacio avoids com m on sen tim ental­
ism and instead censures these nostalgics for their elevation o f the sm ell o f urine
above the a sp h a lt o f progress: “ T ru th fu lly , a crooked and narrow street that
does not allow passage to a bus m ay be picturesque, it m ay be enchanting due to
its urine sm ell, it m ay give an illusion o f transitioning, from one m om ent to the
next, between the rounds o f night ow ls. But asphalt is newer and there exclaim s
the force o f th o u san d s o f m en.” 5’ T h is castigation o f the nostalgic continues
once the T eniente— finally alone again — cruises the drunkenness o f El Placer
before passing to the slum s o f the B arrio s Bajos. There, he stands transfixed be­
164 \ A Phantasmagoric D ystopia

fore a lon g flight o f steps that trig g ers a m em ory o f the d oo r above; it opens onto
a room o f filth and muck where h e once satisfied his ca rn a l lu st, and all the while
he is reflectin g on the trap th at th e scene represents for the children he hears in
the n e x t room , as from the s lu m s com e only thieves an d prostitutes. With this
m em ory, h is paralysis d isap p ears, he retu rns hom e, he w rap s h is m ind around
the e arlier seduction o f his la n d la d y ’s daughter, who m ay or m ay not be preg­
n an t, an d finally begins a d re a m o f frustrated love.54 T h e novel abruptly ends.
Debora s radical reth inkin g o f th e colonial cityscape recalls the frustrations
o f R o b erto ’s search to escape Q u ito ’s confines in B u stam an te’s Para matar el gu-
sano, ye t it painstakingly avoid s lettin g the reader id e n tify w ith the cause o f the
protagonist. Indeed, there is n o la stin g cause, rom antic im p u lse, or even desire;
the T en ien te’s supposed m u se n ever appears, and one encounters his thoughts
m erely as a m eans to survive a contam inated environm ent. T h is is no nihilistic
representation per se, as P alacio situ ates the source o f th is con flict in the social
relatio n s represented by the n ig h tm arish tour throu gh th e centro— a stance in
con cert w ith his burgeoning s o c ia list philosophy. He w o u ld later expand this
con sideration in his last n o ve l, V ida del ahorcado (1932), w h ich condem ns the
bo u rgeois im pulse by tracing th e tentacles o f its violence again st hum anity and
natu re. A trial o f the bou rgeois b y the violated forest, n atu re itself, fram es the
co n flic t even as it foreshadow s th e possibility o f recon ciliatio n in an alternate
social web.55
A com plem ent to P a la cio s p essim ism can be foun d in the sim ilarly fantasti­
cal experim ents o f his so cia list colleague, H um berto Salvad or. Born in Guaya­
q u il in 1909, Salvador m igrated to Q uito following the loss o f h is parents when
he w as a young child. He s tu d ie d literature at the M ejia , where he also began
w ritin g fiction strongly in flu e n ced b y the French “m aestro s” such as Stendhal,
F lau b ert, Gide, and B alzac.56 H is first stories appeared in 1925 in Claridad, the
sem i-official magazine o f th e Ju lia n governm ent, and w ere follow ed by contri­
b u tio n s to the radical student review L lamaradda a fter he b egan studying law at
th e U niversidad Central in 1927. M od ern dram a, p a rtic u la rly Pirandello’s Six
Characters in Search of an A u thor (1921), both in sp ired h is production o f prize-
w in n in g plays, published as fa r afield as A rgentina, and a lso heavily influenced
the stories collected in Ajedrez a n d h is novel En la ciudad he perdido una novela
(both published in 1929). E x p a n d in g Palacios earlier c ritiq u e, Salvador’s writ­
in gs illu strate a frenetic a n d fragm en ted Q uito d o m in a ted b y pulsating en­
cou n ters between m o d e rn ity ’s recklessn ess and the fru s tra tin g endurance of
tradition .
H is early works— he w o u ld later try his hand at so cia l realism — represent
th e first local acceptance o f th e paradoxical im pulses o f m od ern life. A n obses­
sion w ith psychological d e v ia n c e tinged w ith clin ical c u rio sity pervades these
pieces, a scenario that W ilfrid o C o rra l has linked to S a lv a d o r’s own studies in
F reu d ia n theory.57 A tale lik e “ E l am ante de las m a n o s,” fo r instance, recalls
P a la cio ’s “ El antropofago,” g iv e n its eventual d evolu tion in to a ritualistic de­
 A Phantasmagoric D ystopia / 165

vouring o f a lover’s hands. Salvador, how ever, painstakingly recreates the steps
of this deterioration into m adness, avo id in g the dependence on the su d den rev­
elation ty p ic a l o f Palacio’s narrative. T h e potential in tru sion o f in sa n ity into
a quotidian m om en t appears again in “ L a navaja,” in w hich a n arrator, bored
with the m u n d an e discussions in the barbershop, d aydream s th at h is barber
metamorphoses into a homicidal m an iac. T h is fantasy appears lu d icro u s (“¡C a­
ramba! ¿Realidad? N o; ilusión”), but it is also addictive.58 The b o h em ian narrator
follows the th ough t to its finish— a h a llu cin a tio n o f his own d eath — attracted
by a horror laced w ith uncertainty.
Salvador, m oreover, attributes a m o d e rn sen sibility to te ch n o lo g y th at
ruptures the veneer o f tradition and q u ietu d e that obscures the stiflin g forces
of capitalism . T h e barber’s clock in “ L a n avaja,” for instance, belongs to a con­
sortium o f contem porary timepieces sen sitive to the avant-garde’s d isg u st with
a Fordist m en ta lity: “ They do not resign them selves to the v u lg a rity o f being
exact.”59 In “ L a s linternas de los autos,” th e c ity ’s nightlife is d escribed fro m the
perspective o f a c a r’s headlights, those “ojos de la noche” that ob serve d epravity
under darkn ess, fro m prostitution to th e ft and m urder. A s w itn ess sim u ltan e­
ously to bourgeois excess and m od ern ity’s “escenarios movibles” (m ovable stages)
life has no secrets for the “sabia linterna” (wise lantern).
The trope o f lucid personification re tu rn s in Salvador’s b est-know n treat­
ment o f the fan ta stica l city, his 1929 novel En la ciudad he perdido una novela. In
this work, w hich focuses on a fictional a u th o r’s attem pt to create characters that
refuse his auto cratic m inistrations, Q u ito ’s neighborhoods, salo n s, cin em as,
and tram lines app ear as archetypal p erso n alities, which he term s subpersonajes.
For Salvador’s narrator, these “su b ch aracters” conspire w ith th e city to o b fu s­
cate the spaces identified with m ain p layers such as the refined Jo se fin a and
the nihilist C arlo s, a process that hides th ese characters’ in d ivid u ality fro m the
authorial h unt. Salvad or’s narrator lam en ts this situation in h is d escription o f
his elusive m use, V ictoria: “I’ll begin b y locatin g her. L ocatin g a perso n in the
classic city o f S a n Francisco de Q uito proves m ore difficult, even, th an d ivin in g
a friend’s card s d u rin g a high-stakes gam e o f chance. She escapes. In order to
catch up, one m u st desperately ru n th ro u gh the streets. Fortunately, the paved
roads are less p a in fu l than the sid ew alk ; however, when one reaches cobble­
stones the ch ase becom es dolorous. You m u st quit. The ch aracter th us escapes
and not even th e D evil could find her.” 60 In this passage, Salvad o r deconstru cts
several o f the u su a l visions o f idyllic Q u ito, which obscures its ch aracters by
virtue o f its ow n evasive yet classic ch aracter. Jaundiced reality in tru d es for the
pursuer as he traipses across the city streets, where the a sp h a lt’s y ie ld provides
pyrrhic relief for an author encum bered b y a rigid cobblestone not even the devil
himself could weather.
The quest is com pulsive, and so th e author searches fo r V ic to ria ’s hom e,
turning now to the popular neighborhood o f El Tejar, lam en tab ly yet another
barrio lleno de piedras” (barrio fu ll o f stones) on Pichincha’s u p p e r slopes. In
i66 \ A Phantasmagoric D ystopia

a spo t riddled in legend an d m em ory, Salvador retreats for an instant into the
lo yal transcription o f an old-fashioned chronicler. H ow ever, he rejects the a n o ­
d yn e for m alicious w itches, a widow possessed b y a d ev il, and a m ultitu d e o f
d w arfs whose spirits on ly recen tly capitulated to th e assau lt o f electricity that
app eared w ith the suddenness o f an Apache’s attack in an A m erican w estern .61
A n d yet tradition holds fa st, h eld tightly by “casas coloniales, madres del pecado”
(colonial houses, m others o f sin), including the n eighborhood church, “ la se­
ñora del barrio,” under w hose shadow the locals d rin k flavors o f the past such as
aguardiente and chicha de jora (corn beer).
A fte r El Tejar, the pace accelerates. The resurgent ghosts shield V ictoria on
h er w ay to a salon, then d isap p ear as she leaps into a n automobile speeding to­
w ard the Edén cinem a, w here the slapstick film s o f C h arlie Chaplin and B uster
K eaton regale the fa ith fu l crow d. Inside the theater, we encounter the rom antic
m alcontent Carlos, w h om V icto ria cannot stan d , a n d so she vanishes again ,
g ivin g way to a new m use: th e wealthy Josefina. A resident o f one o f the lu x u ri­
ou s chalets on the n o rth ern edges o f town, Josefin a gives the author even m ore
troub le since she never w a lk s anywhere, on ly ta k in g tram s and autom obiles
speeding past the A la m e d a and Ejido parks on her w a y to the im pressionist can ­
vas o f her garden. Even h er m an sion, in its gran d opulence where the w indow s
are “ fram es for the cu bist nu d e o f voluptuousness” scoffs at the lowly a rtist.62
A s the novel contin ues its episodic m ean d erin g through a crowd o f new
ch aracters and subch aracters, the author even tu ally com es to realize the fu til­
ity o f his attem pt at com prehensive knowledge. Q u ito cannot be understood
through a single character, a single building, a single neighborhood. The capsule
o f the chronicle thus is revealed as presum ptuous, fo r on ly in the collection o f
fragm en ts can one brin g the city to light. The realizatio n is stark but prom ising
fo r the vanguard, who alon e understands this reality :

Each neighborhood symbolizes a tendency. . . . Hallucinatory novels, with

legendary aspects and classic prose, one finds in “El Tejar.” The medieval in the
cloisters of “Santo Domingo" or “San Diego.” The perverse in “La Tola.” The
modern rests in the central streets, where automobiles are protagonists of all
flings and all love stories. The romantic in the section o f “La Alameda.” And
when one reaches the “ Ejido” they become naturalists. Realism is hidden like a
cat in any house. One can search for the vanguard in the city, throughout all its
neighborhoods.6’

Q uito’s attack on his novel thus stems from its v e ry character as a m odern city:
a schizophrenic land scap e w hose essence cannot b e know n except by pastiche.
T h e city thus hid w ith in its paradox a P ira n d e llia n character th w artin g at­
tem pts to know its natu re yet offering up tan talizin g glim pses o f clearly defined
in d ivid u al neighborhoods, w hose very clarity is a lso illusory. Such a d efinition
rup tu red the conventional view o f Quito as a site e a sily illum ined by the insight
 A Phantasmagoric Dystopia / 167

o f an exp ert narrator such as G an go ten a, A ndrade Coello, or even Palacio. A c­

cording to Salvador, only the v a n g u ard , with its ability to transcen d essential-
izing definitions, can be fou n d throughout the landscape.

The Social Realist Necropolis

Salvad o r’s and Palacios su rrealistic w ritings raised the ire o f their fellow So­
cialist P arty m em bers. A critical m om ent came in 1930, w hen a group o f writers
from G u ayaq u il published Los que se van, a collection o f tales highlighting the
b ru tality o f life in the rolling h ills o f the coastal plateau. T h e b o o k ’s coauthors,
D em etrio A guilera M alta, Jo a q u in G allegos Lara, and E n riqu e G il G ilbert, fol­
lowed u p its publication w ith c a lls for a socially conscious n ation al literature.
G allegos Lara, in particular, em braced the task o f exalting socialism in a series
o f essays published in 1931 an d 1932 that form ulated a com prehensive critique
o f recent avant-garde activity as a nativist extension o f bourgeois mentality. He
singled out Salvador’s En la ciudad he perdido una novela as a trite exam ple of for­
m alism , instead advocating a literature featuring the n ation ’s ru ral and urban
poor. M anifestos abounded in th e leftist press as editorial pages clam ored to an­
swer G alleg o s’s challenge, w ith even the “ decadent” Salvad o r tu rn in g his back
on his previous w ork.64 T h is en ergy in fu sed the intellectual elite and propelled
a literary renaissance that yie ld ed som e o f Ecuador’s best-know n fiction o f the
tw entieth century, includin g Jorge Icaza’s indigenista novel Huasipungo (1934),
José de la C u a d ra s forerun n er to m agical realism , Los Sangurim as (1934), and
Dem etrio A gu ilera M alta’s Don Goyo (1933). Their heroes included the oppressed
Indian, the verbose and violent montubio (literally, a resident o f the A ndean foot­
hills; figuratively, a country b u m p k in ), and the colloquial A fro-E cu ad o rian .
T h ese novels drew upon a len gth y intellectual h istory reaching back to Juan
León M era but were m ost im m ed ia tely influenced by Loja attorney Pío Jara­
m illo A lva ra d o ’s exploration o f pre-C olum bian history. Ja ra m illo ’s El indio ecu­
atoriano (1922) sim ultaneously laud ed a noble indigenous tradition going back to
the legen dary pre-Incaic K in gd o m o f Q uito while arguing for a contemporary
alliance between indigenous com m u n ities and the S o cia list Party. Jaram illo’s
writings helped accelerate ru ra l p olitical activism and a lso fostered literary ex­
ploration o f these ideas, b egin n in g w ith Fernando Chaves’s Plata y bronce (1927),
whose em phasis on the corru p tio n o f priests and hacendados presaged the onset
of social realism .65 M ost expon ents o f this new indigenismo located their writings
in the countryside in order to dem onstrate the exploitative relations o f a no lon­
ger vacuou s hinterland. T h is is not to say, however, that the city disappears from
the social realist novel. Indeed, Federico Chalupa has com m ented on the import
o f the capital as the space “associated with the white elite” in no less a work than
Icaza’s Huasipungo, a scathing rebuke o f life on an A n d ean hacienda and gener­
ally regarded as the forem ost exam ple o f the indigenist m ovem ent. It is in Quito,
i68 \ A Phantasmagoric D ystopia

however, that Don A lfonso Pereira brokers a deal w ith th e grin go M r. Chappy
to b u ild a highway through a n indigenous co m m u n ity’s sm a ll plots know n as
huasipungos. It is the city’s scan dalm on gers whom Pereira flees upon learning o f
his daughter’s illegitimate pregnancy. A n d from Q uito com es the regim ent that
suppresses an indigenous in su rrectio n in the work's clim ac tic scene.66
The framework developed b y Icaza and his colleagues echoed the vitupera­
tive castigation o f the city ty p ic a l o f the polem ical w ritin g at the tu rn o f the
tw entieth century as well as o f contem porary so cio lo g ical an d psychological
thought. Particularly in flu e n tia l in the E cu ado rian c o n te x t were José Carlos
M ariátegu i’s agrarian so c ia lism , w ith its em phasis on th e u rb an origins o f ru ­
ral poverty, along with the re fo rm ist pedagogy o f th e M ex ic an revolutionary
governm ent.67 While Hélice h a d prom ulgated R ivera’s w ork in 1926 to general
indifference, the visit o f M e x ic a n educator M oisés S á e n z in 1931, as p art o f a
regional tour designed to in vestigate the conditions o f S o u th A m erican indig­
enous groups, proved m ore in flu e n tial. Sáenz’s co n tacts w ith figures like Jara-
m illo A lvarado and Chaves in flu en ced his encyclopedic Sobre el indio ecuatoriano
(1933); its treatment of the h a rd sh ip s o f rural life e x p a n d ed Jaram illo’s research
and foreshadowed the advent o f social realist literatu re.68 S áen z’s call for a more
responsible pedagogy an d a com prehensive sociological stu d y o f the plight of
the Ecuadorian Indian en couraged fu rth er academ ic stu d y. O f particular rel­
evance for the social realist n o vel were the studies o f u rb a n and periurban pov­
erty conducted in the suburbios b y Dr. Pablo A rtu ro S u árez o f the Universidad
C entral in the early 1930s. S u á re z ’s subsequent sta tistic a l an d qualitative por­
trait o f these slums published in 1934 provided a w ealth o f inform ation m ined
by authors such as Icaza and H u m berto Salvador as th e y created a denunciatory
urban literature.69
The second integral elem en t o f works such as Ic a z a ’s En las calles (1935) and
Salvad or’s socialist fiction w as the incorporation o f a Freu d ian concern with
sexual deviance. For both au th o rs, this inflection in th e ir work stem m ed par­
tially from their university stu d ies; Icaza had at one tim e b een a m edical student
before turning to the theater, w h ile Salvador’s th esis, “ E squem a sexu al” (Uni­
versidad Central, 1933), represen ted the first com preh en sive Spanish-language
survey o f the role o f se x u a lity in contem porary p sy ch o lo g ica l theory.70 Salva­
dor’s studies o f Freud, Ju ng, an d Soviet theorist A le x a n d ra Kollontai formed the
basis for his portrayal o f the so cial origins o f sexual tran sgression in subsequent
novels.71 These referents a lso h ea vily influenced Ic a z a , p articu la rly in his early
dram a, which emphasized th e cau sal relationship b etw een environm ent, sexual
repression, and perversion.
Icaza’s plays turn upon a sense o f m oral am b iguity stem m in g from the social
conditions in which his ch aracters exist— conditions in w hich violence results
from environmental con d itio n s rather than a p erso n ’s existen tial choices. For
exam ple, “ Como ellos q u ieren ” (1930) exam ines the w a rp in g o f the lust felt by
Lucrecia, a young provin cial girl studying in Q uito, w h o se liaisons with a poor
 A Phantasmagoric D ystopia / 169

lover are c u rta ile d b y her father’s fa m ily . Besotted by n eu rasth en ia and an ac­
companying h ysteric disorder, she bites h er uncle’s cheek and attem pts to stran­
gle her cousin before choosing the “ in d epen d en t” life o f a prostitute.72 Sim ilarly,
“¿Cuál es?” featu res an oedipal crisis as tw o brothers (Hijo 1 an d H ijo 2) fantasize
about k illin g th e ir philandering d ru n k o f a father whose exploits have caused
their m other to contract a venereal disease. W hen he is finally m urdered, neither
brother is c e rta in who inflicted the fa ta l k n ife wound, even as the m em bers o f
the com m un ity (and their mother) rem ain certain it was H ijo 1 becau se he had
publicly railed against the patriarch— yet another score for the quiteño gossips.7’
Icaza p a r tia lly abandons the a m b ig u ity o f these early e xp erim en ts in the
societal in d ictm en t o f Huasipungo, w here sex stands revealed as an abusive curse
besotting th e indigen ous wom en o f th e C uchitam bo h acien d a. A cen tral se­
quence delineates the social origins o f these conflicts by tracing the adventures
of Don A lfo n s o Pereira. A fter being aw akened from slum ber b y the shouts o f
his workers attem p ting to save the crip p le A ndres Chiliquinga fro m stam peding
cattle, Pereira rapes Chiliquinga’s w ife C u n sh i, who is acting as wet nurse to his
son. She is su m m a rily returned to C h iliq u in g a ’s choza the fo llo w in g day, lead­
ing the crip p le to wonder what m ay h ave occurred. Cunshi n ever sp eak s— after
all, her attack er was the boss, who cou ld do what he w ould in h is d om in ion .”
Pereira’s lech ero u s escapades contin ue th e next evening in d ru n k e n cavorting
with the p arish priest. Their carou sing ends with first Pereira and then the cleric
consorting w ith the housekeeper, Ju a n a , who tellingly echoes C u n s h i’s exculpa­
tion o f the m aster w ithin a m oral com pass. A s she puts it (in an internal m on o­
logue), sex w ith Pereira represents o n ly a potential sin whereas, “w ith the priest,
it wasn’t a sin .” Nevertheless, when h er youngest son observes her retu rn to her
quarters, ad ju stin g her blouse, his g aze fills her with the deepest sham e.74
The violence against women presages the escalation o f Pereira’s oppression,
which u ltim ately leads to a futile in su rrectio n among the In dian s o f C uchitam bo
that is suppressed by'soldiers arrivin g fro m the capital. T h is event foreshadow s
the central co n flicts o f Icaza’s next novel, En las callesP Like its predecessor, this
work features a dom ineering hacendado— Don Luis A nton io U rrestes— whose
political an d econom ic power strad d les the urban and ru ra l realm s. T h e pro­
tagonists are tw o cholos, or m estizos, n a m ed Ram ón Landeta and José M an uel
Játiva, who flee th e ham let o f C h a g u a rp a ta after Urrestes encroaches on their
water rights. T h e novel follows th eir jo u rn e y to Quito, where th ey jo in the toil­
ing m asses, L a n d eta as a porter at a fa c to ry owned, ironically, b y U rrestes, and
Játiva as a p olice officer. W hile Icaza dem arcates the transform ative experiences
each suffers, th e n o vel’s clim actic recou n tin g o f a riot reveals a n enveloping and
tragic social structure.
Icaza’s treatm en t o f Landeta’s accu ltu ration to the facto ry evokes h is early
drama as w ell as the liberal idyll. T h e cholo quickly gains th e tru st o f h is su ­
periors for h is fa ith fu l service. In th e factory, he also m eets th e h ard w orkin g
and com ely C la u d in a , who supports h er d ru nken father. In a nod to th e them e
170 \ A Phantasm agoric Dystopia

o f pastoral lib eratio n in m an y early lib eral novels, the two frequ en t th e nearby
eucalyptus forests, whose lum ber feeds th e sm okestacks; these lia iso n s lead to
C laudina’s p re g n a n cy and a confrontation w ith h er father. A lth o u gh she is able
to w ithstand h er fath er s inebriated w ra th , the couple’s joy ends w h en m anage­
m ent forbids a u n ion ization drive, which lead s C laudina to join h er coworkers in
storm ing the facto ry. Landeta, still g u a rd in g the gates, lets her an d a few others
inside, and th en th e police confront the assem b led crowd. He attem p ts to sneak
them out the b a c k d oo r near a putrid k n o ll reeking o f urine an d feces guarded
by a lone police officer. The guard hesitates w hen attacked b y L a n d e ta b u t then
drives a bayonet in to the cholo’s breast. O n ly then does Landeta re a liz e that his
killer was none oth er than his form er co m p an io n , José M anuel Já tiva.
Játiva’s k illin g o f his compadre d em arcates the fragm entation o f the city and
underscores a n earlier appeal made by th e strik ers to the police c itin g th eir com­
m on m estizo a n c e stry — "cholos mismo son !” T h is appeal also rein forces Icaza’s
treatment o f Já tiv a ’s schizophrenic altern ation between his identities as the cholo
from C h agu arp ata and policía número 12 0 . It is the cop who k ills L a n d e ta , but it
was Játiva w hose trigger finger hesitated w h en h is friend had ju st em erged from
the factory. T h e k eeper o f the peace sm ash es the butt o f his rifle in to th e head
o f a pregnant In d ia n as h is troop su p p resses a ru ral u prising, b u t it is Játiva
who recognizes h er glassy eyes as those o f h is w ife following h er execu tion by
Urrestes’s m in io n s for poaching corn. F in ally , it is policía número 12 0 w h o stands
next to policía número 132 as the latter c o llap ses, shouting, “ M e jo d ie ro n estos
carajos,” as th e y attem pt to control a cro w d protesting a rigged electio n . But it
is Játiva who tak es u p the call for s o lid a rity between police an d w o rkers until
another an o n ym o u s soldier finally cru sh es th e head o f the “escandaloso policía."76
The a n g u ish o f Játiva’s and L an d eta’s experiences develops a m acrospatial
argum ent lin k in g the city and the cou n trysid e. In it, the city no lon ger appears
to be the exploiter o f the countryside, as in Huasipungo, but in stead fu n ctio n s as
one part in an overarching system o f exp loitation . Other elem ents o f the novel
that help develop this leveling o f difference between the urban an d ru ra l realms
can be seen in U rrestes’s constant p resen ce in both spheres an d th e riot that
closes the novel itself. Evoking the c arn age o f the Guerra de los C u a tro Días of
1932— the b lo o d y street battle that resu lted fro m the d isqu alification o f the fas­
cist presidential cand id ate Neptali B o n ifa z fo r having been b o rn in P eru — the
combat occurs as a result o f a disputed election between U rrestes an d another
hacendado, S o la n o del C astillo.77 The tw o spare no expense, ro u n d in g up able
Indians and cholos from their h aciend as to force an arm ed co n fro n ta tio n . Já­
tiva’s eventual awareness o f the extent o f th is m anipulation m atters little, for the
struggle m ust continue, and even U rrestes and Solano are only p la y in g bit parts
in a dram a o f system ic brutality.
Icaza a lso tack les the physical e m b o d im en t o f the exploitative n ation al dy­
nam ic on a m icro sp a tia l level. Early in th e novel, for exam ple, th e contingent
from C h a g u a rp a ta encounters the m assive Presidential Palace (“m á s g r a n d e que
 A Phantasmagoric Dystopia / 171

la casa de la hacienda,” or larger than the haciend a house) before bedding dow n
in Santo Dom ingo P laza, the evocative description o f which is worth quotin g at
length:

A t 10 p m , m o r e o r le s s , a t a t t e r e d s c ro u n g e r a r r i v e d , s c r a t c h e d h is g r o in ,
h e a d , a n d lo u s e - r id d e n a r m p it s b e fo re r in g in g s o m e m e d a ls — s a in ts , v i r g i n s ,
cro sse s— as w e ll a s a fe w a m u le t s d a n g lin g o f f h i s c h e s t , a n d th e n , in b e tw e e n
c u rse s a n d s p e c ia l p r a y e r s , h e c u r le d u p in to a b a ll o f r a g s o n th e g r o u n d . A b it
la te r a b lin d m a n a c c o m p a n ie d b y a sh o e less b o y a p p e a r e d a n d d id th e s a m e .
L a te r th e re c a m e a n I n d ia n — a p u b lic p o r te r in d i s g r a c e — “A n y o n e c a n . A n y o n e .
E v e n t h e n a tiv e . . . ” t h o u g h t t h e tro u p e o f v i ll a g e r s , d r a g g in g th e m s e lv e s s lo w ly
to w a rd th e m is e r a b le c o v e r in g o ffe re d b y th e p o r t ic o . It w a s a w in d y a n d c o ld
n ig h t, b u t n o w o r s e t h a n t h e h o v e ls o f th e a lp in e m o o r s . L u c k ily , th e y w ere
a lr e a d y a c c u s t o m e d .7®

The distinction betw een the palace’s lu xu riou s h a lls and the cold stone o f the
plaza recreates the so c ia l m ap o f the city. T he colon ial center no longer serves
a nostalgic role but in stea d dem arcates cen turies o f exploitation. The squ alid
living quarters o f th e u rb an and rural poor, fro m C h aguarp ata to La T ola to
Chimbacalle, each con tain the same bare floors an d lack o f amenities. For Icaza,
this is the heart o f th e city, a point underscored b y h is strikin g choice to avoid
the private sphere o f th e w ealthy, who only ap p ear in public sites such as the
government palace, offices, and Urrestes’s factory.
Icaza’s dystopic visio n rests on a spatial account o f power evoking the liberal
dyll infused with a n indigenist-inflected attention to subaltern actors. A sim i­
lar frame dom inates th e social realism o f H u m berto Salvador’s three socialist
novels o f the 1930s— Cam arada (1933), Trabajadores (1935), and Noviembre (1939).
Despite Gallegos L a ra ’s challenge, Salvador m ain ta in s the surreal landscapes,
Fragmented narratives, an d an obsession w ith psychological traum a and sexual
deviance that ch aracterized h is earlier works. O ther elem ents include the sp o ­
radic inflection o f an indigenista m ysticism th at recalls M ariátegu i’s project to
develop a distin ctly A n d e a n socialism and a tend en cy to universalize Q u ito’s
particularities that lin k s Salvad o r to the syn ech d och al chronotopical trends
explored throughout th is book.79
Each o f S alvad o r’s so cialist novels explores a p articu la r dim ension o f this
iconoclastic aesthetic. T h e first o f the three, Cam arada, features interlocking
episodes that develop a fragm ented montage that sh ifts through time and space,
providing only a con cep tu al m ap to anchor the reader.80 T h is conceptual tool
is provided by S alv ad o r’s fascination with b oth M a rx ism and sexual psych ol­
ogy, which had been th e subject o f his thesis, “ E squem a sexu al.” Camarada thus
provides episodic accounts o f the violence o f bourgeois sexual transgression that
iltim ately contrast w ith w orking-class fidelity an d m odesty.
Most o f the novel cen ters on traumatic encounters that a young bureaucrat
172 \ A Phantasmagoric D ystopia

n am ed A lb e rto has with th ree e q u a lly unattainable w om en. T he first is his

co u sin Lucrecia, with w hom h e sh ared an illicit sex u a l experience as a child.
The m em o ry o f this incident h a u n ts him as he co u rts th e frigid Gloria, her­
s e lf torm ented by the in cestu o u s advances o f her fath er an d a series o f enjoy­
able b u t forbidden lesbian e xp erien ces in b o ard in g sc h o o l.*' A lb erto finally
m eets a potential com panion in the young p ro le ta ria n Ju lia , whose parents
are the on ly moral characters in the novel. A lth ou gh th e two young people do
e ve n tu a lly kiss, Alberto re fra in s from pursuing a s e x u a l relationship because
“ Ju lia is poor. She has no rig h t to pleasure.” 82 H ow ever, Ju lia too is im pli­
cated b y bourgeois lechery w h en h er boss attem pts to seduce her on her lunch
hour. W hen she refuses, she loses her job. A lberto, th o u gh , cannot help her b e­
cause he falls victim to D epression downsizing. T h e novel ends as he begins to
starve.
S alvad o r’s next socialist no vel, Trabajadores (1935), m oves away from the for­
m u laic proselytizing o f Cam arada. The novel ab and on s tw o-dim ensional char­
acterization and includes n a tu ra listic portraits o f p ro letarian life along with
heightened attunement to th e sem iotics o f urban space. T h ese changes m ay be
traced to Salvador’s service in th e M in istry o f S ocial W elfare, a haven for social­
ist m ilitan ts, which provided h im w ith firsthand experience o f the plight o f the
urb an and rural poor.83 He d evelops this through a re fra in — la vida sin vida (life­
less life)— that provides an on tological fram ework exp lo rin g the denigration o f
the h u m an spirit as a result o f social exploitation.84
Salvad o r deploys this socio log ical analysis in th ree sections, the first and
th ird o f which discuss the e m ergin g class consciou sness o f ten-year-old G o n ­
zalo G álvez as he and h is fa m ily struggle to su rvive a fte r h is father, an arm y
lieutenant, is severely beaten fo r h is alleged involvem ent in a planned coup. The
m id d le section fleshes out th e social m ilieus in w h ich th e G álvez fam ily oper­
ates b y presenting a series o f scenes portraying d a ily life in their neighborhood.
Th rough out, Salvador reconsiders Q uito as a lim in a l an d flu id space that belies
the intransigence o f class exploitation and offers the p otential for revolutionary
p ossib ility in young Gálvez.
A p rim ary theme w ith in Trabajadores concerns the lifeless existence o f the
m arg in a l and d isenfranchised. Salvador m aps th is trop e upon a cityscape that
resem bles the fragm ented v ista s o f En la ciudad he perdido una novela but w ith ­
ou t th e whim sy o f the earlier novel. In Trabajadores, instead o f fluidity, motion
is eith er arrested or sign ifies so cial decline. T h u s, L ieu ten an t Gálvez tran si­
tion s, always a bit later th a n 'h e w ould like, fro m th e m ilita ry hospital to his
crow ded home to the spa to w n o f Baños to the cem etery, each step furth erin g
h is decline. His sister Teresa m igrates to Quito fro m the city o f Am bato and is
at one point faced with th e p o ssib ility o f traveling to G u ayaq u il at the request
o f a form er lover who h a s fo u n d som e m ercantile su ccess in the port. T h is
p o ten tia lly liberating jo u rn e y recalls Pacho V illam ar an d Salvador R am irez’s
to u rs to the coast, yet T e re sa rem ain s entrenched in a decrepit city due to
 f! í i " í O P'-b'ÍOt
A Phantasmagoric Dystopia / 173

the need to tak e care o f her fa m ily .85 T h eir continued fin a n c ia l erosion forces
a sh ift fro m a m oderately c o m fo rta b le apartm ent in th e cen tral n eigh bor­
hood o f L a M erced to tiny ro om s in L a C hilena— what S alv ad o r refers to as
“the last h u m an nest o f the c ity ”— follow ing Gálvez’s loss o f h is pen sio n .86
W h ile th e lack o f freedom to travel where one w ants or, conversely, being
forced to m ove to less costly q u arte rs are exam ples o f how p o verty lim its p o ­
tential in ad u lt lives, the city slow ly opens up to the yo u n g G o n zalo G álvez, a
narrator w hose name we learn o n ly in the closing pages o f th e novel. G o n zalo s
journeys at the behest of his fa m ily introduce him to the class divides at society’s
core.87 T h is knowledge is c o m m u n icated via three jo u rn eys across the valley,
which illu m in a te the urban flu id ity characteristic o f S alv ad o r’s earlier work and
reveal a M a rx ist framework. T h e first o f these journeys is at the behest o f Gon-
zalo’s au n t, Teresa, who sends h im to visit the elite chalets near A ven id a Colón,
where the b o y travels to beg for new clothes from the reputably generous Señor
Pérez. G o n z alo longingly gazes at th e trolley passing by, w ish in g th at he did
not need to trudge across the e x p a n se o f the city, on ly to fin d th at the refined
dandy aw aiting him at journ ey’s en d h as no interest in h is su p p lication s.88 T he
second is a b u s trip to Chim bacalle, where his father is about to bo ard the train
for Baños. A n urchin lacking the fare is ru n over by a ch au ffeu r an xio u s to press
on. Fin ally, on a second trip to th e north ern chalets, th is tim e near the Parque
de M ayo (today’s Ejido Park), G o n z alo tries to collect p aym en t for a dress Teresa
had m ade fo r a debutante. In th e gard en at the custom er’s hom e, he m eets a girl
his own age whose doll rem inds h im o f his neighbor B eatriz, w ho cries at night
for lack o f foo d. Although the girl is touched by his tale, h er fath er lets loose his
dogs to d rive away a boy he con siders a truant, thus im ped in g G o n z a lo s ability
to collect the much-needed fu n d s.
G o n z a lo ’s journeys— c o lle c tin g th e paym ent fo r T eresa, c a rin g for h is
father-— reveal the nature o f th e city. It is a divided but in tertw in ed space, as
Salvador m akes clear in an evocative passage that occurs ju st before G onzalo’s
encounter w ith the young girl:

My life was an irony— how ironic that a starved and ragged boy could enter
homes saturated with luxurious comforts.
It was a sensational discovery— next to the destitute Quito I knew existed
another Quito— that of the powerful.
These were two distinct cities that life’s great sarcasm arranged close by. Two
contradictory cities that were nevertheless interwoven, the one fused in the other.89

For G o n zalo , despite his tender age, th e city that had fru strated Salvad o r’s va n ­
guard n arrato r a few years earlier h a s bared its essential p arad o x in which the
interdependence o f poverty an d w ealth is obvious. A s S alvad o r m akes clear, this
knowledge com es with a price, as th e innocence o f youth is overw helm ed by the
jaded irony o f adolescence.
174 \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

A secondary d eh u m an izin g trope concerns m ale s e x u a l depravity, w hich

b u ild s on Salvador’s studies in sex u a l psychology an d eugenics. For Salvador,
trad ition al sexual mores evoke social injustice or p erso n a l frustration. He d e­
velops th is indictm ent by p resen tin g archetypal situ atio n s that pervert these
fru stratio n s. For exam ple, w h ile collecting G alvez’s p en sio n , Teresa encoun­
ters a provincial schoolteacher n am ed Laura who lo st h er job for refusing the
advances o f a governm ent in sp ector. G onzalo’s sister L o la , on the other h an d,
takes up with the handsom e son o f a local shopkeeper, w ho abandons her after
she becom es pregnant. T e llin g ly , h er fam ily ’s w o rries center on the arrival o f
a new m outh to feed, and fa m ily m em bers counsel h er to abort the fetus. She
re fu se s.90 Finally, Salvador explores the tw isting course o f lust by detailing their
one-eyed brother A lfred o’s passio n for the comely C h a b e la , who refuses the gro ­
tesque tuerto (one-eyed m an) as she recalls flam boyant rom ps with Gerardo, the
dash in g son o f her employer. A lfre d o ’s already su b stan tial drinking accelerates
am id his frustration, fu elin g lon ely m asturbation in a d a rk alley— “ Esto es para
los p obres!” (This is for the p oo r!).9’ Finally, he ab an d o n s the miserable court­
ship and attem pts rape. C h ab ela fends him off by clu bb in g him on the head w ith
a stone.
T h e emotional b an k ru p tcy o f adult men is contrasted w ith the experiences
o f yo u n g G onzalo. A fte r h is fath er’s release from p riso n , the boy endures en­
treaties for euthanasia an d an attem pted suicide b efo re the m ilitary pension
enables the invalid’s transit to the southern spa o f B an o s, a sm all ham let on the
cu sp between the sierra and th e A m azon that is fam o u s for its hot springs.92 A s
in the novels o f A ndrade or M a rtin ez, this parody o f th e liberating ru ral esca­
pade proves equally p yrrh ic follow ing the father’s re tu rn to Quito. In his d ying
breath , he calls to G o n zalo b y n am e, id en tifying th e b o y for the first tim e and
sym b olically declaring h is m an h o o d . In the closing p ages o f the book, G on zalo
fin a lly embraces his fath er’s M a rx ism , replacing the nation al flag draped over
th e coffin with a red ribbon. T h is political awareness parallels a sexual aw aken­
ing when G onzalo kisses B eatriz for the first tim e an d discovers that her m outh
is “unafruta maravillosa." T h is intim ate and legitim ate sexu al encounter bolsters
Salvad o r’s broader claim th a t sexual liberation w o uld accom pany political d eliv­
erance. The book ends w ith its now m antric op en in g line: “ We workers o f the
w orld w ill create the new h u m an ity.” 95
Trabajadores integrates S alv ad o r’s fascin ation w ith the fluidity o f m odern
id en tities into his p o litica l project. In his fin a l so c ia lis t novel o f the 1930s,
Noviem bre (1939), these trop es escape the contou rs o f social realism w ith the
réintroduction o f the h a llu c in a to ry prose o f En la ciudad he perdido una novela.
Salvad o r deploys this renew ed surrealism to redefine indigenismo's m ysticism in
a n effort that anticipates O rw e ll’s Anim al Farm (1945) am id a scathing in d ict­
m ent o f the inner w orkings o f governm ent.94
T h e first third o f the novel treats social clim b ers, focusing on the attem pts
b y the young bureaucrat A lb e rto A ndrade and a secretary nam ed M arta G an-
 A Phantasmagoric Dystopia / 175

gotena to ascend the political ladder. A n d rad e’s p rim ary skill is his sycophancy,
w hereas M a rta em ploys her lo o k s, though o f course w ith o u t sacrificing her
“h on or.” Salvad or contrasts th e ir ab ility to navigate Q u ito ’s'c o rru p t intrigue
with th e honorable designs o f th e socialist bureaucrat H ernán N avarro and his
frien d Jaim e, who strive to resist the repressive Dictador, w hose qualifications
are lim ited to trading w isecracks w ith soldiers in the Plaza de la Independencia.
W hile A lb erto and M arta rise to the top o f their professions, Jaim e and Hernán
su ffer fro m the widening abuses o f the despot and his h en ch m an , H err Heller,
the G erm an -b o rn ch ief o f police ru m ored to have trained w ith the Gestapo. The
city slow ly descends into a reign o f terror, worsened by a failed m ilitary insur­
rection th at leads to the death o f a you ng poet nam ed Jorge A g u irre , whose only
crim e w as to clim b the barricades in search o f an ode.
T h e tw o-year presidency o f th e engineer Federico Páez, who rode a 1935
m ilita ry coup to power, p rovid ed the p rim ary inspiration fo r Salvad or’s novel
Noviembre. Despite some in itial legislation sym pathetic to w orkers and the in­
digenous populations, Páez’s in a b ility to restrain the tu m u lt o f the Great De­
pression delegitim ated his autocratic rule. The press, esp ecially the leftist daily
El Día, increasingly waged a w ar o f words that led the C alderón regim ent to stage
an in su rrectio n in Novem ber 1936, which indeed featured the death o f a poet—
the guam bra (child) Z am b ran o— on whom Salvador’s id ealistic Jorge Aguirre
was b ased . A ccording to the A m e ric a n traveler A lbert F ran k lin , Zam brano’s
death “gave transcendence” to the insurrection and proved a galvanizin g force
for the deepening opposition.95 Páez turned increasingly auth oritarian in ensu­
ing m onths and indeed nam ed a N azi sym pathizer to head the Q uito police.96
The exp an sio n o f state terror u ltim a tely led the m ilitary to w ithdraw its su p­
port fo r the governm ent. In O ctober, the m inister o f defense, A lb erto Enriquez,
forced Páez’s resignation an d in stalled an interim governm ent callin g for a “re­
new al” o f the progressive sp irit.97
Noviem bres denouem ent loo sely follow s this narrative w h ile introducing
fan tastical and m ystical elem en ts that Salvador deploys as sym b ols o f Quito’s
innate sp irit. These sym bols b e g in to m ake their appearan ce w ith the poet’s
death, when Jorge A g u irre ’s lon e shot inspires a cavalcade o f b ullets, accom­
panied by a chorus o f “ D ow n w ith intelligence and long live d eath !”— words
that h ad been fam ously spoken by Falangist general M illá n A stra y to rebut the
criticism o f the great Spanish essayist and poet M iguel de U n am u n o at the U ni­
versity o f Salam an ca in 1936.98 Salvad o r fram es the city’s en su in g carnage as a
crucifixion delivering a crow n o f thorns to the Andean cap ital.99 T h is Christian
image explodes into a surrealist ode follow ing the battle, d u rin g which the fear­
fu l q uiet haunts the young a c tiv ist H ernán. He collapses w h ile watching the
D ictador distribute m in isterial assignm ents and h allu cin ates th at the leader
gaily passes plates o f bones an d m orsels o f raw meat to a crow d o f yapping and
snarling dogs whose m ouths in term itten tly resemble those o f h u m ans. He col­
lapses before this delusion, w h ich evokes the R abelaisian grotesqu e that had
176 \ A Phantasmagoric Dystopia

fascinated the 1920s avant-garde while also an ticip atin g the fam ous conclusion
o f O rw ell’s Animal Farm , in w hich it is im possible to differentiate betw een th e
revolutionary pigs an d the capitalist m en.100
The novel’s final p ages develop an im age o f Q u ito as a p hantasm agorical
skeleton populated b y “gh osts appearing as liv in g m en as they have lost th e
qualities that bring m a n k in d praise.” ’01 A g a in , H ern án hallucinates, th is tim e
seeing a visit by the d ea d poet, Jorge A gu irre, w ho com pares his m artyrd o m to
the attack on genius a n d creativity in fascist E u ro p e. A g u irre ’s words aw aken
anonym ous hordes o f gh osts who clam or for the execution o f governm ent tr a i­
tors and call for the A n d e s them selves to aw aken, w hich they do. First M o u n t
Pichincha opens its a rm s, follow ed b y its siblin gs C him borazo, Cayam be, an d
El A ltar, sending a sh u dd er through the earth an d presaging the arrival a rebo rn
A tahualpa, who d elivers a speech claim ing A m e ric a fo r the workers o f the w orld
and calling for the re su rrectio n o f the ancient sp irit o f the city, slum berin g a ll
th is time. A t this clim ac tic m om ent, H ernán aw akes to find his friend Ja im e
telling him that it is a ll over. The m ilitary has d ep osed the Dictador and placed
a new progressive govern m ent in his place. T he c ity and nation are finally fre e .102
W ithin the generic con stitutions o f the novel o f th e phantasm agorical d y s­
topia, Noviembre provides the first attem pt to reh abilitate the city’s image v ia the
seism ic intrusion o f a p rim o rd ial past ru p tu rin g h isto rica l colonialism to create
a new future that is b o th local and universal. T h e n o ve l’s d izzying conclusion
introduces an indigenista m etaphor that, for a ll its potency, is fram ed as the h a l­
lucination o f a starvin g m an hop efu l for the fu tu re bu t certainly not in h is righ t
m in d — as evidenced b y h is earlier vision o f the tran sm u tatio n o f potential m in ­
isters into howling dogs. T h is vision recalls the tria l o f h um an ity from P a la cio s
Vida del ahorcado but serves a different point— th a t o f rehabilitating the sou l o f
a city long slum bering yet poten tially ripe for ch an ge and renewal.103 A s su ch ,
it can be compared to th e progressive spirit o f th e liberal idyll despite its ironic
sensibility. A fter all, w h ile anim ate m ountains an d dead Incas do not b u ild the
society.of the future, H ern án awakes from h is o w n d ream s to gaze upon a city
bathed in resplendent su n ligh t, a sight that is “a sym p h on y o f light and color . . .
beau tifu l, ardent, an d vo lu p tu ou s.” 104 The id y ll h a s fin a lly been tran sgressed
and transformed.

The Chronotope o f an Anti-Modern City

In the early tw entieth century, the historic Ib eria n evocation o f the c iv iliz ­
ing force o f urb an ity encountered a new lineage o f denunciations and c a stig a ­
tions o f city life. T h e p o ten tial liberation offered b y ru ral clim es d id ap p e ar
alongside this critique; however, the authors p ro cla im in g the barbarism o f city
life were not pastoral no stalgists. The urban is laced w ith the rural and h ea vily
 A Phantasm agoric Dystopia / 177

im plicated in its terror, even in the w ritings o f an A n d ra d e or Bustam ante whose

id ealized countrysides are m ore prom inent. T hese w orks thus deconstruct the
counter-cartography offered b y Ju a n León M era in Cum andd, arguing vo cife r­
ou sly against the cap ital’s “ tra d itio n a l” society, w h ich becom es a banal a b su r­
d ity m asking the social re a lity they hope to illum in ate.
O ne o f the critical elem en ts o f these poetics o f den u nciation concerns an
iron ic approach to the p o s itiv is t paradigm th at verges on the p ostm od ern .
W h ile there is a broad em b race o f social justice an d progress offered in o p p o ­
sition to Q uito’s retrograde gemebundos, these n o vels attem p t to illustrate the
coexistence o f the m odern an d the traditional in an in creasingly dialogical fash ­
ion. B y exploding the p erceived disjuncture betw een the fu tu re and the p ast,
these authors offer a conceit o f the city as a sim u la c ru m .“ 5 A lth ough operating
from distinct politics, th is fram ew ork builds u p on Ju a n L eón M era’s counter-
cartograph ic vision o f n a tio n a l developm ent, w herein progress is turned on its
h ead in a country going th e w ro n g way. A n d ra d e ’s a n d M artin ez’s n a tu ralist
m elodram as layer liberal p olem ic upon this essen tially dystopian vision w hile
B u sta m a n te, Salvador, Ic a z a , an d Palacio each in terro gate the p arad igm o f
progress itself.
T h e futile attempts to know th e Pirandellian and phantasm agorical city owe
m uch to contemporary lite ra ry experim entation, esp ecially the currents o f mo­
dernismo, surrealism , D a d a ism , and socialist realism . T h ey also stem, however,
fro m th e p articular m ilie u o f Q uito, in which the m o d ern and the traditional
m ain tain ed an incessant tan g o , as well as from th e p e c u lia r biographical c ir­
cu m stan ces o f the auth ors them selves. From M era to Palacio, B u stam ante to
Salvador, a provincial u p b rin g in g inflects the critiq ue o f the in su lar idyll w h ile
h igh lighting the possibility (and difficulty) o f its transgressing. It is w orth not­
in g th at M era and M a rtin e z b o th hailed from A m b ato , Palacio from Loja, and
Salvad o r from G uayaquil. Even Bustam ante and Icaza spent m any o f their fo r­
m ative years on fam ily h a cien d a s in Pifo and L a ta cu n g a , despite having been
b o rn in the city. These au th o rs’ displacem ent as m igran ts qu alifies their fictional
constitution o f Quito as a closed com m unity. A s D avid Sibley has noted, in such
a “strongly classified space,” intruders m ust be sh u n n ed .1“6 The denunciation o f
th is in su larity as a p h an tasm agorical construction m ask in g social tension th u s
com es w ith an intim ate fa m ilia r ity based not on ly in ideological study bu t also
in life experience. T h is w as not their city, and th eir estrangem ent is projected
onto the cityscape they depict.
T h e relationship betw een th e city and its h in terlan d both locally and n ation ­
ally form ed a critical com p o n en t o f the character o f these novels and stories.
H owever, in spite o f the p o litic a l ties that did exist betw een urban intellectuals
and indigenous com m unities, these works cannot claim to directly represent the
latter’s perspective. In deed, even the m ost widely k n ow n indigenista, Jorge Icaza,
dem onstrates a rootedness in u rb an discourse th a t dem onstrates cleavages be-
 1

178 \ A P h a n ta s m a g o r ic D y s t o p ia

tw een the city and its h interland . However, th is observation belies the direct
engagement with the u rb an economy by in d igen ou s com m unities. M oreover, it
also obscures the degree to which indigenous com m u n ities— in p articu lar the
com m une o f Santa C la ra de San M illan— th em selves m anipulated history, and
especially genealogy, as insiders aware o f the leverage o f historicity w ith in the
city’s m odernizing present.
 Chapter 7

Santa Clara de San Millan

The Politics of Indigenous Genealogy

In Ju ly 1940, a group o f ind igen ou s comuneros from the tow n o f Santa Clara de
San M illán on Q uito’s ou tskirts petitioned Ecuador’s m in ister o f social welfare
to form an alternate cabildo. T h is com m uniqué criticized the current leader­
ship, charging that the b o d y constituted an elite oligarchy, or gamonal, a term
u su ally reserved for lan d ed an d agroexport oligarchy. T h e petition claim ed
fu rth er that the cabildo m em bers had grown w ealthy throu gh their m an ip u ­
lation o f the com m u n ity’s com m on lands. O f p a rtic u la r concern to the p eti­
tioners were urban properties that lay in the town’s n o rth ern environs, which
they charged the cabildo h ad distributed among them selves. In conclusion, the
comuneros alleged that those w ho were unable to gain the favor o f the cabildo for
access, such as the elderly or th e deaf, were forced to beg in order to survive.'
Pedro Pablo T u m ip am b a and Francisco T u m ip am b a , scions o f a leadin g
clan, presented the p etition. T h ese two brothers h ad long hoped to join the ca-
bildo’s m em bership, only to be thwarted by their father, long-standing legal rep ­
resentative José Federico T u m ip am b a, who claim ed th ey were still too young.
Earlier attem pts to appeal h is decision, both to the cabild o and the m in istry,
had ended in failure, p recipitatin g this new strategy o f petitioning with su p ­

179
i8o \ Santa Clara de San Millán

port fro m th e m arginalized factio n s, a tactic that sought to exp loit fissures in
the comuna.2 For the im poverished a n d elderly, the p astu res an d plots o f the
traditional com m unal lands represented sustainability fo r an cestral practices
besieged b y th e expanding city. For lo ca l entrepreneur F elician o S im b añ a, on
the other h a n d , common lands p ro vid ed a resource for the gro w in g network of
rental properties; he was thus tra d in g on the very forces o f ch ange that threat­
ened h is fellow com m unity m em bers. N ation al politics also played a part. As
Pedro Pablo and Francisco T u m ip am b a w ould have well k n o w n , the M inistry
o f Social W elfare was dom inated b y so cialist intellectuals in clin ed to support a
crusade again st a gamonal,3
W hereas h is sons had adopted th e language o f class exploitation in their bid
to form an alternate cabildo, José Fed erico T um ipam ba issu ed a response that
deployed decades o f experience c ra ftin g land histories a n d lo ca l genealogies.
In his response, he defended a set o f statutes drafted in 19 10 th at guaranteed
the c o m m u n ity’s autonomy despite th e official prohibition o f collective land­
holdings in th e m id-nineteenth c en tu ry . These th irty-year-o ld codes afforded
the elder Tum ip am ba a m eans o f ch allen gin g the alternate c a b ild o s legitimacy,
p articu larly a fter his brother-in-law, José Gabriel C o llah u aso, jo in ed its ranks.
Because C o llah u aso had been b o rn in the town o f S an golq u i in Q u ito’s south­
eastern en viron s, Tum ipam ba co u ld cla im that his p articip atio n in the body
contradicted a requirement that c ab ild o m em bership be h ered itary. T h is argu­
ment not o n ly conveniently d isregard ed C ollahuaso’s lon gtim e role as cabildo
president bu t also inherently ch allen ged the juridical p rim a cy o f the 1937 Ley de
C o m un as, w hich carried no such genealogical requirem ents fo r m em bership.
Such a stip u lation , however, did e x ist in Santa C lara’s earlier regu lation s and
had also been debated at the con gression al level on v a rio u s occasions during
the 1920s an d 1930s.4 T um ipam ba’s m an ipulation o f p arallel legal codes, along
with a second argum ent he m ade regard in g procedural irregu larities in the con­
stitution o f the alternate cabildo, u ltim a tely prevailed. S oo n after, however, he
reached an arrangem ent with h is so n s, who finally achieved th eir desire to join
the traditional governing council, h a v in g aptly dem onstrated precocious politi­
cal power.5
The 1940 conflict in Santa C la ra dem arcates several p o litic a l forces at play
w ithin th is indigenous com m un ity d u rin g the early tw entieth cen tury. These
include generational clashes, econom ic opportunism , an d th e m an ipu lation of
local h isto ries and genealogies w h en d ealin g with both state an d internal con­
flicts. E ach o f these phenomena la y intertw ined w ithin three h isto rical threads.
T h e first thread concerns th e c ritic a l contestation b etw een the state, the
landow ning elite, and indigenous com m unities over control o f autonom ous eji­
dos (com m on pastures) in the tow n’s environs. The origins o f th is strife lay in the
colonial era but intensified p erio d ic a lly during the n in eteenth cen tury. Santa
Clara offered consistent challenges to these m achinations, o ften u sin g a strategy
 Santa Clara de San M illân / 181

c o m m o n am o n g indigenous populations: underscoring their h isto ric ties to the

region and defen d in g colonial land titles. T h is defensive tactic, how ever, existed
in dynam ic ten sio n w ith the interd ep en den t econom ic relations th e com m u ­
nity enjoyed w ith th e expanding m etro po lis. T h e second line o f in q u iry in this
chapter co n cern s th e developm ent o f th e p eriu rb an econom y. S a n ta C la ra ’s
incursions in to Q u ito ’s real estate m a rk e t, esp ecially follow ing th e inception
o f the M a risca l S u cre suburb in its b a ck y a rd in the 1920s, d em o n strate that a
significant in d igen ou s m inority profited fro m the transform ations occasioned
by urban exp a n sio n and la n d specu latio n d u rin g the tw entieth ce n tu ry .6 The
third them e con cern s the com m u n ity’s a rticu latio n o f m icro h istories o f land
use and c o m m u n ity genealogy w ith in w h a t Joann e R app apo rt h a s term ed a
“universal p ersp ective” referencing n ation al an d international phen om ena with
direct bearing on local circum stances.7 T h e m anipulation o f L ib eral and S ocial­
ist Party rhetoric an d sym pathies played a critical aspect in th is endeavor.
A grow ing b o d y o f work seeks to recon sid er the relationship o f indigenous
groups to th e state in the A ndes. S ch o lars h ave long held th at th e process o f
nation-build in g d u rin g the nin eteenth c e n tu ry sign ificantly red u ced in d ig­
enous p articipation in local governance b y lim itin g the reach o f trad itio n al pre­
rogatives. In th e E cu ado rian case, for exam p le, A ndrés G uerrero h a s observed
that the Liberal state operated as a “ve n trilo q u ist” that system atically m argin al­
ized indigenous com m unities even w hen p u b licly operating in th eir interests.8
The scholarship on Peru, particu larly th e w ork o f Florencia M a llo n and M ark
Thurner, h a s ch allen ged the efficacy o f th is program by p o sitin g th at in d ig­
enous com m unities appropriated and m an ip u lated the tenets o f liberal republi­
canism to serve th eir interests.9 S im ila r argu m en ts regarding the participation
o f indigenous com m u n ities w ithin th e p o litica l sphere in E cu a d o r h ave been
advanced b y Federica M orelli, Aleezé S atta r, Erin O’Connor, and G alo R am ô n ,
culm inating in M arc Becker’s tracing o f active linkages between indigenous and
leftist m ilitan ts fro m the 1920s to the p resen t.1“
W ith th e excep tio n o f M orelli's en gagem en t with late colo n ial an d early
republican m u n icip a l politics, none o f these studies addresses th e pligh t o f u r­
ban or p eriu rb an com m unities. The in h ab itan ts o f Santa C lara de S an M illâ n ,
unlike B ecker’s com m u n ist allies fro m ru ra l Cayam be or S a tta r’s m illen arian
insurrectionaries fro m Yaruquies, cam e in to d a ily contact w ith a v e ry present
state in w hich in terstitial apertures fo r self-ru le were m in im a l.“ A ccess to u r­
ban m arkets an d the m echanism o f go vern an ce, however, also facilita te d the
exploitation o f sociopolitical fault lin es. T h e com m unity’s d ep loym en t o f h is­
tory ought therefore to be seen as a negotiatin g strategy, one that expan d ed p o ­
litical and entrepreneurial opportunities d u rin g the city’s early m odernization.
M oreover, the interrogation o f the c a b ild o ’s narrative illustrates the processes
whereby even su ccessfu l chronotopes con tin u ed to be challenged b y alternate
collectives seeking to m ake their ow n experien ce normative.
182 \ San ta Clara de San M illan

The Colonial City and “ Its” Correqimiento

T h e com m u n al legislatio n p asse d in 1937 re-im agin ed th e guarantees af­

ford ed to trib u ta ry indigen ous p op u latio n s during the co lo n ia l period. These
g u aran tees accom panied the p attern o f settlem ent w hereby in su la r Spanish cit­
ies w ere to be surrounded by su b servien t indigenous cen ters deployed through
a va st h in terlan d , or correqimiento. T h e privileging o f E u ro p ean u rb an ity within
a syste m o f dom ination had its cou n terp art in the access th a t sedentary popula­
tion s h a d to the public lan d s k n o w n as ejidos. The c ab ild o ad m in istered these
plots an d parceled them out to not on ly Spanish vecinos b u t also those pueblos de
indios th at could dem onstrate fo u r generations o f local k in sh ip ties. In exchange,
these p op ulatio n s o f originarios prom ised to pay a b ia n n u a l p o ll tax.
T h is system built upon lon g-stan d in g Iberian p ractice an d proved largely
su ccessfu l from an ad m in istrative standpoint. It not o n ly established the politi­
ca l a n d econom ic suprem acy o f the Spanish cabildo b u t a lso invested the local
in d igen o u s nobility w ith a sta k e in its success becau se th e up per echelons of
In d ian ranks were prom ised larger properties and privileges. W hile some groups
o f originarios, including those o f San ta Clara de San M illa n , vigorously protested
th e lo ss o f local control over fa rm la n d , guaranteed access to arable land proved
fu n d a m e n ta l to m ain tain in g a m easure o f autonom y.’2 C o m m u n ities created
elab orate fam ily trees cem enting their originario statu s, at tim es even exaggerat­
in g th e ir lineage, as in the case o f the Duchicela clan in th e R iobam ba region.'3
In c o n tra st, forasteros, ro vin g p op u lations without ties to sed en tary clans, met
p erio d ic persecution, and m a n y attem pted to join originario settlem ents. Such
a ttem p ts not on ly exp an d ed in traeth n ic tension b u t a lso increased competi­
tio n fo r ejido plots. For e x am p le , incom ing forasteros o v e rra n th e Uyum bicho
c o m m u n ity south o f Q uito in the sixteeenth century, re su ltin g in demographic
pressures that led to near catastro p hic deforestation an d xenophobic clashes.'4
In 1591, with the in tro d u ctio n o f th e alcabala (sales tax) into the Viceroyalty
o f P e ru , originario statu s a lso provided a com parative ad van tage in the m ar­
k etp lace. The high rates originarios paid in tribute le ft th em exem pt from the
new levies and in a prim e p osition to collude with m erch an ts from other ethnic
g ro u p s seeking to evade th e ta x . Q uito was no excep tio n , w ith In dian market
w o m en know n as gateras co m m o n ly acting as fronts fo r S p an iard s introducing
go o d s into the city’s m arketp laces. Over the course o f th e seventeenth century,
th ese indigenous m erchants system atically lobbied to e x p a n d the list o f comesti­
bles exem pt from the alcabala as they expanded their im p o rtan ce in the regional
b la c k m arket, m uch to th e c h a g rin o f A udiencia o fficia ls and the m estizo and
m u la tto owners o f sm all groceries or pulperias.'*
T h e eighteenth cen tury saw ta x evasion spread across the Q uito corregimiento.
A series o f plagues and the d eclin e o f the textile econom y in the wake o f Bourbon
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 183

free trade p olicies pushed increasing num bers o f tribute-paying In dian s into the
hacienda syste m , especially into the w ealth y Jesuit concerns in the C h illo and
Añaquito v a lle y s.16 These originarios conspired with large landow ners to person­
ally deliver b u lk goods into the city an d th u s evade duties. Gateras also saw their
business gro w as sm aller proprietors an d urb an farm ers cultivating sm all plots
known as solares tu rned to them to avoid arousing A udiencia su sp icio n s.17 A n
act establish ing a C row n m onopoly over the production o f aguardiente in 1746,
ostensibly to fu n d construction o f a new royal palace, exacerbated th is situa­
tion. R u ra l elites nurtured ties w ith local tax-farm ers (who collected taxes for
the Crown b u t were not employed b y the Crown directly) to avoid levies on the
drink’s p rod u ction while sm aller producers supplied the in fo rm al distilleries
installed beside the San Bias slaughterhouse on the northern edge o f the city.18
The new m easures also inspired tw o m ajor urban riots that underscore the
informal lin k ages between entrepreneurs and originario com m unities. T he first
was the aforem ention ed 1747 su b altern protest sparked by the a rriva l o f Lim a
com m issary G regorio Ibáñez C u evas. Besides sym bolically bran d in g Q uito as a
place o f enslavem en t, like Egypt was fo r the Hebrews o f the Bible, the protesters’
retreat to the utop ian Franciscan sa n c tu a ry o f San Diego likely succeeded pre­
cisely becau se the originario tow nsh ip o f La M agdalena, ju st beyond the lim its
of San R o q u e p arish , sm uggled fo o d stu ffs to the rebels, again dem onstrating
the strong ties between the city and its environs. The second conflict developed
during the ad m in istration o f V iceroy Pedro M essia de la Cerda, who took office
in 1760 at the height o f the Seven Years’ W ar (1756—1763).19 Stru ck b y the fact that
Quito’s revenues represented a th ird o f those collected in the viceregal capital o f
Bogotá despite its sim ilar population, M essia de la Cerda im posed direct control
of the alcabala and the aguardiente m onopoly in M arch 1764.20 A year later, local
viceregal representative Juan D iaz d e H errera instituted the reform s.
The tra n sitio n to state co n tro l o f the m onopoly proceed ed relatively
smoothly, largely due to Diaz de H errera’s successful lobbying o f elite producers.
Active resistance erupted in late M ay, however, when he attem pted to reform the
alcabala an d require the registration o f solares in San Roque and S an Sebastián,
each being an eth nically m ixed p o p u lar parish with strong ties to the C hillo and
Turubam ba valleys. W ild rum ors circu lated in both city and corregimiento that
this reform w ould im pose a radical new order elim inating ejidos, trebling tribute
rates, and ta x in g newborns. On the evening o f M ay 22, a largely plebeian crowd
congregated in the Santa Barbara p laza and demolished the custom s house in
protest.21 N eith er the cabildo nor th e elite answered the A u d ien cias calls to sup­
press the rio t, so it was several chaotic d ays before local Jesuits fin ally negotiated
a settlem ent suspen d in g the refo rm s and granting the rioters im m u n ity from
prosecution.
A n u n e a sy ca lm fell over the c ity for the next few weeks, u n til Ju ne 23, on
the eve o f th e festivities for the feast o f San Juan Bautista, w hich coincided with
the sem ian n u al arrival o f thousands o f corregimiento Indians to pay their tribu-
188 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

Fíg. 7.1. M ap o f Rosasp am ba, C atalo m a, an d L o m agorda. C ou rtesy A rch ivo N acion al de Histo­
ria, Q uito.

m ore th an th irty witnesses called b y the com m u n ity’s defender, Pablo Antonio
Salazar, also provided insight into the im portance the properties played in the
m aintenance o f Santa C lara’s econom ic independence. N eighbors and business
associates from as far afield as M ach ach i, a good d ay’s jo u rn ey b y m ule train,
cam e to testify. Their statem ents portrayed a relatively prosperous and intercon­
nected population whose tim ber and agricu ltu ral enterprises form ed an integral
p art o f the regional economy.
Faced w ith the prospect o f rejecting the legitim acy o f lan d titles or denigrat­
ing a local m arket force, Superior C o u rt judge Pedro Ferm ín C evallos— found­
ing m em ber o f the Liberal P arty and a w ell-know n h isto rian — postponed his
decision b y arguing that the references to variou s lan d m ark s, stream s, peaks,
and roads crisscrossing the upper slopes o f Pichincha rem ained im precise. He
therefore ordered a new m easurem ent o f the lan d s in q uestion in order to es­
tablish th eir relation to the del M azo h acien d a and the tow n o f San ta Clara de
San M illá n . The resulting m ap (fig. 7.1) not on ly acquainted the judge with the
som ewhat remote area under d iscu ssion bu t also provided del M a zo ’s attorney,
R am ó n D elgado, a spatial argu m en t b y h igh ligh tin g the distan ce between the
properties on the upper slopes o f Pichincha and the In dian town along the royal
road. D elgado’s contention th at indigenous com m u n al lan d s w o u ld have been
contiguous to settlem ents reflected contem porary considerations m ore th an co­
lon ial precedence. N evertheless, th is interpretation satisfied F erm ín Cevallos
on the question o f ownership, w hich w as awarded to Ju an a del M azo. However,
 Santa Clara de San M illan / 189

the judge also m ain tain ed the state’s patronage o f indigen ous com m un ities by
r e a ffir m in g the comuna’s u s u fru c t rights as an econom ic necessity.
A s in 1835, th is arrangem ent suited neither party, w hich led to a th ird h ear­
ing at the Suprem e C o u rt b e g in n in g in Ju ly 1857. B oth D elgado an d S ala z a r
p r e s e n t e d ra d ic a lly d ifferen t argu m en tation in th is new ch am ber. D elgad o’s
dismissive tone disappeared, replaced b y a respectfu l series o f depositions seek­
ing to discredit th e ind igen ou s claim fo r u s u fru c t righ ts. For exam ple, w hen
discussing a 1769 b ill o f sale, D elgado now em ph asized th at the h acien d a en­
joyed the yearly lab o r o f five In d ian s fro m San ta C lara de S an M illa n , an o b ­
ligation th at designated a trib u ta ry relationship rather th a n the c o m m u n ity ’s
ownership o f the p ro p e rty .42 M oreover, he argu ed th at the case represented a
national im perative given th at the co m m u n ity’s attem pt to supersede the legal
title would establish a precedent that w ould denigrate the institu tion o f private
property nationwide. S ala z a r ro u n d ly criticized D elgado’s argum en ts as ju st so
much flow ery lan guage, b u t h is ow n am ou nted to little m ore th a n a series o f
expositions regarding the “m iserable” state o f h is clients, a traditional argu m ent
designed to appeal to the p atern alist w h im s o f the state.43
T his argu m en t m ay w ell have w orked; however, the passage o f the decree
elim inating trib u te on O ctober 30 , 1857, ended the p rim a ry ju stifica tio n for
indigenous collective land ow nersh ip. T h e ju stices, who h ad h eard fin a l arg u ­
ments earlier th at m on th , p ostp on ed a decision u n til the follow in g M a rch , a
hiatus d u rin g w hich th ey appear to have ru m in ated on the im plications o f the
new statute.44 T h eir fin al sentence sidestepped the issue b y upholding the previ­
ous judgm ents in a vague op in ion th at su m m a rily ignored cru cial d etails such
as whether u s u fr u c t righ ts w o u ld continue to be enjoyed an d the n u m b er o f
days the comuna w ould have to serve del M azo . Even a fter S ala z a r attem pted
to c la rify these m atters, the cou rt re fu se d to answer, argu in g th at these were
new issues not d iscussed d u rin g the trial. W hile this poin t denoted the delicate
future o f com m u n al lan d h o ld in g, it u ltim ately benefited San ta C lara de S an
M illan, w hich enjoyed continued u su fru c t rights to the properties. Indeed, the
group accelerated its lu m b er trade to such a degree th at del M a zo ’s son-in-law,
M anuel Chiriboga, w ould com plain to the court anew a decade later. D espite his
m yriad attem pts to label the com m u n ity as a cancer fru stratin g “progress,” the
m atter was again su m m a rily d ism issed .45
Santa C lara’s tussle w ith del M azo illu m inates the am bivalent status o f in ­
digenous collective properties. U ltim ately, neither the comuna nor the hacendado
was able to consolidate u n ita ry control over the lands in question despite a forty-
year struggle. T h is failu re resulted from the coexistence o f con flictin g notions
o f prop erty und er a flu id legal code where precedent w as con sisten tly ignored
in legislation yet applied in the courtroom . A s Santa C lara’s denizens appear to
have well understood, the recourse to colonial-era tactics such as the u nd erscor­
ing o f cu sto m ary usage an d necessity continued to be clear ju stifications fo r the
m aintenance o f u su fru c t rights even when titles were not held.
190 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

T he case also illustrates the im po rtan t role p layed b y access to the central
state apparatus. The co m m u n ity’s rapid m ove to exploit the propitious circum­
stances engendered b y the 1854 L ey de Indígenas suggests the existence o f a feed­
back loop less developed in m ore isolated areas. W hereas San ta C lara managed
to consolidate u su fru c t righ ts, ru ra l areas across the cou n try suffered a steady
erosion in the num ber o f sim ilar plots due to the encroachm ent o f the growing
h aciend a system . T h is was p artic u la rly the case in areas su ch as Chimborazo,
where hacendados system atically carved up indigenous lands du ring the 1860s by
exploiting not on ly intra-ethnic conflicts bu t also the p otential to legally divest
collective land hold ings established the previous decade. By 18 71, tensions had
developed to such an extent th at an insu rrection o f perhaps ten thousand souls
erupted u n d er the leadership o f Fernando D aq u ilem a o f Y aru qu ies in an ulti­
m ately fru itless gesture th at encouraged m ilitarizatio n o f the state presence.46
Violence d id not erupt on the D aqu ilem a scale in other areas o f the country;
however, h eavily indigenous zones like C o to paxi and Im babura also saw their
share o f localized clashes. The Q uito region, however, rem ained quiet. A s in the
late colonial period, the city’s p roxim ity to pow er and the subsequent empower­
m ent o f the indigenous com m unities on its p eriph ery m ay have h ad a hand in
this situation.

The Laws of Comunas

The incom p atib ility o f pseu d o-colonial system s o f territorial adjudication

w ith liberal conceptions o f p rop erty lay at the core o f the conflicts regarding in­
digenous com m unal lands du ring the nineteenth century. The hybrid responses
in stitu ted by U rbin a and m ain tain ed b y G arcia M oreno and subsequent ad­
m in istration s d id not solve th is ongoing tension. O nly w ith the advent o f the
1895 revolution did enough political clout accrue to the Liberal Party to reopen
the argum en t about collective p rop erty ow nership. A s in the nineteenth cen­
tu ry, the k ey issue concerned the ju rid ical status o f these populations and their
holdings. W hile the elim in ation o f tribute h ad theoretically rem oved the legal
ju stification for ejidos, in practice, collective access to com m on lands continued
unabated. M oreover, the ju rid ical rights to collective representation enshrined
in the 1854 law contradicted the essential guarantees o f in d ivid u al citizenship
espou sed b y ad m in istratio n s bent on d raggin g the nation into the twentieth
century.
A revival o f the vitriolic assau lt on the indigenous character accom panied
the state’s new enthusiasm for elim in ating debt peonage. T h is attitude echoed
nin eteenth-century criticism o f the system ’s degrad in g effects on indigenous
p op ulations, m ore often th an not em ph asizin g the incessant d ru nkenness of
these indebted p eo n s.47 These accusations h ad a double p urpose. O n the one
h an d th ey elaborated a racial p ositivism indebted to G obineau and Spengler,
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 191

w hose theories h ad spread throughout L atin A m erica during the latter th ird o f
the nineteenth century. O n the other h an d, they bolstered the state’s argum ent
r e g a r d in g the necessity o f continued patronage o f indigenous populations m ired
in perm anent indebtedness th rou gh concertaje. A s they h ad fifty years earlier,
L ib e r a ls argued th at this condition la id bare the im m orality o f the hacienda,
a n d they again called for the d ism a n tlin g o f the peonage system . N um erous
s c h o la r s have noted th at th is p latfo rm was intended to relocate indigenous la­
bor to coastal cacao p lantation s.48 However, until the eradication o f concertaje in
X919, there were only m in im a l changes in everyday relations betw een the state,
rural indigenous com m unities, and hacendados.
Liberals lam ented this situation, but their internal squabbles postponed any
action u n til after A lfa ro ’s death in 19 12. A new indigenous code, passed in 1913,
promulgated the patern alist spirit o f nineteenth-century liberalism b y reaffirm ­
ing protection for collective lan d ow nersh ip w hile stipulating th at the “q u asi­
contract o f com m u n ity” necessitated liaisin g w ith the state. The code inspired
vitriolic responses. In an essay in the law review Revista Forense, for exam ple,
Loja attorney D ario Palacios argu ed that the code resurrected an institu tion
that had been eradicated b y piecem eal legislation passed in the last th ird o f the
nineteenth century. Palacios’s critique resonated in a series o f condem nations
of the status quo b y liberal law m akers and bureaucrats.49 One o f the m ore ada­
mant cam e from geographer N icolás M artínez, who had ju st begu n overseeing a
railroad com m ission w orking to lin k A m bato w ith the A m azo n ian interior. His
ensuing 1916 m onograph on the province o f T u n gu rah u a’s indigenous pop u la­
tions reconsidered the u su a l Liberal defense o f the self-reliance and freedom ex­
perienced b y these com m unities. Instead, he slam m ed the ferocity and separat­
ism that h ad m et h is crew’s attem pts to survey comunero lands and advocated in ­
creased regulation.50 The 1919 passage o f the law outlawing concertaje encouraged
congressional deputy V ictor M an u el Peñaherrero to introduce a b ill redefining
com m unal ow nership as a contract w ith m in im a l h ered itary protections and
well-established bureaucratic oversight. The stage was set for a system ic debate
concerning the future o f these properties. It was a debate that h ad em erged in
concert w ith the flourish in g o f indigenismo during the 1920s and 1930s.
E cu ad o rian indigenismo in corporated both aesthetics and politics, w ith its
proponents attem pting to negotiate a space for alternatives to Eurocentric para­
digm s. A s in M exico or Peru, the m ovem ent largely involved leftist intellectuals
whose idealization o f p re-C o lu m b ian life m erged with a push for social egali­
tarianism and the creation o f a transn ation al “ Indoam erica” as a counterweight
to the capitalist world. A s d iscu ssed earlier, Jorge Icaza, Fernando Chávez, and
H um berto Salvad or tran slated th is th eory into an em phatic condem nation o f
the hacienda and its ow ners— the w hite urban elite. T his fram ew ork echoed the
political th eory o f the rad ical liberal Pío Jaram illo Alvarado, who considered the
com m une a potential corrective to the greed o f the landow ning class.5'
In his early w ritings, inclu d in g the influential El indio ecuatoriano, Jaram illo
192 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

m ain tain ed th at the com m u n al experience o f self-ru le p repared indigenous

populations for greater incorporation into the national com m un ity, thus echo­
ing a standard liberal line.52 H is socialist leanings em erged after the 1925 Julian
R evolution and inspired a critical response to Isidro A yo ra’s abandonm ent of
the progressive spirit o f th e origin al govern m ent. T h is response resulted in
Ja ra m illo ’s b rie f exile to P an am a in 1926, a fter w hich he em erged as a figure
b rid ging the liberal and so cialist cam ps, p artic u la rly on the indigenous ques­
tion. His w ritings increasingly invoked the necessity to tran sfo rm the commune
into a cooperative under the aegis o f the state, a position influenced by the ex­
perim entation o f the M exican state and the w ritin gs o f P eru vian socialist José
Carlos M ariátegu i. T h is argum en t crystallized in 1928 d u rin g a heated debate
w ith conservative A lfo n so M ora o f C uenca, who argu ed th at the com m une was
a debilitated institution w hose glory days d u rin g the colon ial era had long since
passed. Jaram illo countered that the independent comunero was a good worker,
clean and industrious, whose protection w ould u ltim ately p ay dividends in the
liberation o f the entire race. T h is h ard lin e stance, w ith its concom itant vision
o f the state’s enabling role, fou n d favor in the newly form ed M inisterio de Pre­
vision S ocial (M in istry o f S o cial W elfare), w hich w ould becom e a defender of
collective rights in com ing years.53
The m in is try ’s position represented a tactical response to increased rural
agitatio n d u rin g the 19 20s, Ja ra m illo ’s a ltru istic rh eto ric notw ithstanding.
H eavy inflation and food shortages during the p ostw ar recession sparked labor
conflicts across the coun try as w ell as violent repression, m ost infam ou sly in the
deaths o f as m an y as a th ou san d cacao w orkers in a 1922 strike in G uayaquil.54
R u ral populations soon joined th eir u rb an coun terparts in protesting both em­
ployer dem ands to do m ore work w ith no increase in pay an d the grow ing price
o f necessities, at first w ith sim ila rly u n fo rtu n ate results. In 1923, for example,
com plaints b y Indian s regarding the w orkload on th e Leito hacienda in Tun-
gurah ua province led to a m ilita ry assault th at le ft th irty-n in e dead and twenty
wounded. The Ju lian Revolution’s call for greater social responsibility, however,
em boldened both urban and ru ra l activists in the later years o f the decade, par­
ticu larly following the 1926 fou nd ing o f the S ocialist P arty o f Ecu ador (Partido
Socialista del Ecuador, or PSE).
Indigenous groups fo rm ed one o f the critica l con stitu en cies supporting
the P SE in its early days. O f p artic u la r im portan ce was the Sindicato de Tra­
bajadores Cam pesinos de Ju a n M ontalvo (Syndicate o f W orkers o f Ju a n M on­
talvo), an indigenous u n io n fro m the n o rth ern P ich in ch a cou n ty o f Cayambe.
Founded in Jan u ary 1926 u nd er the leadership o f Jesú s G u alavisi, the syndicate
organized an invasion o f form erly com m u n al lan d s th at h ad becom e part of
the C h an galá hacienda ow ned by G ab riel G arcia M oreno’s son, G abriel Garcia
A lcázar. A lth o u gh u ltim ately repelled b y tw o governm ent battalion s the fol­
low ing m onth, the invasion and its noto riety bro u gh t overtu res o f solidarity
from urban leftists such as R icardo Paredes and L u is F. Chavez. Besides placing
 Santa Clara de San M illan / 193

editorials in the p roto-socialist review s La Antorcha and La Vanguardia, in tel­

lectuals petitioned th e governm ent to nationalize the lands u nd er d ispu te and
included G u a la visi in the organizin g congress o f the Socialist P arty th at M ay.
By Novem ber, the synd icate’s renewed assault on the hacienda h ad a new battle
cry: “ Long live so cia lism !” 55
The allian ce betw een u rb an le ftists and ru ra l In d ian s alternated betw een
paternalist fram ew orks and recip rocal relation s. T h e edito rials noted above
echoed the rhetoric o f indigenous assim ilation and mestizaje th at Jaram illo h ad
borrowed fro m Jose Vasconcelos, V ictor R a u l H aya de la Torre, an d the racial
positivist tradition m ore broadly. M arc Becker has posited, however, th a t su s­
tained contact sh ifted the p atern alist tenor o f this encounter toward a m ore eq­
uitable one as indigenous goals altered the p a rty ’s p latfo rm . Sim ilarly, a cadre
of indigenous activists adopted organ izin g strategies, such as lab or stoppages,
from th eir u rb an allies. Two K ayam b i w om en, Dolores C acu an go an d T ran -
sito A m a g u an a, proved p a rtic u la rly adept at strad d lin g the h acien d a an d the
meeting h all, w ith C acu an go even tu ally jo in in g the C entral C om m ittee o f the
Com m unist P arty o f E cuador.56 B y the m id-i930s, th eir w ork h ad led to strikes
across C ayam be as w ell the h ea vily indigenous provinces o f C h im b orazo and
Cotopaxi, foreshad o w in g a p o ten tially d evastatin g con flagration alon g class
and ethnic lines.
The M in isterio de P revision S o cial accelerated its p rogram to bo lster su p ­
port for indigenous com m unes at the sam e tim e th at this unrest was developing.
In 1931, the m in istry cosponsored a stu d y o f th e situation o f the E cu ad o rian In ­
dian by M exican ped agogu e M oises Saenz, who visited the h eavily indigenous
provinces o f Im babura, P ich inch a, C him borazo, and C otopaxi. S aen z’s rep o rt
echoed Ja ra m illo ’s earlier call fo r m arket-based land distribution to indigenous
peoples; the latter h ad based h is recom m endation on w hat he called the people’s
traditional love for la n d as w ell as noticeable patterns o f territorial accu m u la ­
tion am ong In dian s w ith disposab le incom e. A g a in , the com m u n ist overtones
of pre-C olum bian society served to legitim ate this essentializing claim concern­
ing indigenous beh avior th at, in classic lib eral fash io n , ju stifie d greater state
patronage.57 A p roposal for a new lan d code stipulating greater m in istry involve­
ment in everyd ay governance— in clu d in g d ivision and divestm ent o f com m u ­
nal lan d s— follow ed soon a fter S aen z’s visit. The p rop osal generated su b stan ­
tive opposition b y bo th th e R igh t an d the L e ft as a result o f its rad ical s h ift o f
power to the m in istry , w hich led to the lan d d ivision project being p ostp oned
multiple tim es over the n ext several years.
The u ltim ate passage o f w h at w o u ld com e to be know n as the L e y de C o -
m unas ow ed m uch to th e p olitical upheaval o f the 1930s. T he econom ic p ain s o f
the G reat D epression convin ced the m ilita ry to depose President Isidro A yora
in A u gu st 1931, sparking two decades’ tu rm oil du ring w hich the presidency op­
erated on a revo lvin g-d oo r b a sis.58 A critical m om ent occu rred in 1932, w hen
a disputed election fu ele d fo u r d ays o f blo od y violence betw een the m ilita ry
194 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

and proto-fascist street gangs in Quito. L ocal in stitutions attem pted to fill the
void; however, m in im a l changes occurred in the everyd ay governance o f rural
indigenous populations. T h is situation changed only u nd er the dictatorship of
Federico Páez, the engineer whose ad m in istration operated w ith leftist support
bu t becam e increasingly autocratic.
One o f Páez’s progressive decrees, delivered on Ju ly 30 ,19 37, fo rm ally recon­
stituted legal com m u n al lan d u nd er the aegis o f the M in isterio de Previsión
S ocial. N ew comunas established h a d to m eet several criteria, such as a m ini­
m u m population o f fifty persons, a five-m em ber cabildo to govern the comuna,
regu lar m inutes, elections, an d an inventory o f collective goods. T he law codi­
fied supp ort for com m on possession o f p rop erty i f it h ad been in possession of
the co m m u n ity for th irty years— a p rovision th at protected h acien d a lands
from expropriation or challenge. The law thus th eoretically offered a potential
response to ru ral unrest b y bolstering indigenous landow nership w ithout undo­
ing the status quo. M oreover, the law ’s stipu lation that cabildos could purchase
or divest com m on lands encouraged greater m arket engagem ent w hile the need
to gather the support o f both the m em bership and the m in istry potentially lim­
ited intercom m un al clashes. Finally, the statute called for the “ betterm ent" of
the group’s m oral, intellectual, and m aterial situation.59
W hile the new legislation called for the establishm ent o f comunas by the end
o f 1937, only tw enty-five h ad been constitu ted b y 1938, leading to an extension of
the deadline. Ten tim es that num ber appeared in the follow ing year, prim arily
in the A n d ea n provinces o f C him borazo and C o to p axi, where there was a long
h isto ry o f com m u n al action . P ich in ch a, d espite bo th the extensive activism
o f com m unities in C ayam b e and its p ro xim ity to the capital, lagged behind.
Becker h as speculated that the activist past o f indigen ous groups in Cayambe
m oderated their enthusiasm for the new regulations, w hich th ey interpreted as
m ed d lin g b y the M in isterio de Previsión So cial. Econom ic realities also ham ­
pered those com m unities that in itially adopted the comuna structure. Absentee­
ism from comuna m eetings in A zcásu bi A lto in the southern p a rt o f the canton,
for instan ce, increased due to the m in is try ’s insistence on children attending
d istan t state schools in keeping w ith the law ’s encouragem ent o f local cultural
progress. T h is p osition ignored econom ic reality, w h ich m ade the extended
journey to these schools a practical im possibility. W ith no fu n d s or pedagogical
train in g available for a local school, en th usiasm for the new regulations waned
during the 1940s and afterw ard .60
Tight finances lim ited the reach o f comunas in the Cayam be region, but Kim
C lark h as recently argued th at the greater op p ortu nities offered b y proxim ity
to the Q uito m arketplace fueled a desire for com m on lands in its environs. She
p articu la rly cites the exam ple o f peasants tied to the Tolóntag hacienda in the
p arish o f Pintag to the east o f the capital. B egin n in g in 1934, the resident hua-
sipungueros h ad challen ged leaseholder José Ignacio Izu rieta fo r access to the
 Santa Clara de San M illan / 195

hacienda’s lan d s, an d th ey garn ered support from the p op u list president Jose
M aria Velasco Ib arra u n til his ouster in A u g u st 1935. L an d invasions follow ed
in 1936, and , in the 1940s, huasipunqueros petitioned that th eir com m ittee be
recognized as the council for an autonom ous comuna. The petition stalled in the
m inistry as a result o f the tech n ical im plau sibility o f such a m ove; as a group
of peasants legally tied to a h acien d a, the group was ineligible for such status.
Inexplicably, at som e point in the su m m er o f 1944, the m inister authorized its
form ation, ostensibly due to repeated petitioning. A lthough this m ay have been
a clerical error— and was decried as su ch in internal com m unications— Clark
posits that the decision m ay have been tied to Velasco Ibarra’s retu rn to power
in the so-called G lorious R evolution o f M ay 1944. She therefore high lights the
benefits o f selective engagem ent w ith the paternalist state, in which loyalty to a
particular caudillo provided real political and economic gain s.61
A lth ough both C lark and Becker note the im portance o f local dynam ics and
the regional political economy, neither system atically engages the im portance o f
proxim ity to the capital. G iven P in tag’s location not far from Quito, on the edge
of the C h illo V alley— a lon gtim e source o f produce for the Q uito m arket— the
huasipunquero desire to gain control over productive lands suggests their consid­
eration o f u rb an tradin g possibilities. Indeed, the prosperity that the peasants
of Tolontag enjoyed b y 1945 likely em erged from a decade o f v irtu a l control over
profitable lands th at enabled b oth sustainable agriculture and the m arketing o f
their surplus.
Such activities h ad a long h isto ry w ith in the c ity ’s environs, as previously
noted. T h e tw en tieth -cen tu ry exp an sio n o f Q uito, however, b o th challenged
traditional m odes o f production an d offered alternate and often lucrative eco­
nomic possibilities. San ta C lara de S an M illa n was one o f the first populations
to establish comuna status, an d its decision to do so in 1938 bu ilt u p on decades
of entrepreneurial a ctiv ity engaging the new opportunities afforded b y the ex­
panding city. T h is type o f risk-taking activity was balanced by the secu rity a f­
forded b y th eir com m on lan d s. The co m m u n ity’s support for E loy A lfa ro and
his lax p olicy on com m u n al holdings du rin g h is struggle w ith Leonidas Plaza
had paid dividends b y 19 11, at which point Santa C lara received official recogni­
tion as a sem i-autonom ous collective and likely regained its holdings on the u p ­
per reaches o f Pich inch a.62 The leadership o f the com m unity zealously guarded
its auth o rity over these properties despite frequent attem pts b y d isgru n tled
m em bers to profit b y the n ebu lou s state o f collective lands. The state’s new
regulations in 1938 thus represented a chance to form ally regulate these internal
conflicts, and the cabildo thus em braced these new laws. The cabildo selectively
embraced econom ic d iversification w hile m aintain ing strict control over both
collective p rop erty and in tern al political hegemony. For both these endeavors,
controlling the public status o f historic narratives was critical and helped create
a subaltern chronotope o f u rb an indigenous autonomy.
ig6 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

The Comunas Development through Genealogy

Santa C lara em erged fro m the nin eteenth cen tu ry as one o f the wealthier
indigenous com m u nities in the Q uito area. Its p rim a ry econom ic activities
continued to be lum ber, an im al h u sbandry, an d som e artisan al production—
p articu larly carpentry, as a result o f the fine hardw oods on P ich in ch as forested
slopes. A few enterprising souls ow ned sm all shops specializing in dried goods
and farm in g equipm ent. T hese b u sinesses congregated along the Carretera
del N orte— later renam ed C arrera 18 de septiem bre an d now A ven id a 10 de
agosto— which rem ained the p rim a ry artery lin k in g Q uito w ith the breadbas­
ket o f the A ñ aqu ito plains. The shops catered to laborers from the haciendas of
L a G ranja and E l Batán an d indigenous m erchants fro m north ern areas such
as R um ip am ba, Zám b iza, or C otocollao. Som e such custom ers stayed at the
room s rented out b y Nicolás Concham bay, a respected elder w hose hom e served
as an in form al com m unity center. Friends, acquaintances, an d especially kin ­
folk fro m across A ñaquito gathered frequ ently to gossip, receive m essages, con­
duct business, or even await trial.
A cross the Carretera del N orte fro m C oncham bay’s house stood an im pos­
ing neoclassical m ansion, a h arbinger o f change kn ow n as L a Circasiana. The
b u ild in g belonged to M an u el Jijón, a doctor, artisto crat, and entrepreneur re­
sponsible for in stallin g Q uito’s first electric w orks, in 1894. Som ew hat w him si­
cally nam ed for his w ife’s Eastern European roots, the house provided a weekend
and sum m er residence where the elegant couple an d their youn g son, Jacinto,
could escape the bustle o f the city. The novelty o f their presence inspired elabo­
rate welcom ing festivals fro m the indigenous com m unity, including celebratory
arches in an echo o f colonial deference.63 H owever, th e Jijóns also pioneered a
w ider expanse o f nouveau riche sum m er soujourns in Santa C lara’s backyard
follow in g the 1908 com pletion o f the G u a y a q u il-Q u ito ra ilro a d .64 Sporting
events follow ed at a rud e track denoted the H ippodrom e, located about a k ilo­
m eter east o f the Jijón house along the still un paved A venida Colón. Patrons of
its horse races and polo and tennis m atches in clud ed the fashionable dandies
o f Q uito such as the D u rin i brothers an d th eir frie n d G enaro L arrea. Others
rented autom obiles for d ay excursions along the d u sty cou n try roads, oblivious
to existing indigenous com m unities.
N ext cam e suburbanization projects b y local and foreign speculators who
sought to cash in on the grow in g fascination w ith the bucolic lifestyle. The Lar­
rea fa m ily again took the lead b y convertin g a g ric u ltu ra l lan d w est o f A la m ­
eda Park into the C iudad ela L arrea in 1906. W ith the com pletion o f a city wide
tram lin e in 1914 that ended at the A ven id a C olón, however, the possibility o f a
grander suburb in the hitherto ru ra l enclave becam e m ore attractive. B y 1917, the
A nglo-French Syndicate h a d purchased a w ide tract o f land no rth o f the Larrea
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 197

developm ent. T h e y d esignated it the C iu d ad ela A m erica, w ith streets n am ed

for the nations o f the hem isphere. Prom inent architects, such as the D u rin i an d
Russo brothers, p ush ed n o rth o f the old Ejido du rin g the late 19 10s, p resagin g
the accelerated investm ent th at followed the 1922 com m em oration o f the centen­
nial o f the Battle o f P ich in ch a in the p ark. O ver the n ext decade, the resu ltin g
C iudadela M a risc a l Sucre grew to ab u t the A venid a C olón, the H ipp od rom e,
the Jijón m an sion, and, o f course, the comuna o f Santa C lara de S an M illá n .
The ju xtap o sition o f the tradition al indigenous village and extravagan t v il­
las m ade fo r a strik in g con trast. N ow here w as th is m ore evid ent th a n in the
distinct m aterial cultures o f the tw o populations. For exam ple, the sons o f E lisa
Criollo, m atriarch o f th e p o w e rfu l T u m ip am b a clan , in h erited several deeds
upon h er d eath, along w ith a series o f household item s o f lim ited valu e; these
items included an old w ooden b o x, a bolt to close w indow s, a bronze chocolate
pot, an old leather case, a sm a ll card board jew elry box, an iron plate, another
sm all w ooden box, and a sm all wooden table.65
The relative sim plicity o f these goods stands in m arked contrast to the ex­
travagance o f w hat th eir new neighbors possessed. The avant-gardist and (much)
later secretary general o f the S o cialist Party, Enrique Terán, brought a Bechstein
baby g ran d p ian o to h is h om e in the C iu d ad ela L arrea, w h ile V icto r Iza im ­
ported French p orcelain lavatories fo r h is v illa in the M ariscal. T h ose fixtu res
survived the jo u rn ey fro m France, the h au l up the m ou n tain s on th e railroad ,
and tran sp o rt fro m the train station at C h im bacalle, on ly to be sm ash ed d u r­
ing installation , to his great c h ag rin .66 T hese efforts paled in com parison to the
integrated plan adopted for Enrique Freile G angotena’s v illa , Q uinta M iraflores.
One approached the house throu gh elaborate gardens containing two fou n tain s,
plaster statuary, and an arboretu m w ith a sm all orange grove, a coconut p alm ,
and other flow ering trees. M arb le stairs led up to the house itself, w h ich con ­
tained tw elve bed room s an d featu red elem ents such as iron-adorned w ooden
banisters, m other-of-pearl d oorhandles, an d m assive ceram ic vases. A second­
ary, m ore intim ate series o f gardens adorn ed the interior, while servan ts’ lodges
and som e cultivated land s la y beyon d .67
Freile’s p articu la r indulgences carried risks du ring the volatile 19 20s, when
the c o u n try ’s econom y fractu red due to the decline o f the cacao in d u stry. The
m ortgage for h is m an sion was held b y the Banco del Pichincha, a h igh lan d con ­
cern th at first opened its doors in 1906 and becam e the p rim a ry bo n d h o lder
for the new developm ents in the c a p ita l’s n o rth ern environs. H is p aym en ts
on the 5 0 ,0 0 0 -su c re m ortgage totaled 2,775 sucres p er a n n u m over tw en ty-
five years, a su m m ore th an ten tim es the cost o f renting a m odest hom e near
Santa C lara. Freile b egan h avin g trouble m ak in g his paym ents an d d efau lted
on other debts. In A p r il 1926, fo r instan ce, he was involved in three separate
litigations over relatively sm all sum s th at allow ed h is creditors to eye M iraflores
itself. One o f these involved a tw o-year-old loan fro m M an u el Z u rita fo r 3 0 0
sucres. A lth o u gh Freile h ad alread y paid 100, Z u rita threatened to im poun d the
198 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

d eed for the entire p rop erty i f he d id not receive the am oun t due im m ediately.
Needless to say, Freile rap id ly raised the rem ain in g fu n d s so as not to lose his
estate.68 T h e other two cases concerned lu x u ry item s th at also figured in the
perform ance o f prosperity, nam ely, Freile’s tailored suits an d the garage for his
autom obile. W hile he qu ickly paid the garage fees, it took m ore th an tw o years
for h im to honor h is debts to h is tailor, A lejan d ro R eyes. W hen Freile finally
m ade his paym ents, it was once again because Reyes threatened to im pound the
salon fu rn itu re p rou d ly displayed at the Q u inta, an u nthinkab le affrontery to
h is m ise-en-scène.69
W h ile Freile h on ored the debts on h is m ortgage and the relatively high-
profile obligations to society figures, he was less considerate when entering into
contracts w ith subaltern actors also seeking to engage the real estate m arket.
One such exam ple w as Ju lio M en a, a sm all-tim e m erchant who rented a tienda
(store or a sort o f apartm ent) from H ercilia G arcia at the corner o f 18 de septiem­
bre and Colón. In D ecem ber 1920, M ena entered into an ill-considered contract
w ith Freile in w hich he offered fifty sucres to purchase a load o f gravel sitting on
the patio at the Freile fam ily hom e on Plaza San Francisco, presum ably m ateri­
als le ft over fro m the constru ction o f M iraflores. H aving given a ten-sucre de­
posit, M ena bought a cart the follow ing Ja n u a ry from Lu is de Toro o f Latacunga
and transported alm ost all o f the stones to the north. However, Freile soon took
M en a to cou rt, as the latter h ad le ft the sm aller stones on the patio and had
not p aid for the rem aind er o f the load b y Ja n u a ry 19 .7° M ena then paid Freile
and carted o ff the rest o f the gravel, but he could not afford the cou rt costs with
w hich he was subsequently saddled. T h is sh ortfall led h im to default on his cart
paym ents, w hich prom pted de Toro to sue h im the follow ing M arch.71 A s Mena
tried to re c tify this m atter, he fell beh ind on rent, w hich led his lan d lad y to start
eviction proceedings in O ctober 19 22.7a A lth o u gh he appears to have been able to
weather the storm th at year, the m atter was not com pletely resolved u n til 1925,
w hen the la n d lad y fin a lly received the la st o f h er rent p aym ents, w ith Mena
once again sadd led w ith cou rt costs. He w as in effect the victim o f a volatile
m arketplace.73
A m ore su ccessfu l m odel can be seen am ong the San ta C lara com m unity,
w hich m an ip u lated its properties to best take advantage o f private and public
p lan n in g schem es. One o f the first and m ost successful attem pts to do so came
at the intiative o f a carpenter nam ed José Federico T u m ip am ba. Know n locally
as Federico, T u m ip am b a dom inated the com m une’s affairs a fter being named
its legal representative in 19 11, though h is father and then his brother-in-law of­
ficially served as cabildo presidents u n til the 1940s.74 One o f T u m ip am b a’s first
projects involved the grow ing m arket for San ta C lara lum ber due to increased
construction north o f the city. He hoped to expan d access to the com m unities'
forests on P ich in ch a to m eet this dem and, b ut to do so w ould require build­
ing a new road, w hich the com m u n ity could not afford. In 1917, T um ipam ba
therefore approached Enrique C h iriboga, heir to the neighboring Pambachupa
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 199

hacienda, whose ancestors had attem pted to elim inate the com m unity's right to
their properties on Pichincha. A fte r m onths o f discussion and m ultiple drafts
o f a contract, the indigen ous “vecinos de Benalcdzar” signed an agreem ent w ith
Chiriboga to b u ild a toll road, the profits o f w hich w ould be shared equ ally b e ­
tween bo th parties. U nder th is contract, the hacendado p rovided all o f the land
that w ould be developed, thus securing the integrity o f the com m u n ity’s hold­
ings, w hile the In dian s w ould provide the labor. Strikingly, the contract also
included a clause acknow ledging th at the foreseen m unicipal expropriation o f
the road w ould term inate the deal, an extrem ely prescient m easure given that
the road led into what is still an underdeveloped sector o f the m ountain west o f
Avenida V argas, to d ay’s A venida A m erica.75
Comuneros who c a re fu lly tracked m u nicip al policies also were able to find
new possibilities for in d ivid u a l investm ent. For instance, in 1925, several co­
muneros, in clud in g N icolás T ip an to cta and Feliciano Sim bañ a, divested th em ­
selves o f titled properties at the edge o f the L a G ranja hacienda near the R um i-
pam ba R iver in anticipation o f a crackdow n by the Ju nta de Em bellecim iento
de la C iu dad on the com m on practice o f m aintaining grazing plots in what was
technically street frontage.76 Sim b añ a invested his proceeds in a new lot, closer
to A venida Colón, where he b egan to bu ild a house in the late 1920s. U pon com ­
pleting a rude stru ctu re in 1931, Sim b añ a leased the bu ild ing to a m an nam ed
G uillerm o Jaram illo for five years, w ith the first tw o years’ rent (552 sucres) de­
livered in advance. The last three years w ould then be paid at a reduced rate de­
term ined by how m an y im provem ents Jaram illo undertook during the interim .
Two years later, Sim b añ a prom ptly evicted Jaram illo, despite the latter’s h aving
paneled, papered, and w hitew ashed fou r room s, fixed several w alls, b u ilt a new
brick room , an d painted the exterior. Jaram illo sued for breach o f contract, yet
the judge foun d that Sim b añ a h ad the right to evict his tenant, stipulating that
the cost o f m aterials be refu nd ed . In other words, Sim baña m anaged to receive
two years’ rent an d su b stan tial im provem ents on his property at cost w ithout
h aving to p ay fo r labor. He prom ptly leased the house again, at a su bstan tially
higher rate.77
The comuneros’ divestitu re o f lan d parcels in 1925 requ ired d iscip lin ed ac­
tions. T h eir carefu l strategy bears the im print o f Federico T u m ip am b a, whose
efforts as de facto head o f the com m u nity were intended to foster a collectivist
spirit while advancing the co m m u n ity’s economic growth. The toll road exploit
in 1917 advanced th is objective, as d id T u m ip am b a’s later organization o f two
“ bandas de soplo,” or w in d ensem bles, that represented Santa C lara de S an M il­
lán w hen p layin g at cityw id e festivities, or peñas. T u m ip am b a eschewed the
in fo rm al arrangem ent th at such groups u su a lly adopted and instead operated
these bands as legally bo u n d societies w ith contractual statutes. These included
severe p u nish m ents for anyone who le ft the com pany. One who d id leave was
Julio Jaram illo, no relation to the fam ous Julio Jaram illo who was a pasillo singer
from G u ayaqu il. W hen the ban d m em ber Jaram illo contracted a lung ailm ent
200 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

and h ad to cease participating, T u m ip am b a im poun d ed h is h o r n /8 M issing a

reh earsal carried a fee o f one sucre, w hereas a n absence fro m a perform ance
m erited the steep charge o f ten sucres.79 T u m ip am b a slam m ed the few members
who skipped m ultiple shows w ith law suits for breach o f contract, even those like
Santiago Llum ipan ta, who m oved as far away as the C h illo Valley, still a good
d ay’s journey in the late 19 20s.80
T u m ip am b a’s activist governance accelerated in 1927 a fter the death o f his
father, Ju a n de Dios T u m ip am b a. Federico’s brother-in-law , José G abriel Col­
lahuaso, replaced the elder T u m ip am ba as cabildo president. O ver the next sev­
eral years, the younger T u m ip am ba followed a stringent p olicy designed to more
tightly control the operations o f com m u n al land hold ing an d aver the cabildo’s
p rim acy as public representative and ow ner o f these lands. He first asserted con­
trol over the cru cial right to distribute plots. U nder the traditional organization
o f the com m unity, fam ilies farm ed or adm in istered sections o f the com m unal
lan d s over generations, w hich at tim es gave a false sense o f ow nership and led
to thorny disputes regarding inheritance, p articu la rly a fter m arriages outside
the com m unity.
Such was the case o f N icolás T ip an to cta and Fern an d a T ip án , whose right
to co m m u n al lan d s stem m ed fro m T ip á n ’s earlier m arriage to the comunero
H ilario A iñ a . U pon the death o f T ip á n ’s form er brother-in-law , R a fa e l A iña,
T u m ip am b a took control o f the lan d A iñ a h a d farm e d an d p lan ted h is own
crops in 1927. Tipantocta challenged the legality o f th is action, petitioning the
M in istry o f S o cial W elfare in Septem ber 19 30 fo r control o f the fa m ily plot,
called “ R o m erillo s.” T ip antocta specifically accu sed T u m ip am b a o f th e ft and
clearly regarded h im as the instigator, at one point contrasting the situation to
the ad m in istratio n o f collective lan d s d u rin g the lifetim e o f H ilario A iñ a. In
a follow -up letter, Tip antocta not on ly m ain tain ed th at T u m ip am b a inconve­
nienced m ultiple comuneros b u t also challenged h is ju rid ical status as a leader
{“jefe") o f the com m unity.
Faced w ith the prospect o f a direct challenge to its adm in istration , the com­
m u n ity closed ranks. A neighbor, Ju a n Chaleo, testified th at M igu el A iñ a , son
o f R a fa e l A iñ a , h ad rented the p rop erty to Federico T u m ip am b a. M oreover,
C haleo h eld th at he had never m et H ilario A iñ a an d was unaw are o f any m ar­
riage w ith T ip án , who had never m ade any effort to cultivate R om erillos. M iguel
A iñ a h im se lf subsequently confirm ed th at he h ad rented the lot to Tum ipam ba,
effectively closing the m atter.81 The com m ission er o f labor, A lb erto Batallas,
foun d against the plain tiff, specifically citing a lack o f p ro o f regarding T ipán’s
nuptials w ith A iñ a . Despite T ip an to cta later presenting a m arriage certificate,
accom panied b y fu rth er recrim inations about T u m ip am b a’s m alevolent inten­
tions, the case rem ained closed.82
The m an ipu lation o f the m arriage record sign ified b y C haleo and A iñ a ’s
testim ony undercuts their critical statem ents regarding T ip án ’s right to benefit
fro m R o m erillo s and calls into qu estion the assertio n that T u m ip am b a had
 Santa Clara de San M íllán / 201

rented the property. The case therefore suggests that com m u n ity m em bership
and u s u fr u c t rights rem ain ed pliable privileges m eted out b y the cabildo, at
tim es ju stifie d b y m an ip u latio n o f the ve ry state actors on its doorstep. T h is
situation can be even m ore clearly dem onstrated throu gh another case played
out between 1927 and 1930.
A s in the T ip an to cta-T ip án com plain t, the k ey issue in th is co n flic t con­
cerned the sale o f com m u n al p rop erties, in this case a lot th at form ed p a rt o f the
C atalom a territory th at h ad once b een under the control o f the C h irib o ga fam ­
ily o f the Pam bach upa h aciend a. H owever, th is p articu la r d ispu te em broiled
various m em bers o f the T u m ip am b a fa m ily an d culm inated in a failed attem pt
b y the coun cil to deploy a fabricated h isto ry o f land use to resolve the th o rn y
conflict betw een Federico and h is uncle, José A n ton io T u m ip am b a. T h e con­
flict concerned a fallow plot controlled b y A ntonio T u m ip am b a, who h a d filed
a questionable su it for entitlem ent in 1926. T h e follow ing M a rch he sold the
plot fo r five h u n d red sucres to Pedro C am ach o, an em ployee o f th e L egación
A m e ric a n a .83 N o im m ediate steps were taken to counter th is m ove. H owever,
when Federico’s cousin Fran cisco T u m ip am b a sold an adjacent plot the follow ­
ing M arch , the cabildo sprang into action to stop a dom ino effect.
In tern al politics m a y have in flu en ced this extended delay. A n to n io T u m i-
pam ba’s brother Ju a n — Federico’s fath er— was still president o f the comuna in
1927 an d probably discou raged legal proceedings. Ju a n ’s death th at sam e year,
however, caused a pow er vacu u m th at rem ained u n filled u n til José G ab riel Col-
lahuaso, Federico T u m ip am b a ’s brother-in-law , was n am ed president in 1928,
despite h is lack o f hereditary m em bership in the comuna. T u m ip am b a rem ain ed
as procurador b u t w o u ld ever a fte r be referred to as San ta C la ra ’s h ead o r jefe.
Francisco T u m ip am b a’s sale o f com m on lands w ould therefore have b een seen
as the first real test o f the new pow er stru ctu re and w as tak en as su ch b y the
cabildo. A t an em ergency m eeting on A p ril 26,19 28 , the cabildo resolved to p eti­
tion the M in istry o f S ocial W elfare to bar in d ivid u al comuneros fro m sellin g the
co m m u n ity’s p rop erty (essentially presaging the 1937 L e y de C om un as) w hile
also dem an d in g restitution for the tw o lots in question.
The letters cra fte d b y C o llah u aso an d T u m ip am b a clearly express fear o f
com m unal chaos w hile a rticu la tin g a specific conceit regarding th e h isto ricity
o f the violation. C o llah u aso’s cover letter focuses on the illegality o f the actions,
noting th a t the seizure o f the A iñ a plot violated the first three articles o f San ta
Clara’s statutes, a statem ent ob viou sly intended to reify bo th the v a lid ity o f the
docum ents as w ell as the status o f the collective h oldings. In a tellin g phrase,
C ollah uaso high lights A n ton io T u m ip am b a ’s neglect o f “ the sacred righ ts left
by our ab origin al ancestors to conserve ou r lan d s as p roperty o f each an d every
one o f the comuneros.” 14 T h is clause not on ly alludes to trad ition al fram ew orks
o f legitim acy b y referencing lon g-stan d in g precedent bu t also h igh lig h ts the
stakes involved regard in g in d iv id u a l an d collective lan d ow n ersh ip . Federico
T u m ip am ba’s m ore elaborate letter echoes sim ilar com m onplaces. For instan ce,
202 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

he notes that the lands have been held “ desde tiempo immemorial" (trom tim e im ­
m em orial), a com m on phrase found in scores o f colonial and ninteenth-century
petitions, while he also challenges A n ton io and Fran cisco T u m ip am b a’s honor
(“con estudiada m alafé,” w ith deliberate b ad faith). He continues to alert the m in­
ister o f the dangers o f not actin g, p redicting “com plete anarchy and disorder,"
which w ould occur as a result o f the fact th at “other u n su spectin g comuneros will
follow the d isloyal p ath the sales have w rought.” 85
The cabildo then sent copies o f the m en’s letters to E l Comercio, w hich p u b­
lished them on A p ril 29, 1928.86 T h is strategy traded u p on the ongoing fear of
a w idespread indigenous rebellion w ith in city lim its. D ating back to the 1765
Rebellion o f the B arrios, the fear o f m ajor un rest h ad becom e m ore pronouncd
w ith the recent lan d invasions across C ayam b e and other p arts o f the Andean
corridor. In w hat m igh t be considered a p erfo rm ative m ove seeking to parlay
these concerns into su pp ort for their p osition , the cabildo follow ed the letters
w ith ritu a listic violence o f its ow n. C o llah u aso, T u m ip am b a , an d the rest of
the cabildo converged on Pedro Cam acho, who h ad sped up the m ountain aftei
reading the notice in El Comercio, and in fo rm ed h im th at lan d he h ad boughl
was com m unal property. A fte r advising h im to leave, they uprooted his alfalfa
crop.87
C am ach o’s conn ections at the L egación A m e ric an a enabled h im to hire
an accom plished law yer n am ed A lejand ro C ueva. C u eva’s b rie f on h is client’s
b e h a lf argu ed that the title C am ach o held tru m p ed any claim b y the abstrad
com m une. A review o f n in eteenth-century legislation, p articu larly focusing or
the civil codes o f 1873 and 1877, m aintain ed th at com m on landholding h ad beer
outlawed. C u eva also took p ain s to directly assau lt the legitim acy o f the com ­
m une itself, noting th at the statute’s assertion o f the in d ivisibility o f its property
directly countered the constitu tion’s protection for private property. A s such, hi
m aintain ed that Santa C lara could only be considered a fiction and even deniec
th at A n ton io T u m ip am b a h ad ever belonged to the in stitu tio n . A s should be
clear, this reasonin g follow ed the sam e lin e elaborated b o th b y D om ingo de
M azo and Enrique C h irib o ga in their m id-nin eteen th -cen tury attem pt to take
control o f Catalom a and Rosaspam ba and b y the stan d ard contem porary libera
argum ents d etailed above.
The com m une responded b y p rod u cin g statu tes w hose approval b y Elo)
A lfa ro clearly dem arcated th eir cred en tials. Sym p ath etic ears in the m inis
try, p articu la rly those S o cia list P arty m em bers alread y collaborating w ith in
digenous p op u latio n s elsew here, called for an in sp ection to v e rify the exten
o f the la n d u n d er dispute. T he subsequent report fro m the Teniente Politice
h igh lighted the con tigu ity o f b o th parcels w ith San ta C lara’s lan d and callee
for supp orting the com m u n e’s petition. A n ton io T u m ip am b a was ordered te
retu rn the fu n d s he h ad received fro m C am ach o and place the lan d back inte
the hands o f the cabildo.
The comunas strategy o f sim ultaneous legal action, the m an ipulation o f thi
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 203

public press, and ritu alistic violence therefore appear to have worked, allowing
the com m un ity to regain control over the property. G iven their lack o f tru st in
A ntonio T u m ip am b a , the cou n cil m em bers opted to hand the p rop erty over
to Luis T u m ip am b a, another o f Federico’s nephews. Two years later, A n ton io
T u m ip am b a retaliated b y p etition ing the M in isterio de Previsión Social to re­
tu rn the la n d to h is control an d in the process properly reinstate h im w ith in
the com m unity. In h is requ est fo r adjudication, he m aintain ed th at Federico
T um ip am ba operated as a tyran t, pu nish ing h im for the honest m istake he had
m ade two years earlier as a result o f ignorance o f the law. M oreover, he accused
Luis T u m ip am b a o f h a vin g b rib ed Federico b y p ayin g tw enty-two sucres for
u su fru ct righ ts.88
Rather th an resort to colonial precedent or affirm their status as indigenes
needing the patronage o f the state, Federico Tu m ip am ba and José G abriel C ol­
lahu aso presented them selves in their defense as law -abiding citizens follow ­
ing the w ill o f an autonom ous coun cil operating w ith the fu ll knowledge o f the
m inistry. Federico p articu la rly sought to d im in ish his ow n role in the alterca­
tion so as to counteract the charges o f nepotism levied b y his uncle. He noted
that each step taken against both sellers in 1928 had been ordered by the cabildo
with the fu ll knowledge o f the m in istry. W hen pressed on the issue o f whether
José A ntonio h ad been ousted fro m the com m unity, Federico swore that he had
m erely in form ed his uncle about a verbal order from then-m inister Pedro Pablo
Egüez Baquerizo. C o llah u aso echoed these precepts in his statem ent while also
in form in g the new lab o r com issary, A lb erto B atallas, th at L u is T u m ip am b a
had m erely been p ayin g h is p ro p erty taxes. U pon being subpoenaed to clear
the m atter, Luis T u m ip am b a confirm ed th at he h ad inherited the plot after the
death o f h is father, also called Ju a n de Dios T u m ip am b a, in 19 12. He also of­
fered an elaborate h isto ry o f the la n d ’s use, stating that first he h ad farm ed it for
four years befóte renting the parcel to Federico T u m ip am ba for the next four. In
1920, he claim ed to have let the lot to José A ntonio Tu m ip am b a for twelve years
and h ad received it back when the com m unity h ad taken charge o f the land after
ousting Pedro C am ach o two years earlier.89
A s w ould later be con firm ed b y Federico, this story was a com plete fabrica­
tion and appeared as such to B atallas as well. N ot only was there no earlier m en­
tion o f L uis T u m ip am b a as the la n d ’s owner but the plausibility o f C ollah u aso’s
explanation for the tw enty-tw o-sucre paym ent m ade little sense given the com ­
m u n ity’s earlier ta x obligations. In 1927, for instan ce, Santa C lara’s prop erty
taxes totaled n in ety-six sucres on lands valued at tw enty-four thousand sucres,
alm o st fifty tim es C am ach o ’s purchase price o f five h u nd red su cres.90 B atal­
las thus sid ed w ith A n to n io T u m ip am b a and decried Federico T u m ip am b a’s
autocratic ru le w hile recom m ending h is censure for the “simulacro democrático”
enveloping S an ta C lara. Faced w ith the possibility o f fu rth er erosion o f the com ­
m u n ity’s territory, Federico approached h is uncle to negotiate a private solu­
tion. U nder th is accord, th e p rop erty w ould be d ivided into three p arts: one
204 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

for A ntonio T um ipam ba, one for the cabildo (adm inistered, naturally, b y Fed­
erico Tum ipam ba), and one fo r L u is T u m ip am b a. T hree weeks later, Antonio
signed an agreem ent that prom ised h im control over the parcel “ h asta cuando
dios [tenga] queja alguna” (until G o d com plains). Significantly, the right to sell
the property rem ained rescinded and C atalom a’s in violability rem ained secure.
Federico’s prestige, however, h ad taken a hit, an d his activities appear to have
been curtailed over the next several years while less affluent com m oners sought
out B atallas’s help w ith their ow n inheritance issues.91
The new legislation introduced in 1937, however, strengthened the cabildos
political position. Its p rim a ry responsibilities rem ain ed the ad m in istration of
com m on p rop erty but now u n d er m uch m ore fo rm a l gu idelin es. T he council
com prised five m em bers in th e tra d itio n ally bureaucratic p osts o f president,
vice president, secretary, treasurer, and legal representative. These w ould be
elected an n u ally at a D ecem ber gathering o f the general m em bership during
which census rolls would also be generated. M on th ly contributions from m em ­
bers paid for the m eetings o f the cabildo, w hich was then charged w ith planning
investm ents and divesting lands, i f desired, w hile encouraging the “m oral, intel­
lectual, and m aterial benefit o f the com m un ity,” a som ew hat nebulous charge
harkening back to the nin eteenth-century hacendados paternal responsibilities
for h is indigenous charges.92 T hese m eetings were private, and w hile, techni­
cally, the public could add item s to th e agenda, the requisite su pp ort o f one-
third o f the cabildo’s constituents proved d ifficu lt to gather in practice.93
The strength en ed cabild o o f S a n ta C la ra de S a n M illá n m ain ta in ed a
p rogram o f intensified in fra s tr u c tu r a l d evelopm en t over th e n e x t decade.
New challenges appeared w ith the B anco del P ich in ch as developm ent o f the
bordering sector o f the Pam bach upa h acien d a into the C iu d ad ela Pichincha,
a project th at led to an extended law suit concerning water rights. R isin g land
values again sparked interest in private divestm ent o f land and in tern al political
challenges, issues that u n d erlay the 1940 constitu tion o f an alternate cabildo
spearheaded by Federico T u m ip am b a ’s two sons, as d iscu ssed earlier. These
conflicts, which potentially threatened the san ctity o f the com m u n ity given the
regional strength o f the fin an cial in stitu tio n and the problem o f legitim ation,
once again led the cabildo to deploy a m ultipronged strategy involving entrepre­
neurial savvy, intensive p oliticking, and an attention to fixin g the narrative of
com m unity history. I have already m entioned Federico T u m ip am ba’s backroom
deal w ith h is sons to increase their political p articipation in the cabildo; sim ilar
attention to coalition b u ild in g appears to have cu rtailed the co n flict w ith the
bank as well. In this case, the im petus m ay have been a rad ical sh ift in national
politics. The trium ph o f the G lorious R evolution in M ay 1944 brought populist
leader José M aría Velasco Ibarra back to pow er in Ecuador w ith the support of
num erous indigenous polities incorporated u n d er the Federación Ecuatoriana
de Indios (FEI). T h is situation presented San ta C lara w ith a d ilem m a because
the new president’s brother, Pedro Velasco Ib arra, h ad overseen the Banco del
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 205

pichincha during th eir recent con flicts over water rights. Federico T u m ip am b a,
who had taken over as cabildo president du ring the 1940s, responded b y sending
a congratulatory letter to the new governm ent and extend ing an in vitatio n to
the ban k to collaborate on a new avenue bisectin g its lan d s. N am ed for form er
president Isidro A yora, the new street represented an acknow ledgm ent o f the
benefits to expand ing the arteries connecting San ta C lara’s properties w ith the
new C iudad ela Pichincha on its lim its.94
S itu a tin g S an ta C la ra w ith in h isto ric a l n arratives p roved a n im p o rta n t
tool to these enterprises. W h ile trad ition al form u las such as evocations o f the
“a n cestral” im p o rtan ce o f co m m u n al lan d s or references to ow nersh ip since
“tiempo inmemorial” continued to appear in cabildo depositions, a new attention
to m ainstream h isto ry follow ed. T h is sh ift bespeaks an awareness o f the legiti­
m acy the com m u n ity’s extended legal existence afforded the M in istry o f S ocial
W elfare as w ell as its respect fo r p articu la r form s o f narrative an d evidence. The
new history-aw are stance proved cru cia l to ongoing internal disputes, as can be
seen in a tru n cated clash betw een Federico an d his nephew L u is T u m ip am b a
that erupted in M arch 1938, ju st m onths after the com m une’s official form ation.
Th is d ispute b egan w hen Federico chopped dow n eu calyp tu s saplings along
a w all each m an ow ned as p a rt o f the su b d ivisio n o f the C a talo m a p ro p e rty
w rested fro m José A n to n io T u m ip am b a a decade earlier. R ath er th a n sim ply
diagram the borders, Federico in stead provid ed a th irty -y e ar n arrative o f the
parcel’s adm instration. The detailed discussion o f the con flict w ith A n ton io T u ­
m ipam ba and the subsequent p artitio n delegitim ated L u is T u m ip am b a ’s case
b y h igh ligh tin g h is m ore recent c la im to the property. Federico fu rth e re d his
assault upon h is op p on en t’s tru stw o rth in ess b y noting th at L uis T u m ip am b a
h ad exaggerated the degree o f th e vio latio n b y stating th at an entire “ fo re st”
had been destroyed. T h is recourse to h isto rical and fac tu a l accu racy appealed
to the bureaucracy, and the sto ry was confirm ed after a truncated su rvey b y the
Teniente Politico.95
H istory also proved critical in the developm ent o f sh iftin g alliances w ith the
state, whose protection w ould prove invaluable as internal and extern al conflicts
raged. The person who appears to have taken the initiative in this area w as José
G abriel C o llah u aso, w hose statu s as a cabildo president w as b o lstered b y h is
sim ultaneous activities as an albañil, or m aster builder. T hese d ep loym en ts o f
h istoricity took m an y form s, d epending on the audience he sought to cultivate.
A longside the defense o f the cabildo genealogical narrative, C o llah uaso engaged
m ultip le bureaucratic o rgan ization s, a ll the w hile fra m in g the experience o f
h im se lf and h is com m un ity w ith in a “n atio n al” h istorical narrative.
Two p articu la rly strikin g incidents occurred d u rin g the G reat D epression.
Paradoxically, each appears to have engaged separate state polities. The first co­
incided w ith the quadricenten nial o f the death o f A tah u alpa in 1533. C ollah u aso,
in conjunction w ith other m aster albañiles, collaborated w ith the conservative
m u n icip ality to erect a m onum en t to A tah u alp a at the su m m it o f the Panecillo.
206 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

C o llah u aso and his cohort m arched to the Panecillo to lay the cornerstone on
A u g u st 2 8 ,19 33. There, he delivered a speech fra m in g the m onum ent as an act
o f contrition for the republic’s previous lack o f com m itm ent to the slain Incan
leader and to h is heirs, the “raza indígena."96
M ercedes Prieto reads h is subsequent plea fo r a racial u n ity tem pered by
each c o m m u n ity ’s C h ristia n fa ith as in d icative o f a conservative underpin­
n in g o f the entire event, a thesis bolstered b y the p articip ation o f the Centro
Católico de Obreros in the celebration. M oreover, that sam e year the m unicipal­
ity oversaw a plethora o f san itized com m em orations o f A tah u alp a, including
athletic events and rom antic p oetry declam ations.97 However, the long-standing
relationship o f C o llah uaso an d the San ta C lara cabildo w ith the M inisterio de
Previsión S ocial suggests intim ate fa m ilia rity w ith the socialist indigenista idea
o f A ta h u a lp a as an alternate fou n d in g father. M oreover, C o llah u aso and his
fellow m asons also levied a call for an eight-hour workday, w hich was a central
goal o f the Socialist Party. These observations suggest th at C ollah u aso deployed
his knowledge o f m ultiple constructions o f indigenous and n ation al h istory in
order to secure broader socioeconom ic gains, addressing both the conservative
m u n icip ality and the socialist m in istry at once.
A sim ilar attem pt to take advantage o f h isto rically inflected considerations
o f legitim acy can be seen in the strategy C o llah u aso in itiated w hen faced with
the prospect o f an alternate cabildo in 1940. In h is com m u nications with the
m in istry, the cabildo president interrogated the dissenting faction’s understand­
ing o f the com m u n ity’s statutes and requested th at these be d istributed to the
m em bership. Significantly, C ollah u aso ju stified this relatively expensive request
b y rem in d in g the m in ister o f the great prestige o f Santa C lara, which stemmed
fro m “ its strong organization and [its heritage as] one o f the first to receive ju ­
rid ical status in Ecuador du ring the last days o f the governm ent o f General Eloy
A lfa ro , precursor o f m odern legislation protecting peasant com m unities”98
C o llah u aso ’s form u lation is strikin g. N ot on ly does he underscore the ef­
ficacy (and therefore legitim acy) o f the cabild os governing practices but he also
identifies the cabildo’s origins w ith a hero o f rad ical lib eralism — Eloy A lfaro,
who is h igh lighted as the precursor o f the contem porary social legislation de­
fendin g peasant com m unities. These statem ents tie Santa C lara, its cabildo, its
statutes, and its econom ic activities to a m acronarrative o f social reform . This
linkage exists not on ly in the reference to A lfa ro but also in the m anipulation of
coded language, such as the identification o f Santa C lara de S an M illá n with a
peasant com m unity rather th an an indigenous com m une. W hile “peasant com­
m u n ity ” is a m isnom er for w hat was actu ally a m ixed population o f agricultural
w orkers, lu m b er m erchants, a rtisan s, and sm all-scale real estate speculators,
the use o f the epithet served its purpose: to legitim ize the cabildo in the eyes of
the socialist bureaucrats o f the M in istry o f Social W elfare. A s such, it ensured
the co m m u n ity’s ongoing place w ith in an u rb an fabric th at increasingly turned
its back on traditional m odes o f production and socialization.
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 207

The Chronotope of Genealogical Power

In com m em oration o f th e cen ten nial o f Q uito’s declaration o f in d ep en ­

dence, local photographer José D om ingo L aso produced the c ity ’s first m ass-
d istributed to u rist view b ook in 19 0 9 ." T he volum e’s im ages em phasized the
cap ital’s colo n ial m o n u m en tality, com m ercial in fra stru c tu re, an d m od ern
elem ents. In the in trod u ction , Laso also p roudly noted his efforts to alter the
cityscape b y rem oving un d esirable elem ents th at detracted from the m odern
and progressive ch aracter he hoped to convey. A num ber o f im ages show the
result o f L a so ’s alterations; for exam ple, im ages o f public p lazas contain evi­
dence o f clu m sy erasures. A lth o u gh it is im possible to id en tify the erased ele­
ments w ithout the photographic negatives, A n gel E m ilio H idalgo and M a ria
Elena Bedoya have posited th at th ey m ost likely represent indigenous peoples,
images o f w hom are conspicuou sly absent from the book.100 I f so, L aso’s “m od­
ern” Q uito translates into a sim ple racial caricature: a city bereft o f Indian s.
Two years later, however, S an ta C lara de San M illá n received public acknow l­
edgm ent as an autonom ous com m unity existin g w ith in city lim its.
T h e con tem p oran eity o f these tw o events speaks to a broad er d yn am ic
w ithin the h isto ry o f u rb an indigenous polities. Laso’s p ortrait echoes both ra­
cial p ositivism and the p o licy o f ru ra l segregation o f the indigenous th at has
form ed p art o f the E cu ad o rian landscape since colonial tim es. M y gloss o f the
urban and periurban indigenous suggests that such a situation rarely existed in
reality. San ta C lara’s de facto and de jure control over com m on lan d s, despite
Liberal antipathy tow ard corporate privileges, w ell illustrates this tendency. It
also points to the frequ en cy w ith w hich an urban In dian population straddled
economic, social, and cu ltu ral worlds. I have argued that, in nineteenth-century
depositions, the co m m u n ity sought to accentuate its econom ic im portance to
the city. Once arm ed w ith state-affirm ed legal title to these properties, the com ­
m u n ity’s leadership selectively expanded its role in the sh iftin g m od ern econ­
omy, d iversifyin g tradition al practices such as an im al husbandry, forestry, and
artisan al production to include som e real estate speculation an d in frastru ctu ral
developm ent. These changes u n settled m an y comuneros and lay at the heart o f
the ju rid ical conflicts o f the late 1920s and 1930s. Federico T u m ip am b a’s auto­
cratic entrepreneurialism , coupled w ith the w riting and rew riting o f land h isto ­
ries an d com m u n ity genealogies, responded to this situation and afforded the
com m unity the m eans to w eather the economic trials o f the G reat Depression
and to do so w ith relative success.101
In conceiving o f the role th at narratives o f the past played in the com m u­
n ity’s developm ent, it is u s e fu l to consider Joanne R a p p a p o rt’s concept o f a
“universal perspective.” In her stu d y o f h istorical interpretation am ong the N asa
people o f the Colom bian A n d es, R appaport highlights the relationship between
208 \ Santa Clara de San M illán

native m yth/genealogies and indigenous interaction w ith the state, contending

that com m unities su ccessfu lly involved in national politics tend to relate local
m ythologies to a universal perspective. She is referrin g to “an understanding
o f the interrelationships betw een h isto rical process in an array o f com m un i­
cations, as w ell as a clear im age o f the m ajor developm ents in the dom inant
society that have bearing on local h isto ry and political process.” She asserts that
histories coded w ith signifiers directed to or evocative o f m ain stream points of
reference are p articu larly lik ely to arise at m om ents when “broad-based organi­
zation” is needed; she is referrin g in p articu lar to the w idespread coordination
o f resistance to the C olom bian state’s attem pts to w rest control o f resguardos
(vacant lands) fro m indigenous p op ulations.1“
The comuneros o f Santa C lara de San M illá n never codified th eir interpreta­
tion o f local h isto ry in the fo rm o f a book, as occu rred am ong the N asa. How­
ever, their need for sustained collaboration to cem ent the econom ic benefits of
collective landow nership d id ind eed d ovetail w ith a deepenin g sophistication
o f historical interpretation. In the nineteenth century, the com m un ity dem on­
strated an understanding o f the variegated nature o f the state ju rid ical system
in its attem pt to counter the legal titles to C atalo m a, L om agord a, and Rosas-
pam ba held by the del M azos. Even though the com m u n ity failed to gain titles
to these properties, their appeals to have cu sto m ary exploitation rights to these
properties passed m uster at the local level and cem ented u su fru c t rights in the
Supreme C ourt. A lth ough the h istorical record rem ains u n clear as to precisely
how these lands returned to the Santa C lara comuneros control, th eir attention
to national politics and su pp ort o f Eloy A lfa ro lik ely played a role. C ertainly,
by the Depression era, the cabildo elite h ad in tern alized the necessity o f fram ­
ing legal and econom ic enterprises w ith in a discursive m atrix th at lin ked Santa
Clara to Liberal and Socialist p a rty reform ism .
This articulation developed slowly in the course o f a series o f internal strug­
gles over landow nership occasioned p artly b y the developing real estate market
in the region. The central p layer in this process was u nd ou bted ly José Federico
Tum ipam ba, whose auth ority derived p artly fro m an ab ility to m aneuver be­
tween state, comuna, and the m on ied classes and p artly fro m control over fam ­
ily and land genealogies. The rank-and-file com m une m em bership increasingly
challenged his oversight o f this h isto rical record du ring the late 1920s and 1930s,
precisely at the m om ent w hen increasing real estate values bu m ped against de­
clining agricu ltu ral revenue an d m in im a l opportu nities fo r alternate form s of
em ploym ent. D urin g this period , T u m ip am b a g rad u ally strengthened his ties
to the M in istry o f Social W elfare and, in the process, codified a narrative that
firm ly located the com m une w ith in the sociopolitical struggles that concom i­
tantly enveloped the ru ral A nd es. T h is narrative took the fo rm o f perform ative
gestures such as the destruction o f Pedro C am ach o’s crops, w hich evoked Cay-
am be’s agrarian unions, as well as the increasing adoption o f coded term inology
 Santa Clara de San M illán / 209

facilitated b y the bureaucrats overseeing com m u n al affairs, reaching its apex

follow ing the establishm ent o f fo rm al regulations in 1937.
The com m une o f San ta C lara de S an M illá n continues to exist. D u rin g the
past h a lf cen tu ry its ties to an a g ric u ltu ra l econom y have continued to erode
and its m em bership has largely m oved away fro m the area ju st n o rth o f the M a r­
iscal, where m ost o f its m em bers lived at the start o f the tw entieth century. H ow ­
ever, it continues to control the properties atop the m ou n tain and h as recently
reentered public discourse concerning the city’s responsibilities to its indigenous
populations. A s in the era d iscu sse d in th is chapter, the co m m u n ity h a s not
shied aw ay fro m p etition in g fo r the m aintenance o f its w ater righ ts, th is tim e
threatened by Q uito’s teleférico, a gondola that takes tourists from the city to the
su m m it o f Pichincha. M oreover, the co m m u n ity continues to strength en ties
to progressive activist groups, such as Q uito Para Todos an d A lia n z a País. N ot
only have these groups provided pro bono support for the com m u n ity’s current
endeavors b u t th ey have also prom ulgated the grou p ’s exp an d ed visio n o f its
historical ties to the Q uito valley. A m o n g th eir proposals for the developm ent
o f a m em orial landscape dedicated to illu m in atin g the social tensions o f p revi­
ous centuries is a p laque located at the intersection o f C olón and 10 de agosto
avenues id e n tifyin g th e la n d as the fo rm er p rop erty o f the C o m u n a de S an ta
C lara de S an M illá n . S h o u ld such an enterprise com e to fru itio n , th e corner
w ould thus house bo th a m onum en t to preservation, enshrined in Jacinto Jijón’s
form er residence— where the M u n icipal A rch ives and the Fondo de Salvam ento
reside— an d an an tim onu m ent to a p eriu rb an p op u lation still a rticu la tin g its
claim to a central node in the u rb an fabric.
 Postscript

In 1935, a m in o r bureaucrat n am ed A lfo n so G arcía M uñoz began p u blishing a

colum n in the Q uito d a ily El Comercio titled “ Estam pas de m i ciu d ad .” These
affectionate chronicles featu red a w ily figure know n as D on E varisto C o rral y
Chancleta. D on Evaristo was a chulla, or prototypical urb an m estizo, who com ­
bined the detachm ent and critical gaze o f a B audelarian flaneur w ith the tragi­
com ic sen sib ility o f C h ap lin ’s L ittle T ram p. O ver the n ext nin e years, G arcia
M uñoz collaborated w ith com ic actor Ernesto A lb á n on dram atic adaptations o f
the estampas, u n til the G lorious Revolution o f 1944 sent h im into exile along with
several other m em bers o f the A rro yo del R io adm inistration. G arcía M uñoz re­
sided in Bogotá the rest o f h is life, even refusing to return to Q uito in 1994 for a
m unicipal festival celebrating h is unique cultural im portance.1 A lb án , however,
continued to p erfo rm th e skits th at m ade h im fam ou s and even scripted a few
estampas o f h is ow n. O thers adopted the p op ular fo rm — b y 1949, on ly eight o f
the th irty -six estampas A lb á n p erfo rm ed were G arcía M uñoz o rig in a ls.2 The
repertoire expanded in the second h a lf o f the century to include film s and tele­
vision specials, un til A lb á n ’s death in 1984. Ten years later, the city governm ent
m ade a m ascot o f D on Evaristo, u sin g a cartoon likeness w ith h is tradem ark

2 11
212 \ Postscript

bowler hat and bushy m ustache to advertise p rogram s such as litter collection
and cultural events. Today, the Teatro V ariedades h as been renam ed in honor
o f the com ic actor, and revivals o f h is classic p erfo rm an ces occu r regularly.
His daughter h as even established a You T ube ch ann el dedicated to h is work.3
The p op u larity o f this a rtfu l chulla stem s fro m his ethos: a picaresque rogue
traipsing through the public square. T h is figure h ad , in fact, a unique chrono-
topical gaze defined by his breezy am bivalence to the trappings o f m odern life.
In h is study o f the chronotope, Bakh tin rem inds us th at the figure o f the rogue,
fool, or clown originated w ith in the carnivalesque entertainm ents o f the clas­
sical and m ed ieval w orlds. Besides subvertin g the m onotony o f everyday life,
these characters “create around them selves th eir ow n special little world, their
own chronotope,” w hich inverts and interrogates the conventions o f polite so­
ciety through carnivalesque inversion. A s such, rogues can critique a culture
through laughter and irony and in the process bare its peculiarities, foibles, and
hierarchies.4
Don Evaristo serves this fu n ctio n precisely as he tu rn s the tables on the fig­
ures o f his contem porary city, from chapitas (police officers), to traperos (street
vendors) to A lam ed a P a rk ’s statue o f Sim ón B olívar, w hom Evaristo im agines
m ust be eternally bored because he can never d ism o u n t h is steed (brioso corcel).
A favorite victim o f Evaristo, especially o f h is skills as an am ateur pickpocket,
is an obtuse gringo who foo lish ly em ploys h im as a tou r gu ide and receives in
retu rn a flu rry o f m isin form ation am id a series o f h ijin ks. E l G rin go ends up
in scrapes like a C arn ival water fight, fro m w hich the tw o emerge drenched but
victorious after successfully storm ing a townhouse.
T hese satirical p ortraits are rich in d eta il and interw oven w ith the sites,
traditions, and encounters com m on to G arcía M u ñ o z’s m od ernizin g city. And
yet they seem to escape the staid conventions o f b o th p o sitivist an d nostalgic
discourses. The plu cky D on Evaristo acknowledges the d ialogical nature o f the
surveyed city, where h y p o c risy an d contrad iction ab ou n d and life is at once
m odern and traditional, fo rm al and burlesque. T h is p la y fu l approach to time
an d space and to social m arkers gives the estampas th eir p artic u la r flavor. For
exam ple, upon passing beneath the sixteen th -cen tu ry A rco de la R eina, Don
Evaristo m uses, “ I w ould have lik ed to contem plate th is A rch in earlier times,
before the arrival o f electric light. I figure it w ould have been a special place for
rom antic liaisons, gangster am bushes, and stabs in the back. Today, civilization,
w ith its p o w erfu l ‘osram s,’ deflowers the d ark, im p ed in g the shadows to cover
love, th eft, an d m urder.”5 T h is ironic view o f electric ligh tin g— as hindrance
to rom ance, robbery, an d m u rd er— u n d ercu ts the glow o f m od ernization as
m an ifested b y p ow erfu l O sram -brand lightbulbs. Yet Evaristo is not sentimen­
tal. H is contem plation o f the arch durin g its h eyd ay inspires a self-consciously
anachronistic portrait in w hich contem porary characters, such as the gangsters
o f A m erican cinem a, have in tru d ed on the age o f the cloak and dagger. Fusing
Q uito’s contem porary existence w ith its past em beds his tale w ith in a permeable
 Postscript / 213

h istorical m a trix w ith a global p u rview en com passing b oth p o p u lar an d h igh
culture.
A sse rtin g the inseparable ju xtap o sition o f the m odern an d the trad ition al
has been associated w ith a postm od ern sensibility b u t is also integral to tra d i­
tional p ositivist fram ew orks.6 Quiteños fro m across social, racial, and p olitical
divides acknow ledged these contradictions. H owever, d isagreem ent existed as
to the currency o f a given “p ast,” “present,” or “ fu tu re.” I have dem arcated a se­
ries o f constellations o f accepted and repudiated narratives adopted b y specific
groups and shaped by th eir ch ron otopical organization. A lth o u gh in flu en ced
by h istoric allian ces o f a p olitical or socioeconom ic natu re, these b o u n d aries
proved d istin ctly porous. These h eu ristically developed chronotopes gathered
into their orbit a series o f utterances associated w ith authors and audiences o f­
ten separated in tim e and space. A s B ak h tin notes, in the “w orld represented in
the w ork,” a d ialogical process envelops these “real w o rld ” actors:

The work and the world represented in it enter the real world and enrich it,
and the real world enters the work and its world as part o f the process of its cre­
ation, as well as part of its subsequent life, in a continual renewing o f the work
through the creative perception o f listeners and readers. O f course this process
of exchange is itself chronotopic: it occurs first and foremost in the historically
developing social world, but without ever losing contact with changing histori­
cal space. We might even speak o f a special creative chronotope inside which this
exchange between work and life occurs, and which constitutes the distinctive life
of the work.7

Thus, society and its stories m u tu ally constitute one another. A culture’s ch ron o­
topes prove generative in bo th a literary and a social sense, in d elibly m ark in g
the w orld fro m w hich th ey origin ate as they are encountered, re-encountered,
and renewed by authors and audiences. B y extension, those engaging a conversa­
tion that stretches across tim e an d space jo in a group o f what m igh t be term ed
chronotopical producers.
W ith G arcía M u ñ o z’s estampas, d ia lo g ism stem s fro m th e p o lyvalen ce o f
m ultiple chronotopes inflected b y an extended h isto ry o f refraction an d renew al
that continues to the present. T h is h isto ry begins w ith G arcía M uñoz h im se lf,
whose w ritings owe a debt to a length y tradition o f satirical sketches articu latin g
an ironic sensibility know n as sal quiteña. T h is epithet originated in nineteenth-
century feuilletons and has also been associated w ith the tradiciones o f H isp an ist
C ristóbal G angotena or the D ad aist en n u i o f A lb erto C olom a S ilv a .8 W ith the
estampas, however, this sal passed from the page to the boards to television and
the Internet— at each stage altered and rew ritten b y m ultiple authors an d au d i­
ences. T h is process o f destru ction and renewal feeds the genre and perpetu ates
the chronotope. T racin g the publics and producers im plicated in the d evelo p ­
m ent o f the estampa— n in eteenth-cen tu ry h u m o rists, G arcía M u ñoz, Ernesto
214 \ Postscript

A lb á n , the u rb an m estizo, M ex ican film stu d io s, grin go b u sin essm en , and

even contem porary social netw orking sites— thus provides sociological insight
into the h isto rical developm ent o f the c ity ’s im age, politics, and sociocultural
configurations.
M appin g the tangled developm ent o f such discourses in Q uito’s h isto ry has
been the central project o f th is book. O f p a rtic u la r interest is a series o f itera­
tions that took shape d u rin g the early tw entieth century, when the city outgrew
its colonial era lim its. The narrative coordinates em phasized here responded to
the d o m in an t chronotope o f the d ay— a technocratic, positivist v ision o f m od­
ern ization , one th at h a d global resonance yet garn ered supp ort lo cally from
the L iberal P arty th at ra n the governm ent. T h ese responses rarely critiqued
“progress.” R ather, they tended to advocate soft defiance o f Liberal positivism
b y su bstitu tin g a h isto rical fram ew ork th at h igh lighted their experiences and
their city. T h ey created new h istories that strategically em braced an d rejected
local traditions, alw ays w ith an eye tow ard situ atin g the p articu la r constella­
tion o f actors at the center o f regional, n ation al, and global cu rren ts. A s the
presence o f such “ h isto ricist” narratives proliferated, the political and economic
benefits o f id entification w ith such a chronotope expanded. A n d so the m inor
chronotope o f Q uito’s h istoricity, refram ed as an indicator o f global leadership
b uild in g upon colonial and som e nineteenth-century discourses, expanded into
a genre-defining trope o f local affirm ation w hose enduring iterations continue
to m ark the c ity ’s politics, im age, and econom y.9
Th is declaration o f world h istorical leadership was not unique to Quito. As
discussed earlier, one o f the goals o f L atin A m erican intellectual output during
the early tw entieth cen tu ry w as to (re)assert relevance despite increasing m ar­
ginalization on the global scene. State-backed enterprises designed to showcase
urb an m od ern ity form ed a critical com ponent o f the proclam ation o f national
progress, as has been dem onstrated by the m ultiple studies o ffin-de-siglo m onu­
m ental urb an p lan n in g in the region’s m ajor capitals. Elites, the state, and intel­
lectu als in Buenos A ires, R io de Janeiro, or M exico C ity deployed historicist
architecture, allegorical constructions o f sanitized pre-C olum bian populations,
and m yth scap es celebrating the p antheon o f n ation alist heroes in an effort to
declare their city’s m em bership in an exclusive club— w hat we today call global
cities. Despite the difference in scale, a sim ilar im pu lse un derlay Q u ito’s pro­
lific inversion o f global p ositivist p arad igm s across p o litical, cu ltu ral, socio­
econom ic, and racial divides. Indeed, considering how and w hy such an insular
city gave rise to this m aelstrom o f chronotopic histories has been a central ques­
tion o f this study.
A s d iscu ssed at the outset o f th is book, this process occurred against a back­
drop o f in ten sifyin g regional com petition in nineteenth- and twentieth-century
Ecuador. T h is struggle originated in the colonial period, when citizenship in the
Iberian tradition based national or universal identity on m em bership in a local
group o f vecinos. Echoes o f th is structure exist w ith in the attem pts to articulate
 Postscript / 215

a national consciousness du ring the nineteenth and early tw entieth centuries,

rem arking the continued reliance u p on the local as a sym bol for the national.
A ttesting to Q uito’s global h isto rical im po rt becam e even m ore im p o rtan t as
regional strife intensified du ring the second h a lf o f the nineteenth century, es­
pecially follow ing the Liberal Revolution in 1895. The proclivity to situate urb an
identities w ith in tiered teleologies tied to origin ought to be considered a fu n c­
tion o f these tensions.
Subsequent d iscussion diagram m ed the internal logic o f six cru cial chrono-
topes developed during the early tw entieth century. The first step in each chap­
ter concerned id e n tify in g precursors, which in m ost cases required reorienting
the an a lytic a l fram ew ork tow ard the colonial period. Such was the case w ith
the search for in stitu tio n al autonom y on the part o f the m u nicipality or the de­
fense o f com m on lan d s pursu ed b y the C om un a de Santa C lara de S an M illán .
The city’s cartographers and H ispanists also celebrated p articu lar colonial m o­
ments d u rin g w hich Q uito h ad argu ably transcended its relative provinciality to
become a site o f w orld h isto rical im portance. M eanw hile, the D u rin is an d the
city’s d ystopians h ighlighted Q uito’s provinciality (as i f h isto ry h ad stood still)
with an eye tow ard asserting their ow n claim to be cosm opolitan m odernists.
C raftin g a chronotope w ith va lid ity in the m odern city, however, depended
upon refractin g these o rigin ary tropes, m om ents, or sites so as to focus on the
p articu lar social group deployin g th em in the present. The process o f articu ­
lation involved a su bstan tial period o f tim e during w hich a p lu rality o f actors
reconfigured extended traditions, vocabularies, and associations. T h is germ ina­
tion did not follow a straightforw ard teleological path, despite the assertions o f
its inventive interlocutors. T he case o f the canon ical H isp an ist celebration o f
Quito’s m essianic global role can serve as a case in point. Despite an extended
history, w ith precursors in the m illen arian visions o f the colonial period, a hos­
tile diplom atic clim ate im peded the chronotope’s developm ent through m ost o f
the nineteenth century. The revival associated w ith the A cadem ia N acional de
H istoria and the conservative m unicipalities o f the 1930s crystallized a new set
o f actors d esirin g to recapture local, national, and international prom inence.
They succeeded in fash io n in g a u niqu e holiday celebrating the city’s Span ish
heritage, yet even Seis de diciembre escaped their sociopolitical designs du rin g
its popularization in the second h a lf o f the twentieth century. T h is h isto ry sug­
gests th at despite generic convention, chronotopes rem ained contingent upon
the social m ilie u in w hich they em erged or reemerged. Em phasizing these con­
texts, and p articu larly the upheaval o f Q uito’s fin-de-siglo, has been central to the
analysis throughout this study.
Chronotopes b o rn d u rin g tim es o f extrem e flu x can be im agin ed as espe­
cially resilient. T h eir p la sticity enables th em to serve as m utable fram es for
m yriad goals, som etim es associated w ith several constituencies but often tied
to the sh iftin g circum stances o f a p articu lar population. A m ong the collectives
discussed in this book, perhaps the m an ipulation dem onstrated b y the D u rin i
2i6 \ Postscript

fam ily or the comuna o f Santa C lara de San M illá n m ost directly illustrates this
point. Both groups freq u en tly spu n th eir h isto ry (both d iscursively and spa­
tially) to adapt to sh ifting social, political, econom ic, or cu ltu ral circum stances.
The D urin is could construct a b u ild in g th at went from being an expression of
elite sophistication to a declaration o f a h ybrid A n d ea n vern acu lar depending
on the m om ent and the audience. Federico T u m ip am b a and José G abriel Colla­
huaso pivoted between perform ances o f deferential or defiant indigen eity while
articulating an A lfa rista , proto-socialist, or neo-Incaic identity. The polyphony
o f these iterations at tim es threatened to devolve into absu rd ity; however, the
generic fram ew ork offered a m ask o f stab ility and consistency. In the case o f the
D u rin is, this façade concerned their identity as cosm opolitan interlocutors; in
the case o f Santa C lara, the autonom ous com m une, w ith its traditional leaders
proudly at the helm , provided a central leitm otif.
T h is nim ble m an ip u latio n o f h isto ry reflected an entrep reneu rial appro­
priation o f the past com m on not only to San ta C lara and the D u rin is b ut also
to institutional actors. The various institu tions benefited fro m addition al state
support yet achieved this su pp ort on ly because o f th eir ab ility to craft a chrono­
topical fram ew ork that afforded them legitim acy an d enabled them to reach p o­
litical as w ell as economic goals. Such was the case o f the H ispan ist gaze o f the
N ational A cadem y o f H istory, which reconsidered the in tellectu al tradition of
Iberian exceptionalism while articu latin g a special m illen arian role for Quito.
Sim ilarly, the m u n icip al cou n cil and the m ilita r y ’s cartograp h ers refracted
colonial adm in istrative stru ctu res an d the city and nation’s u niqu e role in the
developm ent o f geographic science to carve out new spaces for com m ercial and
political enterprise. Finessing the past and id en tifyin g places an d sites infused
w ith it therefore provided not on ly a legitim izing fram e bu t also concrete finan­
cial and social benefits.
The elasticity o f a given chronotope also opened it to the charge o f hypoc­
risy, w hich fueled a counter-cartographic series o f coordinates underscoring the
phantasm agorical attributes o f the idyllic Q uito. The poetics o f denunciation
advanced b y Q uito’s detractors h igh ligh ted the c ity ’s estrangem ent from the
course o f global h isto ry. S p a tial m etaphors equ ating th e n ation al and global
h in terlan d as a space o f p o ten tial red em p tion tran scen d ed m y ria d stylistic
attributes, from rom anticism to su rrealism . A sense o f irony invigorated popu­
la r and literary w orks th at p u t forth negative view s o f Q uito an d the nation,
b egin n in g w ith critical interrogation o f a p ositivist spirit in the works o f Mera
or Bustam ante but becom ing a palpable source o f satirical w it in P alacios for­
m al experim ents or Salvador’s absurdist gestures. L aughter’s potential to invert
social hierarchies enlivened the chronotope an d accen tuated its potential to
chastise the solipsistic flavor o f the city’s intellectual clim ate.
The criticism inherent w ith in the p hantasm agorical chronotope highlights
the possibility o f refraction an d alteration o f a given chronotope once it entered
the public sphere. Indeed, such d ialogism increased as the narratives discussed
 Postscript / 217

in this book encountered each other in cacophonous counterpoint. M oreover,

the second h a lf o f th e tw entieth cen tu ry saw an expan sio n in the n u m b er o f
readers, listeners, and view ers as the public sphere expanded. These pu blic ac­
tors increasingly h arnessed the narratives for their ow n p urposes, in the process
p op ularizing discourses previously lim ited to elite actors. T h u s, the celebration
o f S pan ish Q uito inaugu rated b y the H isp an ist m u n icip ality becam e a p op u lar
celebration w h ile th e notion o f the c ity ’s geograph ical cen trality b lu rred into
tourist k itsch at M itad del M undo.
D espite th e ir lim its, these chronotopes have proved resilient. A s w as the
case d u rin g the early tw entieth cen tury, th eir contem porary d y n a m ism grows
out o f th e d ep th o f the n arrative trad itio n th at fram es each con figu ration o f
space-tim e. A w are o f glo bal tren d s, th e actors developing the m od ern c ity ’s
chronotopes sought layers o f m ean in g w ith in local custom s. T he chronotopes’
potency also d erived fro m the celebration o f em blem atic sites w ith in th e city
that served as anchors o f narrative signification. T h is process o f creating a three-
dim ensional cartograp h y o f allu sio n took m ultiple form s, inclu d in g d epiction
in literature, h isto rical preservation, con struction , illu m in ation , m on um ents,
and im agin ation . C e rta in locations, such as the Panecillo, A la m e d a Park, or
the city’s environs, enjoyed the attentions o f com peting actors and proved to be
pliable.
A bove a ll, these layered h istories provid ed th eir respective authors an d the
public w ith a m eans to navigate the changing city. B y establishing points o f con­
tinuity betw een the past an d the fu tu re, th ey fixed an interpretation o f a rapidly
sh ifting landscape. The m od ern stood revealed as unique an d hom egrow n, and
Quito fo u n d its place on a m ap o f nation al and global currents. T h u s, th e u p ­
heaval o f m o d ern ity translated into som eth ing knowable and autochthonous.
A n d their city was established at the center o f the world.
 Notes

P r e lu d e

1. Centro de medios independientes, Ecuador, “Kito Anti-Taurino,” http://ecuador

.indymedia.0rg/es/2002/12/1206.shtml (accessed February 21, 2008).
2. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1983).
3. For recent studies of these phenomena in Latin America, see Mauricio Tenorio
Trillo, “1910 Mexico City: Space and Nation in the City of the Centenario," Journal of
Latin American Studies 28:1 (February 1996): 75—104; Adrian Gorelik, La qrilla y el parque:
ispacio publico y cultura urbana en Buenos Aires, 1887-1936 (Buenos Aires: Universidad
Nacional de Quilmes, 1998); M ark Overmyer-Velazquez, Visions of the Emerald City:
Modernity, Tradition, and the Formation ofPorfirian Oaxaca, Mexico (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2006).
4. M. M. Bakhtin, “Forms o f Time and Chronotope in the Novel: Notes toward a
Historical Poetics,” in M. M . Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Holquist,
trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981),
220 \ Notes to Pages xvi—xx

84-85. See also Nele Bemong et al., eds., Bakhtin’s Theory of the Literary Chronotope: Re­
flections, Applications, Perspectives (Ghent, Belgium: Academia Press, 2010).
5. Maurice Halbwachs, The Collective Memory, trans. Francis J. Ditter Jr. and
Vida Yazdi Ditter (New York: Harper & Row, 1980). See also Pierre Nora, ed., Realms
of Memory: Rethinking the French Past, 3 vols. (New York: Columbia University Press,
1996-1998); and Svetlana Boym, The Future of Nostalgia (New York: Basic Books, 2001).
6. Bakhtin distinguishes between major and minor chronotopes: minor chronotopes
are motivic in nature while major chronotopes are generic, that is, genre-producing.
Bakhtin, “Forms of Time.” See also Jay Ladin, “Fleshing Out the Chronotope,” in Criti­
cal Essays on Mikhail Bakhtin, ed. Caryl Emerson (New York: G. K. Hall, 1999), 212—36;
and Nele Bemong and Pieter Borghart, “ Bakhtin’s Theory of the Literary Chronotope:
Reflections, Applications, Perspectives,” in Bakthin’s Theory, ed. Bemong et al., 7—8.
7. On metahistory, see Hayden V. White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in
Nineteenth-Century Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973).
8. On vecindad and early modern citizenship, see Tamar Herzog, Defining Nations:
Immigrants and Citizens in Early Modern Spain and Spanish America (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2003).
9. A. Kim Clark, The Redemptive Work: Railway and Nation in Ecuador, 1S95—1930
(Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1998).
10. See Lucas Achig, El proceso urbano de Quito: ensayo de interpretación (Quito: Cen­
tro de Investigaciones; CIUDAD, 1983); Fernando Carrión, Quito: crisis y política urbana
(Quito: CIUDAD; Editorial El Conejo, 1987); and Manuel Castells, City, Class, and Power,
trans. E. Lebas (New York: St. M artin’s Press, 1978).
11. Milton Luna Tamayo, Historia y conciencia popular: el artesanado de Quito, eco­
nomía, organización, y vida cotidiana, 1890-1930 (Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional,
1989); Guillermo Bustos, “Quito en la transición: actores colectivos e identidades cul­
turales urbanas (1920—1950),” in Enfogues y estudios históricos: Quito a través de la historia,
by Paul Aguilar et al. (Quito: Editorial Fraga, 1992), 163—88; Manuel Espinosa Apolo,
Mestizaje, cholificación y blanqueamiento en Quito primera mitad del siglo X X I (Quito: Uni­
versidad Andina Simón Bolívar Ecuador, Abya-Yala, Corporación Editora Nacional,
2003).
12. Eduardo Kíngman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros, Quito 1860—1940: higienismo, or­
nato y policía (Quito: FLACSO, 2006).
13. See, e.g., Jeffrey D. Needell, A Tropical Belle Epoque: Elite Culture and Society in
Turn-of-the-Century Rio de Janeiro (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Te­
resa A. Meade, “Civilizing" Rio: Reform and Resistance in a Brazilian City, 1889-1930 (Uni­
versity Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997); and, to a lesser degree, John
Lear, Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens: The Revolution in Mexico City (Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 2001).
14. Jorge Hardoy, ed., Urbanization in Latin America: Approaches and Issues (Garden
City, NY: Anchor Books, 1975); Jorge Hardoy and Richard Morse, eds., Rethinking the
Latin American City (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore: Johns
 Notes to Pages xx—8 / 221

Hopkins University Press, 1993); and Richard Morse, New World Soundings: Culture and
Ideology in the Americas (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
15. Tenorio Trillo, “1910 Mexico City”; Marisol de la Cadena, Indigenous Mestizos:
The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, Peru, 1919-1991 (Durham, NC: Duke University
Press, 2000); Overmyer-Velázquez, Visions of the Emerald City.
16. Luis Roniger, “Global Immersion: Latin America and Its Multiple Modernities,”
in Globality and Multiple Modernities: Comparative North American and Latin American
Perspectives, ed. Luis Roniger and Carlos H. Waisman (Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic
Press, 2002), 79—105.

C h a p t e r 1. T h e P o lit ic s a n d P o e t i c s o f R e g i o n a l i s m

1. The phrase “denial o f coevalness” is associated with Johannes Fabian’s analysis of

distinction created within anthropological studies between the Western scientist and
the “other,” whose primitive nature separates it from belonging to the same era o f prog­
ress and development. Walter Mignolo has appropriated this terminology in his call for
“a denial of the denial of coevalness,” with regard to the Western project of colonization
in the Americas from the sixteenth century onward. My appropriation acknowledges
these implicit criticisms of the Western imperial project while simultaneously consider­
ing the economic benefits of selectively engaging with modes of appropriating the past
as a tradable commodity. See Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology
Makes Its Object (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983); and Walter Mignolo, The
Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization, 2nd ed. (Ann A r­
bor: University of Michigan Press, 2003), xi—xii.
2. Herzog, Defining Nations. For the continued relevance of the construction of a
transnational, reflexive notion o f postcolonial citizenship, see Antonio Annino, “El
Jano bifronte: los pueblos y los orígenes del liberalismo en Mexico,” in Crisis, reforma
y revolución: Mexico; historias de fin de siglo, ed. Leticia Reina and Elisa Servín (Mexico
City: Taurus, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Instituto Nacional de
Antropología e Historia, 2002), 209—51; and Roniger, “Global Immersion.”
3. Richard L. Kagan, with Fernando Marías, Urban Images in the Hispanic World,
1493—1793 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).
4. Kim Gauderman, Womens Lives in Colonial Quito: Gender, Law, and Economy in
Spanish America (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003), 4.
5. John Leddy Phelan, The Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century: Bureaucratic
Politics in the Spanish Empire (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967), 49.
6. Bernard Lavallé, Quito y la crisis de la alcabala 1580-1600 (Quito: IFEA, Corpo­
ración Editora Nacional, 1997).
7. Kris Lane, Quito 1599: City and Colony in Transition (Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press, 2002), 178—80.
8. One o f the most extensive analyses o f the emergence of the quiteño market can be
found in Gauderman, Womens Lives. See also Lane, Quito 1599, chaps. 3 and 5.
222 \ Notes to Pages 8—11

9. Susan V. Webster, Arquitectura y empresa en el Quito colonial: José Jaime Ortiz, Ala­
rife Mayor (Quito: Abya-Yala, 2002), 49.
10. See Lane, Quito 1599, xi—xiii. See also Thomas B. F. Cummins and William B.
Taylor, “The Mulatto Gentlemen of Esmeraldas, Ecuador,” in Colonial Spanish America:
A Documentary History, ed. Kenneth M ills and William B. Taylor (Wilmington, DE:
Scholarly Resources, 1998), 147—49.
11. The most comprehensive study of Quito’s sculpture remains Gabrielle G. Palm­
er’s Sculpture in the Kingdom of Quito (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press,
1987).
12. Carmen Fernández-Salvador, “Images and Memory: The Construction of Col­
lective Identities in Seventeenth-Century Quito” (PhD diss., University o f Chicago,
2005), esp. chap. 3.
13. The origins of the controversy lay in Isaac Newton’s gravitational theories, which
predicted that the Earth could not be a pure sphere but would instead be elliptical.
14. For recent scholarship considering La Condamine’s European views o f the exotic
American landscape, see Neil Safier, Measuring the New World: Enlightenment Science
and South America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008); Deborah Poole, Vision,
Race, and Modernity: A Visual Economy of the Andean Image World (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1997); and Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, “Postcolonialism avant la lettre?
Travelers and Clerics in Eighteenth-Century Colonial Spanish America,” in After Span­
ish Rule: Postcolonial Predicaments of the Americas, ed. Mark Thurner and Andres Guer­
rero (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 89-109.
15. Extensive scholarly analysis of the Rebellion of the Barrios began to appear
around 1990. Scholars have alternately characterized the rebellion as an anticipation
of the southern Andean strife o f the 1780s, as a moment of great racial tension, as a
moment o f subaltern racial harmony, and as predominantly urban or involving signifi­
cant participation from the corregimiento. For more on the uprising, see Kenneth J. An-
drien, “Economic Crisis, Taxes, and the Quito Insurrection of 1765,” Past and Present 129
(November 1990): 104—31; Anthony McFarlane, “ The ‘Rebellion of the Barrios’: Urban
Insurrection in Bourbon Quito,” Hispanic American Historical Review 69:2 (May 1989):
283—330; and Martin Minchom, The People of Quito, 1690—1810: Change and Unrest in the
Underclass (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994).
16. A concise discussion of Espejos use of satirical prose can be found in Julie Greer
Johnson, Satire in Colonial Spanish America: Turning the New World Upside Down (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1993). See also Reinaldo Mino, Eugenio Espejo y la defensa de los
indios (Quito: Sistema Nacional de Bibliotecas, 1995); and Visión actual de Eugenio Espejo
(Quito: Fundación Eugenio Espejo/Fundación Friedrich Naumann, 1988).
17. On Rocafuerte and the Cortes de Cádiz, see works by Jaime E. Rodriguez O.:
The Emergence of Spanish America: Vicente Rocafuerte and Spanish Americanism, 1808-1832
(Berkeley: University o f California Press, 1975); and The Independence of Spanish America
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
18. Marie-Danielle Demalas and Yves Saint-Geours elaborate on Cuenca’s role as
an intellectual and political arbiter in their work Jerusalen y Babilonia: religión y política
 Notes to Pages 11—14 / 223

en el Ecuador, 1780-1880, trans. Carmen Garatea Yurí (Quito: Corporación Editora Na­
cional, 1988), 32. For the population of its district and relative importance in the early
nineteenth century, see Julio Carpió Vintimilla, La evolución urbana de Cuenca en el siglo
XIX (Cuenca: Universidad de Cuenca [IDIS], 1983), esp. 75—83.
19. M ark J. von Achen, King of the Night: Juan José Flores and Ecuador, 1824—1864
(Berkeley: Univeristy of California Press, 1989).
20. Rafael Quintero and Erika Silva, Ecuador: una nación en ciernes, 3rd ed. (Quito:
Abya-Yala, 1998), 74.
21. Unlike the other cities, Loja did not contend to be the center of a new national
government. Not having the wealth or position from which to form an independent
state, lojanos called for a federal system with more provincial autonomy.
22. Quintero and Silva, Ecuador, 82. Quintero and Silva’s analysis of the installa­
tion of a neo-Iberian state evokes similar arguments concerning the continuity of ad­
ministrative structures, commented upon most concisely by Fran^ois-Xavier Guerra in
Modernidades e independencias: ensayos sobre las revoluciones hispánicas (Madrid: Editorial
M APFRE, 1992), albeit at a temporal distance of some decades.
23. Derek Williams, “Negotiating the State: National Utopias and Local Politics
in Ecuador, 1845—75” (PhD diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook, 2001).
24. Jean Paul Deler, “Estructuración y consolidación del área central (1830—1942),”
in Jean Paul Deler, Nelson Gómez, and Michel Portáis, El manejo del espacio en el Ecuador:
etapas claves (Quito: Centro Ecuatoriano de Investigación Geográfica, 1983), 187—91.
25. Ricardo D. Salvatore and Carlos Aguirre, “The Birth of the Penitentiary in Latin
America: Toward an Interpretive Social History of Prisons,” in The Birth of the Peniten­
tiary in Latin America: Essays on Criminology, Prison Reform, and Social Control, 1830—1940,
ed. Ricardo D. Salvatore and Carlos Aguirre (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1996),
11.
26. Alexandra Kennedy Troya and Alfonso Ortiz Crespo, “Continuismo colonial y
cosmopolitismo en la arquitectura y el arte decimonónico ecuatoriano,” in Nueva histo­
ria del Ecuador, vol. 8, Época republicana II, ed. Enrique Ayala Mora (Quito: Corporación
Editora Nacional/grijalbo, 1990), 124—31.
27. See Williams, “ Negotiating the State.”
28. The number of children attending school in the countryside rose from 13,459
in 1867 to 32,000 by 1875. See Enrique Ayala, “Gabriel Garcia Moreno y la gestación del
estado nacional en el Ecuador,” Cultura 4:10 (May—August 1981): 163.
29. On souvenirs, see Blanca Muratorio, “ Nación, identidad y etnicidad: imágenes
de los indios ecuatorianos y sus imagineros a fines del siglo X IX ,” in Imágenes e imagi­
neros: representaciones de los indígenas ecuatorianos, siglos X IX y XX, ed. Blanca Muratorio
(Quito: FLACSO, 1994), 150.
30. For an introduction to Montalvo, see Roberto Agramonte, La filosofía de Mon­
talvo (Quito: Banco Central del Ecuador, 1992). See also Arturo Andres Roig, Pensa­
miento social de Juan Montalvo: sus lecciones al pueblo (Quito: Editorial Tercer Mundo,
1984). A selection of his writings can be found in Galo René Pérez, ed., Montalvo (Quito:
Banco Central, 1985).
224 \ Notes to Pages 14—16

31. Garcia Moreno is the most frequently studied individual in Ecuadorian history.
His dramatic death captured the imagination of conservatives not only in Ecuador but
across the world, and his martyrdom became a favorite subject, inspiring countless bi­
ographies, tributes, and historical dramas in Europe and the rest o f South America,
particularly during the fin-de-siglo. See, e.g., Agustine Berthe, Garcia Moreno: les héros
martyr (Paris: Retaux-Bray, 1890): M. T. Josefa, García Moreno, president de la république
de VEquateur (Paris, 1892); Giacinto Simonato, “Dio non muore!" Garcia Moreno, drama
storico in 4 atti (Milan: G. Daviero, 1933); Manuel Galvez, Vida de don Gabriel García
Moreno (Buenos Aires: Editorial Difusión, 1942). A strong contemporary biography is
Peter V. N. Henderson, Gabriel Garcia Moreno and Conservative State Formation in the
Andes (Austin: University o f Texas Press, 2008).
32. Native Ecuadorian cacao could grow only in the rather deep topsoil found near
the many rivers that cross the coastal plains. The new variety, cacao Benezuela, on the
other hand, could grow without difficulty in drier, hilly areas. Nonetheless, it was a
weaker species and less resistant to disease, a factor that ultimately served to decimate a
large portion of the crops of the late 1910s. See Lois Crawford de Roberts, El Ecuador en
la época cacaotera: respuestas locales al auge y colapso en el ciclo monoexportador, trans. Erika
Silva and Rafael Quintero (Quito: Editorial Universitaria, 1980), 49—54,165—70.
33. The most extensive study on the cacao period is still Lois Crawford de Roberts’s
El Ecuador en la época cacaotera, which presents an analysis of cacao growth patterns,
Ecuador’s role in international markets, and the fortunes of the Guayaquil cacao elite.
Andrés Guerrero’s Los oligarcas del cacao: ensayo sobre la acumulación originaria en el Ecua­
dor; hacendados cacaoteros, banqueros exportadores y comerciantes en Guayaquil (1890-1910)
(Quito: El Conejo, 1980) elaborates a M arxist critique of the accumulation of wealth in
the industry’s development. Guayaquil’s development in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries has been well covered by Ronn F. Pineo, Social and Economic Reform
in Ecuador: Life and Work in Guayaquil (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996).
Pineo stresses the importance o f both the city’s monoculture dependency and regional­
ism to Guayaquil's fin-de-siglo labor and economic history.
34. For more on Juan León Mera, see Xavier Michelena, Juán León Mera: antología
esencial (Quito: Banco Central/Abya-Yala, 1994); and Julio Pazos Barrera, ed., Juan León
Mera: una vision actual (Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 1995). The term serrano
refers to inhabitants of the Andean section of Ecuador.
35. Remigio Crespo Toral, “Modesto Espinosa, Semblanza,” in Biblioteca ecuatoriana
minima: prosistas de la república (Puebla, Mexico: Editorial J. M. Cajica Jr., i960), 439-46.
See also José Modesto Espinosa, Obras completas, vol. 1, Artículos de costumbres (Freiburg,
Germany: B. Herder, 1899).
36. The similarity of the work of Guerrero and Fuentes was the subject of an exhibi­
tion, “Quito-Lima: Siglo X IX ,” held at the Centro Cultural Metropolitano in Quito,
October 23—November 14, 2002.
37. Claudio Malo González, “ Histos en la plástica cuencana del siglo X X ,” in De
la inocencia a la libertad: arte cuencano del siglo XX, ed. Andrés Abad Marchán (Cuenca:
Banco Central del Ecuador, 1998), 47—49.
 Notes to Pages 16—20 / 225

38. Crawford de Roberts, Ecuador en la época cacaotera, 66—67.

39. Muratorio, “Nación, identidad y etnicidad,” 164—67.
40. Japan and China were at war in 1894, and although Chile wanted to sell a war­
ship to Japan, a pact of neutrality prevented the sale. The Ecuadorian consul in New
York, when approached to broker the deal, agreed to attempt to persuade the national
government to purchase the ship from Chile, sail it to Japan under the Ecuadorian flag,
and then sell it to Japan. The disclosure of such an unpatriotic use o f the national stan­
dard led to widespread furor.
41. Rafael Quintero and Erika Silva follow Cuenca’s role in the shift in national
politics in their article, “ La crisis nacional general de 1895,” Cultura 4:11 (September—
December 1981): 106—7.
42. The most extensive account o f the Liberal Revolution is Enrique Ayala Mora’s
Historia de la revolución liberal ecuatoriana (Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 1994).
43. Indeed, González Suárez was the only bishop left in the country after Arch­
bishop Ordóñez died in 1906. See Santiago Castillo Illingworth, La iglesia y la revolución
liberal: las relaciones de la iglesia y el estado en la época del liberalismo (Quito: Ediciones
del Banco Central del Ecuador, 1995), 252—321, on the bishop’s efforts to rebuild church
institutions.
44. Deler, “Estructuración y consolidación,’’ 177.
45. Clark, Redemptive Work, 109; Dirección Nacional de Estadística, Ecuador en cifras,
1938-1942 (Quito: Imprenta del Ministerio de Hacienda, 1944), 288.
46. Deler, “Estructuración y consolidación,” 213.
47. Jean Paul Deler, Ecuador: del espacio al estado nacional (Quito: Banco Central del
Ecuador, 1987), 184.
48. Clark, Redemptive Work.
49. Edwing Guerrero Blum, Instituto Nacional Mejía: historia y proyección; ciento seis
años de educación laica y democrática (Quito: E. Guerrero Blum, 2003.)
50. Linda Alexander Rodríguez, The Search for Public Policy: Regional Politics and
Government Finances in Ecuador, 1830—1940 (Berkeley: University o f California Press,
1985), 95.
51. The devaluation o f the sucre devastated the purchasing power o f workers but
helped the cacao elite, who were able to get cheap labor at home and still sell their pro­
duct at high prices abroad. See Crawford de Roberts, Ecuador en la época cacaotera, 157.
52. Tenguel’s decline represents a typical case: it was eventually abandoned as a
cacao plantation, but in the 1930s the United Fruit Company converted it to banana cul­
tivation. See Steve Striffler, In the Shadows of State and Capital: The United Fruit Company,
Popular Struggle, and Agrarian Restructuring in Ecuador, 1900—1995 (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 2002), 24—28.
53. On both the expanding market and public health, see Pineo, Social and Economic
Reform in Ecuador, esp. chap. 7.
54. It is difficult to arrive at exact population figures given that census data are
limited. During the time period of this study, the only years for which reliable census
data are available are 1906 and 1922.
226 \ Notes to Pages 20—22

55. Clark, Redemptive Work, 120.

56. Eduardo Kingman has pointed out the importance of Quito’s directories as a
measure of the growth of consolidated concerns. See Eduardo Kingman Garcés, “Quito,
vida social y modificaciones urbanas,” in Enfoques y estudios históricos, ed. Aguilar et al.,
149. He points out that the five largest tailors in the city employed 121 journeymen while
the next nineteen had only 149.
57. The formation of the society has been well documented in histories o f Ecuador­
ian labor organization. See Manuel Chiriboga Alvear, Resumen histórico de la Sociedad
“Artística e Industrial del Pichincha," 1892—1917 (Quito: Encuadernación Nacionales, 1917).
58. Milton Luna Tamayo, “Orígenes del movimiento obrero de la sierra ecuatoriana:
el Centro Obrero Católico,” Cultura 9:26 (September-December 1986): 286—93.
59. Between 1914 and 1920, prices for basic foodstuffs rose dramatically. For exam­
ple, sugar prices rose 200 percent, flour prices increased 110 percent, potatoes doubled
in price, and the price of lard jumped 95 percent. See Alexei Páez Cordero, Los orígenes
de la izquierda ecuatoriana (Quito: Abya-Yala, 2001), 91.
60. For an introduction to Ecuadorian labor history, see Patricio Ycaza, Historia del
movimiento obrero ecuatoriano: de su génesis al Frente Popular (Quito: CEDIM E, 1984); and
Páez Cordero, Orígenes de la izquierda ecuatoriana. The 1922 massacre is treated in Pineo,
Social and Economic Reform in Ecuador, which also provides a context for the event by
considering the process of urbanization and development in the port city. For firsthand
accounts, see Jorge Carrera Andrade, El volcán y el colibrí: autobiografía (Quito: Corpo­
ración Editora Nacional, 1989); and J. Alejo Capelo, El crimen del y de noviembre de 1922
(Guayaquil: Litografía e Impr. de la Universidad de Guayaquil; Librería y distribuidora
Continental, 1983).
61. On the Julian Revolution, see Juan J. Paz y Miño Cepeda, Revolución juliana:
nación, ejército y bancocracia (Quito: Abya-Yala, 2000).
62. See Rodríguez, Search for Public Policy, chap.5, on the Kemmerer mission and
the Central Bank. See also Paul W. Drake, The Money Doctor in the Andes: The Kemmerer
Missions, 1923-1933 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1989), 125—74.
63. See Valeria Coronel, “A Revolution in Stages: Subaltern Politics, Nation-State
Formation, and the Origins o f Social Rights in Ecuador, 1834—1943" (PhD diss., New
York University, 2011).
64. The tradición features a detailed discussion o f a historical event, often inter­
rupted with a short contextual essay. For more on Palma, see one o f the many collec­
tions of his tradiciones as well as Isabelle Tauzin Castellanos, Las tradiciones peruanas
de Ricardo Palma: claves de una coherencia (Lima: Universidad Ricardo Palma, 1999); or
Estuardo Núñez, Ricardo Palma escritor continental: tras las huellas de Palma en Hispa­
noamérica (Lima: Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 1998).
65. Although the crónica or chronicle originated in newspapers, most o f these au­
thors published collected editions. See Alejandro Andrade Coello, Motivos nacionales
(crónicas quiteñas), vol. 2 (Quito: Imprenta de la Escuela de Artes y Oficios, 1927); José
Antonio Campos, Cosas de mi tierra (Guayaquil: Imprenta Garay, 1929); Alejandro An­
 Notes to Pages 25-27 / 227

drade Coello, Del Quito antiguo (Quito: Imprenta “Ecuador,” 1935); Modesto Chavez
Franco, Crónicas del Guayaquil antiguo (Guayaquil: Imprenta Municipal, 1930); Cristóbal
Gangotena y Jijón, Al margen de la historia: leyendas de frailes, picaros y caballeros (Quito:
Imprenta Nacional, 1924); J. Gabriel Pino Roca, Leyendas, tradiciones y páginas de historia
de Guayaquil (Guayaquil: Editorial Jouvin, 1930).

C h a p te r 2. M a p p in g th e C e n te r o f th e W orld

Epigraph: “Con el estudio de la Geografía los pueblos se animan, se despiertan, se desar­

rollan y mueven progresivamente, porque ella sola constituye hoy la ciencia de la vida:
la elevación de miras, como suele decirse, y el provecho pecuniario ¿qué son sino frutos
reales del conocimiento exacto de todo cuanto vemos y observamos en la superficie de
cualquier territorio de nuestro planeta?" Luis G. Tufiño, Servido Geográfico del Ejercito
Ecuatoriano y la única base práctica en ¡os estudios de la facultad de cienrias (proyecto) (Quito:
Imprenta y Encuadernación Nacionales, 1911), 2.

1. J. B. Harley, The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, ed. Paul
Laxton (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001). Besides seminal essays such
as “Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe,”
“Maps, Knowledge, and Power,” and “Deconstructing the Map,” the collection also in­
cludes J. H. Andrews’s critique of Harley’s methodology. For a consideration o f Harley’s
(mis)use of Foucaldian and Derridean concepts of textuality, see Barbara Belyea, “Im­
ages of Power: Derrida, Foucault, Harley,” Cartographica 29:2 (summer 1992): 1—9.
2. See Denis Wood with John Fels, The Power of Maps (New York: Guilford Press,
1992); and Denis Wood and John Fels, The Natures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of
the Natural World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008). See also Denis E. Cos­
grove, ed., Mappings (London: Reaktion Books, 2001); and Emanuela Casti, Reality as
Representation: The Semiotics of Cartography (Bergamo, Italy: Bergamo University Press—
Sestante, 2000). A n ongoing debate on the deconstruction of cartography can be found
in the University of Toronto’s eminent journal Cartographica, particularly the essays in
the special issues of spring 1993 (“ Introducing Cultural and Social Cartography”) and
autumn—winter 1998 (“Cartography and Statecraft”).
3. John Pickles, A History of Spaces: Cartographic Reason, Mapping, and the Geo-Coded
World (London: New York: Routledge, 2004).
4. Raymond B. Craib, Cartographic Mexico: A History of State Fixations and Fugitive
Landscapes (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004). See also Jordana Dym and
Karl Offen, eds., Mapping Latin America: A Cartographic Reader (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2011).
5. Kagan, with Marias, Urban Images of the Hispanic World.
6. Barbara Mundy, The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps
of the Relaciones Geográficas (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
7. The omniscient “G od ’s-eye view” of planar projections has been treated elo­
228 \ Notes to Pages 27-34

quently in Pickles, History of Spaces. For the encounter between European and Andean
cosmographic views, see Mignolo, Darker Side of the Renaissance, chaps. 5—6.
8. Brading has analyzed the development of a sense of differentiation between cre­
ole and peninsular Spanish citizens that began soon after colonization and deepened
as Spanish culture became more rooted in the American landscape. See D. A. Brading,
The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots, and the Liberal State, 1492-1867
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). A synthesis of these arguments can be
found in D. A. Brading, “Patriotism and the Nation in Colonial Spanish America,” in
Constructing Collective Identities & Shaping Public Spheres: Latin American Paths, ed. Luis
Roniger and Mario Sznajder (Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 1998), 13—45.
9. Kagan, with Marias, Urban Images in the Hispanic World, 129—31.
10. See Phelan, Kingdom of Quito, 177—95, on Mariana de Jesus.
11. Fernández-Salvador, “Images and Memory,” esp. chap. 3.
12. Pedro de Mercado, Historia de la Provincia del Nuevo Reino y Quito de la Compañía
de Jesus, vol. 3 (Bogotá: Biblioteca de la Provincia de Colombia, 1957).
13. On Cantuña’s chapel and the socioreligious significance of this somewhat apoc­
ryphal figure, see Susan Verdi Webster, “The Devil and the Dolorosa: History and Leg­
end in Quito’s Capilla de Cantuña,” The Americas 67:1 (July 2010): 1—30.
14. See Fernández-Salvador, “Images and Memory,” chap. 3, esp. 157—77.
15. See Safier, Measuring the New World; and Brading, First America, 422—28.
16. La Condamine’s orientalizing vision has been treated by numerous scholars.
See Safier, Measuring the New World; Poole, Vision, Race, and Modernity; and Cañizares-
Esguerra, “Postcolonialism avant la lettre?”
17. On Humboldt’s time in Ecuador, see Segundo E. Moreno Yáñez, Alexander von
Humboldt: diarios de viaje en la Audiencia de Quito, trans. Christiana Borchat de Moreno
(Quito: Occidental Exploration and Production, 2005). See also M ary Louise Pratt, Im­
perial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2008);
and Laura Dassow Walls, The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping
of America (Chicago: University o f Chicago Press, 2009).
18. On Quito during the Colombian period, see María Susana Vela Witt, El Departa­
mento del Sur en la Gran Colombia, 1822-1830 (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1999). The relevant laws
can be found in Cuerpo de leyes de la República de Colombia (Caracas: Valentin Espinal,
1840).
19. See Francisco Miranda Ribadeneira, La primera escuela politécnica del Ecuador:
estudio histórico e interpretación (Quito: Ediciones Feso, 1972); and Jorge Gómez R., Las
misiones pedagógicas alemanas y la educación en el Ecuador (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1993). A
firsthand account can be found in J. Gualberto Pérez, Recuerdo histórico de la Escuela
Politécnica de Quito (Quito: Tip. Prensa Católica, 1921).
20. Teodoro Wolf, Geográfica y geología del Ecuador (Leipzig: F. A . Brockhaus, 1892), 4.
zi. Pérez, Recuerdo histórico, 8.
22. Even though he was one of the most important architects and cartographers o
his day, no biographical study of Pérez exists. The most detailed information on his for­
mative years can be found in Miranda Ribadeneira, La primera escuela, esp. 56,109—14,
 Notes to Pages 35—41 / 229

352—53 • A. somewhat fanciful portrait of his ironic sense of humor can be found in A n­
drade Coello, Del Quito antiguo.
23. El Municipio 3:36 (October 10,1887): n.p.
24. Ibid. The original quotation is “la oposición de la mayor parte de los dueños de
casa, que no permitían, se tomasen las medidas.”
25. El Municipio 3:37 (October 28,1887): n.p.
26. El Municipio 5:78 (October 30,1889): n.p.; 13:67 (December 31,1897): 532—33.
27. For an introduction to the literature on this topic, see Hobsbawm and Ranger,
Invention of Tradition; and Nora, Realms of Memory.
28. On cartographic commodification, see Catherine Delano-Smith, “The Map
as Commodity,” in Approaches and Challenges in a Worldwide History of Cartography, ed.
David Woodward, Catherine Delano-Smith, and Cordell D. K. Yee (Barcelona: Insti­
tut Cartogràfic de Catalunya, 2000). See also James R. Akerman, “Twentieth-Century
American Road Maps and the Making of a National Motorized Space,” in Cartographies
of Travel and Navigation, ed. James R. Akerman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2006), 151—206.
29. On Peru, see de la Cadena, Indigenous Mestizos; and Poole, Vision, Race, and Mo­
dernity. For Mexico, see Magali M. Carrera, “From Royal Subject to Citizen: The Ter­
ritory of the Body in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Mexican Visual Practices,”
in Images of Power: Iconography, Culture and the State in Latin America, ed. Jens Ander-
mann and William Rowe (New York: Berghahn Books, 2005), 17—35; Craib, Cartographic
Mexico; and Mauricio Tenorio Trillo, Mexico at the World’s Fairs: Crafting a Modern
Nation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). For a comparative example, see
Zeynep Çelik, Displaying the Orient: Architecture of Islam at Nineteenth-Century World’s
Fairs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
30. Betty Salazar Ponce, “De hija a hermana . . . in Ecuador-España: historia y per­
spectiva, ed. M aría Elena Porras and Pedro Calvo-Sotelo (Quito: Embajada de España,
2001), 152. See also La République de l’Équateur et sa participation à la Exposition Universelle
de 1900 (Paris: Imprimerie du “Correo de Paris,” 1900).
31. Brooke Larson, Trials of Nation Making: Liberalism, Race, and Ethnicity in the A n­
des, 1810—1910 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 138—39.
32. Diario de Avisos, El Ecuador en Chicago (New York: A. E. Chasmar, 1894).
33. Higley prim arily worked for American businesses across Latin America, even­
tually settling in Peru. See H. G. Higley, Map of the Mosquito Shore, Nicaragua, Central
America (New York: G. W. and C. B. Colton & Co., 1894); and H. G. Higley, Plano pan­
orámico de la ciudad de Guayaquil (Guayaquil, 1899).
34. Walter William Ristow, American Maps and Mapmakers: Commençai Cartography
in the Nineteenth Century (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1985).
35. Mission du Service Géographique de VArmée pour la mesure d’un arc de méridien équa­
torial en Amérique du Sud sous le controle scientifique de l'Académie des Sciences, 1899—1906,
multiple vols. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1910—1922).
36. Vacas Galindo’s conception o f the history of Ecuadorian territoriality is sum ­
marized in his first book, La integridad territorial del Ecuador (Quito: Tipografía y en-
230 \ Notes to Pages 4 1-5 1

cuadernación Salesiana, 1905). See also Manifesto de la Junta Patriótica Nacional (Quito:
Imprenta y encuadernación nacionales, 1910). For more about the history of the study of
territorial rights, see Adam Szászdi, “The Historiography of the Republic of Ecuador,"
Hispanic American Historical Review 44:4 (November 1964): 537—43.
3 7 . “Acta de la primera Junta preparatoria,” Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Quito
1:1 (1911): 66—67; “El Registro Civil,” Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Quito 1:1 (1911):
74 —7 5 ; “La Región Oriental,” Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Quito 1:1 (1911): 77—78.
38. Luis G. Tufiño, Servicio Geográfico del Ejercito Ecuatoriano y la única base práctica
en ¡os estudios de la facultad de ciencias (proyecto) (Quito: Imprenta y Encuadernación Na­
cionales, 1911), 1—4 ,16 —26.
39. “Informe del Secretario General de la Sociedad Geográfica de Quito, Señor
Francisco Talbot, presentado al finalizar el primer año social de 1910 a 1911,” Boletín de la
Sociedad Geográfica de Quito 1:1 (1911): 92—98.
40. Tenorio notes the lack of destruction in the planning o f the Porfirian capital,
which stands in stark constrast to the Western European example. Instead, he describes
the expansion o f the city as a process o f colonizing the environs and underscores the
particularly racist imagination behind the plan and its discrediting of the existing in­
habitants, that is, peasants. See Tenorio Trillo, “1910 Mexico City,” 86.
41. Carrera Andrade, El volcán y el colibrí, 21—22.
42. Archivo Nacional del Ecuador (hereafter ANE): Civiles, i° El Sagrario X X V III
(July 28,1909).
43. Jose D. Laso, Quito a la vista (Quito: J. D. Laso and J. R. Cruz, 1911); and Quito a
la vista, segunda entrega (Quito: J. D. Laso and J. R.Cruz, 1912).
44. Angel Emilio Hidalgo and Maria Elena Bedoya, “Guayaquil y Quito: la imagen
deseada, 1910—1930,” Boletín de la Biblioteca Municipal de Guayaquil 87 (2003): 169—79.
45. Humberto Peña Orejuela, Guia de Bolsillo de Quito (Quito: Talleres Tipográficos
Nacionales, 1920). Subsequent editions appeared throughout the 1920s and 1930s, with
the last coming out in 1940.
46. J. Enrique Ribadeneira and Luis Cornelio Diaz V., Cien años de legislación militar,
1830—1930 (Quito: Editorial Gutenberg, 1930), 27.
47. Froilán Holguín Balcázar, Plano comercial de Quito (Quito, 1920). For more on
Holguin’s life, see Froilán Holguin Balcázar, Mi capricho de hacerme hombre (Guayaquil:
Editorial Senefelder, 1936), esp. 15—22, where he details his first journey to Guayaquil.
48. Gaceta Municipal 10:94 (February 4,1922): 11—12.
49. This ordinance also echoes the similar performance of gratitude displayed by
the municipality when presenting Gualberto Pérez with a medal upon its acceptance of
his map of the city in 1888.
50. For more on the 1922 celebrations, see Ernesto Capello, “ The City as Anachro­
nism: Remembering Quito in the Liberal Era” (MA thesis, University of Texas at Aus­
tin, 2001), 63—72.
51. See Luís T. Paz y Miño, Apuntaciones para una geografía urbana de Quito (Mexico
City: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, i960); Guía para la historia de
 Notes to Pages 52—62 / 231

la cartografía ecuatoriana: Primera Exposición Geográfica nacional (Quito: Imprenta del

Ministerio del Tesoro, 1948).
52. El Instituto Geográfico Militar a través de la historia (Quito: Instituto Geográfico
Militar, 2002), 31-32, 42-47.
53. Ibid., 47- 55-
54. See Plano de la ciudad de Quito levantado por el Servicio Geográfico Militar y obse­
quiado al muy I. Concejo Municipal (Quito: Servicio Geográfico Militar, 1932), also repro­
duced in El Instituto Geográfico Militar, 55.
55. Plano de la ciudad de Quito hecho para actividad (Quito: Fotolitografía Editorial
Chimborazo, 1931).
56. El Instituto Geográfico Militar, 59.
57. Holguin also crafted views of Guayaquil and Cuenca during the same year.
58. “Informe del Secretario General de la Sociedad Geográfica de Quito.”
59. A. I. Chiriboga N. and Georges Perrier, Las misiones científicas francesas en el
Ecuador: 1735—2744; 1899—1906 (Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1936), esp. iíi—ix.
60. Humberto Vera H., Equator: History and Geography of the Equatorial Monument,
trans. Adriana Vera S. (Quito: Ediciones Ecuador, 1990), 19-20.

C h a p t e r 3. H i s p a n i s m o

Epigraph: Julio [Giulio] Aristide Sartorio, “ La ciudad de Quito es un Joyero,” Alas, De­
cember 1934, 21. Sartorio was an Italian painter who visited Quito in 1924. The original
text reads, “La ciudad de Quito es un joyero precioso y germen espiritual, testigo de los
lazos que unen al Ecuador con la latinidad renaciente. Quito, sin arte gótico, que nació
para el futuro, no se deje defraudar jamás por la presionante modernidad y conserve
para el porvenir puro de la América Latina la forma y el alma con el cual nació.”

1. Extensive discussions of Quitos primitive services can be found in the travel­

ogues of Ernest Charton, Ida Pfeiffer, Albert Franklin, and others. For a summary, see
Jill Fitzell, “ Teorizando la diferencia en los Andes del Ecuador: viajeros europeos, la
ciencia del exotismo y las imágenes de los indios,” in Imágenes e imagineros: representacio­
nes de los indígenas ecuatorianos, siglos X IX y XX, ed. Blanca Juratorio (Quito: FLACSO,
1994). See also Poole, Vision, Race, and Modernity.
2. The classic work on the Spanish contribution to Hispanism is Frederick Pike’s
Hispanismo, 1898-1936: Spanish Conservatives and Liberals and Their Relations with Spanish
America (South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1971), while an overview of
activities designed to foster communication can be found in Isidro Sepulveda Muñoz,
“Medio siglo de asociacionismo americanista español 1885—1936,” in Espacio, Tiempo y
Forma 4 (1991): 271—290. A n excellent discussion of the multifaceted nature of Spanish
intellectual production during the fin-de-siglo can be found in Javier Varela’s La novela
en España: los intelectuales y el problema español (Madrid: Taurus, 1999). Christopher
Schmidt-Nowara has provided a new framework for understanding Spanish imperial
232 \ Notes to Pages 62—63

policy in the nineteenth-century Caribbean through the lens of national history writ­
ing in The Conquest of History: Spanish Colonialism and National Histories in the Nineteenth
Century (Pittsburgh: University o f Pittsburgh Press, 2006). For Mexican Hispanism, see
Ricardo Pérez Montfort, Hispanismo y Falange: los sueños imperiales de la derecha española
(Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1992). A full-length study of Ecuadorian
Hispanism has yet to be developed. A n introductory sketch can be found in Guillermo
Bustos, “El Hispanismo en el Ecuador,” in Ecuador-España, ed. Porras and Calvo-Sotelo.
See also Ernesto Capello, “Hispanismo casero: la invención del Quito híspano,” in Proce-
soS: revista ecuatoriana de historia 20 (fall 2003—spring 2004); and Guillermo Bustos, “La
hispanización de la memoria pública en el cuarto centenario de fundación de Quito,”
in Etnicidad y poder en los países andinos, ed. Christian Büschges, Guillermo Bustos, and
Olaf Kaltmeier (Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 2007), 111—34.
3. On the ethnic composition of the city center, see Carrion, Quito: crisis y política
urbana; Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros; and Espinosa Apolo, Mestizaje.
4. Cañizares-Esguerra presents an intriguing analysis of European images of the
barbaric American wilderness in his comparison of Spanish and Puritan attitudes
toward a landscape peopled with demons and satanic forces. See Jorge Cañizares-
Esguerra, Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic, 1550—1700 (Stanford, CA: Stan­
ford University Press, 2006). Other extensive discussions of this religious and cultural
encounter include Brading, First America; Patricia Seed, Ceremonies of Possession in Eu­
rope’s Conquest of the New World, 1492—1640 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995); Serge Gruzinski, Images at War: Mexico from Columbus to Blade Runner (1492—2019),
trans. Heather MacLean (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001); Richard Morse,
“Cities as People,” in Rethinking the Latin American City, ed. Morse and Hardoy, 3-19;
and John Leddy Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970).
5. See Kenneth R. Mills, Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extir­
pation, 1640—1750 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997).
6. José Joaquín Olmedo, Obra poética (Quito: Editorial Casa de la Cultura Ecuato­
riana, 1971), 78.
7. Although the indigenous coerced labor system known as the mita was repealed
during the Cortes, Olmedos were some of the earliest pleas for its abolition, which were
met with skepticism. For more on his time in Cádiz, see Luis Andrade Reimers, Olmedo:
el estadista (Quito: Editorial Ediguias, 1993), 48-50.
8. For example, consider Huayna Capac’s opening speech: “¡Guerra al usurpador!
— ¿Qué le debemos? / ¿luces, costumbres, religión o leyes . . . ? / ¡Si ellos fueron estúpi­
dos, viciosos, / feroces y por fin supersticiosos! / ¿Qué religión? ¿la de Jesús? . . . ¡Blas­
femos! / Sangre, plomo veloz, cadenas fueron / Los sacramentos santos que trajeron. /
¡Oh religión! ¡oh fuente pura y santa / de amor y de consuelo para el hombre! / ¡cuántos
males se hicieron en tu nombre!” Olmedo, Obra poética, 165.
9. Rodríguez, Emergence of Spanish America.
10. A clear summary of the events surrounding Flores’s attempted mission can be
 Notes to Pages 64—66 / 233

found in Jorge W. Villacres Moscoso, Historia diplomática de la República del Ecuador

(Guayaquil: Imprenta de la Universidad de Guayaquil, 1971), 2:222—51, For a more in-
depth analysis of Flores’s political career and predilection toward monarchism in the
1840s, see Mark J. Van Aken, King of the Night: Juan José Flores and Ecuador, 1824—1864
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).
11. Aimer Granados García, “Congresos e intelectuales en los inicios de un proyecto
y de una conciencia continental latinoamericana, 1826—1860,” in Construcción de las
identidades latinoamericanas: ensayos de historia intelectual (siglos XIX y XX), ed. Aim er
Granados García and Carlos Marichal (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, Centro de
Estudios Históricos, 2004).
12. Alonso Zamora Vicente, La Real Academia Española (Madrid: Espasa Calpe,
S.A., 1999), 345-
13. Pike, Hispanismo, 1898-1936, 33.
14. Zamora, La Real Academia, 345—48.
15. For more on Unión Iberoamericano, see Muñoz, “Medio siglo," 273—78; and
Varela, La novela en España. Ecuador’s contribution to the 1892 quadricentennial ex­
position is treated in Salazar, “De hija a hermana,” in Ecuador-España, ed. Porras and
Calvo-Sotelo, 156—59.
16. On regionalism and transcendent national histories, see Josep M aria Fradera,
Cultura nacional en una societat dividida: patriotisme i cultura a Catalunya (1838—1868)
(Barcelona: Curial, 1992). See also Varela, La novela en España; and Schmidt-Nowara,
Conquest of History.
17. Pike, Hispanismo, 1898-1936, 67—68.
18. In the original, “fruto valioso del esfuerzo civilizador y cristiano de la raza his­
pana.” Quoted in Ascensión Martínez Riaza, “El Perú y España durante el oncenio:
el hispanismo en el discurso oficial y en las manifestaciones simbólicas (1919—1930),”
Histórica 18:2 (December 1994): 349.
19. The exposition had been planned since 1905 and was initially meant to be a
world’s fair, but it was scaled down to just Spanish America by 1908 and later expanded
to include the “other” Iberia, that is, Portugal and Brazil. A variety of factors, largely
economic, kept the exposition on the drawing board for another two decades. There
were plazas dedicated to Spain and another to the Americas, which housed the colo­
nial art exhibit. National palaces existed for all the Spanish American republics. See
Eduardo Rodriguez Bernal, Historia de la Exposición Ibero-Americana de Sevilla de 1929
(Seville: Ayuntamiento de Sevilla, 1994); and Tenorio Trillo, Mexico at the World’s Fairs,
220—40. For a discussion o f the exposition as a catalyst for anti-Spanish sentiment, see
Pérez Montfort, Hispanismo y Falange, 61—64.
2 0 . Raanan Rein, “Francoist Spain and Latin America, 19 3 6 —19 5 3 ,” in Fascism Outside
Europe: The European Impulse against Domestic Conditions in the Diffusion of Global Fascism,
ed. Stein Ugelvik Larsen (Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs, 2 0 0 1) ; Nicolás Cárde­
nas and Mauricio Tenorio, “Mexico 19 2 0 S -19 4 0 S : Revolutionary Government, Reaction­
ary Politcs,” in Fascism Outside Europe, ed. Larsen; Pérez Montfort, Hispanismo y Falange.
234 \ Notes to Pages 66—68

21. The growing number of these studies also found resonance in Latin America.
For example, the Spanish scholar M. Romera Navarro published a book in 1917 detailing
the history and growth of North American Hispanist studies. See M. Romera Navarro,
El hispanismo en Norte-Ame'rica: exposición y crítica de su aspecto literario (Madrid: Rena­
cimiento, 1917).
22. In the early work Our America, for instance, he conceives o f the new American
man as being characterized by multiplicity and creativity. However, he soon began to
find even more creativity south of the border. For a good discussion of this aspect of his
thought, and the transition to Hispanophilia, see Ricardo Fernández Borchart, Waldo
Frank: un puente entre las dos Américas (Coruña, Spain: Universidade da Coruña, 1997),
22—37.
23. Despite Frank’s contribution to the widening of the American audience for Latin
American literature, Irene Rostagno notes that his literary sympathy with the classical
authors of the nineteenth and early twentieth century and consequent disdain for the
more avant-garde writings of the early vanguardia “reinforced the prevailing notion of
Latin American literature as provincial, local color writing.” Irene Rostagno, Searching
for Recognition: The Promotion of Latin American Literature in the United States (Westport,
CT: Greenwood Press, 1997), 15. Although Rostagno is correct, Frank’s regard for the
romantic tradition should be viewed as an outgrowth of a strong tradition of hispanistas
revering provincial life for its own sake, from Clarín to Güiraldes to Gálvez, and not
merely as a reactionary attitude toward contemporary literature.
24. Jeane Delaney, “The Discovery of Spain: The Hispanismo of Manuel Gálvez,”
in Bridging the Atlantic: Toward a Reassessment of Iberian and Latin American Cultural
Ties, ed. M arina Pérez de Mendiola (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996),
74- 79-
25. See “A los escritores ecuatorianos," Unión Iberoamericana, February 10,1888,16,
about the library; and “La Unión Iberoamericana,” Unión Iberoamericana, January i,
1888, 4, about their vision of regional conflicts. See “Tratado de comercio entre España
y el Ecuador,” Unión Iberoamericana, March 15,1888, 22—23, concerning the group’s ef­
forts toward securing the treaty. See “ Tratados suscritos entre el Ecuador y España,
1840-2001,” in Ecuador-España, ed. Porras and Calvo-Sotelo, 250, regarding the signing
of the protocol to secure such a treaty.
26. Good studies o f González Suárez include Enrique Ayala Mora, “Introduc­
ción,” in Federico González Suárez: la polémica sobre el estado laico, ed. Enrique Ayala Mora
(Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, 1980); and Castillo Illingworth, La iglesia y la
revolución liberal.
27. See Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, Epistolario, multiple vols. (Madrid: Fundación
Universitaria Española, 1981—1989), esp. 6:215, 343; 7:289, 335; and 19:293, 541.
28. See Varela, La novela en España, 31, for a discussion of how Menéndez Pelayo in­
herited these values from his early teachers, especially Joaquim Rubió, and also 50-54,
for a greater explication of Menéndez Pelayo’s providential philosophy. For González
Suárez, see Gabriel Cevallos García, La historia en el Ecuador, in Reflexiones sobre la his-
 Notes to Pages 68-72 / 235

toria del Ecuador, primera parte (Quito: Ediciones del Banco Central del Ecuador, 1987),
188-89.
29. As he put it in the introduction to the Historia general, “La historia, como en­
señanza moral, es una verdadera ciencia, que tiene un objeto nobilísimo, cual es hacer
palpar á los hombres el gobierno de la Providencia divina en las sociedades humanas.”
See Federico González Suárez, Historia general de la República del Ecuador (rpt., Quito:
Edit. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1969), 1:22.
30. González Suárez, Historia general, 1:25.
31. His only discussion o f independence came in various speeches and pamphlets
scattered throughout the era. In these, he stressed that the organic growth of the Ecua­
dorian nation led to a necessary separation from Spain, thus downplaying the abrupt­
ness of the break. For a good example o f these ideas, see “Discurso pronunciado el día 10
de agosto de 1881 en la Catedral de Quito,” in Federico González Suárez, Obras oratorias
(Quito: A YM ESA , 1992), 193—211.
32. González Suárez, Historia general, 1:1049—102.
33. Federico González Suárez, Historia general de la República del Ecuador, vol. 2 (rpt.,
Quito: Edit. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1970). The key passages are in chap. 10 of
Tomo IV.
34. Reginaldo M. Duranti, La veracidad del Señor Doctor Don Federico González Suárez
en orden a ciertos hechos referidos en el Tomo IV de su Historia general (Santo Domingo:
privately printed, 1894), v, 37—43. See also Pedro Schumacher, Teocrada o demoniocracia?
Cristo o Lucifer? Quién vencerá? Quién como Dios! 2nd ed. (Freiburg, Germany: B. Herder,
1897).
35. See “Defensa de mi criterio histórico,” ín González Suárez, Historia general,
vol. 3.
36. “ De la actitud que conviene a los católicos seglares en el Ecuador en las
circunstancias presentes” (1908), in Homenaje del Comité Central a la memoria del
Excmo. Y Rvdmo. Sr. Dr. Dn. Federico González Suárez, M eritisimo Arzobispo de Quito
en el primer centenario de su nacimiento (Quito: Imprenta de la Universidad Central,
1944)-
37. Luna Tamayo, “Orígenes del movimiento obrero,” 289—92.
38. Szászdi, “Historiography of the Republic,” 514—15.
39. Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, “ Examen crítico de la veracidad de la Historia del Reino
de Quito del P. Juan de Velasco de la Compañía de Jesús," in Boletín de la Sociedad Ecu­
atoriana de Estudios Históricos Américanos 1:1 (June—July 1919): 33—63. See also Pío Jara-
millo Alvarado, El indio ecuatoriano, 3rd ed. (Quito: Talleres Gráficos del Estado, 1936);
Szászdi, “ Historiography of the Republic,” 506—11.
40. Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, Política conservadora, vol. 1 (Riobamba: La Buena
Prensa del Chimborazo, 1929), 128—29.
41. Ibid., 1:147.
42. Julio Tobar Donoso, Catolicismo social (Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1936); Gar­
cía Moreno y la instrucción pública (Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1940); Las relaciones en-
236 \ Notes to Pages 72—76

tre la iglesia y el estado Ecuatoriano: resumen histórico (Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1938);
Monografías históricas (Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1938).
43. Isaac Barrera, Relación de las fiestas del primer centenario de la batalla de Pichincha,
1822—1922 (Quito: Talleres Tipográficos Nacionales, 1922),
44. Archivo Gangotena Jijón, Quito (hereafter AGJ), 07-04, Notas 1 (G) Varios años,
Quito, Currículo vitae; AGJ/Q, 08-18, Epist. 1 Varios Siglo X X , June 10,1929.
45. Gangotena y Jijón, Al margen de la historia. See also Ernesto Capello, “City,
Chronicle, Chronotope: Re-Constructing and Writing Old Quito,” Journal of Latin
American Urban Studies 6 (fall 2004): 41—43.
46. González Suárez, Historia general, vol. 3, 401—2.
47. No biography of Navarro exists, but useful sketches can be found in Centro de
Estudios Pedagógicos e Hispanoamericanos de Panama, Summary of Ten Lectures on
Ecuadorian Art by José Gabriel Navarro (Panamá: Centro de Estudios, 1935); and in Jorge
Salvador Lara’s contribution to José Gabriel Navarro, Estudios históricos (Quito: Grupo
Aymesa, 1995).
48. For example, see José Gabriel Navarro, La escultura en el Ecuador (siglos XVI al
XVIII) (Madrid: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, 1929), esp. 4, or his
essay on the works included in the 1930 Madrid exhibition devoted to Spanish art in the
Indies. See Sociedad Española de Amigos del Arte, Aportación al estudio de la cultura es­
pañola en las Indias: catálogo general ilustrado de la Exposición (Madrid: ESPASA-CALPE,
1930).
49. Sociedad Española, Aportación al estudio de la cultura española, 61—62.
50. Susan Webster has noted substantial indigenous influence on the decorative as­
pects of many of Quito’s main churches, especially in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-
century temples like El Sagrario, Guápulo, and La Compañía. She argues that this arose
from the fact that Spanish overseers paid less attention to façade and columnar decora­
tion. See Webster, Arquitectura y empres, 49.
51. Schmidt-Nowara, Conquest of History, 130—60, esp. 134—35,150—54.
52. The original reads “edificios espléndidos, conventos e iglesias de rara magnifi­
cencia, cuadros y estatuas, mobiliario civil y religioso en cantidad formidable, joyas de
delicada orfebrería, etc.. . . era un testigo mudo que abonaba en [la defensa de España].”
José Gabriel Navarro, “El Estado Actual de los Estudios Históricos en el Ecuador y su
importancia para la historia de España,” in Navarro, Estudio históricos, 47.
53. José Gabriel Navarro, “El municipio de América durante la asistencia de Es­
paña,” in Navarro, Estudios históricos, 177—82.
54. The original quotations are “la unión de los Quiteños en el culto al pasado” and
“Quito se perpetuará por su peregrina belleza en la devoción del extranjero curioso y
será siempre un centro de turismo.” José Gabriel Navarro, “De cómo Quito sería siempre
un centro de turismo,” El comercio, August 11,19 26 ,3.
55. Juan de Dios Navas E. and Julio Tobar Donoso, Discursos de ingreso y recepción en
la Academia Nacional de Historia el 6 de enero de 1927 (Quito: Tipográfica de la “Prensa
Católica,” 1927), 41-42.
56. See Capello, “City as Anachronism,” 52—72.
 Notes to Pages 78—82 / 237

57. Caceta municipal, 16:40 (June 30,1931): 468-70.

58. José Rumazo González, “Las fundaciones de Santiago y San Francisco de
Quito,” Caceta municipal 17:49 (March 31,1932): n.p.
59. Gaceta municipal, 19:71 (January 31,1934): 23.
60. Gaceta municipal 19:73 (March 31,1934): 1 11—4.
61. See Ernesto Capello, “Arquivo: Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, ‘La fecha de fundación
de Quito,'” Brújula 5:1 (December 2006): 37—43, concerning the controversy over the
date of the city’s founding. See also Bustos, “La hispanízación,” 113—16.
62. The original reads “la fundación de la ciudad de Quito ha de considerarse como
la iniciación y aún el establecimiento de la nacionalidad ecuatoriana.” “Solemnizase el
cuarto centenario de la fundación de Quito,” El comercio, August 28,1934,16.
63. A summary of the month’s events can be found in “Programa de festejos acor­
dados por el Concejo municipal en conmemoración del IV centenario de fundación es­
pañola d ’ Quito,” E¡ comercio, December 6 ,19 34 ,3—5. For a further description o f the art
exhibit, see Rosaura E. Galarza H., “Exposición Artística de los Conventos de Quito,”
Alas, December 1934,52—53.
64. With the exception o f two volumes in the late 1930s devoted to González Suárez,
whose strong historiographical association with Hispanism has already been noted,
the series has reproduced data only from Quito’s colonial period. The two volumes on
González Suárez were Nicolas Jiménez’s biography, published in 1936, and González
Suárez’s Defensa de mi criterio histórico (1937).
65. See Gaceta municipal 19:77 (August 28,1934).
66. Besides the focus on the colonial era, the selection of photographs included por­
traits of many of the contributors to the volume but no other representation o f Quito’s
modern ways.
67. Only a portrait of the eighteenth-century critic of the crown, Eugenio Espejo,
represents any form o f independence sentiment.
68. Gaceta municipal 19:79 (October—December 1934): 264.
69. José Gabriel Navarro, “Quito,” El comercio, December 6,1934, 3—7.
70. “A sí como la ciudad tiene dos aspectos, el uno colonial, que se observa de pre­
ferencia en el corazón de la urbe, en las zonas centrales y otro, el moderno que sonríe
especialmente en las ciudadelas y se extiende por el norte de Quito, cabe considerar,
dentro de las mismas calles, lugares, lo que fue la ciudad antigua y cual es su caracterís­
tica actual.” “Los grabados d ’este número,” El comercio, December 6 ,1934,10.
71. “Quito Cuadricentenario, cuatro estilos arquitectónicos,” El comercio, December
6,1934,16.
72. Bustos, “La hispanízación,” 126—28.
73. Ibid., 116.
74. See Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, Sebastián de Benalcázar, 3 vols. (Quito: Corporación
de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1983). Only the first volume was published in 1936. Jijón had
not yet completed the third and final volume when he died in 1950.
75. “El Ilustre Municipio de Quito ha creado la ‘Orden de Caballeros de Quito,”’ El
comercio, November 15,1942,17.
238 \ Notes to Pages 82-89

76. There is an ironic nature to this statue's history, as it was erected on May 2 4 , that
is, the anniversary of Quito’s liberation from the Spanish. See Gonzalo Zaldumbide,
“ Sebastián de Benalcázar,” in Zaldumbide, Significado de España en América, ensayos
(Quito: Letramía, 2002), 115—29.
77. The institute’s Web site can be accessed at http://iech.tripod.com.
78. Carlos Jaramillo Abarca, “Quito, 468 años de historia,” El comercio, December
7, 2002, A5.
79. “Ecuador/Quito," LOC/PP, NYWTS-Subj/Geog.
80. Benjamín Gento Sanz, Guia del turista en la iglesia y convento de San Francisco de
Quito (Quito: Imprenta Americana, 1940).
81. Gaceta municipal 26:97 (August 10,1940): 7.
82. J. M. González de Valcárcel, Restauración monumental y “puesta en valor" de las
ciudades americanas (Architectural Conservation and Enhancement of Historic Towns in
America) (Barcelona: Editorial Blume, 1977).

C h a p t e r 4 . G o v e r n a n c e a n d t h e S o v e r e ig n C a b i l d o

1.The original quote is “esta capital ha sido muy desatendida.” “Carlos Freire Z. al
Presidente del Concejo,” El municipio 12:1 (December 20,1895): 1—2.
2. Achig, El proceso urbano de Quito; Carrión, Quito: crisis y política urbana.
3. Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros.
4. de la Cadena, Indigenous Mestizos; Overmyer-Velázquez, Visions of the Emerald
City.
5. See Herzog, Defining Nations, for a genealogy of kinship networks across the
Quito region.
6. On cabildo politics, see Pilar Ponce Leiva, Certeza ante la incertidumbre: élite y ca­
bildo de Quito en el siglo X V II (Quito: Abya-Yala, 1998), esp. 364—74, 430—31. See also
Minchom, People of Quito, 35—37, on the cabildos participation in the local elite’s en­
croachment on indigenous common lands in the eighteenth century.
7. Federica Morelli, “Las reformas en Quito: la redistribución del poder y la conso­
lidación de la jurisdicción municipal (1765-1809),’’ in Jahrbuch fü r Geschichte von Staat,
Wirtschaft und Gessellschaft Lateinamerikas, no. 34 (1997): 193-206.
8. Enrique Ayala Mora, “El municipio en el siglo X IX ," in ProcesoS: revista ecuato­
riana de historia, no. 1 (1991): 72. For a discussion of the role of the municipality in and
after independence, see Federica Morelli, Territorio 0 nazione: riforma e dissoluzione dello
spazio imperiale in Ecuador, 1765-1830 (Soveria Mannelli, Italy: Rubbetino Editore, 2001),
chap. 5. This situation was not unique to Quito, as has been noted in Guerra, Moderni­
dad e independencias.
9. Ayala Mora, “ El municipio," 80—81.
10. “Ley de régimen municipal —1878,” in Colección de leyes, ordenanzas y contratos
(Guayaquil: Imprenta Americana, 1890), 24—27.
11. Ibid., 28.
12. See Pineo, Social and Economic Reform, chap. 4.
 Notes to Pages 89—93 / 239

13. See Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros.

14. “Varios asuntos,” El municipio 3:30 (July 15,1887): n.p.
15. “Decreto Legislativo,” El municipio 6:98 (January 17,1891): n.p.
16. “Actas,” El municipio 2:24 (February 23,1887): n.p.
17. “Ordenanzas,” E¡ municipio 9:145 (May 27,1893): 3—4.
18. “Actas,” El municipio 9:150 (August 29,1893): 6.
19. “Actas,” El municipio 10:175 (December 7,1894): 8.
20. “Solicitud presentada por los dueños de las fábricas de jabón para que no se lleve
á efecto la ordenanza aludida,” El municipio 9:134 (January 13,1893): 4—5.
21. “Informe de Manuel Jijón B., 9 enero 1900,” El municipio 16:118 (February 28,
1900): 984.
22. Taxes on liquor introduced into the city were lower than those on liquor pro­
duced within the city. Advocates for the aguardiente producers of these two regions were
able to defeat the measure, claiming that it would lead to double taxation. See “Actas,”
El municipio 2:23 (January 15,1887): n.p.
23. As Paz y Miño put it, “se ve que se compone de las dos palabras siguientes: trans
que significa mas allá, y vía camino. Tranvía es, pues, un camino que no reconoce lím i­
tes.” See “Actas —9 febrero 1889,” El municipio 5:70 (May 24,1889): n.p.
24. “Informe del Jefe Político,” El municipio 5:68 (April 27,1889): n.p.
25. Members of the Concejo Municipal elected the council’s president for a period
of six months. Andrade Marin received only a single vote, presumably his own, in the
1890 election. “Acta de Instalación,” El municipio 4:64 (February 12,1889): n.p.
26. “Ordenanza,” El municipio 6:97 (December 30,1890): n.p. This included S/.3,ooo
for the marketplace, S/.i,6g6 to pay for the importation of a manual handcart from the
United States as the first step in constructing urban trams, another S/.i,ooo for debts,
and S/.2,ooo for public lighting.
27. As of 1883, the firm of Vinuesa and Ontaneda was to be given preferential treat­
ment in the installation o f electric lighting. Their outrageous cost and lack of efficiency
in contacting the m unicipality about changes led the council to complain that they
represented an obstacle to progress. This led to pleas to eliminate the firm’s privileged
bargaining position. See, e.g., “Varios asuntos,” El municipio 3:30 (July 15,1887): n.p.
28. “Actas —6 julio 1887,” El municipio 3:34 (September 10,1887): n.p.
29. Dietz was the premier U.S. manufacturer of kerosene lamps throughout the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. See Robert Erwin Dietz, A Leaffrom the Past (New
York: R. E. Dietz Company, 1913).
30. For the transition from candle to gas to electrical lighting, see Wolfgang Schivel-
busch, Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century, trans.
Angela Davies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 50—69.
31. The original reads “ Nuestro pueblo es pobre y no hay que molestarle con ese lujo
de contribuciones. Más tarde, cuando el invento esté perfeccionado, de suyo se ha de
venir á nuestro suelo, sin necesidad de lanzarnos al campo de las conjeturas.” “Actas —5
julio 1888,” El municipio 4:54 (August 10,1888), n.p.
32. “Actas —5 julio 1888,” n.p.
240 \ Notes to Pages 94-97

33. “Ordenanza —Abril 26,1892," El municipio 8:122 (May 5,1892): n.p.

34. “Informe del Jefe Político al Concejo Cantonal de Quito —1894," El municipio
10:161 (February 28,1894): 8.
35. Linda Rodriguez has described the impact of Liberal fiscal decentralization on
national finances, noting its long-term negative effects, which resulted from wasteful
spending and the stagnation of many projects due to a lack of effective oversight. Al­
though Rodriguez points out the importance of local interests in shaping this policy, she
does not identify the degree to which this policy bolstered municipal power throughout
the country. See Rodriguez, Search for Public Policy, 88—117.
36. See Clark, Redemptive Work.
yj. “Plaza de mercado,” El municipio 13:45 (May 18,1897): 353.
38. See the issues of El municipio from 12:1 (December 20,1895) to 12:5 (January 17,
1896) for these changes. An additional attempt to alter the volume number from twelve
to one appeared in the January 17,1896, edition, a change that did not stick.
39. “Variedades,” El municipio 12:12 (March 14,1896): 73.
40. For Pérez, see “Patriotismo,” El municipio 12:7 (January 31,1896): 33—34. For Na­
ranjo, see “Variedades,” El municipio 12:12 (March 14,1896): 73.
41. “Ordenanza,” El municipio 12:4 (January 10,1896): 13.
42. “Actas —15 April 1896,” El municipio 12:17 (May 13,1896): 111.
43. “Oficio de RE Patiño a Eloy Alfaro, 19 septiembre 1896,” El municipio 12:26 (Oc­
tober 3,1896): 183; “Actas —26 noviembre 1896," El municipio 12:32 (December 12,1896):
236-37.
44. “Plaza de Mercado,” El municipio 13:45 (May 18,1897): 352.
45. “Ordenanza para vender terrenos municipales,” El municipio 13:56 (September
17,1897): 431- 34-
46. Mario Vásconez, Andrea Carrión, Ana María Goetschel, and Nancy Sánchez,
Breve historia de los servicios en la ciudad de Quito (Quito: CIUDAD, 1997), 51—53.
47. “Ordenanza,” El municipio 13:51 (August 14,1897): 395—96.
48. The empedradro or cobblestone paving of the street unit was described by Vidal
Enriquez Ante in “Informe del Jefe Político,” El municipio 13:67 (December 13,1897): 533.
The tax for street cleaning was passed February 21,1899, though it had been discussed
since late 1898. It actually shrank the official vision of the centro by pushing the western
boundary one block farther east, to Carrera Cuenca, and the northern boundary one
block farther south, to Carrera Manabi. See “Ordenanza de impuestos a predios urba­
nos,” El municipio 15:99 (March 9,1899): 819—20.
49. The contract for arc lighting was signed with local industrialists who had been the
first to successfully create public lighting in the city, including Manuel Jijón Larrea (father
of Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño) and Julio Urrutia. Joined by Victor Gangotena, they signed a
contract with the municipality in late 1899. Progress proceeded so slowly that the concejo
regularly complained about the contractors’ inefficiency through mid-1900, yet renewed
efforts after the threat of retaliation appear to have led to reports of progress in Novem­
ber 1901 and February 1902. See “Contrato,” E¡ municipio 15:112 (October 25,1899): 931-
 Notes to Pages 98—102 / 241

50. “Contrato sobre tranvías eléctricos,” El municipio 20:201 (October 5, 1904):

1689-91.
51. “Actas - 28 mayo 1906,” El municipio 22:255 (June 26,1906): 170—72.
52. “Ordenanzas,” El municipio 20:196 (August 13,1904): 1649—52.
53. See ICingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros, esp. chap. 6, “Los primeros higieni­
stas y el cuidado de la ciudad,” in which Kingman analyzes the use of the municipal
police for street cleaning and public health advocates’ discursive creation o f an un­
healthy city desperately needing reform. See also Kingman Garcés, “Quito, vida social
y modificaciones."
54. “Actas —29 octubre 1905,” El municipio 21:231 (November 1905): 1933.
55. Clark, Redemptive Work, 147—54.
56. For more on Andrade M arin’s work that year, see Karine Peyronnie and René de
Maximy, Quito inattendu: Le Centre Historique en devenir (Paris: C N R S Editions, 2002),
54-62.
57. “Oficio de Feliciano Checa a Ministerio del Interior,” in El municipio 22:262 (Sep­
tember 6,1906): 228.
58. República del Ecuador, Decreto Supremo de 31 de octubre de 1907 ordenando una
gran exposición nacional en Quito para el 10 de agosto de 1909 (Quito: Imprenta Nacional,
1907).
59. Eloy Alfaro, Mensaje del Presidente de la República al Poder Legislativo sobre Exposi­
ción Nacional (Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1908), 5.
60. See Tenorio Triollo, “1910 Mexico City”; and Adrián Gorelik and Graciela Síl-
vestri, “ The Past as the Future: A Reactive Utopía in Buenos Aires,” in The Latin Ameri­
can Cultural Studies Reader, ed. A na Del Sarto, Alicia Ríos, and Abril Trigo (Durham,
NC: Duke University Press, 2004), 427—40.
61. María Antonieta Vasquez Hahn, El Palacio de la Exposición, 1909—1989 (Quito:
CNPCC and Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1989), 39—46.
62. “Ordenanza —3 enero 1910,” Gaceta municipal 1:1 (January 29,1910): 2—3.
63. “Actas —29 December 1909,” Gaceta municipal 1:3 (February 12, 1910): 30. This
measure diverges from the previously discussed plan to begin levying aguardiente taxes
in Santa Prisca.
64. “Contrato para construcción de tranvías eléctricas,” Gaceta municipal 1:3 (Fe­
bruary 12,1910): 41—44.
65. “Ordenanza,” Gaceta municipal 1:5 (February 1910): 50.
66. AN E: Protocolos, Notaria 1, 546:247 (August 6,1913).
67. “Sesión de inauguración del Concejo Municipal de 1916 y 1917 (20 de diciembre
de 1915),” Gaceta municipal 7:63 (January 1916): 795—815, esp. 810—15.
68. Isaac Barrera, Relación de las fiestas del primer centenario de la batalla de Pichincha,
1822-1922 (Quito: Talleres Tipográficos Nacionales, 1922), 111—21.
69. The area described is north of today’s Avenida Patria and bounded on the west
and east by the streets 10 de agosto and 6 de diciembre, respectively— the beginning of
the Mariscal Sucre neighborhood.
242 \ Notes to Pages 10 2-10 7

70. “ Transacción —El Supremo Gobierno del Ecuador v. The Anglo French Pacific
Sindicate Limited,” Gaceta municipal 12:10 (February 8,1925): 176—80.
71. “ Decretos Legislativos —1,” Gaceta municipal 11:8 (November 30,1925): 135-36.
72. Barrera, Relación de las fiestas del primer centenario, 74—76.
73. Manuel J. Calle, Leyendas del tiempo heroico: episodios de la guerra de la independen­
cia (Guayaquil: Imp. de “El Telégrafo,” 1905), 229—31.
74. “ Se dispone que la ‘Junta del Centenario de la Batalla de Pichincha’ y la ‘Junta
Patriótica del Centenario,’ se denominen, en lo sucesivo, ‘Junta de Embellecimiento de
Quito’ y ‘Junta de Mejoras y Obras Públicas de Guayaquil,’ respectivamente, y se es­
tablecen nuevas rentas para la Junta en primer término citada,” in Municipalidad de
Guayaquil, Colección de leyes, decretos, ordenanzas, resoluciones y contratos, correspondientes
a esta municipalidad y correspondientes al año de 1922 (Guayaquil: Imprenta Municipal,
1923), 30—32, microfilm, New York Public Library.
75. Paz y Miño Cepeda, Revolución juliana, 41—43.
76. “Decretos Legislativos —3,” Gaceta municipal 11:8 (November 30,1925): 136—37.
77. “ Decretos de la Junta de Gobierno Provisional —No. 31,” Gaceta municipal 12:10
(February 8,1926): 180-85.
78. “ Subvensión del Gobierno a la Municipalidad de Quito,” Gaceta municipal 23:91
(December 31,1938): 5-6.
79. The most comprehensive biography o f this enigmatic figure is Héctor Coral
Patiño’s Isidro Ayora (Quito: Abrapalabra Editores, 1995).
80. Drake, Money Doctor.
81. República del Ecuador, Ley de régimen municipal (Guayaquil: Imprenta y Talleres
Municipales, 1929), vii—xv.
82. The key article o f the party platform was no. 15, which called for “libertad y
autonomía de los Municipios, sin perjuicio de la vigilancia del Poder central.” Jijón y
Caamaño, Política conservadora, 2:177.
83. Adolfo Posada, El régimen municipal de la ciudad moderna (Madrid: Librería Ge­
neral de Victoriano Suárez, 1916). See also Adolfo Posada, Escritos municipalistas y de la
vida local (Madrid: Instituto de Estudios de Administración Local, 1979).
84. Luna Tamayo, “Orígenes del movimiento obrero,” 289—92.
85. Jijón y Caamaño, Política conservadora, 2:187.
86. Ibid., 1:122—23.
87. “Necesidad de mantener la ley de autonomía municipal,” Gaceta municipal 16:38
(April 30,1931), 265—67.
88. Ana María Goetschel, “Hegemonía y sociedad (Quito: 1930—1950),” in Ciudades
de los Andes: visión histórica y contemporánea, ed. Eduardo Kingman Garcés (Quito: CIU­
DAD, 1992), esp. 319-24, 340-42.
89. Quoted in Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros, 299.
90. A. Kim Clark, “Race, ‘Culture,’ and Mestizaje: The Statistical Construction of
the Ecuadorian Nation, 1930—1950," Journal of Historical Sociology 11:2 (June 1998): 189.
See also Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros, 309—25, on Suárez’s efforts to promote
hygiene.
 Notes to Pages 10 7-113 / 243

91. Lucía Símonelli, “Jacinto JijónyCaamañoy el Barrio Obrero,” TRAMA55 (1991): 39.
92. Ibid., 40.
93. “A propósito de las Casas para Obreros,” Gaceta municipal 19:75 (May 31,1934):
201—2. See also Simonelli, “Jacinto Jijón,” 40—42.
94. “Comunicación del Concejo Provincial de Pichincha, relacionada con la queja
del Sr. Damián Miranda, a propósito de la Ordenanza sobre urbanización de los terre­
nos del Jockey Club,” in Gaceta municipal 16:43 (September 30,1931): 111—14.
95. “Resolución de la Corte Suprema, a propósito de la Ordenanza que autoriza
formar un nuevo barrio, en terrenos del Jockey Club,” Gaceta municipal 17:52 (June 30,
1932): 211—13.
96. “Una resolución de la Corte Suprema de Justicia acerca de los nuevos barrios,”
in ibid., 205—7.
97. Daniel Zamudio, “Sobre el urbanismo moderno,” Gaceta municipal 19:72 (Fe­
bruary 28, 1934): 71—81; Emilio Harth-Terre, “Asteriscos urbanos,” Gaceta municipal
21:80 (September 30,1936): 139—51.
98. J. Benítez, “Urbanización de ciudades,” Gaceta municipal 23:87 (January 31,1938):
9 9 -111.
99. “Comunicaciones Oficiales,” Gaceta municipal 23:91 (December 31,1938): 3—5.
100. “ Invítase al Sr. Armando Acosta y Lara, Decano de la facultad de Arquitectura
Urbanística de la ciudad de Montevideo, para que, en compañía del Director del Plan
Regulador de la misma ciudad, don Améríco Ricaldoni, visite la ciudad de Quito,” Ga­
ceta municipal 23:93 (August 10,1939): 40—41.
101. “ Informe que el ingeniero uruguayo Sr. Armando Acosta y Lara, eleva al
Concejo, exponiendo sus ideas respecto a la urbanización de la ciudad,” Gaceta muni­
cipal 23:94 (November 10,1939): 89—94. The Garden City movement, pioneered by the
English utopian planner Ebenezer Howard, held that cities ought to reintegrate nature
to mitigate the harshness o f industrial spaces. See Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of
Tomorrow (London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1902); and also Hall, Cities of Tomorrow, esp.
chap. 4.
102. The municipal report and the relevant articles in the local press are reprinted
in Gaceta municipal 23:94 (November 10,1939). See in particular the municipal rejection
of the project "La urbanización de la Ciudad y la derogatoria del Decreto de 4 de agosto
de 1938,” in ibid., i—vi, and El Comercio’s first article on the subject, “Senado aprueba
proyecto perjudicial a las aspiraciones de esta ciudad —Trata de privar al Concejo del
derecho de parcelar,” in ibid., 9.
103. Walter Domingo D., “Entrevista a Guillermo Jones Odriozola sobre el Plan Re­
gulador de Quito de 1942-1944,” TR A M A 56 (January 1992): 34—41, esp. 35—36.
104. Guillermo Jones Odriozola, “Nociones urbanísticas y su relación con la ciudad
de San Francisco de Quito,” Gaceta municipal 27:102 (January 30,1942): 98—107.
105. For example, Carrión, Quito: crisis y política urbana; Kingman Garcés, La ciudad
y los otros; or Alfredo Lozano Castro, Quito: ciudad milenaria, forma y símbolo (Quito:
Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1991).
106. The 1941 congress deserves a more extensive study o f its own. Its minutes and
244 \ Notes to Pages 113—119

accords can be found in Primero Congreso de Municipalidades del Ecuador: actas, acuerdos
y resoluciones (Quito: Imprenta Municipal, 1942).
107. The Rio summit’s mandate to create hemispheric solidarity in the wake of the
Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor marginalized Tobar’s mission. Several years later,
the national government attempted to rescind its agreement to the treaty, declaring it
null. Maps of Ecuador produced in the country thus continued to include the pre-1941
boundaries up until the late twentieth century, after a renewal of the armed conflict in
1996. A final peace accord was signed in 1998 under which Ecuador received access to
the Amazon. For a summary of the conflict, see Enrique Ayala Mora, Breve historia del
conflicto Ecuador-Peru (Quito: CDS, 1995).
108. Velasquismo as the epitome of Ecuadorian populism has been the subject of a
number of studies. One of the best recent studies, which focuses on the mixed popula­
tion that placed the demagogue in power so many times, is Carlos de la Torre Espinosa,
La seducción velasquista (Quito: Libri Mundi/Grosse Luemern, FLACSO, 1997).
109. Municipio del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, Plan General de Desarrollo Ter­
ritorial del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, Memoria Técnica, 2006-2010 (Quito: Imprenta
Municipal, 2006), 24.

C h a p te r 5. T h e D u r in i C o sm o p o lis

1. Pedro M. Durini R., tape-recorded interview by author, September 12, 2003,

Quito; Museo de la Ciudad, D urini Collection (hereafter MC/D): Planos, Dibujos y
Acuarelas, 212.
2. Carl E. Schorske, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture (New York: Vintage
Books, 1981), 131—46. On architecture as the “embodiment o f history,” see Donald J.
Olsen, The City as a Work of Art: London, Paris, Vienna (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1986), esp. 295—311. See also M. Christine Boyer, The City of Collective Memory: Its
Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments (Cambridge, M A: M IT Press, 1996).
3. Kirsten Shultz, Tropical Versailles: Empire, Monarchy, and the Portuguese Royal
Court in Rio de Janeiro, 1808—1821 (New York: Routledge, 2001).
4. Tenorio Trillo, “1910 Mexico City.” See also Meade, “Civilizing” Rio; Gorelik, La
grilla y el parque; Needell, Tropical Belle Epoque; and Celina Borges Lemos, “The Modern­
ization of Brazilian Urban Space as a Political Symbol of the Republic,” trans. Elizabeth
A. Jackson, Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 21 (1995): 219—37.
5. Hardoy and Morse, Rethinking the Latin American City.
6. Marina Waisman, “Introduction,” in Latin American Architecture: Six Voices, ed.
Malcolm Quantrill (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2000), 5.
7. Roberto Segre, América Latino, fin de milenio: raíces y perspectivas de su arquitectura
(Havana: Editorial Arte y Literatura, 1999), 72.
8. Carlos Maldonado, “La arquitectura de Quito en la época republicana,” in Quito:
una visión histórica de su arquitectura (Quito: I. Municipio de Quito—Junta de Andalucía,
1993). 137-
 Notes to Pages 120—125 / 245

9. Gabriela Caicedo, “ Entre la plaza San Francisco de Quito y la Piazza San Marco
de Venecia," TR A M A 80 (2002): 36—39.
10. Kennedy Troya and Ortiz Crespo, “Continuismo colonial,” 126—27.
11. Paúl Aguilar, Quito: arquitectura y modernidad, 1850—1950 (Quito: Museo Munici­
pal Alberto Mena Caamaño, 1995), 19.
12. El municipio 6:92 (July 17,1890): n.p.
13. One element of the problems surrounding the project concerned M inghetti’s
expulsion from the country during the anticlerical fervor of the revolution’s early days.
See Alfonso Cevallos Romero and Pedro M. Durini, Ecuador universal: visión desconocida
de una etapa de la arquitectura ecuatoriana (Quito: P. M. Durini R., 1990), 15—16.
14. Evelia Peralta, Quito: guía arquitectónica (Quito: I. Municipio de Quito—Junta de
Andalucía, 1991), 73.
15. Brünings extensive career forms an alternative pathway to the analysis provided
in this chapter. Instead of having to search for patronage, as did the Durinis, he secured
a place as prim ary architect for the Catholic Church, a position that allowed him to
refashion the temples o f the country, in particular a range of prominent structures such
as the basilica in the resort town o f Baños and the Quinche church, home o f the famous
Virgin o f Quinche. For more on his work, see Alfonso Cevallos Romero, Arte, diseño y
arquitectura en el Ecuador: la obra del Padre Brüning, 1899—1938 (Quito: Museos del Banco
Central del Ecuador/Abya-Yala, 1994).
16. Pedro M. Durini R., interview by author. In Ecuadorian parlance, the for­
eign architects (and artists) who settled in the country are regularly referred to with
Hispanized names. Hence, Thomas Reed becomes Tomás Reed, Franz Schm idt
becomes Francisco Schmidt, and so forth. Information is not available about all of
these designers’ appellations, and, as a result, I have chosen to use the Hispanized
versions.
17. On consumption in Peru, see Paul Gootenberg, Imagining Development: Economic
Ideas in Peru’s “Fictitious Prosperity" of Guano, 1840-1880 (Berkeley: University o f Califor­
nia Press, 1993).
18. Astrid Fischel, El Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica: su historia (San José, Costa Rica:
Editorial Teatro Nacional, 1992).
19. “Actas,” El municipio 19:177 (March 14,1903): 1493.
20. Lorenzo Durini to Pedro Durini, July 30,1903, MC/D: Cartas y Corresponden­
cia, 12:3; Pedro M. Durini R., interview by author.
21. Caicedo, “Entre la plaza San Francisco de Quito y la Piazza San Marco de Vene­
cia.” See also Maldonado, “La arquitectura de Quito,” 137.
22. El municipio 6:92 (July 17,1890): n.p. Eduardo Kingman correctly identifies this
as the first attempt to regulate ornament in Quito but mistakenly identifies it as having
been passed in 1880. See Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros, 264.
23. Lorenzo Durini to M áximo Fernández, July 30, 1903; Lorenzo D urini to Pe­
dro Durini, July 30,1903, both in MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 12:1—2 and 12:3—5,
respectively.
246 \ Notes to Pages 126—133

24. Lorenzo Durini to Juan Durini, September 7,1903, MC/D: Cartas y Correspon­
dencia, 12:31.
25. Lorenzo Durini to Juan Durini, September 22,1903, MC/D: Cartas y Corres­
pondencia, 12:51.
26. Pedro M. Durini R., interview by author.
27. Lorenzo Durini to Máximo Fernández, July 30, 1903, MC/D: Cartas y Corres­
pondencia, 12:2.
28. Lorenzo Durini to Francisco Durini, October 4,1903; Lorenzo Durini to Juan
Durini, September 7,1903, both in MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 12:73 and 12:33,
respectively.
29. Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 16.
30. “Contrato del Comité Diez de Agosto con Lorenzo Durini,” E! municipio 20:197
(September 7,1904).
31. Pedro M. Durini R., interview by author.
32. Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 150—51.
33. Lorenzo Durini to Francisco Durini C., July 23,1906, MC/D: Cartas y Corres­
pondencia, 32:16.
34. Pedro M. Durini R., interview by author.
35. Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 141.
36. MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 6. This copybook includes an inventory of
the store as well as a log of daily transactions.
37. Contrato, MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 37:135-38.
38. Mario Canessa Oneto, 100 años de historia del tenis ecuatoriano (Guayaquil: Poli­
gràfica C. A., 2000), 19—20. It is now known as the Quito Tennis and G olf Club. See also
Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 141.
39. Pedro Durini to Francisco Durini, January 16,1907, MC/D: Cartas y Corres­
pondencia, 2 2 :111; Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 36. Genaro Larrea
would later be one of Francisco’s witnesses at his wedding in 1908 to Rosa Palacios. See
Elsa Susana Morales Moreno, Alicia Verónica Oña Velasco, and María Verónica Padrón
Cosíos, “Análisis histórico de la obra arquitectónica del Arq. Francisco Durini Cáceres
en la ciudad de Quito" (BFA thesis, Universidad Central del Ecuador, 2001), 11.
40. Pedro Durini to Francisco Durini, January 16, 1907, both in MC/D: Cartas y
Correspondencia, 22:111 and 22:112, respectively.
41. Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 36—38.
42. MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 10.
43. Froli had originally been commissioned to help with this work, but when Francisco
took over the business after Lorenzo’s death, he passed the contract to Capurro in part
because of Froli’s history of delays. Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 55.
44. Francisco Durini to Pietro Capurro, May 1,1907, May 2,1907, both in MC/D:
Cartas y Correspondencia, 34:84—90 and 34:109, respectively; Cevallos and Durini,
Ecuador universal, 152—56. Capurro would again collaborate with Durini many years
later on works such as the Gonzalo Cordova mausoleum (1930). See Cevallos Romero
and Durini, Ecuador universal, 91.
 Notes to Pages 134—145 / 247

45. Morales Moreno, Oña Velasco, and Padrón Círculo Militar, “Análisis histórico
de la obra arquitectónica del Arq. Francisco Durini,” 11; Aguilar, Quito: arquitectura y
modernidad, 46—47.
46. This dual training was a common trend among students in Milan. See Rich­
ard A. Etlin, Modernism in Italian Architecture, 1890-1940 (Cambridge, M A: M IT Press,
1991), 9. D urini’s studies are mentioned in Lorenzo Durini to Juan Durini, September
9,1903, MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 11:30—34.
47. “Oficios,” El municipio 22:241 (March 10,1906): 53-54.
48. “Actas,” El municipio 23:295 (December 26,1907): 395—97.
49. “Actas,” El municipio 23:297 (December 31,1907): 415; Pedro M. Durini R., inter­
view by author.
50. MC/D: Cartas y Correspondencia, 23:7, 10 —11, 13, 40, 79—80, 88—89, 94» 99»
114 -15.
51. Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecuador universal, 155.
52. On this period in M ilanese architecture, see Etlin, Modernism in Italian
Architecture.
53. MC/D: Libros de Consulta 4; Revistas 3, 7.
54. Valerie Fraser, Building the New World: Studies in the Modern Architecture of Latin
America, 1930—1960 (London: Verso, 2000), 44—46.
55. Pedro M. Durini R., interview by author. The plans and Trier’s designs are
housed at the Museo de la Ciudad. See MC/D: Planos y Dibujos, 29:145—47. See also
Aguilar, Quito: arquitectura y modernidad, 46—47; and Cevallos Romero and Durini,
Ecuador universal, 153—54. _
56. Aguilar, Quito: arquitectura y modernidad, 45; Cevallos Romero and Durini, Ecua­
dor universal, 118—22; MC/D: Fotografías 75.
57. Aguilar, Quito: arquitectura y modernidad, 46—47. See also Espinosa Apolo, Mesti­
zaje; and Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros.
58. Ludwig Bemelmans, The Donkey Within (New York: Viking Press, 1941), 46—47.
59. Cam illa Fojas notes in her study on cosmopolitanism among Latin American
modernista authors that the engagement of characteristics from other places afforded the
possibility to transgress gender/sexual norms, which could be seen in a literary form ap­
propriating and reconstructing a barrage of foreign styles. See Camilla Fojas, Cosmopoli­
tanism in the Americas (West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2005), esp. 131-37.
60. A number o f these sample items have been preserved in the Durini collection
at the Museo de la Ciudad (MC/D) in the Revistas and the Libros de Consulta seríes.
61. MC/D: Revistas 9 ,1.
62. MC/D: Libros de Consulta2a; MC/D: Revistas 6; Pedro M. Durini R., interview
by author. See also MC/D: Planos, Dibujos, e Acuarelas.
63. Aguilar, Quito: arquitectura y modernidad, 50—51.
64. Pedro M . Durini R., interview by author.
65. Fraser, Building the New World, 15.
248 \ Notes to Pages 147-152

C h a p te r 6. A P h a n t a s m a g o r i c D y s t o p i a

1. No full biographical study of Calle exists at this writing, though there have been
several short works examining the life of the illustrious journalist. The best are by far
Alejandro Andrade Coello’s Manuel J. Calle, orientaciones periodísticas (Quito: Imprenta
"Ecuador,” 1919), which appeared soon after Calles death, and Diego Araujo’s introduc­
tory essay to the collection Un forzado de las letras: antología de Manuel ]. Calle (Quito:
Ediciones del Banco Central del Ecuador, 1998).
2. Manuel J. Calle, “La semana,” Revista de Quito 7 (February 16,1898): 229—30.
3. Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,” 247—48.
4. Minchom, People of Quito.
5. This paragraph is based largely on Minchom, People of Quito, 215—20. See also
Federico González Suárez, Historia general de la República del Ecuador, vol. 5 (Quito: Im­
prenta del Clero, 1901), 172—85.
6. Ruth Hill, “ The Roots o f Revolt in Late Viceregal Quito: Eugenio de Espejo be­
tween Adam Smith and St. Rose,” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 86:7—8 (2009): 146.
7. On Espejos satires, see Johnson, Satire in Colonial Spanish America, 139—54.
8. See Ricardo Padrón, “Cumandá and the Cartographers: Nationalism and Form
in Juan León Mera,” Annals of Scholarship 12:3—4 (1998): esp. 226—27. See also Fernando
Balseca, “En busca de nuevas regiones: la nación y la narrativa ecuatoriana,” in Crítica
literaria ecuatoriana: antología, ed. Gabriela Pólit Dueñas (Quito: FLACSO, 2001).
9. See Clark, Redemptive Work.
10. Johnson, Satire in Colonial Spanish America, 143—52.
11. Ana María Goetschel, Educación de las mujeres, maestras y esferas públicas: Quito en
la primera mitad del siglo XX (Quito: FLACSO Sede Ecuador—Abya-Yala, 2007), 75—108.
12. Andrés Guerrero, La semántica de la dominación: el concertaje de indios (Quito: Edi­
ciones Libri Mundi, 1991).
13. Francine Masiello, “ Melodrama, Sex, and Nation in Latin America’s Fin de
Siglo” in Theoretical Debates in Spanish American Literature, ed. David William Foster
and Daniel Altamiranda (New York: Garland Publishing, 1997), 181—90. See also Don­
ald L. Shaw, A Companion to Modern Spanish American Fiction (London: Tamesis, 2002),
24.
14. The original text reads “bolsiconas desgreñadas; un viejecillo de ruin aparien­
cia; pilluelos que iban silbando y . . . dos chullalevas con levitones largos y raídos, botas
torcidas y viejas, sombreros que habían conocido muchas cabezas.” Roberto Andrade,
Pacho Villamar (1900; rpt., Quito: Clásicos Ariel, n.d.), 20—21.
15. Luís A. Martínez, A la costa (1904; rpt., Quito: Clásicos Ariel).
16. Masiello, “Melodrama, Sex, and Nation,” 188.
17. Balseca has underscored M arianas place within a trend of eroticizing Afro-
Ecuadorians in twentieth-century Ecuadorian narrative. See Balseca, “En busca de
nuevas regiones,” 154.
 Notes to Pages 152—155 / 249

18. Luís A. Martínez Holguin, Andinismo, artey literature (Quito: Abya-Yala; Nuevos
Horizontes, 1994).
19. Enrique Ayala Mora, Historia de la revolución liberal ecuatoriana (Quito: Corpora­
ción Editora Nacional, 1994); Clark, Redemptive Work.
20. Although vastly skewed toward the cold war era, the only overview o f twentieth-
century student activism in Ecuador remains Patricio Ycaza’s Movimiento estudiantil:
¿para dónde camina? (Quito: Centro de Educación Popular, 1989).
21. See Chiriboga Alvear, Resumen histórico; and Luna Tamayo, “Origines del mov­
imiento obrero.”
22. For an overview of this moment, see Ycaza, Movimiento estudiantil, 10 —11. An
extended account, including memorial testimonials, can be found in Aurelio Davila, El
25 de abril de 1907: recuerdos históricos (Guayaquil: “Popular,” 1909).
23. Cathy L. Jrade, Modernismo, Modernity, and the Development of Spanish American
Literature (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 19. See also Angel Rama, La ciudad
letrada (Hanover, NH: Ediciones del Norte, 1984); and Julio Ramos, Desencuentros de la
modernidad en América Latina: literatura y política en el siglo X IX (Mexico City: Fondo de
Cultura Económica, 1989). Each work has also appeared in English translation.
24. Ernesto Noboa Caamaño, “ Hastío,” in Otros modernistas (Quito: Ariel, n.d.), 52.
The most comprehensive study o f the movement spawned by the generación decapitada
is Gladys Valencia Sala, El círculo modernista ecuatoriana: crítica y poesía (Quito: Univer­
sidad Andina, Abya-Yala, 2007). See also Raúl Andrade, “Retablo de una generación
decapitada,” in El perfil de la quimera: siete ensayos literarios (Quito: Casa de la Cultura
Ecuatoriana, 1951), 65—105; Henri Michaux, Ecuador: A Travel Journal, trans. Robin Ma-
gowan (Seattle: University o f Washington Press, 1970), esp. 61-64; and Isaac J. Barrera,
Del vivir: reflexiones de juventud (Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1972), esp. 42, where he
disdains bohemianism as “el enemigo del talento."
25. Although it appeared for the first time in Letras, Bustamante’s novel was not
published independently until 1935, when the Fernández firm, Editorial L. I. Fernández,
finally brought the book to the greater public’s attention. This move formed part of the
company’s tendency to publish the growing number of works by Quito’s avant-garde, a
policy encouraged by Jorge Fernández, the son of the firm’s owner, him self a member of
the vanguardia and the author of a number of short stories and a novel about the early
Liberal years. Citations will be taken from the reprint edition: José Rafael Bustamante,
Para matar el gusano (1913; rpt., Quito: Editorial Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, i960).
26. See Carrión, Quito: crisis y política urbana; Espinosa Apolo, Mestizaje; and esp.
Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros.
27. The original text reads, “La callejuela, esquiva y solitaria, sube, se esconde y
desaparece por entre la áspera loma, cual si huyera del maltrato que las gentes le ha­
cen sufrir, convirtiéndola en muladar y basurero allá abajo, en la ciudad, de donde ar­
ranca. Triste y repugnante callejuela entre el cementerio y dos o tres casucas bajas y
melancólicas, mitad empedrada con piedras desiguales y toscas por las que se escurre
agua jabonosa que sale de las casas, mitad tierra con desmedrados hierbajos, basura
250 \ Notes to Pages 156—159

y excrementos. Y en ella un hombre, un fantasma, un espectro que dormita y sueña,

rezonga y balbuce, se rasca y se espulga, sentado en el umbral de una puerta cerrada.
Para tal calle, tal hombre.” Bustamante, Para matar el gusano, 241.
28. See Barrera, Relación de las fiestas del primer centenario, 26—30. See also Isaac J.
Barrera, Estudios sobre modernismo literario: publicado en el Diario El Comercio 1 Enero
1910 —10 de Abril 1910 (Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1971), for Barreras early
defense of the precepts of modernismo.
29. Campos, who wrote under the pseudonym “Jack the Ripper,” published sketches
of a coastal life filled with conflict, violence, and mayhem— a fascinating counterpoint
to the pious idyll more common in Quito. For instance, while Gangotena’s priests and
aristocrats ultimately uphold standards of honor and humility, Campos depicts friars
whose sermons explain why crabs walk backward. See José Antonio Campos, Linterna
mágica (Guayaquil and Quito: Ariel, n.d.); and also Campos, Cosas de mi tierra.
30. Gangotena y Jijón, Al margen de la historia, 201—8.
31. The original reads “el viejo Quito, que se va para no volver.” Andrade Coello,
Motivos nacionales, 2:277.
32. As he put it in the tale of the aguador, “A medida que las costumbres se mo­
difican y los años transcurren, trastornando, como castillo de naipes, la dulce y vieja
ingenuidad, dejamos de ver, en la querida y tradicional Quito, ciertos tipos familiares
y pintorescos que van desapareciendo . . . y que hasta resultaban decorativos para la
ciudad. . . [y quienes] . .. convierten, tal vez inconscientemente, en ludibrio hasta lo que
es digno de lástima.” Andrade Coello, Del Quito antiguo, 89.
33. The original reads “callejas mal pavimentadas, estrechas y oscuras, pero ricas en
memorias del pasado.” Andrade Coello, Del Quito antiguo, 48.
34. Andrade Coello, Motivos nacionales, 211—13. Sentiments like these also indícate
the influence of hispanista tenets in the chronicle of the old city.
35. Humberto E. Robles, La noción de vanguardia en el Ecuador: recepción - trayec­
toria - documentos. 1918—1934 (Guayaquil: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana “Benjamín
Carrión," Núcleo del Guayas, 1989). Robles’s introductory essay is reprinted as “La no­
ción de vanguardia en el Ecuador: recepción y trayectoria (1918—1934),” in Crítica literaria
ecuatoriana, ed. Pólit Dueñas, 223—49.
36. See ibid., 227—31.
37. For a biographical sketch on Coloma, see Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel’s online bio­
graphical dictionary, http://www.diccionariobiograficoecuador.com.
38. Ramiro de Sylva, “Crónicas de Quito, “ Caricatura 1:4 (January 1,1919): n.p.
39. This sentiment is expressed clearly in the following passage: “Y el cronista sigue
recordando todo lo que ha visto. Todo es insignificante y despiadadamente sencillo.. . .
No encuentra interesante ninguno de los motivos que ha observado. Nadie los leería.. . .
Y el público de una ciudad en la que nunca sucede nada, quiere algo . . . algo . . . que
no sea lo de todos los días. . . . Bueno. Entonces el cronista inventa, inventa disparates,
locuras, absurdos. . . . ¡Y ésta es talvez su voluptuosidad del periodista . .. !” Ramiro de
Sylva, “Crónicas de Quito,” Caricatura 2:45 (December 7,1919): 6—7.
40. Henry Nick, “Crónicas de Quito,” Caricatura 1:7 (January 26,1919): 9.
 Notes to Pages 159-163 / 251

41. Although Palacio’s work was long ignored after he was ostracized from the liter­
ary establishment following the turn toward social realism in the early 1930s, there has
been a major revalorization o f his writings since the 1980s. Numerous editions of his
collected works have appeared, as well as a series of articles recasting his work as some of
the most daring and important writing to have appeared in Ecuador. Citations from Pa-
lacio’s works are from Pablo Palacio, Obras completas, ed. Maria del Carmen Fernández
(Quito: Libresa, 1997). For an introduction to the recent criticism on Palacio’s writings,
see esp. Maria del Carmen Fernández, El realismo abierto de Pablo Palacio en la encruci­
jada de los 30 (Quito: Ediciones Libri Mundi/Enrique Grosse-Luemern, 1991), as well as
her introduction to the edition of his collected works cited above. For a comparison of
Palacio and Salvador that focuses on their combative relationships with fellow socialists
and their distinct uses of psychoanalysis, see Wilfrido H. Corral, “Humberto Salvador y
Pablo Palacio: política literaria y psicoanálisis en la Sudamérica de los treinta,” in Crítica
literaria ecuatoriana, ed. Pólit Dueñas. For a review of avant-garde literature during the
era, see Robles, “La noción de vanguardia.”
42. Raúl Andrade in particular would later refer to the importance that the Dada­
ist movement had in his conception of how to organize the magazine. See Fernández,
El realismo abierto, 56—57. On Egas’s time in Paris, see Michele Greet, Beyond National
Identity: Pictorial Indigenism as a Modernist Strategy in Andean Art, 1920-1960 (University
Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009), esp. 38—48. On Egas’s earlier exoticist
painting, see Trinidad Pérez, “Exoticism, Alterity, and the Ecuadorean Elite: The Work
of Camilo Egas,” in Images of Power, ed. Andermann and Rowe, 111—21.
43. The original text reads, “comprendemos que el Arte es la alquimia de la invero­
similitud, porque si el Arte fuera la verdad, la expresión artística no existiría” and “cos­
mopolitismo, audacia, autenticidad.” Gonzalo Escudero, “Hélice,” Hélice 1:1 (April 26,
1926): 1.
44. Greet, Beyond National Identity, 64—84.
45. Pablo Palacio, “Un hombre muerto a puntapiés,” in Palacio, Obras completas,
91—102; Palacio, “El antropófago,” in ibid., 103—11.
46. Fernández notes this similarity; see Palacio, Obras completas, i07n2. This story
anticipates Oswald de Andrade’s “Anthropophagite Manifesto” both in spirit and in the
use o f cannibalism as a metaphor.
47. Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,” 196. Bakhtin conceives of the carnivalesque as a mo­
ment o f inversion in which traditional social relations can be subverted or overcome.
For an expanded account o f the importance of Carnival, see Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais
and His World, trans. Hélène Iswolsky (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984).
48. Like several of his fellow contributors to Hélice, Palacio joined the Socialist Party
following Egas’s departure and would become one of its central militants during the
1930s.
49. On Guignol, see http://amisdeguignol.free.fr/ (accessed November 25, 2010).
See also Richard J. Hand and Michael Wilson, Grand-Guignol: The French Theatre of
Horror (Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 2002).
50. Pablo Palacio, Débora, in Obras completas, 178—81.
252 \ Notes to Pages 163—167

51. Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez, Before the Boom: Latin American Revolutionary Nov­
els of the 1920s (Lanham, MD: University Press o f America, 2001), 72—88.
52. This text paragraph refers to Palacio, Debora, in Obras completas, 182—93.
53. The original text i;eads, “En verdad, puede ser muy pintoresco el que una calle
sea torcida y estrecha hasta no dar paso a un ómnibus; puede ser encantadora por su
olor a orinas, pude dar la ilusión de que transitará, de un momento a otro, la ronda de
trasnochados. Pero está más nuevo el asfalto y grita allí la fuerza de miles de hombres.”
Palacio, Débora, in Obras completas, 190.
54. Coonrod Martínez, Before the Boom, 85—86. See also Fernández’s editorial note
in Palacio, Obras completas, 207m.
55. Pablo Palacio, Vida del ahorcado, in Obras completas, 209—73.
56. José Otero, “Humberto Salvador: el hombre, sus temas y su creación” (PhD diss.,
University of New Mexico, 1970), 11—15.
57. See Corral, “Humberto Salvador y Pablo Palacio.”
58. Humberto Salvador, Ajedrez (Quito: Escuela de Artes y Oficios, 1929), 12.
59. “No se resignan a la vulgaridad de ser exactos.” Ibid., 12.
60. The original text reads, “Empezaré por localizarla. Es más difícil que adivinar
una carta al compañero, en la entusiasta partida en la que se apuesta mucho, localizar
a una persona en la clásica ciudad de San Francisco de Quito. Ella se nos escapa y para
alcanzarla, tenemos que correr desesperadamente a través de las calles. Por fortuna,
la carrera es menos penosa en el pavimento; pero, cuando llegamos a las calles empe­
dradas, la persecución se vuelve dolorosa. Hay que renunciar a ella. El personaje se nos
escapa y ni el demonio puede encontrarla.” Humberto Salvador, En la ciudad he perdido
una novela, with an introduction by M aría del Carmen Fernández (1929; rpt., Quito:
Editorial Libresa, 1996), 91.
61. Salvador, En la Ciudad, 93—94. Maria del Carmen Fernández has noted that the
reference to the Apache compares modernity’s sudden force to the attacks perpetrated
by Apaches in many westerns of the era. Ibid., 94m. Apaches indeed appear throughout
the novel as symbols of barbarity, which presents an ironic contrast to the oft-lamented
fate of the Ecuadorian Indian.
62. The original reads, “marcos para el desnudo cubista de la voluptuosidad.” Sal­
vador, En la ciudad, 133.
63. The original text reads, “Cada barrio simboliza una tendencia. . . . Novelas alu­
cinadas, con corte de leyenda y prosa clásica, hay que encontrarlas en ‘El Tejar.’ Me­
dioevales, en los claustros de ‘Santo Domingo’ o en ‘San Diego.’ Perversos, en el barrio
de ‘La Tola.’ Modernas, en las calles centrales, donde los autos son protagonistas de
todos los amoríos y de todos los amores. Románticas, en la sección de ‘La Alameda.’ Al
llegar al ‘Ejido,’ se vuelven naturalistas. El realismo se esconde como un gato en cual­
quiera de las casas.
“La vanguardia se puede buscarla en la ciudad, a través de todos los barrios.” Salva­
dor, En la ciudad, 219—20.
64. Robles, La noción de vanguardia, 55—69.
 Notes to Pages 167—171 / 253

65. See Marc Becker, Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador's Modern Indigenous
Movements (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008).
66. Federico A. Chalupa, “The Ecuadorian City and Modernity: Jorge Icaza’s
Quito,” in The Image of the City in Literature, Media, and Society, ed. Will Wright and
Steven Kaplan (Pueblo: Colorado State University—Pueblo, 2003), esp. 150—51.
67. José Carlos Mariátegui, Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana (Lima,
1928; rpt., Montevideo: Biblioteca de Marcha, 1970), 171—80.
68. Moisés Sáenz, Sobre el indio ecuatoriano y su incorporación al medio nacional (Mex­
ico City: Publicaciones de la Secretaria de Educación Pública, 1933), xi—xiii.
69. See Pablo Arturo Suárez, Contribución al estudio de las realidades entre las clases
obreras y campesinas (Quito: Imprenta de la Universidad Central, 1934), as well as A . Kim
Clark, “Race, ‘Culture,' and Mestizaje: The Statistical Construction of the Ecuadorian
Nation, 1930—1950,” Journal of Historical Sociology 11:2 (June 1998): 185—211, esp. 188-93.
70. Ricardo Descalzi, Historia critica del teatro ecuatoriano, 6 vols. (Quito: Editorial
Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1968), 3:741—43, 788—90. See also Corral, “ Humberto
Salvador y Pablo Palacio,” 297—99.
71. Salvador’s thesis was soon published. See Humberto Salvador, Esquema sexual
(Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1934). On Ecuador’s burgeoning feminist movement during
this era, see Goetschel, Educación de las mujeres; and Ana María Goetschel, ed., Orígenes
del feminismo en el Ecuador: antología (Quito: CONAM U; FLACSO; Municipio del Dis­
trito Metropolitano de Quito; U N IFEM , 2006), 153—218.
72. “Como ellos quieren,” in Jorge Icaza, ¿Cuál es? Sin sentido (Quito: Su Librería,
1979)-
73. “¿Cuál es? “ in Icaza, ¿Cuál es? Sin sentido.
74. The original quotes are “era el amo, que todo lo puede en la comarca" and “con el
cura no era pecado.” Jorge Icaza, Huasipungo (1934; rpt., Quito: Ediciones Libresa, 1983),
123 and 137, respectively.
75. Jorge Icaza, En las calles (1935; rpt., Quito: Editorial El Conejo, 1985).
76. Ibid., 210.
77. A fter Bonifaz’s disqualification by Congress, armed bands from both the Right
and Left marauded in the streets for weeks until an insurrection in a nearby m ilitary
garrison led to four days of brutal fighting throughout the city in August 1932.
78. The original text reads, “A las diez, poco más o menos, llegó la figura haraposa
de un pordiosero, se rascó las ingles, la cabeza y los sobacos piojosos, hizo sonar unas
medallas— santos, vírgenes, cruces— y unos cuantos amuletos que llevada colgados en
el pecho, y, entre carajos y oraciones de su especialidad, se acurrucó como un ovillo
de trapos en el suelo. Más tarde apareció e hizo lo mismo que el mendigo un ciego
con un muchacho descalzo. Luego llegó un indio— cargador público en desgracia—
‘Cualquiera puede. Cualquiera puede, pes. Hasta el natural . . .’ pensó la tropa de hua-
sipungueros arrastrándose lentamente hasta el abrigo miserable del soportal. La noche
fue ventosa y fría, más igual o peor que en la choza del páramo. Felizmente ellos estaban
acostumbrados.” Icaza, En las calles, 20.
254 \ Notes to Pages 171—173

79. As a result, Salvador would still be criticized for not focusing enough on the
exploited rural Indian, as was the case in a review of Noviembre penned by Panamanian
Victor Hugo Escala in 1942; see also Otero, “Humberto Salvador,” 46—48. There have
been many studies of radical aesthetics in the interwar years; see esp. Beatriz Sarlo, Una
modernidad periférica: Buenos Aires, 1920 y 1930 (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nueva Visión,
1988); Nicola Miller, In the Shadow of the State: Intellectuals and the Quest for National Iden­
tity in Twentieth-Century Spanish America (London: Verso, 1999); David Craven, Art and
Revolution in Latin America, 1910—1990 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), chap.
2; and Fraser, Building the New World, regarding the establishment of an alternative
modernism and the dialogical relationship between global and local politics of modern
art and literature.
80. Humberto Salvador, Camarada (Quito: Talleres Tipográficas Nacionales, 1933).
81. Salvador’s attitudes toward homosexuality are somewhat obtuse. As Wilfrido
Corral has noted, Salvador condemns homosexuality as a societal evil in Esquema
sexual; however, he simultaneously develops an extensive discussion of the aesthetic
inspiration of homosexual encounters, dropping names as illustrious as Homer, Plato,
Zola, Balzac, and Romain Rolland. See Corral, “Humberto Salvador y Pablo Palacio,”
297—99; an(i Salvador, Esquema sexual, 251—55.
82. The original text reads, “Julia es pobre. No tiene derecho al placer.” Salvador,
Camarada, 183.
83. On the m inistry’s impact, see Valeria Coronel, “Orígenes de una Democracia
Corporativa: estrategias para la ciudadanización del campesinado indígena, partidos
políticos y reforma territorial en Ecuador (1925—1944),” in Historia social urbana: espacios
y flujos, ed. Eduardo Kingman Garcés (Quito: FLACSO —Ministerio de Cultura, 2009),
323-64.
84. Otero uses this terminology, taken from Salvador, to describe the seemingly
endless parade of beggars, prostitutes, lost bureaucrats, social climbers, and so forth,
that pervade his novels. See Otero, “Humberto Salvador,” chap. 6, “La vida sin vida.”
85. Humberto Salvador, Trabajadores (1935; rpt., Quito: Editorial El Conejo, 1985),
78-82.
86. The original text reads, “el último nido humano de la ciudad.” Ibid., 11. These
words appear on the opening page o f the novel, along with an embrace of the situation
by the narrator. Despite his brave front, the situation is untenable for all who live there.
Again, the influence of environment is paramount.
87. Salvador, Trabajadores, 100.
88. Ibid., 58—59.
89. The original text reads, “ La vida fue conmigo irónica. Porque realmente era una
ironía sangrienta el hecho de que un muchacho hambriento y andrajoso como yo, entr­
ara a casas saturadas de lujo y comodidades.
“Hice un descubrimiento sensacional: el de que, junto al Quito desvalido que
yo conocía, había ‘otro’ Quito: el de los poderosos.
“Eran dos ciudades distintas, que por un sarcasmo de la vida, estaban muy cerca
 Notes to Pages 174—179 / 255

la una de la otra. Dos ciudades contradictorias, y sin embargo, entrecruzadas, fusion­

adas la una en la otra.” Salvador, Trabajadores, 161—62.
90. Ibid., 71—75. This stance echoes Salvador’s support for abortion rights as well
as voluntary sterilization, positions connected to his discussion of eugenics in Esquema
sexual, 200—204, 296. For more on Latin American attitudes toward eugenics as social
planning, see Nancy Stepan, “The Hour of Eugenics": Race, Gender, and Nation in Latin
America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
91. Salvador, Trabajadores, 112.
92. Salvador would later dedicate Lafuenta clara to Baños’s virtues.
93. The original text reads, “Los trabajadores de todos los países crearemos la nueva
humanidad.” Salvador, Trabajadores, 191 (both quotations).
94. Humberto Salvador, Noviembre (Quito: Editorial L. I. Fernández, 1939).
95. Albert E. Franklin, Ecuador: Portrait of a People (New York: Doubleday Doran,
1944), 292-96.
96. Páez’s legislation includes the Ley de Comunas (Law of Communes) and a new
labor code, each passed in 1937.
97. For more on Páez, see Enrique Ayala Mora, Nueva historia, vol. 10; and Marc
Becker, “Comunas and Indigenous Protest in Cayambe, Ecuador,” The Americas 55:4
(April 1999): 536-37.
98. The original text reads, “¡Abajo la inteligencia y viva la muerte!” Salvador, No­
viembre, 260.
99. Ibid., 267—68.
100. Ibid., 356—61.
101. The original text reads, “ fantasmas con apariencia de hombres vivos, porque
han perdido las cualidades que enaltecen a la humanidad.” Ibid., 377.
102. Ibid., 377—79.
103. See Palacio, Vida del ahorcado, in Obras completas, 243—46.
104. The original text reads, “una sinfonía de luz y color . . . bella, ardiente, y volup­
tuosa.” Salvador, Noviembre, 379.
105. On the question o f historical periodization and the relationship between the
modern and traditional in Latin American literature and cultural studies, see Adam
Sharman, Tradition and Modernity in Spanish American Litearature: From Dario to Car-
pentier (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 11—14.
106. David Sibley, “Outsiders in Society and Space,” in Inventing Places: Studies in
Cultural Geography, ed. Kay Anderson and Fay Gale (Melbourne: Longman Chesire,
1992), 115.

C h a p t e r 7. S a n t a C l a r a d e S a n M i l l á n

1. Petition to m inistry, received July 6, 1940, in Sistema Nacional de Archivos-

Ministerio de Trabajo y Recursos Humanos, Sección Tierras (hereafter SNA-M TRH/
Tierras), Box 179, Folder 13 (January—February 1940).
256 \ Notes to Pages 180—182

2. Subsequent paperwork contained in ibid.

3. Becker, Indians and Leftists; Coronel, “ Revolution in Stages.”
4. On the various statutes, see Mercedes Prieto, Liberalismo y temor: imaginando los
sujetos indígenas en el Ecuador postcolonial, 1895-1950 (Quito: FLACSO, 2004). On the co­
muna, see SNA-MTRH/Tierras 191:5.
5. Membership rolls from the early 1940s can be found in SNA-M TRH/Tierras
191:5.
6. Studies of indigenous entrepreneurialism during the colonial era include Jer­
emy Baskes, Indians, Merchants, and Markets: A Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and
Spanish-Indian Economic Relations in Colonial Oaxaca, 1/50—1821 (Stanford: Stanford Uni­
versity Press, 2005); Gauderman, Womens Lives; and Cam illa Townsend, Tales of Two
Cities: Race and Economic Culture in Early Republican North and South America; Guayaquil,
Ecuador, and Baltimore, Maryland (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000).
7. Joanne Rappaport, The Politics of Memory: Native Historical Interpretation in the
Colombian Andes, 2nd ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), 24.
8. Andrés Guerrero, “ The Construction o f a Ventriloquist’s Image: Liberal Dis­
course and the ‘Miserable Indian Race’ in Late 19th-Century Ecuador,” Journal of Latin
American Studies 29:3 (October 1997): 555—90.
9. Florencia Mallon, Peasant and Nation: The Making of Postcolonial Mexico and Peru
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University o f California Press, 1995); Mark Thurner, From
Two Republics to One Divided: Contradictions of Postcolonial Nationmaking in Andean Peru
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997).
10. Becker, Indians and Leftists; Morelli, Territorio o nazione; Aleezé Sattar, “An
Unresolved Inheritance: Postcolonial State Formation and Indigenous Communities
in Chimborazo, Ecuador, 1820—1875” (PhD diss., New School University, 2001); Erin
O’Connor, Gender, Indian, Nation: The Contradictions of Making Ecuador, 1830—1925 (Tuc­
son: University of Arizona Press, 2007); Galo Ramón, La resistencia andina: Cayambe,
1500—1800 (Quito: Centro Andino de Acción Popular, 1987). Also see A. Kim Clark and
Marc Becker, eds., Highland Indians and the State in Modern Ecuador (Pittsburgh: Uni­
versity of Pittsburgh Press, 2007}.
11. Kingman Garcés, La ciudad y los otros, esp. chaps. 3 and 5.
12. As late as the seventeenth century, Santa Clara continued protesting the ex­
propriation o f its lands for the expansion of the city. Rosemarie Terán Najas, “Censos,
capellanías y elites, siglo X V II,” ProcesoS: Revista ecuatoriana de historia 1 (1991): 23—48.
13. Karen Viera Powers, Andean Journeys: Migration, Ethnogenesis, and State in Colo­
nial Quito (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995); and Powers, “A Battle
of Wills: Inventing Chiefly Legitimacy in the Colonial North Andes," in Dead Give­
aways: Indigenous Testaments of Colonial Mesoamerica and the Andes, ed. Susan Kellogg
and Matthew Restall (Salt Lake City: University o f Utah Press, 1998), 183—213.
14. Karen Viera Powers, “Land Concentration and Environmental Degradation:
Town Council Records on Deforestation in Uyumbicho (Quito, 1553—96),” in Colonial
Lives: Documents on Latin American History, 1550—1850, ed. Richard Boyer and Geoffrey
Spurling (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 11—17.
 Notes to Pages 182—185 / 257

15. Gauderman, Women’s Lives, 98—106.

16. Kenneth Andrien, The Kingdom of Quito, 1690—1830: The State and Regional De­
velopment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 81—84. See also Nicholas P.
Cushner, Farm and Factory: The Jesuits and the Development of Agrarian Capitalism in Co­
lonial Quito, 1600—1767 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982).
17. Gauderman, Womens Lives, 106—12.
18. Andrien, “ Economic Crisis,” 199—201. See also Chad Black, “Between Prescrip­
tion and Practice: Governance, Legal Culture, and Gender in Quito, 1765—1830” (PhD
diss., University of New Mexico, 2006), 44.
19. Nationalist Ecuadorian historians have treated this uprising as an avatar o f
independence. The first such historian was Juan de Velasco, writing as early as 1789,
and the trend continued with authors such as Federico González Suárez, Oscar Efrén
Reyes, and Carlos de la Torre. More recent scholarship emphasizes its place within At­
lantic insurrection, beginning with French historian Joseph Pérez in Los movimientos
precursores de la emancipación en Hispanoamérica (Madrid: Alhambra, 1977). Anthony J.
McFarlane expands attention to local political culture in “The ‘Rebellion of the Barrios’:
Urban Insurrection in Bourbon Quito,” Hispanic American Historical Review 69:2 (May
1989): 283—330. Andrien, “Economic Crisis,” presents a detailed analysis o f local and
regional economics that interrogated previous assumptions regarding the rebellion’s
place within eighteenth-century tax rebellions, while Martin Minchom’s People of Quito
focuses on the socio-demographic background of the rebellion. Most recently, Chad
Black has located the uprising within shifting considerations of governance in “Between
Prescription and Practice.” My treatment o f the 1747 millenarian insurrection that fol­
lows builds upon Minchom’s treatment in People of Quito.
20. The tensions actually began that January, when Audiencia lawyer Don Melchor
Ribadeneyra outbid Don Pedro Guerrero to take control o f the administration o f the
monopoly. Since Ribadeneyra’s plans included multiple centralizing measures, such as
the building of an independent royal distillery, local elites and merchants protested the
move, leading the Audiencia to eventually choose Guerrero’s bid. See Black, “Between
Prescription and Practice,” 44—48. McFarlane argues that Ribadeneyra acted as a front,
not for viceregal authorities but instead for competing mercantile interests from the
northern city of Ibarra. McFarlane, “‘Rebellion of the Barrios,’” 287—88.
21. McFarlane, “‘Rebellion o f the Barrios,”’ 305. Estimates o f crowd size range from
a low of three thousand or four thousand to a high of sixteen thousand to eighteen
thousand.
22. Minchom, People of Quito, 229.
23. McFarlane, “‘Rebellion of the Barrios,”’ 312—14.
24. The lone call for rebellion in Quito was a truncated affair in which the drums
struck by haberdasher Francisco Xavier de la Cruz o f San Sebastián to rally the faithful
only managed to alert a passing patrol. See Minchom, People of Quito, 233—34.
25. Black, “Between Prescription and Practice," 86—89.
26. Morelli, Territorio 0 nazione, 226.
27. For a comprehensive narrative o f eighteenth- and nineteenth-century indig­
258 \ Notes to Pages 185—187

enous uprisings, see Segundo E. Moreno Yáñez, Sublevaciones Indígenas en la Audiencia

de Quito: desde comienzos del siglo X V III hasta finales de la colonia, 4th ed. (Quito: Ediciones
de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, 1995).
28. Mínchom, People of Quito, 241.
29. Morelli, Territorio o nazione, 234—39; Federica Morelli, “Un neo-sincretismo po­
lítico: representación política y sociedad indígena durante el primer liberalismo hispa­
noamericano; el caso de la Audiencia de Quito (1813—1850),” in Muchas Hispanoaméricas:
antropología, historia y enfogues culturales en los estudios latinoamericanistas, ed. T. Krüg-
geler and U. Mücke (Madrid: Iberoamericana, 2001), 164.
30. See Alberto Flores Galindo, Buscando un Inca: identidad y utopia en los Andes
(Lima: Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, 1987), which was later published in translation: A l­
berto Flores Galindo, In Search of an Inca: Identity and Utopia in the Andes, ed. and trans.
Carlos Aguirre, Charles F. Walker, and Willie Hiatt (New York: Cambridge Univer­
sity Press, 2010). See also Charles F. Walker, Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Creation of
Republican Peru, 1780-1840 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999); and Thurner,
From Two Republics to One Divided.
31. Morelli, Territorio 0 nazione, 244—47.
32. See Andres Guerrero, “Curagas y tenientes políticos: la ley de la costumbre y
la ley del estado (Otavalo 1830—1875),” in Estudios y debates 2 (December 1989): 321-66;
Guerrero, “Construction of a Ventriloquist’s Image”; and Guerrero, “The Administra­
tion of Dominated Populations under a Regime o f Customary Citizenship: The Case
of Postcolonial Ecuador,” trans. M ark Thurner, in After Spanish Rule, ed. Guerrero and
Thurner, 272—309.
33. Derek Williams, “Administering the Otavalan Indian and Centralizing Gover­
nance in Ecuador, 1851—1875,” in Highland Indians and the State, ed. Clark and Becker,
54- 55-
34. Aleezé Sattar, “¿Indígena o Ciudadano? Republican Laws and Highland Indian
Communities in Ecuador, 1820-1857,” in Highland Indians and the State, ed. Clark and
Becker, 22—36.
35. Morelli, Territorio 0 nazione, 254-57.
36. On this legal history, see Sattar, “Unresolved Inheritance,” 261—62.
37. Urbina's policies particularly targeted further growth in the population of conci­
ertos, or debt peons beholden to the hacienda, a strategy that echoed eighteenth-century
liberal theory and the politics of figures like Bolivar and San Martin, whose dreams of
transforming Indian communities into a class of yeoman farmers was a definite influ­
ence upon Urbina. See Derek Williams, “Popular Liberalism and Indian Servitude: The
Making and Unmaking of Ecuador’s Antilandlord State, 1845—1868,” Hispanic American
Historical Review 83:4 (November 2003): 700—710.
38. Williams, “Popular Liberalism,” 731—33.
39. This discussion is based largely on two court cases before the Superior Court of
Quito and the Supreme Court of Ecuador, records o f which are found in the Archivo
Nacional del Ecuador. See AN E, Indígenas, 175:29 (1857), “Civiles entre los indígenas de
 Notes to Pages 187—194 / 259

Sta Clara de Sanm illan y la Sra Juana del Maso por terrenos, aguas, y servidumbres”;
and A N E, Indígenas, 176:5 (1858), “Causa seguida entre loa Sra Juna del Mazo y el co­
mún de indígenas de Santa Clara de Sanmillan sobre terrenos.”
40. Pilar Pérez, “Cuando los montes se vuelven carbon: la transformación de los
paisajes en los alrededores de Quito, 1860—1940” (MA thesis, FLACSO-Ecuador, n.d.), 69.
41. A N E, Indígenas, 175:29 (1857), 2 ,11.
42. AN E, Indígenas, 176:5 (1858), 15.
43. Sattar, “Unresolved Inheritance,” chap. 3, esp. 116—17,127—31.
44. The last communication prior to the law’s passage came on October 12, 1857,
from Delgado. Between this time and mid-February, no written or oral communica­
tions appear in the court record, which suggests the officials’ need to take stock of the
juridical impact of the new law.
45. Pérez, “Cuando los montes se vuelven carbon,” 68—78.
46. Sattar has provided the most extensive analysis of the Daquilema uprising’s ties
to the socioeconomic struggles of the mid-nineteenth century. See Sattar, “Unresolved
Inheritance," 316—57.
47. Milton Luna Tamayo, ¿Modernización? Ambigua experiencia en el Ecuador: indus­
triales y fiesta popular (Quito: IADEP, 1993), 76—77.
48. See Deler, Ecuador: del espacio al estado nacional; and Guerrero, La semántica de
la dominación.
49. Prieto, Liberalismo y temor, 136.
50. Ibid., 135.
51. For more on Jaramillo and his place within the international indigenista move­
ment, see José Antonio Lucero, Struggles of Voice: The Politics of Indigenous Representation
in the Andes (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008), 70—73. See also Rebecca
Earle, The Return of the Native: Indians and Myth-Making in Spanish America, 1810-1930
(Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), esp. chap. 7; and de la Cadena, Indigenous
Mestizos.
52. Jaramillo, El indio ecuatoriano.
53. Prieto, Liberalismo y temor, 140—41. See also Lucero, Struggles of Voice, 70—72.
54. Pineo, Social and Economic Reform, chap. 8. See also Capelo, El crimen del 15 de
noviembre de 1922.
55. Marc Becker, “Indigenous Communists and Urban Intellectuals in Cayambe,
Ecuador (1926—1944),” International Review of Social History 49, supp. (2004): 41—48.
56. Becker, Indians and Leftists, 25—32. The Socialist Party was renamed the Com­
munist Party in 1931.
57. Sáenz, Sobre el indio ecuatoriano, 93—124.
58. Carlos Arroyo del Rio came close to finishing a term but was deposed in his last
months by the 1944 Glorious Revolution that was engineered by José M aría Velasco
Ibarra with support from the Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios and various center-left
groups.
59. “ Ley de Organización y Régimen de las Comunas,” in Républica del Ecuador,
26o \ Notes to Pages 194-202

Registro Oficial 2:55 (August 6,1937): 1517—19. See also Becker, “Comunas and Indigenous
Protest," 531—59; Lucero, Struggles of Voice, 70—72; and Victor A. Gonzáles S., Las tierras
comunales en el Ecuador (Guayaquil: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Núcleo del Guayas,
1982), 66-70.
60. Becker, “Comunas and Indigenous Protest,” 540—46.
61. A . Kim Clark, “ Shifting Paternalism in Indian-State Relations, 1895—1950,” in
Highland Indians and the State, ed. Clark and Becker, 98—103.
62. It is unclear precisely at what point it regained its holdings on the upper reaches
of Pichincha, but, by 1928, the community once again controlled Rosaspamba and Cata-
loma, two of the disputed territories. See SNA-M TRH/Tierras, 191:5.
63. Kingman Garcés, La Ciudad y los otros, 155.
64. Carrera Andrade, El volcán y el colibrí, 21—22.
65. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar I (November 29,1919).
66. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar II (November 13,1922); AN E: Parroquiales, i°
Benalcázar III (November 24,1922).
67. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar V (February 17,1926).
6 8 .Ibid.
69. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar V (April 8, 1926); i° Benalcázar V I (May 6,
1928).
70. ANE: Parroquiales, Io Benalcázar I (January 12,1921).
71. ANE: Parroquiales, 1° Benalcázar II (March 28,1922).
72. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar II (October 5,1922).
73. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar IV (January 14,1925).
74. SNA-MTRH/Tierras 191:5 (May 7,1930).
75. ANE: Protocolos, Notaría i°, 549:334^ (May 28,1917); 549:404 (June 26,1917).
76. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar IV (April 23,1925).
77. ANE: Parroquiales, 1° Benalcázar V I (April 24,1933).
78. ANE: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar II (October 28,1922).
79. ANE: Protocolos, Notaría30, 193:761 (M arch28,1926).
80. AN E: Parroquiales, i° Benalcázar V I (November 18,1926).
81. SNA-MTRH/Tierras 191:5 (September 20,1930—October 8,1930).
82. Nicolás Tipantoctato Ministro del Interior, SNA-M TRH/Tierras 191:5 (March
25,1931).
83. Documentation of the saga summarized in the text can be found in a series of
depositions and peitions included in SNA-M TRH /Tierras 191:5 (April 26, 1928—June
25,1930) as well as in summary form in a letter José Federico Tumipamba crafted years
later, found in SNA-MTRH/Tierras 179:13.
84. The original text reads, “los sagrados derechos que nos legaron nuestros ante­
pasados aborígenes en orden a la conservación de las tierras de propiedad de todos y
cada uno de los comuneros.” José Gabriel Collahuaso to Ministro de Previsión Social,
SNA-M TRH/Tierras 191:5 (April 26,1928).
85. The original text reads, “ la completa anarquía y desorden,” and “otros incautos
comuneros también seguirán camino de los desleales que han hecho las ventas." Fed­
 Notes to Pages 202-212 / 261

erico Tumipamba to M inistro de Previsión Social, SN A-M TRH /Tierras 191:5 (April
26,1928).
86. Pedro Camacho to M inistro de Previsión Social, SN A -M TRH /Tierras 191:5
(May 3,1928).
87. Ibid.
88. José Antonio Tum ipam ba to M inistro de Previsión Social, SN A -M T R H /
Tierras 191:5 (May 2,1930). See also SNA-M TRH/Tierras 179:13.
89. Luis Tumipamba Deposition, SNA-M TRH/Tierras 191:5 (May 30,1930).
90. Contribución sobre predios rústicos, SNA-M TRH /Tierras 191:5 (October 25,
1927).
91. Juan Alberto Tumipamba to Ministro de lo Interior, SNA-M TRH /Tierras 191:5
(January 24,1931).
92. Williams, “Popular Liberalism,” 728—29.
93. “Ley de Organización y Régimen de las Comunas,” 1518—19.
94. SNA-M TRH/Tierras 191:5.
95. SNA-M TRH/Tierras 179:13.
96. “ El IV Centenario de Atahualpa,” El comercio, August 21,1933; “Programa de la
Sociedad de Albañiles,” El comercio, August 28,1933.
97. Mercedes Prieto, “Los indios y la nación: historias y memorias en disputa,” in
Celebraciones centenarias y negociaciones por la nación ecuatorianas (Quito: FLACSO, 2010).
98. The original text reads, “su buena organización y, entre otras cosas, por ser una
de las primeras que obtuvo personería jurídica en el Ecuador, en los últimos días del
Gobierno del señor General Eloy Alfaro, precursor que fue de la moderna legislación
protectora a las comunidades campesinas.” José Gabriel Collahuaso to Ministro de Pre­
visión Social, SNA-M TRH/Tierras 191:5 (July 12,1940).
99. José Domingo Laso, Quito a la vista (Quito: J. D. Laso and J. R. Cruz, 1911).
100. Hidalgo and Bedoya, “Guayaquil y Quito,” 169—79.
101. This success stands in contrast to the experiences of other subaltern popula­
tions in the city’s environs. See Ernesto Capello, “City Fragments: Space and Nostalgia
in Modernizing Quito, 1885—1942” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2005),
170—82, esp. 178—82.
102. Rappaport, Politics of Memory, 24.

P o stsc rip t

1. For a biographical sketch o f García Muñoz, see César Augusto Alarcón Costa,
Diccionario biográfico ecuatoriano (Quito: FED/Editorial Raices, 2000), 502—3.
2. Ernesto Alban Mosquera, Estampas quiteñas (Quito: Editorial “ Fray Jodoco
Ricke,” 1949). For a short history of the development of the estampa as a theatrical form,
see Descalzi, Historia critica del teatro ecuatoriano, 3:986—1017.
3. http://www.youtube.eom/user/ruthximena#play/uploads (accessed September 1,
2009).
4. Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,” 159—60. See also Bakhtin, Rabelais.
262 \ Notes to Pages 212-214

5. The original text reads, “Hubiera deseado contemplar ese Arco antiguamente,
antes del advenimiento de la luz eléctrica. Figúrome que habrá sido sitio especial para
citas amorosas, emboscadas de ‘ganster’ y puñaladas a mansalva. Ahora, la civilización,
con sus ‘osrams’ potentes, desflora la oscuridad impidiendo que en las sombras se ame,
se robe y se asesine.” Alfonso García Muñoz, Estampas de mi ciudad (Quito: Imprenta
Nacional, 1936), 125. Osram was and is an American brand of lightbulbs.
6. Adam Sharman has made this point with regard to modernismos development.
See Sharman, Tradition and Modernity in Spanish American Literature, esp. chap. 4.
7. Bakhtin, “Forms of Time,” 254. This argument has a strong association with the
Heideggerian conception of the work of art, within which the figure o f the preserver is
considered paramount to the ongoing existence of the “world” set up by the work. See
“Origin of the Work of Art,” in M artin Heidegger, Poetry, Language, Thought (New York:
Harper & Row, 1971), 66—68.
8. 1 treat this subject in Capello, “City Fragments,” chap. 8.
9. On major and minor chronotopes, see Bakhtin, “Forms of Time”; Ladin, “Flesh­
ing Out the Chronotope”; and Bemong and Borghart, “Bakhtin’s Theory o f the Literary
Chronotope,” in Bakthin’s Theory, ed. Bemong et al., 7-8.
 Selected Bibliography

A r c h i v a l C o ll e c t i o n s

Q u it o

AGJ Archivo Gangotena Jijón

AHBC/Q Archivo Histórico del Banco Central del Ecuador
Colección Fotográfica; Fondo Jijón y Caamaño
AHM Archivo Histórico Metropolitano
ANE Archivo Nacional del Ecuador
Casas; Civiles; Criminales; Indígenas; Mapoteca; Protocolos;
Parroquiales
BCBCE Biblioteca Cultural del Banco Central del Ecuador
Fondo Jijón y Caamaño
BEAEP Biblioteca Ecuatoriano “Aurelio Espinosa Pólit”
Hojas Volantes; Mapoteca
MC/D Museo de la Ciudad, Colección Durini

263
264 \ Selected Bibliography

SNA-M TRH Sistema Nacional de Archivos-M inisterio de Trabajo y

Recursos Humanos
Tierras

U n it e d S t a t e s

LOC/GM Library of Congress, Geography & Map Division

LOC/PP Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
N YPL New York Public Library
Colección de leyes, decretos, ordenanzas, resoluciones y
contratos, concernientes a esta municipalidad [Guayaquil],
1890—1926; Map Collection

N e w sp a p e rs a n d M a g a z in e s

Alas (Quito), 1934-1935

América (Quito), 1925—1942
Bagatelas: Revista quincenal festiva (Quito), 1922
Boletín de la Exposición (Quito), 1909
Boletín de Obras Públicas (Quito), 1943
Boletín de la Sociedad Geográfica de Quito (Quito), 1911
Boletín de Sociedad de Técnicos y Constructores (Quito), October 1926
Boletín Semanal Universidad Popular “Llamarada" (Quito), 1930
Caricatura (Quito), 1921—1924,1950
Claridad (Quito), 1925
El comercio (Quito), selected months, 1906—1944
El debate (Quito), selected months, 1939—1944
El día (Quito), selected months, 1925—1942
La era moderna (Quito), 1911
Gaceta municipal (Quito), 1910—1943
La guitarra (Quito), 1888
Hélice (Quito), 1926
Letras (Quito), 1912—1918
El municipio (Quito), 1885-1908
El obrero (Quito), 1933—1934
Registro civil (Quito), selected months, 1900—1942
Registro municipal (Quito), 1909
Revista de Quito (Quito), 1898
Rieles (Quito), 1929—1931
Semana gráfica (Guayaquil), 1934
Unión iberoamericana (Quito), 1888
Vanguardia (Quito), 1931
 Selected Bibliography / 265

P r im a r y S o u rc e s

Alban Mosquera, Ernesto. Estampas quiteñas. Quito: Editorial “Fray Jodoco Ricke," 1949.
Alfaro, Eloy. Mensaje del Presidente de la República al Poder Legislativo sobre Exposición
Nacional. Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1908.
Andrade, Raúl. “Retablo de una generación decapitada.” In El perfil de la quimera: siete
ensayos literarios, 65-105. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1951.
Andrade, Roberto. Pacho Villamar. 1900. Reprint, Quito: Clásicos Ariel, n.d.
----------. ¿Quién mató a García Moreno?: autobiografía de un perseguido. Quito: Abya-
Yala, 1994.
----------. ¡Sangre! ¿Quién la derramó? (historia de los últimos crímenes cometidos en la nación
del Ecuador). Quito: El Quiteño Libre, 1912.
----------. Seis de agosto o sea muerte de García Moreno. Portoviejo, Ecuador: Oficina
Tipográfica del Colegio “Olmedo,” 1896.
Andrade Coello, Alejandro. Del Quito antiguo. Quito: Imprenta “Ecuador,” 1935.
----------. Manuel J. Calle, orientaciones periodísticas. Quito: Imprenta “Ecuador,” 1919.
----------. Motivos nacionales (crónicas quiteñas). Vol. 2. Quito: Imprenta de la Escuela de
Artes y Oficios, 1927.
Barrera, Isaac. Del vivir: reflexiones de juventud. Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana, 1972.
----------. Estudios sobre modernismo literario: publicado en el Diario El Comercio 1 Enero 1910
—10 de Abril 1910. Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1971.
----------. Relación de las fiestas del primer centenario de la batalla de Pichincha, 1822-1922.
Quito: Talleres Tipográficos Nacionales, 1922.
Baudelaire, Charles. “ The Painter o f Modern Life.” In The Painter ofModern Life and
Other Essays, by Charles Baudelaire, translated and edited by Jonathan Mayne,
1—40. London: Phaidon Press, 1964.
Bemelmans, Ludwig. The Donkey Within. New York: Viking Press, 1941.
Borja, Arturo, Humberto Fierro, and Ernesto Noboa Caamaño. Otros modernistas.
Quito: Ariel, n.d.
Bustamante, José Rafael. Para matar el gusano. 1913. Reprint, Quito: Editorial Casa de la
Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1960.
Calle, Manuel J. Un forzado de las letras: antología de Manuel J. Calle. Edited by Diego
Araujo. Quito: Ediciones del Banco Central del Ecuador, 1998.
--------- . Leyendas del tiempo heroico: episodios de la guerra de la independencia. Guayaquil:
Imp. de “El Telégrafo,” 1905.
Campos, José Antonio. Cosas de mi tierra. Guayaquil: Imprenta Garay, 1929.
--------- . Linterna mágica. Guayaquil and Quito: Ariel, n.d.
Capelo, J. Alejo. El crimen del 15 de noviembre de 1922. Guayaquil: Litografía e Impr. de la
Universidad de Guayaquil; Librería y distribuidora Continental, 1983.
Carrera Andrade, Jorge. El volcán y el colibrí: autobiografía. Quito: Corporación Editora
Nacional, 1989.
266 \ Selected Bibliography

Centro de Estudios Pedagógicos e Hispanoamericanos de Panamá. Summary of Ten

Lectures on Ecuadorian Art by José Gabriel Navarro. Panama City: Centro de Estudios,
1935-
Chiriboga Alvear, Manuel. Resumen histórico de la Sociedad “Artística e Industrial del
Pichincha," 1892—1917. Quito: Encuadernación Nacionales, 1917.
Chiriboga N., A. I., and Georges Perrier. Las misiones científicas francesas en el Ecuador:
1735—1744; 1899—1906. Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1936.
Compañía “Guía del Ecuador.” El Ecuador, Guía comercial, agrícola e industrial de la
república. Guayaquil: E. Rodenas, 1909.
Cuerpo de leyes de la República de Colombia. Caracas: Valentín Espinal, 1840.
Davila, Aurelio. El 25 de abril de 1907: recuerdos históricos. Guayaquil: “Popular,” 1909.
Diario de Avisos. El Ecuador en Chicago. New York: A . E. Chasmar, 1894.
Dietz, Robert Erwin. A Leaffrom the Past. New York: R. E. Dietz Company, 1913.
Espinosa, José Modesto. Obras completas. Vol. i, Artículos de costumbres. Freiburg,
Germany: B. Herder, 1899.
Franklin, Albert B. Ecuador: Portrait of a People. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran,
1943.
Gangotena y Jijón, Cristóbal. Al margen de la historia: leyendas de frailes, picaros y
caballeros. Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1924.
García Muñoz, Alfonso. Estampas de mi ciudad. Quito: Imprenta Nacional, 1936.
--------- . Estampas de mi ciudad. Vol. 2. Quito: Imprenta de Educación, 1937.
----------. Estampas de mi ciudad. Vol. 3. Quito: Ediciones Patria, 1941.
Gento Sanz, Benjamín. Guia del turista en la iglesia y convento de San Francisco de Quito.
Quito: Imprenta Americana, 1940.
González Suárez, Federico. Carta del limo, y Rmo. Sr. Dr. D. Federico González Suárez,
Obispo de Ibarra, á su Vicario General, explicada por el mismo autor. Quito: Tip. de la
Escuela de Artes y Oficios, 1900.
----------. Historia general de la República del Ecuador. 7 vols. 1890—1903. Reprinted in 3
vols. Quito: Edit. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1969—1971.
--------- . Memorias íntimas. Quito: Editorial Gutenberg, 1931.
----------. Obras oratorias. Quito: AYM ESA , 1992.
Gran guía de la República del Ecuador, S.A. Quito: Tip. Fernández, 1936.
Holguín Balcázar, Froilán. Mi capricho de hacerme hombre. Guayaquil: Editorial
Senefelder, 1936.
Icaza, Jorge. Cholos. 1937. Reprint, Quito: Libresa, 1993.
--------- . ¿Cuál es? Sin sentido. Quito: Su Librería, 1979.
--------- . En las calles. 1935. Reprint, Quito: Editorial El Conejo, 1985.
--------- . Huasipungo. 1934. Reprint, Quito: Libresa, 1983.
Jaramillo Alvarado, Pió. El indio ecuatoriano, jr d ed. Quito: Talleres Gráficos del Estado,
1936.
--------- . “El nuevo Tahuantinsuyo.” América 11 (1936): 153—58.
--------- . Estudios históricos. Quito: Editorial Artes Gráficas, 1934.
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Jijón y Caamaño, Jacinto. "La ecuatorianidad.” In Estudios básicos sobre la nacionalidad

ecuatoriana, 105—46. Quito: Centro de Estudios Históricos del Ejercito, 1998.
----------. Influencia de Quito en la emancipación del continente americano: la independencia
(1809—1824). Quito: Imprenta de la Universidad Central, 1924.
----------. Política conservadora. Vol. 1. Riobamba: La Buena Prensa del Chimborazo, 1929.
----------. Política conservadora. Vol. 2. Quito, 1934.
----------. Sebastián de Benalcázar. 3 vols. 1936—1950. Reprint, Quito: Corporación de
Estudios y Publicaciones, 1983.
Manifiesto de la Junta Patriótica Nacional. Quito: Imprenta y encuadernación nacionales,
1910.
Mariátegui, José Carlos. Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana. Lima, 1928.
Reprint, Montevideo: Biblioteca de Marcha, 1970.
Martínez, Luís A. A la costa. 1904. Reprint, Quito: Clásicos Ariel, n.d.
----------. Andinismo, arte y literatura. Quito: Abya-Yala—Nuevos Horizontes, 1994.
Menéndez Pelayo, M arcelino. Espistolario. Múltiple vols. M adrid: Fundación
Universitaria Española, 1981—1989.
Mera, Juan León. Juan León Mera: antología esencial, edited by Xavier Michelena. Quito:
Banco Central/Abya-Yala, 1994.
Mercado, Pedro de. Historia de la Provincia del Nuevo Reino y Quito de la Compañía de Jesús,
vol. 3. Bogotá: Biblioteca de la Provincia de Colombia, 1957.
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 Index

A c a d e m ia N a c io n a l de H is to ria , x v iii, 4 8, 6 2, 7 0 —73, (1909); L ib era l R e v o lu tio n ; S a n ta C la ra d e S a n

76 —78, 82, 215—16
A c h ig , L u c a s , x x , 86
A c o s ta y L a ra , A r m a n d o , 10 9 —10
a g u a rd ie n te , 7 7 ,1 5 4 ,1 6 6 ; ro y a l m o n o p o ly o n , 14 9 ,
183; ta x a tio n o f, 9, 9 1, 2 3 9 ^ 2 ,2 4 1 1 1 6 3 . S e e a lso
alcabala ta x e s; R e b e llio n o f th e B a rrio s
A g u ila , A n s e lm o d e l, 119
A g u ila r , P a u l, 1 4 1 , 1 4 4
A g u ile r a M a lta , D e m e trio , 16 7
A ifia fa m ily , 2 0 0 - 2 0 1
A la m e d a P ark , 9 1 ,1 5 5 ,1 6 6 ,1 9 6 , 217; B o liv a r sta tu e
in , 2 12 ; fo u n ta in o f, 19 6; g a rd e n s o f, 3 4 —3 5 ,1 2 0 ;
G e o d e sic M o n u m e n t, 4 2 , 4 4 , 56; p a s tu r e la n d ,
3 0 , 3 2 . See also N a tio n a l O b se rv a to ry
A lb e r t i, L e o n B a ttis ta , 5
alcabala ta x e s, 7 ,1 8 2 —84; R e b e llio n o f th e A lc a b a la s
(1592), 7 ,1 4 9 ,1 8 2
A lfa ro , E lo y , 1 4 - 1 8 ; c a rto g ra p h ic su p p o rt, 4 0 - 4 2 ;
d e a th o f 1 8 ,1 9 1 ; e x ile o f, 1 4 , 1 6 , 1 9 ; L ib e ra l P a rty
a n d , 17, 6 9 ,12 4 ; L ib e ra l R e v o lu tio n a n d 15 , 69,
14 7 ; r iv a lr y w ith L e o n id a s P la z a , 1 8 , 1 2 4 ,1 2 9 ,
13 5 ,15 3 ; u rb a n p o lic ie s o f, 18 , 85, 94—95. See also
G u a y a q u il-Q u ito R a ilw a y ; N a tio n a l E x p o sitio n
M illá n
A lta r M o u n ta in , 5 9 ,17 6
A lm a g ro , D ieg o d e , 6 ,7 7 , 80
A m a g u a ñ a , T rá n s ito , 193
A m a r u , T u p a c , 9 ,18 4
A m b a to , 1 4 ,1 3 3 ,1 3 5 ,1 7 2 ,1 7 7 ,1 9 1
A n d e a n reg io n . See h ig h la n d s
A n d e s T e n n is C lu b . See D u rin i C áce re s, P edro
an d e site sto n e, 8 1,13 9 —4 1
A n d ra d e , C arlo s. See Kanela
A n d ra d e , R a ú l, 15 9 ,2 5 in 4 2
A n d ra d e , R o b e rto , 18 ,1 6 3 ,1 6 7 ,1 7 4 ; Pacho V illam ar as
co u n ter-ca rto g ra p h y , 1 4 8 ,1 5 1 - 5 4 , 1 7 7
A n d ra d e C o e llo , A le ja n d ro , 2 2 ,15 6 —5 7 ,16 1,1 6 7 ,
25on 32
A n d ra d e M a rin , C a rlo s, 1 0 8 - 9
A n d ra d e M a r in , F ra n cisco , 9 1—93, 97—98, 2 3 9 ^ 5 ,
241^6
A n g lo -F re n c h S y n d ica te , 1 0 1 - 2 ,1 9 6
a n tic le ric a lism , 1 2 ,1 7 , 7 0 —7 1 , 1 0 0 , 1 2 4 , 1 2 7
A ñ a q u ito P la in s, 6, 4 4 , 4 6 ,19 6 ; B attle o f (1546), 14 9 ;
d evelop m en t o f, 5 3 ,1 0 1 ; in d ia n s o f, 18 7 ,19 6 ;
Jo n es O d rio zo la P la n a n d , 113 ;

283
 284 \ Index
A ñ a q u ito P la in s (cont.), Je su it h a cie n d as in , 183. See
also P iz a rro , G o n z a lo ; S a n ta C la ra d e S a n M illá n
A ra b e sq u e sty le . See D u rin i C áceres, F ra n cisco
M an u el
A rg e n tin a , 6 6 ,1 0 7 ,1 2 2 ,1 6 4 . See also B uen os A ires
A rie lis m o . See R o d ó , Jo sé E n riq u e
A rr o y o d e l R io , C a rlo s, 1 3 3 ,2 1 1 , 2591x58
a rt d eco, 13 9 —40
a rt n ou ve a u . See stile floreale
A ta h u a lp a , 6 - 7 , 28; In c a n o b ility a n d , 37; lite ra ry
rep resen tatio n of, 176; lost tre asu re o f, 28;
m e m o ry a n d co m m em o ra tio n o f, 3 7 ,14 6 , 20 5—6;
as Q u iteñ o , 7
A u d ie n c ia o f Q u ito , 7, 9—1 1 ,3 3 ; a rts a n d 8 ,1 2 0 ;
a g u a rd ie n te p ro d u c tio n , 14 9 - 5 0 , 2 5 7 ^ 0 ;
eco n o m y o f, 7, 9 ,1 4 9 - 5 0 ,1 8 2 - 8 3 ; e th n ic strife ,
18 3—85; F ra n c o -H isp a n ic m issio n an d , 32 ,
14 9 —50 ; m e m o ry o f, 69; p o litic s o f, 88
ava n t-g a rd e , x ix , 7 1; L a tin A m e ric a n m o d e rn ism
a n d , 157, 234n 23; p u b lish in g p o ssib ilities,
24 9 n 25; re vo lu tio n a ry p olitics a n d , 16 5 ,16 7 ,17 6
A v e n id a 18 de sep tiem b re, 10 2 ,1 9 6 ,1 9 8 ; as A ve n id a 10
d e ag osto , 209
A v e n id a C o ló n , streetcars, 1 0 0 ,1 0 8 ,1 7 3 ,1 9 6 - 9 9 ,2 0 9
A y o ra , Isid ro , 2 1 , 5 1 , 5 3 , 1 1 2 , 1 9 2 - 9 3 , 1 0 4 - 5 , 2 ° 5C a y a m b e , 1 7 6 ,1 8 1 ,1 9 2 —9 4 , 2 0 2 , 208
B a k h tin , M ik h a il, x v i, 1 4 8 ,1 6 0 —6 1, 2 12 —13
B a lse c a , F e rn a n d o , 15 0 , 24 8n i7
B an co d el P ic h in c h a , 2 0 ,10 8 ,19 7 , 20 4. See also D u rin i
C áce re s, F ra n cisco M an u el
B a rre ra, Isaac, 48, 80; Ju n ta del C en te n a rio an d,
7 2 - 7 3 , 1 0 1 ; lite ra ry c ritic ism , 7 1 ,1 5 3 ,1 5 6 - 5 7 C e n tro E c u a to ria n o d e l O b rero C a tó lic o (C E D O C ).
B a r rio d el C en te n a rio . See C iu d a d e la M a r isc a l S u cre
B a rrio O brero, 8 0 ,1 0 7
B a ta lla s, A lb e rto , 2 0 0 ,2 0 3 - 4
B eck er, M a rc , 18 1 ,1 9 3 - 9 5
B elle É p o q u e, 9 7 ,119
B em elm an s, L u d w ig , 14 1
B en a lc á za r, S e b a stiá n de, x iii, 6; c u lt to, 8 2 ,1 12 ;
q u a d ric e n te n n ia l o f Q u ito fo u n d in g , 7 7 - 7 8 ,
8 0 -8 1
B e n á lc a z a r p arish , 48, 5 0 ,1 0 1 ,1 9 9
B o g o tá , 1 0 ,1 8 3 - 8 4 , 2 1 1
B o líva r, S im ó n , 4, 53, 63, 90; G ra n C o lo m b ia an d , 1 1 ,
32 ; Q u ito sta tu e o f, 5 8 ,10 3 , 212 ; trib u te p olicies,
1 1 ,1 8 6 . See also C o lo m b ia ; trib u te ; Su cre,
A n to n io Jo sé d e; V en ezu ela
B o n ifa z , N e p ta li, 2 1 ,1 7 0 , 2 5 3 ^ 7
B o rja , A rtu ro , 154
B o u rb o n R e fo rm s, 9, 8 8 ,18 2 ,18 5
B ra z il, 19 , 4 1 , 1 1 0 , 1 1 9 , 1 2 2 , 1 4 5 , 233n i9- See also R io
de Ja n e iro
B ru n in g , Pedro H u b erto, 12 1, 245ni5
B uen os A ire s, 54 , 66, 87, 9 9 ,1 1 9 ,2 1 4
b u llfig h ts , x iii, 77, 82
B u rle M a r x , R o b e rto , 145
B u sta m a n te , Jo sé R a fa e l, 15 4 - 5 6 ,1 6 3 - 6 4 ,1 7 7 ,2 1 7 , ch ro n ic le rs. S e e cronistas
249n25
B u sto s, G u ille rm o , x x , 81—82
cabildo. See M u n ic ip a l C o u n c il o f Q u ito ; S a n ta C la ra
de S a n M illá n
cacao , 9 —1 2 ,1 5 —1 7 ,19 —20 ; lab or p o litics an d , 20 ,
10 3 ,19 2 ; in d u s try d e c lin e , 19 —2 0 ,19 7 , 2 2 4 ^ 2 ,
2 2 5 n n 5 i- 5 2 ; p la n ta tio n s 3 7 , 1 5 2 ,1 9 1 . See also
G u a y a q u il
C á c e re s, Ju a n a , 12 2
C a c u a n g o , D olores, 193
C a lle , M a n u e l J., 1 8 , 1 0 3 , 1 4 7 —48
C a m p o s, Jo sé A n to n io 2 2 ,1 5 6 —57
C a p u rro , P ie tro , 1 3 2 - 3 3 ,1 3 6 , 2 4 6 n 4 3, 2 4 7 n 4 4
C a ra b u ro p y ra m id , 55
c a rn iv a le s q u e , x iii, x v i, 1 6 0 ,1 6 3 , 2 1 2 , 2 5 in 4 7
C a r re r a A n d ra d e , Jo rg e, 18 , 45
casco colonial. S e e centro
C a s te lls , M a n u e l, x x , 86
C a s t ilia n , 5, 7 6 ,14 2
C a th o lic C h u rc h , x v i—x v ii, 12 ; a rc h ite c tu re a n d , 28,
7 3 , 8 0 , 1 0 0 , 1 2 0 —2 1 ,1 2 7 , 2 4 5 n i5 ; c a rto g ra p h y
a n d , 32 , 3 4 , 4 1, 54—55; c o n q u est an d ,
6 2—63; H is p a n is m a n d , 64—65, 70 ; in d ig en o u s
co m m u n itie s a n d , 18 6 - 8 7 ; lib e ra lis m a n d , 10 ,
1 4 ,1 7 , 4 4 , 69, 7 1 ,1 5 1 ; n a tio n b u ild in g a n d , 12 ,
7 0 —72; u rb a n a lleg o rie s a n d , x v i, 5 —6, 26. See
also C o n s e r v a tiv e P a rt y ; D o m in ic a n o rd e r;
F ra n c isca n ord e r; G a rc ia M o re n o , G a b rie l; Je s u it
ord e r; Jijó n y C a a m a ñ o , Ja c in to
C e n tra l B a n k o f E c u a d o r, 2 1, 8 1 , 1 0 4 ,1 4 0
C e n tra l U n iv e rsity . See U n iv e rsid a d C e n tra l
centro, 8 1, 96, 9 8 ,13 6 ; p re s e rv a tio n o f, 8 2 - 8 4 ,1 0 9 ;
fic tio n a l re p resen ta tio n o f, 15 7 ,16 4
C e n tro C a tó lic o d e O b reros. See C e n tro O brero
C ató lic o
See C e n tro O b rero C ató lic o
C e n tro O b rero C a tó lic o (C O C ), 2 0 —2 1, 7 1 ,1 5 3 , 206
C ham bo, 7
C h a m p s -E ly sé e s, x x , 99
C h a ve s, F e rn a n d o , 16 7—6 8 ,1 9 1 —92
C h a ve z F ra n co , M o d e sto , 22
C h ica g o C o lu m b ia n E x p o sitio n (1893), 16 , 3 7 - 3 8 , 53
chicherías, 8 9 ,1 0 0 ,1 9 2
C h ile , 7 , 1 6 , 1 0 0 , 1 0 8 , 1 7 3 , 2 2 5 n 4 0
C h illo V a lle y , 8, 2 0 , 1 0 7 , 1 1 3 , 1 8 3 , 1 9 5 , 2 0 0 . See also
C h illo -Jijó n In d u s trie s; Jijó n y C a a m a ñ o , Ja c in to
C h illo -Jijó n In d u s trie s, 2 0 ,1 0 7
C h im b a c a lle , 48, 53, 98—1 0 0 , 1 7 1 ; tra in sta tio n , x iv ,
1 0 0 ,1 7 3 ,1 9 7
C h im b o ra z o P ro v in c e , 1 8 6 ,1 9 0 ,1 9 3 —94; p u b lish in g
h o u se , 54 ; vo lc a n o , 176
C h in a , 1 4 7 , 2 2 5 ^ 0
C h irib o g a , E n riq u e , 19 8 - 9 9 , 2 0 2 . See also D el M az o ,
D o m in g o ; H a c ie n d a P a m b a c h u p a ; S a n ta C la ra
de S a n M illá n
C h irib o g a , M a n u e l, 189 . See also D el M az o ,
D o m in g o ; H a c ien d a P a m b a c h u p a ; S a n ta C la ra
d e S a n M illá n
cholo. See m e stiz o
chulla, 2 1 1—12 , 2 4 8 n i4
C h u rc h , F re d e rick E d w in , 14
C írc u lo M ilit a r , 1 3 4 , 1 3 6 , 1 3 8 - 4 0 , 1 4 4 - 4 5 . See also
D u rin i C á c e re s, F ra n c isco M a n u e l
C iu d a d e la A m é ric a , 1 0 1 ,1 9 7
C iu d a d e la L a rre a , 9 8 ,1 0 1 , 1 9 6 —97

C iu d a d e la M a r is c a l S u c r e , 4 8 , 1 4 1 , 1 4 5 , 1 8 1 , 1 9 7
C iu d a d e la P ic h in c h a , 2 0 4 —5
civitas, 25, 27, 46 , 48
C la rk , A . K im , x v ii, 18 , 9 5 , 1 5 1 ,1 9 4 —95
coastal region, xv, 1 1 —15, 29. 34- 9 8 .13 5.153 ;
eco n om y o f, 1 1 , 1 8 , 1 0 4 , 1 9 1 , 2 2 4 ^ 2 ; lite ra ry
re p resen ta tio n , 1 8 , 1 5 1 ,1 5 6 ,1 6 7 , 1 7 2 , 2 5 o n 29 ;
r iv a lr y w ith A n d e a n re g io n , x v ii, 1 , 1 2 , 1 8 . See also
L ib e ra l P a rty ; h ig h la n d s
cob b leston e, 78, 9 2, 97—9 9 ,1 5 5 ,16 5 , 24 o n 4 8 . See also
p av in g
C o le g io d e S a n G a b rie l, Q u ito , 1 3 ,1 8 , 3 4 , 7 1 ,1 5 3
C o lla h u a so , Jo sé G a b rie l, 18 0 , 2 16 ; A ta h u a lp a
m o n u m en t a n d , 2 0 5 —6; m a n ip u la tio n o f h isto ry ,
20 3 , 20 6 ; n e p o tism a n d , 2 0 2 - 3 ; S a n ta C la ra
c a b ild o p re sid e n t, 2 0 0 - 2 0 3 ; T u m ip a m b a fa m ily
a n d , 18 0 , 2 0 0 - 2 0 3 . See also S a n ta C la r a d e S a n
M illá n ; T u m ip a m b a , Jo sé F e d e ric o
C o lo m a S ilv a , A lb e rto , 15 6 ,1 5 9 ,1 6 3 , 2 14
C o lo m b ia , 7, 45, 5 4 ,1 0 0 , 2 0 7 —8; c o n se rv a tiv e
in v a sio n in 19 0 0 ,1 7 , 7 0 ; e co n o m y o f, 18 ,1 0 4 ;
E c u a d o ria n e x ile in , 14 , 2 1, 7 2 , 1 5 1 ; G ra n
C o lo m b ia , 1 1 , 3 2 - 3 3 , 6 3 ,1 2 0 ; in d ig en o u s
p o p u la tio n s , 186 ; S p a in re la tio n s w ith , 64. See
also B o g o tá ; B o lív a r, S im ó n ; Pop ayán
C o m ité F ra n c e -A m e r iq u e, 55, 73
C o m ité F ra n c o -E c u a to r ia n o , 142
c o m m u n a l la n d s , x ix ; c o n flic ts re g a rd in g , 18 8 —90,
19 2 ; in d ig en o u s c o n tro l o f, 1 7 9 , 1 9 2 , 1 9 5 , 2 0 0 -
2 0 2 , 2 0 5, 20 7, 215; state a n d , 18 6 —8 7 ,1 9 1 ,1 9 3 —94,
20 8; u rb a n e n cro a c h m e n t o n , 18 0
c o m m u n icen tric m a p p in g , 6, 25, 40 4 8 , 58
c o m m u n ism ,18 1 ,1 9 3 . See also s o c ia lism ; S o c ia lis t
P a rty o f E c u a d o r
C o m te , A u g u s te . See p o s itiv ism
comuneros, 17 9 ,18 6 —8 7 ,1 9 1—9 2 , 1 9 9 - 2 0 2 , 2 0 7 —8,
2 6 o n n 8 4 —85. See also L e y d e C o m u n a s (1937)
C o n ce jo M u n ic ip a l. See M u n ic ip a l C o u n c il
concertaje, 1 2 ,1 9 1 ; e ra d ic a tio n o f, 2 0 ,1 9 1 ; lib e ra l
op p o sitio n to, 1 5 ,1 7 , 1 5 1
C o n c h am b a y , N ico lá s, 196
C o n g re ss o f E c u a d o r, 1 6 ,1 7 ,1 0 7 ; b u d g e ts a n d ,
15; c o m m u n a l la n d h o ld in g a n d , 1 8 0 ,19 1 ;
In d ep en d en ce M o n u m e n t a n d , 1 2 1 , 1 2 7 —28;
L ib e ra l p o litic s a n d , 12 4 ; m u n ic ip a l p o litic s
a n d , 87, 9 0 —93; 9 8 , 1 0 1 , 1 0 3 , 1 0 8 —9, N a tio n a l
A c a d e m y o f H is to ry a n d , 71
C o n q u e st, th e, x ix , 6, 6 2—63, 69, 7 2 ,18 7
C o n q u ista d o rs, x v ii, 6, 67, 75, 8 0 —8 1, 87
C o n se rv a tiv e P a rty , 1 6 , 1 8 , 1 0 0 ; h ig h la n d p o litic a l
d o m in a n c e , 1 1 —12 , 88, 95; H is p a n is m o f , 62,
7 1—7 2, 82, 215; in te lle c tu a l v ie w s o f, 15 , 67, 80,
14 4 ; la b o r p o litic s o f, 2 0 ,7 1 ; L ib e ra l R e v o lu tio n
a n d , 1 6 - 1 7 , 6 9 - 7 0 , 96, 9 8 ,1 4 7 - 4 8 ,1 5 1 —53;
m u n ic ip a l p o litic s o f, 84, 86—87, 9 0 . 1 1 1 —13 ,
20 5, 215; Q u ito a n d , 18, 85; re g en e ra tio n o f, 10 3 ,
1 0 5 - 7 , 1 1 1 ; s o c ia l vie w s o f, 6 9 ,1 4 8 ,1 9 2 , 2 0 6 . See
also C a th o lic C h u rc h ; G a rc ia M o re n o , G a b rie l;
G o n z á le z S u á r e z , F e d e ric o ; Jijó n y C a a m a ñ o ,
Ja cin to
C o n s titu tio n o f 18 12 . See C o rte s d e C á d iz
contribución personal. See trib u te
contribución su bsidiaria . See trib u te
Index / 285
C o rd ero , L u is, 1 6 ,1 2 1
C o r r a l y C h a n c le ta , E v a risto . See G a rc ía M u ñ o z ,
A lfo n so
corregim iento, 8 8 ,18 2 —86, 22 2n i5
corridas. See b u llfig h ts
C o rte s de C á d iz , 1 1 , 6 3 ,18 5
c o s m o p o lita n is m , 16 ,14 8 , 215—16 ; c a rto g ra p h y a n d ,
26, 38, 40 , 45, 58; D u rin i fa m ily a n d , 11 7 —1 8 , 1 2 1 ,
12 9 —3 0 , 1 3 6 , 1 4 1 , 1 4 6 , 216 ; d y s to p ia n ism a n d , 156,
16 0 , 215; lib e ra lis m a n d 14 , 77; u rb a n p la n n in g
a n d , 16
C o s ta R ic a , 1 1 8 , 1 2 1 —2 4 ,1 2 6 ,1 3 0 ,1 3 5 . See also D u r in i
fa m ily ; D u rin i C á c e re s, F ra n c isco M a n u e l;
D u rin i C á c e re s, P ed ro ; D u rin i V a s a lli, L o re n z o ;
D u rin i V a ss a li, F ra n c isco ; P la za G u tie r re z ,
Le o n id a s
costumbrismo, 15—16
C o to c o lla o , 4 5 ,19 6
C o to p a x i, 19 0 ,1 9 3 —94
c o u n te r-c a rto g ra p h y , 1 4 8 ,1 5 1 ,1 6 3 , 1 7 7 , 216
C ra ib , R a y m o n d , 25
C re o le s, 7, 27, 6 3 ,15 3 ,18 4
C re sp o T o ra l, R e m ig io , 80
C rio llo , E lisa , 197
cronistas, 2 2 ,1 4 7 ,1 5 6 - 5 7 ,1 5 9 ,1 6 3 , 2 11
C ro w n . See S p a in : m o n arch y
C u a d r a , Jo sé d e la , 167
C u e n c a , 9 —1 0 ,1 4 7 ; C a th o lic C h u rc h a n d , 68; c o lo n ia l
a d m in istra tio n , 10 ; eco n o m y o f, 9 ,1 5 , 1 8 ; G ra n
C o lo m b ia a n d , 32 ; in te lle c tu a l a c tiv ity , 16 ,1 5 7 ;
lib e ra l re vo lu tio n a n d , 17 ; n a tio n a l p o litic s a n d ,
1 1 —1 2 ,1 8 , 6 9 ,15 3 ,19 2 , 2 2 n i8 ; tra v e le r’s a c c o u n ts,
54
D a d a , 15 6 ,1 5 9 ,1 7 7 , 2 1 3 , 2 5 1 ^ 2
D a q u ile m a , F e rn a n d o , 19 0 , 259n 46 . See also
Y a ru q u ie s
D a río , R u b é n , 65—6 6 ,1 5 3 —54
D ’A ro n c o , R a im o n d o , 137. See also D u rin i C á c e re s,
F ra n c isco M a n u e l
d a y t r ip s , 26 , 4 5 ,5 3 - 5 4
D el M a z o , D o m in g o , 1 8 7 - 8 9 ,2 0 2 , 20 8.
D el M a z o , Ju a n a , 18 8 - 8 9 , 208
D elg a d o , Ju lio E sa u , 38
D elg a d o , R a m ó n , 18 8 - 8 9
d e v il. See S a ta n
D ia d e la R a z a . See la raza
d iv in e P ro vid e n c e, 28, 62, 65, 68
D o m in ic a n order, 8, 4 0 , 6 3, 75; p a s tu re s , 4 1 , 1 0 0 ;
sex s c a n d a l, 16 , 69. See also S a n to D o m in g o
m o n a ste ry ; V a ca s G a lin d o , E n riq u e
D u ra n ti, R e g in a ld o , 6 9 —70
D u rin i fa m ily , x ix , 1 1 4 , 1 2 1 ; b u sin e ss p ra ctic e s, x ix ,
117 —18 ; D u rin i H e rm a n o s, 12 2 —2 4 ,1 2 8 ; L . D u rin i
8c H ijo s, 12 8 —3 0 ,13 4
D u r in i, G io v a n n i (Ju an ), 122
D u r in i C á c e re s, F ra n c isco M a n u e l, 4 2 , 1 1 7 —1 8 ,1 3 4 ;
A ra b e sq u e sty le , 1 4 1 , 1 4 4 ; B an co d e l P ic h in c h a ,
8 1 , 1 3 6 ,1 3 9 —4 1 , 1 4 3 —4 4 ; C a s a M u n ic ip a l, 13 4 —35;
C írc u lo M ilita r , 1 3 8 - 4 0 ; c o lu m n to u n k n o w n
h eroes o f 1 8 2 2 ,1 0 2 ; D A r o n c o a n d , 1 4 0 ,1 4 3 ;
h y b rid ity , 12 9 ,13 5 —3 6 ,1 4 4 , 215—16 ; h y p h e n a te d
v e rn a c u la r, 11 7 —1 8 , 1 2 1 , 1 3 0 , 1 4 1 —4 2 , 1 4 4 —4 5 , 2i6 ;
286 \ Index
D u rin i C á c e re s, F ra n c isco M a n u e l (cont.), In ­
d e p en d en c e M o n u m e n t, 12 7 - 2 8 ; lib ra ry ,
13 0 ; La C o m p a ñ ía a n d , 8 1 ,1 3 9 —4 1 ; M ila n e se
s tu d ie s , 1 2 6 ,1 2 8 —2 9 , 1 3 2 - 3 4 , 1 3 6 - 3 7 , 24 7n 4 6 ;
m o d e rn is m , 1 3 7 ,14 4 ; o r ie n ta lis m , 1 4 0 ,1 4 3 - 4 4 ;
P asa je R o y a l, 1 1 6 - 1 7 , 1 3 6 —3 7 , 1 4 1 ,1 4 5 ; P ie tro
C a p u rro a n d , 136 ; v illa s , 5 1 , 1 4 1 —4 4 ,19 7 ;
w o rk sh o p , 1 1 7 ,1 3 0 . See also c o s m o p o lita n is m ;
D u r in i fa m ily ; stile floreale
D u rin i C á c e re s, Pedro , 1 1 7 - 1 8 , 1 2 9 - 3 3 , *3 5 : A n d e s
T e n n is C lu b a n d , 13 0 ,19 6 ; d e a th o f, 13 5 - 3 6 ;
e lite c o n n e c tio n s, 1 2 8 - 3 1 ; H a m b u rg stu d ie s,
1 3 0 ,13 7 ; L a rre a M a u s o le u m , 1 2 8 ,1 3 1 —33; le isu re
a c tiv itie s , 12 9 —3 1 ,1 4 5 ; P ie tro C a p u rro a n d ,
1 3 2 - 3 3 . See also c o s m o p o lita n is m ; D u rin i fa m ily
D u r in i V a s a lli, Fra n c isco , 1 1 8 , 1 2 2 , 1 2 4 —26
D u r in i V a s a lli, L o ren z o , 9 9 ,1 2 2 ,1 2 8 —2 9 ,13 6 ; C o s ta
R ic a N a tio n a l T h e a ter, 1 2 1 - 2 4 ; fre e m a so n ry
c o n ta c ts, 1 2 2 ,1 4 5 ; In d e p e n d e n ce M o n u m e n t,
99—1 0 0 , 1 0 2 , 1 1 8 , 1 2 6 - 2 7 ; L e g isla tiv e P a lace , 1 2 4 -
25; L e o n id a s P la za p atro n a ge , 1 2 1 , 1 2 4 , 1 2 8 - 2 9
Ecuador: border conflicts, 33-34. 4 0 -4 1. 51.113;
economy of, 15 ,1 9 , 53; establishment of, 11,
4 1 ; g o v e rn m e n t o f, 37, 4 0 , 8 8 - 8 9 ,1 7 9 ,1 8 1 ,1 8 7 ;
n a tio n a l s y m b o ls , 4 4 , 56, 9 9 - 1 0 0 , 1 2 7 , 1 3 4 , 1 3 9 -
4 0 ,15 0 ; p o litic s, 16 , 2 0 - 2 1 , 64, 6 7 ,1 2 4 ,1 9 2 - 9 3 ,
2 0 4 ; re g io n a lis m , x v ii, 1 - 5 , 1 8 - 1 9 , 62, 8 1, 215
E g a s, C a m ilo , 18 ,1 5 9 —60
E jid o P a rk , 19, 9 9 ,1 0 1 —2 ,1 9 7 ; lite ra ry re p resen ta tio n
o f, 15 5 ,1 6 6 ,17 3
ejidos (p a stu re lan d ), 1 8 0 ,1 8 2 - 8 3 , 1 9 0 . See also
c o m m u n a l la n d
E l A lta r. See A lt a r M o u n ta in
E l B a tá n . See H a c ien d a E l B atá n
E l Comercio (new sp aper), 7 8 - 7 9 , 8 1 , 1 0 8 - 9 , M 4 . *5 3 .
20 2, 2 11
E l D ía (new sp aper), 10 7 ,1 0 9 ,1 7 5
E l E sc o ria l. See E sc o ria l Palace
E l T e ja r, 53 , 9 7 ,16 5 —66
E n riq u e z , G e n e ra l A lb e rto , 1 0 8 - 9 , * 7 5
E q u a to r, x iii—x iv , 57, 5 9 , 1 0 9 ,1 2 8 ,1 4 6 ; Fra n co -
H is p a n ic m issio n a n d , x v iii, 26, 28 —3 0 , 32;
to u ris m a n d , 54—57, 59—60. See also F ra n c o -
H is p a n ic G e o d e sic M iss io n (1736 —17 41); F ren ch
G e o d esic M iss io n ( 19 0 1-19 0 6 ); a n d M ita d d el
M undo
E sc o ria l a tla s , 26
E sc o ria l P a lac e , 8, 74—75
E sc u d e ro , G o n z a lo , 18 ,15 9
E sc u e la de A rt e s y O ficio s, 3 3 , 1 2 0 ,1 3 4
E sc u e la de B e lla s A rte s (E B A ), 1 4 ,1 8 , 7 3 ,15 9 ;
h isto ric ist etho s o f, 1 2 1 , 1 2 4 - 2 5 , 1 3 6 —3 7 ,15 2 ;
m o d e rn is m in p a in tin g , 157. See also h isto ric ism ;
R a d ic o n c in i, G iá co m o
E sp e jo , E u g e n io , 1 0 , 1 0 1 , 1 5 0 —5 1
E sta d o M a y o r G e n e r a l (E M G ), 45” 46, 48, 5 1—5 2
E stra d a , E m ilio , 19
E x p o sic ió n Ib e ro -A m e ric a n o (M a d r id , 189 2), 37, 64
E x p o sic ió n N a c io n a l (1909), 18, 4 1, 77, 99—10 1
F a la n g ism , 2 1 ,17 5 . See also S p a in : C iv il W ar
F e d e ra c ió n E c u a to ria n a de In d io s (F E I), 2 0 4 , 2 5 9 ^ 8
F e rd in a n d V I I , K in g o f S p a in , 1 1 , 63, 8 0 ,18 6
F e rm ín C e v a llo s , P edro , 6 7 ,18 8
F e rn á n d e z -S a lv a d o r, C a r m e n , 28
fle u r-d e -lis, x iv , 2 9 ,3 2 , 4 2 , 6 0 . See also La
C o n d a m in e , C h a rle s M a rie d e
Flores y Jijó n , A n to n io , 16 , 89
Flo res, Ju a n Jo sé , 1 1 , 3 2 , 6 4, 67
F ra n ce , 9 , 1 2 , 37, 55, 73, 7 6 ,15 9 ; a rc h ite c tu ra l
in flu e n c e , 1 1 9 , 1 2 1 , 1 4 1 , 1 9 7 ; c u lt u r a l in flu e n c e s,
5 5 ,1 0 0 ,1 6 2 —64; m ilit a r y o f, 4 0 —4 1 ,5 1 ; u rb a n
p la n n in g in flu e n c e , 10 7 ,1 1 9
F ra n c is c a n o rd er, 6—8, 28, 74 , 78, 8 0 ,1 4 9 —5 0 ,18 3 . See
also S a n F ra n c isco m o n a ste ry
F ra n c o -H isp a n ic G e o d e sic M iss io n (17 36 -17 4 5 ),
x v iii, 8, 26 , 28; c o m m e m o ra tio n o f, 32 , 54 —55,
59 —6 0 . See also Ju a n , Jo rg e ; L a C o n d a m in e ,
C h a rle s M a r ie d e ; M ita d d e l M u n d o ; U llo a ,
A n to n io d e
Fre n ch G e o d esic M iss io n ( 19 0 1—19 06), 2 6 , 4 0 —4 2 , 52,
12 8 . See also P errier, G e o rg e s; R iv e t, P au l
F ra n k , W a ld o , 66, 2 3 4 ^ 3
fre e m a so n ry , 1 2 2 ,1 2 4 ,1 4 5
F re ile G a n g o te n a , E n riq u e , 19 7—98
F ro li, A d riá tic o , 12 7 —2 8 ,1 3 3 , 246n 43
G a lle g o s L a ra , Jo a q u in , 1 6 7 ,1 7 1
G a n g o te n a y Jijó n , C ristó b a l, 7 1, 8 3 - 8 4 ,1 0 1 ;
tradiciones o f, 22 , 7 3 , 1 5 6 —5 8 ,1 6 1 ,1 6 7 , 213
G a rc ía M o re n o , G a b rie l, 1 2 —15 , 3 2—3 3 . 3 6 ,19 2 ;
C a th o lic C h u rc h a n d , 1 2 —13 , 3 3 . 7 ° ; d e a th an d
m a rty rd o m , 1 4 , 1 5 1 , 2 2 4 ^ 1 ; F ra n c o p h ilia , 12 , 67;
in d ig en o u s p o lic ie s, 18 7 ,19 0 ; p an o p tic o n p riso n ,
13 ,1 9 , 8 9 ,1 2 0 ; p e d a g o g ic a l p o lic ie s, 12 , 3 3 - 3 4 ,
12 0 ,1 5 0 ; u rb a n p o lic ie s, 1 2 —13 , 8 8 -8 9
G a rc ia M o re n o S tre et, 8 1 , 1 3 9 —40
G a rc ía M u ñ o z , A lfo n s o , 2 1 1—13
G lo rio u s R e v o lu tio n (1944), 1 1 3 ,1 9 5 ,2 0 4 , 2 1 1
G o n z á le z S u á r e z , Fe d e rico , 16 —1 7 , 4 1 . 7 3 . 80, 225n 43;
a rc h b ish o p o f Q u ito , 17, 6 2 , 69—7 0 , 225n 43;
b ish o p o f Ib a rra , 16 , 4 1, 69; H is p a n is m o f, 62,
68, 2 3 5 n 3i; h isto ric a l w ritin g s, 16 , 68—7 1, 7 7 - 7 8 ,
235n 29 ; Ja c in to Jijó n y C a a m a ñ o a n d , 7 1 - 7 3 ,
153; m o d erate p o litic s o f, 17, 69—7 0 ; S o c ie d a d
G e o g rá fic a de Q u ito a n d , 4 1 —4 2 , 54
G o v e rn m e n t P a lace , 4 0 , 9 9 ,1 7 1
G ra n C o lo m b ia . See C o lo m b ia
G re a t B rita in , 19, 3 3 ,3 6 , 6 4, 7 6 ,1 0 1 - 2
G u á p u lo , 28, 4 5 , 7 6 , 236n50
G u a y a q u il, 46 , 5 4 , 9 8 ,1 2 9 , 2 2 4 ^ 3 ; b a n k in g in d u s try ,
1 5 ,2 1 .3 7 . 3 8 ,1 3 9 ; eco n o m y o f, 9 - 1 0 , 1 9 —2 1, 37, 86,
89; e lites, x v i, 1 1 , 1 9 ; fic tio n a l rep resen ta tio n s,
15 2—5 3 .17 2 ; fire o f 18 9 6 , 3 ,1 6 ; in d ep e n d e n ce
fro m S p a in , 1 1 , 63, 7 2 ,18 5 ; in te lle c tu a l a c tiv ity ,
16 , 22 , 6 3 ,15 7 ,16 3 —6 4 ,16 7 ; la b o r a c tiv ism ,
153; lib e ra lis m a n d , 1 5 ,1 7 ; m a p s o f, 3 4 , 36 , 38;
m a ssa c re o f 19 22, 2 0 ,1 0 3 ,1 5 9 ,1 9 2 ; n a tio n a l
p o litic s a n d , 1 1 —2 3 , *5. 69; p la g u e , 98; p o rt
a c tiv ity , x iv - x v , 3 3 , 1 3 3 - 3 4 ; re g io n a l ste re o ty p es,
2 —4 , 2 2 —2 3 , l 57 >r iv a lr y w ith Q u ito , 1 , 5 , 1 1 , 2 1,
32 , 69, 89
G u a y a q u il-Q u ito R a ilw a y , x iv —x v , 17 —2 0 ,3 8 , 45,
95—96, 98—1 0 0 ,1 9 6 —97
G u e r ra d e los C u a tro D ía s, 2 1, 6 2 ,1 0 7 ,1 7 0

G u e rre ro , A n d ré s , 18 1 ,18 6
G u e rre ro , Jo sé A g u s t ín , 15 ,18
G u ig n o l, 16 2 —63
H a b sb u rg m o n a rch y . See S p a in : H a b sb u rg
hacendados, 4 6 ,1 8 6 ,1 8 9 —9 1 ,19 9 , 20 4 ; fic tio n a l
re p re se n ta tio n , 16 7 ,1 6 9 —70
H a c ien d a E l B a tá n , 4 5 ,19 6
H a c ien d a T e n g u e l, 19 , 2 2 5 ^ 2
H a c ie n d a P a m b a c h u p a , 18 7 ,19 8 —9 9 ,2 0 1, 20 4 . See also
D el M a z o , D o m in g o ; D el M a z o , Ju a n a
H ard o y, Jo rg e , x x , 119
H a rle y , J. B ., 24 —25, 2 2 7 m
H a u s sm a n n , G e o rg e s -E u g è n e, 4 4 ,1 0 8 ,1 1 8
Hélice, 15 6 ,1 5 9 —6 0 ,1 6 2 ,1 6 8
H e rre ra , L u is, 46 , 4 8 —51
h ig h la n d s, x v, 1 4 —1 5 ,2 0 , 20 2; c o a s ta l r iv a lry , x v ii,
1 , 1 2 ; e co n o m y o f, 1 1 - 1 2 , 1 8 , 1 0 4 , 1 9 7 ; lite ra ry
re p resen ta tio n , 15 1—5 2 ,16 7 —6 8 ,17 4
H ig le y , H e n ry G ra n t, 3 8 - 4 0 , 4 5 , 51, 2 2 9 ^ 3
H ip p o d ro m e , 13 0 —3 1 ,1 9 6 —97
h isto ric ism : a rc h ite c tu re , 9 9 ,1 1 8 —2 1 , 1 2 5 , 1 3 6 —37, 2 14 ;
n a rra tiv e , 48, 2 14
h isto ric p re s e rv a tio n , x v iii, 4 4 ,1 0 5 ,1 0 9 , 217 ;
F ra n c isco D u r in i a n d , 14 4 ; H is p a n is m a n d , 73,
76, 8 3 - 8 4 , 2 0 9 ; Jo n e s O d rio zo la p la n a n d , 113
H is p a n is m , x v iii, 6, 6 1, 2 13 , 2 1 5 - 1 7 ; a rtistic h eritag e
a n d , 7 3 - 7 6 , 8 1 - 8 2 ,1 4 4 ; F e d e ric o G o n z á le z
S u á re z a n d , 62, 68, 7 0 —7 1; Ju a n M o n ta lv o a n d ,
67—68; Q u ito h is t o r y a n d , 62, 72 —73, S p a n ish -
A m e ric a n - C u b a n w a r a n d , 65; U N E S C O W o rld
H e rita g e S ite , 83—84; U n ite d Sta tes a n d , 66.
S e e a ls o la raza; R e a l A c a d e m ia E sp a ñ o la de la
L e n g u a , S p a in ; U n ió n Ib ero a m e ric a n a
H o lg u in B a lc á z a r, F ro ilá n , 46 , 5 1, 54 —55
h y g ien e . See s a n ita tio n
Ib án ez C u e v a s, G re g o rio , 14 9 —5 0 ,18 3
Ib e ro -A m e ric a n E x p o sitio n , 66, 7 3 ,14 8 , 233n i9
Ic a z a , Jo rg e , 18 ,1 7 7 ; E n las calles (novel), 16 8 —71;
H uasipungo (novel), 16 7—69; indigenism o o f, 14 8 ,
1 6 7 ,1 9 1. S e e a lso indigenism o
Ille sc a s, G u ille rm o , x iv —x v
In cas, 6, 28; lite ra ry d e p ic tio n s , 6 3 ,17 5 —76;
n a tio n a lis t im a g e ry , 37, 63, 2 0 6 , 216 ; Q u ito
se ttle m e n t, 6 —7, 7 2 , 78
indigenism o, x ix , 56, 62; a rc h ite c tu r a l re v iv a lis m , 14 5;
lite ra tu re a n d , 1 6 7 - 6 8 ,1 7 1 , 1 7 4 , 1 7 6 - 7 7 ; p a in tin g
a n d , 1 8 ,15 9 —6 0; p o litic s o f, 7 2 , 1 5 6 ,1 9 1 , 20 6 .
See also E g a s, C a m ilo ; Ic a z a , Jo rg e ; Ja ra m illo
A lv a ra d o , Pío ; K in g d o m o f Q u ito ; V ela sco ,
Ju a n de
in d ig en o u s c o m m u n itie s , x iv , x v i—x v ii, 1 , 1 7 5 ,
1 8 0 - 8 1 , 20 7; a rtis tic r e p resen ta tio n , 1 5 ,3 0 ,1 5 2 ,
16 7 - 7 1 ; a r t is t r y o f, 8, 7 4 , 1 2 5 , 1 2 8 , 1 4 1 ; c h a ra c te r
a ss a ss in a tio n , 9, 3 2 ,3 7 , 68, 8 6 ,1 4 1 ,1 9 0 ; la b o r of,
7 , 1 2 , 1 8 , 2 0 ,1 8 5 , 1 9 1 ; liv in g c o n d itio n s, 5 —7, 46,
9 7 - 9 8 ,1 2 5 ,1 5 0 ; m a rk e tp la c e s, 8 9 ,18 2 ; re sista n ce ,
9, 7 7 ,1 9 2 - 9 3 , 2 0 2 ; sta te re la tio n s, 18 1 ,1 8 6 —87,
18 9 ,19 2 —94, 20 8 ; tra v e le rs’ ac co u n ts o f, 9, 32 ,
61; u rb a n is m a n d , 3 5 ,5 9 , 6 2 ,1 7 7 - 7 8 , 1 8 4 , 207.
See also c o m m u n a l la n d ; concertaje; indigenism o;
Index / 287
Ja ra m illo A lv a ra d o , Pío; K in g d o m o f Q u ito ;
S a n ta C la ra de S a n M illá n ; S h y ri; trib u te
In s titu to N a c io n al M ejia, 18 , 2 2 ,15 6 ,1 6 4
Itc h im b ia, 1, 4 , 5 3 - 5 4 ; Q u ito v ie w fro m , 29, 38, 44
Italy, i , 28, 5 1—52, 6 1, 7 6 ,1 0 0 ; a rc h ite c tu re o f, 1 1 7 - 1 9 ,
1 2 1 - 2 4 , 1 2 6 - 2 7 , 1 2 9 - 3 0 , 1 3 3 - 3 4 , 1 3 7 , 1 4 1 . See
also D u rin i fa m ily ; D u rin i C áce re s, F ra n cisco
M a n u e l; D u rin i V a sa lli, L o ren z o ; stile floreale
Ja p a n , 16 , 4 1, 4 4 , 1 0 0 , 2 2 5 ^ 0
Ja ra m illo A lv a ra d o , P ío , 7 2 , 1 6 7 - 6 8 ,1 9 1 —93
Je s u it ord er, 8 , 1 0 ,2 8 ,1 4 9 —5 2 ,18 3 —84. See also
C o m p a ñ ía de Je s ú s C h u rc h ; C o le g io de San
G a b rie l; P o ly te ch n ic U n iv e rsity ; V e la sco , Ju a n
de
Jijón L a rre a , M an u e l, 12 5 ,1 9 6 , 24 o n 4 8
Jijó n y C a a m a ñ o , Ja c in to , x v iii, 2 0 - 2 1 , 72; C h illo -
Jijó n te xtile fa c to ry , 2 0 ,10 7 ; C o n s e rv a tiv e P a rty
lead er, 20 , 72, 8 1 , 1 0 3 , 1 1 2 - 1 3 ; L a C irc a sia n a
residence, 5 1 ,1 0 8 ,1 9 6 —97, 20 9 ; H is p a n is m o f,
7 2 ,7 8 , 8 2 ,1 12 ; h isto ric a l s tu d ies o f, 7 1—7 2 , 81—82;
la b o r p o litics an d , 2 0 —2 1, 7 1 ,1 0 7 —8 ,1 1 3 ,1 5 3 ;
m u n ic ip a l p o litic s o f, 77 —78, 80, 8 4 , 1 0 1 ,1 0 5 —8,
112 -13
Jívaro (Shu ar) trib e , 3 7 ,15 0
Jo n es O d rio zo la , G u ille rm o , 4 4 , 83, 86—8 7 ,1 1 0 —13
Ju a n , Jo rg e, 8, 2 9 - 3 1 , 3 4 ,14 9 . See also Fran co-
H isp a n ic G e o d esic M iss io n (1736 —1745)
Ju g e n d s til, 13 7 ,13 9
Ju lia n R e vo lu tio n , 1 9 - 2 1 , 5 1 , 7 2 ,15 9 ; c u ltu ra l im p a ct
o f, 10 4 ,1 6 4 ,1 9 2 ; so c ia list ten d en cies, 2 0 —21,
16 4 ,19 2
Ju n ta d e E m b e lle cim ie n to d e Q u ito , 4 6 ,1 0 3 —4,
10 6 —7 , 1 1 2 , 1 1 9 . See also Ju n ta d el C e n te n a rio
Ju n ta d e l C en te n a rio , 7 2 , 1 0 1 —3 ,1 5 6 ,1 5 9 . See also
Ju n ta d e E m b e lle cim ie n to de Q u ito
K anela (C arlos A n d ra d e M osco so ), 15 9 ,16 2
K a ta ri, T u p a c , 9 ,18 4
K em m erer, E d w in , 2 1 ,1 0 4
K in g d o m o f Q u ito , 7 2 ,16 7
K in g m a n , E d u a rd o , x x , 86, 8 9 , 1 4 1 , 2 2 6 ^ 6 , 2 4 1 ^ 3 ,
245n22
la b o r c o n sc rip tio n . See concertaje
La C irc a sia n a . See Jijó n y C a a m a ñ o , Ja c in to
La C o n d a m in e , C h a rle s M a rie d e, x iv , 8—9, 2 9 —30,
34 ; co m m em o ra tio n o f, 32 , 4 0 , 6 0 , 7 3 ,1 2 9 ; m ap
o f Q u ito , 29 —3 0 , 3 4 , 4 0 , 4 8 ,5 6 ; p y ra m id s , xiv,
2 9 >3 2 »55“ 56- See also F ra n c o -H isp a n ic G e o d esic
M issio n (1736—1745)
L a C o m p a ñ ía d e Je su s C h u rc h , 4 , 8, 76 , 8 1 , 1 3 9 - 4 1 .
See also Je s u it ord er
la raza, 62, 6 5 - 6 6 ,7 3 , 76
L a R o n d a , 15 7 ,16 2 —63
L a rre a , C a rlo s M a n u e l, 7 1 ,1 0 6 . See also A c a d e m ia
N a c io n a l d e H isto ria
L a rre a , G e n a ro , 1 2 8 ,1 3 1 - 3 3 ,1 9 6 , 2 4 6 ^ 9 . See also
C iu d a d e la L a rre a ; D u rin i C á c e re s, Pedro
L a s C a s a s, B arto lo m é d e, 62, 75
L a so , Jo sé D o m in go (JD ), 45, 20 7
L a ta c u n g a , 8 ,1 3 3 ,1 3 9 ,1 5 1 ,1 7 7 ,1 8 6 ,1 9 8
L a to rre , G u ille rm o , 15 8 - 5 9 ,1 6 1 —62
 288 \ Index
L e C o rb u sie r. 10 8 ,14 5
L e s H a lles m a rk e t, P a ris, 18, 96
L e y de C o m u n a s (1937), 1 8 0 ,1 9 0 ,1 9 3 —95, 20 1
L e y d e in d íg en a s (1854), 18 7 ,19 0
L ib e ra l P a rty , 1 2 ,1 9 , 7 7 ,1 1 3 ,1 8 8 , 2 14 —15; A lfa ro -P la z a
sp lit, 17 —1 9 ,1 2 4 - 2 5 ,1 5 3 ; C a th o lic C h u rc h a n d , 17, M o rte n se n , G u sta v o , x v iii, 8 6 , 1 0 3 , 1 0 8 , 1 1 0 , 1 1 2
69—7 1 , 1 2 1 ; G u a y a q u il a n d , 1 5 ,1 7 , 69; H isp a n ist
in c lin a tio n s , 6 4 -6 7 ; in d ig en o u s c o m m u n ities
a n d , 1 8 1 ,1 8 6 —8 7 ,1 9 0 —93, 2 0 2 , 2 0 6 —8; literatu re
a n d , 1 4 8 ,1 5 1 —5 7 ,16 0 —6 1,1 6 9 —7 1 ,1 7 6 —77;
m a p p in g p ractices o f, 36 , 4 0 —4 1 , 52; m o d erates,
1 4 , 1 6 —17, 69, 7 1, 9 2 ,1 0 3 ,1 5 8 ; m o d e rn iz a tio n , x iii,
17 ,19 , 94—1 0 3 ,1 5 1 ; p la tfo rm , x v ii, 17, 9 4 ,19 0 ,10 5 ;
Q u ito a n d , x ix , 2 0 , 8 5 ,1 4 8 ,1 5 1 ; R a d ic a l Lib eral
P a rty, 1 4 ,1 6 , 7 1 ,1 2 4 . See also A lfa ro , E lo y ; L ib era l
R e v o lu tio n ; P la za G u tie rre z , L e o n id a s
L ib e ra l R e v o lu tio n , x v, 14 , 6 2 ,14 7 —4 8 ,1 5 1 ,1 9 0 ;
d iv isiv en e ss o f, 62, 6 6 ,1 2 1 ; la b o r a n d , 20;
m ilit a r y a n d , 16 —17 ; m o d e rn iz a tio n a n d , 17, 38;
m u n ic ip a l p o litic s o f, 2 0 , 85, 87, 94—10 3 . See also
A lfa ro , E lo y ; G o n z á le z S u á re z , F ed erico ; Lib eral
P a rty ; P la z a G u tie rre z , L e o n id a s
L im a , 6 ,1 5 , 29, 63—64, 87—88; A u d ie n c ia d e Q uito
a n d , 9, 63—64; D u rin i fa m ily a n d , 12 2 ,1 2 6 ;
im a g e ry o f, 27, 6 6 ,1 4 9 ,1 8 3
L o ja , 1 1 , 1 5 3 , 1 9 1 , 2 2 3 n 2 i; in te lle c tu a l a c tiv ity o f, 72,
10 4 ,1 5 7 ,1 5 9 —6 0 ,16 7 ,1 7 7
L o n d o n , 9 3 ,1 17 ,13 5
M a c h á n g a ra R iv e r, 9 9 ,1 2 0
M a d rid , 8, 37, 64, 68, 73, 75
M a ld o n a d o , Pedro V icen te , 29, 32 , 34 , 5 6 ,12 9
M a r ia C ristin a , Q u e en o f S p a in , 64, 67
M a r iá te g u i, Jo sé C a rlo s, 6 6 ,1 6 0 ,1 6 8 , 1 7 1 ,1 9 2
M a r isc a l S u cre. See C iu d a d e la M a r is c a l S u cre
M a r tín e z , L u is A ., 1 2 1 , 1 3 8 , 1 5 1 - 5 4 , 1 6 3 , 1 7 4 , 1 7 7
m a so n s. See fre e m a so n ry
M ejia sch o o l. See In s titu to N a c io n a l M ejia
M en én d ez P elayo , M a rce lin o , 65, 68, 75
M en te n , Ju a n B a u tista , i 3 ; 3 3 - 3 4 , 3 8 , 1 2 0
M e ra , Ju a n L e ó n , 15 —16 , 3 7 ,15 4 ,16 7 , 217; C um an dá as
c o u n ter-c a rto g ra p h y , 1 5 ,1 4 8 ,1 5 0 —5 2 ,17 7
M erc a d o , Pedro d e , 2 8 ,14 9
m e stiz o s, 5, 6 2 ,1 8 0 ,1 9 1 , 2 14 ; in lite ra tu re , 14 7 ,15 7 ,
16 9 —70 , 2 11
m e ta n a rra tiv e s, x v ii, 64, 69, 86, 206
M ex ic o , 25, 6 1 ,1 2 2 , 2 14 ; a rc h ite c tu re a n d , 13 5 ,13 9 ,
14 5; a rts o f, 7 4 ,15 7 ,16 0 ; indigenism o o f, 19 1—92;
m a p p in g p ra ctic e s, 2 5 ,3 6 —37; p ed ag o g y , 16 8 ,19 3 ;
relatio n s w ith S p a in , 63—64, 66
M e x ic o C ity , 6, 27, 74, 8 7 -8 8 ; u rb a n p la n n in g o f, 4 4 ,
5 4 ,9 9 ,1 1 9 ,2 1 4
M ig n o lo , W alter, 2 2 1m
M ila n , 12 6 —2 9 ,1 3 2 —3 4 ,1 3 6 —37
M in g h e tti, Ju a n B a u tis ta , 1 0 0 , 1 2 1 , 1 2 7
M in iste rio de P re v is ió n S o c ia l, 2 2 ,1 9 2 —94, 2 0 3 ,2 0 6
M in is t r y o f S o c ia l W e lfa re. See M in iste rio d e
P re v is ió n S o c ia l
M ita d d e l M u n d o (to u rist c om p lex), x iv , 59 —6 0, 217
m itad del m undo (the cen ter o f th e w orld), x v iii, 26,
58 -59
modernismo, 15 3 ,1 5 9 ,1 7 7
M o n g e , C e lia n o , 7 1, 77
M o n ta lv o , Ju a n , 1 4 ,1 8 , 67—6 8 ,1 3 3 ,1 5 1
M o n te v id e o , 10 9 —10
M o n tu fa r , Ju a n P ío , 10
M o re lli, F e d e ric a , 18 1 ,1 8 5 —86
M u n ic ip a l C o u n c il o f Q u ito , x iv —x v, 2 0 9 , 2 11;
a rc h ite c tu re a n d , 1 7 ,1 2 0 —2 2 ,1 2 5 ,1 2 7 —2 9 ,13 4 —35,
1 4 1 ,1 4 5 ; a u to n o m y o f, 8 6 ,1 0 3 ,1 0 5 —6 ,1 0 9 —14 ;
c o lo n ia l c a b ild o , 5, 7, 77, 80, 87—8 8 ,18 2 —85,
215—16 ; C o n s e r v a tiv e P a rty a n d , 8 7 ,10 5 —6,
1 1 0 —1 4 , 20 5—6, 215—16 ; fin a n c e s o f, 88, 9 2—94,
10 1 ,1 0 8 ; G a b rie l G a rc ia M o re n o a n d , 12 , 88—89;
H is p a n is m a n d , 7 6 —84, 217 ; la n d o w n e rsh ip o f,
88, 8 0, 9 6 ,1 0 8 ,1 8 6 ; L ib e ra l P a rty a n d , 85, 94—96;
m a p p in g a n d , 32 , 3 4 —36 , 4 4 , 46 , 48 —5 3 ,5 9 ;
n a tio n a l g o v e rn m e n t a n d , 9 4 , 1 0 1 , 1 8 1 ; p la n n in g
m e a su re s o f, 4 4 , 4 8 , 9 9 ,1 0 1 —4 , io 7 ~ 9 , 15 4 .19 9 ;
P re m io a l O rn a to , 1 2 1 , 1 3 7 —3 8 ,1 4 4 ; P ro gressive
P a rty a n d , 88—94; p u b lic w o rk s a n d , 6 1, 9 1—94,
9 7—98; ta x a tio n a n d , 88—9 0 , 9 2—9 3, 9 6 ,10 4 —5
N a p o le o n B o n a p a rte , 1 0 , 1 2 , 6 3 ,11 9
N a rv á e z , J u a n Jo sé , 93, 97
N a s a p eo p le , 2 0 7 —8
N a tio n a l A c a d e m y o f H is to ry . See A c a d e m ia
N a c io n a l de H is to ria
N a tio n a l E x p o sitio n (1909), 18 , 4 1 , 9 9 - 1 0 1
N a tio n a l O b se rv a to ry , x iv , 4 0 —4 2 ,5 6 ,1 2 0
N a v a rro , Jo sé G a b rie l, 55, 7 1 , 1 4 4 ; H is p a n is m a n d ,
73—76 , 8 0; p re s e rv a tio n is t a c tiv itie s , 73, 74—76,
83—8 4 ,10 9 —1 0 ,1 4 4
n e o c la ss ic ism , 8 1—8 2 , 1 0 0 , 1 0 2 , 1 1 9 —2 0 ,1 2 4 —25,
14 0 —4 2 ,19 6
n e o -G o th ic , 1 1 8 , 1 2 1
n e o -R e n a iss a n c e , 1 1 8 , 1 2 1 , 1 3 5
N e w G ra n a d a , V ic e r o y a lty o f, 9 , 1 1 , 3 3
N e w Y o rk , 82, 9 3 ,1 2 8 ,1 3 0 ,1 3 5 ,1 6 0
N ú ñ e z V e la , V ic e ro y B la sc o , 3 0 ,14 9
obrajes, 7—9, 2 0 ,18 5
O lm ed o , Jo sé Jo a q u ín d e, 1 1 , 6 3 ,18 5 , 2 3 2 n n 7 - 8
O rd ó ñ ez , A rc h b is h o p Jo sé Ig n a c io , 16 , 68, 225n 43
O ta v a lo , 8 ,3 7 , 7 1 ,15 3
O v a n d o , N ico lás d e , 5, 59
O y a m b a ro p y r a m id , 2 1 ,5 5
P a d ró n , R ic a rd o , 1 5 0 - 5 1
P á ez , Fe d e rico , x iv , 1 7 5 ,19 4 , 2 5 5 ^ 6
P a lac io , P ablo, 15 6 ,1 5 9 —6 5 ,16 7 ,1 7 6 —7 7 ,1 9 1, 217,
25in4i
P a lac io s fa m ily , 1 1 7 ,1 2 9 —3 1 ,1 3 5 —36 , 2 4 6 ^ 9 . See also
D u r in i C á c e re s, F ra n c is c o M a n u e l
P a lm a , R ic a rd o , 22 , 7 3 , 226n64
P a m b a c h u p a . See H a c ie n d a P a m b a c h u m p a
P a n a m a , 7 ,1 6 , 6 3 ,19 2
P a n e c illo , 3 0 —32 , 4 1 —46 , 5 3—55, 96, 98, 2 0 6 , 217
p a n -H is p a n is m . See H is p a n is m
P a ris , 1 6 ,3 0 ,3 6 , 54 , 7 2 ,1 3 0 ; p la n n in g o f, 18 , 44 ,
9 3 , 96, 9 9 ,1 1 8 —19 . See also F ra n ce ; U n iv e rsa l
E x p o sitio n (1889)
P asa je R o y a l. See D u r in i C á c e re s, F ra n c is c o M an u e l
P aseo d e la R e fo rm a , 9 9 ,1 19 . See also M e x ic o C ity

Pérez, J. G u a lb e r to , 38, 4 1, 22 8 112 2, 2 3 0 114 9 ; 1888 m a p
o f Q u ito , 34 —36 ; 1 9 1 1 m a p o f Q u ito 4 3 —4 6 ,1 0 1 ;
p a rtn e rs h ip w ith F. S c h m id t, 9 5 ,1 2 0 . See also
S c h m id t, F ra n c isco
P e rrie r, G e o rg e s, 4 0 , 56
P e ru , 2 1—2 2 , 37, 63—6 4 , 1 0 0 , 1 7 0 , 1 8 1 —82; b o rd e r
c o n flic t w ith E c u a d o r, 1 1 , 1 8 , 3 3 —3 4 , 4 0 —4 1 , 51,
113 ; eco n o m y o f, 18, 6 4 ,1 1 9 ; in te lle c tu a ls , 6 4, 66,
73.192
P h ilip II , K in g o f S p a in , 26
P ic h in c h a , B attle o f (1822), 1 1 , 4 0 ; c e n te n n ia l o f, 46,
4 9 -5 1, 72, 7 7 ,1 0 1 - 2 ,14 1 ,15 6 ,1 9 7
P ic h in c h a M o u n ta in , 13 , 28, 9 7 ,14 9 ; in d ig e n o u s
c o m m u n itie s a n d , 7 ,1 8 7 —8 8 ,19 5 —9 6 ,19 8 —99,
20 9 ; lit e ra ry re p re se n ta tio n o f, 16 5 ,1 7 6 ; m a p p in g
p ro to c o ls a n d , 29, 3 4 , 53—54
P ic h in c h a p ro v in c e , 8 5 ,1 9 2 - 9 4
P in ta g , 1 9 4 - 9 5
P in to , Jo a q u in , 15 , 73
P ira n d e llo , L u ig i, 1 6 4 - 6 6 ,1 7 7
P iz a rro , F ra n c isco , 6, 27, 62, 80. See also H is p a n is m
P iz a rro , G o n z a lo , 3 0 ,1 4 9 . See also A ñ a q u ito ;
H is p a n is m
P la n R e g u la d o r de Q u ito (1942), 4 4 . 8 6 , 10 9 . See also
Jo n e s O d rio z o la , G u ille rm o
P la z a G ra n d e . See P la z a d e la In d e p e n d e n c ia
P la z a d e l a In d e p e n d e n c ia , 3 5 ,1 1 7 ; c h ro n ic le rs a n d ,
15 7 ,17 5 ; m o d e rn iz a tio n o f, 13 , 93—95, 9 7 ,1 3 4 —35;
m o n u m e n t, 99—1 0 0 , 1 0 2 , 1 2 6 —27; to u r is m , 45, 82
P la z a G u tie rre z , L e o n id a s, 17 —19 , 4 0 , 94, 98; A lfa r o
riv a lr y , 1 8 , 1 2 4 ,1 5 3 ,1 9 5 ; a n tic le ric a lis m o f, 17,
6 9 ,15 3 ; a rts p atro n a g e , 1 2 1 , 1 2 4 - 2 6 ; D u rin i
p atro n a g e , 1 1 8 , 1 2 1 , 1 2 4 —2 6 ,1 2 8 —29. See also
L ib e ra l P a rty ; L ib e ra l R e v o lu tio n
P la z a S a n F ra n c isco . See S a n F ra n c isco m o n a ste ry
p o lo , 13 0 —3 1 ,1 9 6
P o ly te c h n ic U n iv e rsity , 1 3 ,3 3 —3 4 ,1 2 0
P o p a y á n , 7 ,1 0
P o sa d a , A d o lfo , 10 5 —6
p o s itiv ism , 1 1 8 ,1 4 8 ,1 9 0 , 20 7, 2 14
P ro g ressive P a rty o f E c u a d o r, x v iii, 1 4 —17, 8 5 ,1 2 0 ;
m u n ic ip a l p o lic ie s, 87, 89—95, 9 7 .1 0 ° . 1 1 1
P ro v id e n c e. See d iv in e P ro vid e n c e
Q u e b ra d a Je ru sa lé n , 9 6 - 9 9 , 1 0 1 —2 ,1 5 0 , 1 5 4 —55
R a d ic a l L ib e ra l P a rty . See L ib e ra l P a rty
R a d ic o n c in i, G iá c o m o , 1 2 1 , 1 2 4 , 1 3 6
R a p p a p o rt, Jo a n n e , 1 8 1 ,2 0 7 - 8
raza. See la raza
R e a l A c a d e m ia E sp a ñ o la de la L e n g u a , 6 4, 67
R e b e llio n o f th e A lc a b a la s . S e e alcabala ta xe s
R e b e llio n o f th e B a r rio s , 9, 8 8 ,1 4 9 ,1 8 3 —85, 2 0 2 ,
222ni5
R e c o le ta , 4 1 , 4 4 , 97, 9 9 —10 0
R e e d , T h o m a s, 1 3 ,1 2 0
R iv a d e n e ira , E z e q u ie l, 46 , 4 8 ,5 1 —52
R ic k e , Jo d o c o , 8, 78—81
R in g s tra ss e , 9 9 ,1 18
R io b a m b a , 6, 29, 55—5 6 ,1 2 9 ,1 8 2
R io de Ja n e iro , 1 1 9 ,2 1 4
R iv e ra , D ieg o , 16 0 ,1 6 8
R iv e t, P a u l, 4 0 , 4 2 , 56, 6 0 , 72
Index / 289
R o c a fu e rte , V icen te, 11 , 32 , 7 1 ,1 0 0 ,1 5 6
R o c c a , G iá c o m o , 5 1—52
R o d ó , Jo sé E n riq u e, 65
R o m e , x v iii, 8, 26, 28, 5 9 ,15 0
R u m iñ a h u i, 6, 37
R u s s o H e rm a n o s, 1 2 1 ,1 9 7
S a e n z , M o isés, 16 8 ,19 3
sal quiteña, 15 , 22 , 213
S a la s , R a fa e l, 14 , 73
S a la z a r, P ablo A n to n io , 18 8 - 8 9
Sa lv a d o r, H u m b e rto , 1 8 , 1 4 8 , 1 5 6 ,1 6 0 ,1 6 4 ,1 6 7 ;
so c ia l r e a lism a n d , 16 7 ,1 7 1 —7 6 ,1 9 1 ; v a n g u a rd
aesth etic s, 16 4 —6 7 ,2 17
S a n A n to n io de P ic h in c h a , x iv , 5 5, 59
S a n B ia s p a r ish , 7 , 1 2 8 ,1 3 4 ,1 8 3 —84
S a n F ra n c isco m o n a ste ry , 2—4 , 7—8, 4 0 , 74—7 5 , 80,
8 2 14 9 ; a rc h ite c tu re o f, 73—76 , 78, 8 0 ,1 2 0 , 1 2 5 ;
p la z a , 82, 9 0 ,1 2 1 ,1 5 7 ,1 9 8 ; w o rk sh o p s o f, 7—8, 74.
See also F ra n c is c a n o rd e r; R ic k e , Jo d o c k o
S a n Jo sé . See C o s ta R ic a
S a n R o q u e p a rish , 7, 9 0 ,1 4 9 —5 0 ,1 8 3 —84
S a n S e b a stiá n p a r ish , 7 ,1 8 3 —8 4, 2 5 7 ^ 4
S a n g o lq u i, 4 5 ,1 8 0 ,1 8 4
sa n ita tio n , x x , 86, 89—9 0 , 96—9 8 ,1 0 5 ,1 0 7 ,1 0 9
S a n ta B a rb a ra p a r ish , 7 ,18 3
S a n ta C la ra d e S a n M illá n , x ix , 1 1 4 ,1 7 8 ,1 8 2 , 2 0 9 , 215;
c o m u n a o f, 17 9 —8 1 ,1 9 5 ,2 0 6 , 2 0 8 , 2 16 ; c o m m u n a l
la n d s o f, 18 2 ,18 7 —8 9 ,19 9 —2 0 1; e co n o m y o f,
19 6 —9 9 ,2 0 6 ; h isto ric a l m a n ip u la tio n s b y , 178,
1 8 1 ,2 0 1 —3 ,2 0 5 —7; in te rn a l p o litic s, 17 9 —8 1 ,2 0 0 ;
le g a l a c tiv ity , 18 7—9 0 , 2 0 2 —3 , 2 5 6 n i2 . See also
C o lla h u a so , Jo sé G a b rie l; T u m ip a m b a , Jo sé
Fed erico
S a n ta C la ra m a rk e t, 89—9 0 , 96
S a n ta P ris c a p a r ish , 4 8, 9 1, 9 8 ,1 0 0 , 2 4 in 6 3
S a n to D o m in g o m o n a ste ry , 8, 4 0 , 45, 8 0 , 9 7; g a rd e n s
o f, 35; p la n n in g a n d , 9 9 ,1 8 4 ; p la z a o f, 1 2 1 ,1 3 9 ,
17 1. See also D o m in ic a n o rd e r
S a rto rio , G iu lio , 6 1, 76
S a ta n , 28, 6 2 ,16 5 —66, 23 2 n 4
S a tta r, A le e z é , 1 8 1 ,1 8 6 —87
S c h m id t, F ra n c isco (F ra n z ), 9 5 , 1 2 0 —2 1 , 2 4 5 m 6 . See
also P érez, J. G u a lb e rto
S c h m id t-N o w a ra , C h risto p h e r, 7 5 , 2 3 in 2
S c h u m a c h e r, P edro , 69—70
S e c o n d F ren ch G e o d e sic M iss io n . See F re n c h
G e o d esic M iss io n ( 19 0 1—19 06)
S e lv a A le g re , M arq u e s de. See M o n tu fa r , Ju a n Pío
S h u a r trib e . See Jív a ro (Sh u ar) trib e
S h y ri trib e , x v ii, 159
sie rra . See h ig h la n d s
S im b a ñ a , F e lic ia n o , 18 0 ,19 9
s o c ia l r e a lism , 1 4 8 ,1 6 4 ,1 6 7 —6 8 ,1 7 1 ,1 7 4 , 2 5 in 4 i
S o c ia lis t P a rty o f E c u a d o r (P S E ), 2 1 ,1 6 7 ; in d ig e n o u s
c o m m u n itie s a n d , 1 8 1 ,1 9 2 —9 3 ,2 0 2 , 2 0 6 , 20 8 ;
in te lle c tu a ls a n d , 2 1 ,1 6 7 ,1 9 7 , 25 1
s o c ia lism , 1 6 1 ,1 6 7 —6 8 ,1 7 1 ,1 9 3
S o c ie d a d E c u a to ria n a d e E stu d io s H istó ric o s
A m e ric a n o s. See A c a d e m ia N a c io n a l d e H is to ria
S o c ie d a d A rtís tic a e In d u s tria l d e P ic h in c h a ( S A IP ),
2 0 ,15 3
S o c ie d a d G e o g rá fic a d e Q u ito , 4 1 —4 2 , 4 4 —4 5 ,5 2 , 5 4
290 \ Index
So to m a y o r y L u n a , M a n u e l, 2 0 , 71
S p a in , x iii- x iv , x v iii; a rts a n d a rc h ite c tu re , 8, 74 , 76;
citie s a n d , 5 - 8 , 2 5 -2 7 , 59, 6 3, 7 6 , 1 0 5 - 7 , 1 1 2 - 1 4 ;
C iv il W ar, 66; c iv iliz in g n a rra tiv e , 27, 68, 7 4 - 7 6 ,
8 1 ,1 0 6 ; E c u a d o ria n in d ep e n d e n ce fro m , 11 ,
4 1 , 45—46, 6 3, 9 9 ,1 0 2 ,1 2 7 ; e m p ire, 12 , 26 , 87;
m o n a rch y , 10 , 29 —3 0 , 6 4—65, 86, 9 0 ,1 8 5 ; Q u ito
a lle g o ric a l im a g e a n d , x v ii, 28, 53, 61—62, 72,
76 —84, 217; re g io n a lis m in , 64—65, 67; re la tio n s
w ith S p a n ish A m e ric a , 1 1 , 63—67, 7 3 ~ 7 4 - See also
H is p a n is m
stile flo r eale, 1 1 8 , 1 2 1 , 1 3 7 , 1 3 9 , 1 4 3
S u á r e z , Pablo A r t u r o , 10 7 ,16 8
S u c re T h e a ter. See T e a tro N a c io n a l S u cre
S u c re , A n to n io Jo sé d e , 1 1 , 1 0 2 - 3 , 1 2 0 - 2 1
S u p re m e C o u r t , 10 8 —9, * 8 6 ,18 9 , 208
S y lv a , R a m iro de. See C o lo m a S ilv a , A lb e rto
T e a tro N a c io n a l S u c re , 4 0 , 9 7 ,1 2 0 ,1 2 5
teniente políticos, 186 , 2 0 2 , 205
T e n o rio T r illo , M a u ric io , 4 4 , 2 3 0 n 4 0
T ip á n , F e rn a n d a , 2 0 0 - 2 0 1
T ip a n to c ta , N ico lás, 1 9 9 - 2 0 1
T o b a r D o n o so , Ju lio , 7 1 - 7 2 , 7 6 ,1 0 6 ,1 1 3 ,1 5 3
Tolóntag hacienda, 194 -9 5
tradiciones, 22 , 73, 2 13 , 226n 64
tra m w ay s, 89, 9 1 - 9 2 , 9 6 - 9 7 , 1 0 0 - 1 0 1 , 1 6 5 - 6 6 , 1 9 6 ,
239n23
trib u te , 1 1 , 8 8 ,1 8 2 - 8 3 ; c o m m u n a l la n d s a n d , 182,
185—86; e ra d ic a tio n o f, 1 1 —1 2 ,1 8 5 —8 6 ,18 9 —9 0;
in d ig en o u s r e sista n c e to, 18 2 -8 5 ; re sto ra tio n o f,
8 8 ,18 6
T u fiñ o , L u is, x iv , 2 4 , 4 1 , 4 5 . 5 *. 5 $ , 5 9
T u m b a c o , 8, 9 3 ,1 1 3
T u m ip a m b a , Jo sé A n to n io , 2 0 1- 2 0 5
T u m ip a m b a , Jo sé Fe d e rico , 17 9 - 8 0 ,1 9 8 , 216 ; ca b ild o
p o litic s a n d , 18 0 , 2 0 0 —2 0 2 ; 20 8 ; c h ild re n o f,
17 9 —80, 2 0 4 ; Jo sé G a b rie l C o lla h u a s o a n d ,
18 0 , 2 0 1, 2 0 3 , 216 ; c o m m u n a l la n d s a n d , 2 0 0 ,
2 0 3 —4; e n tre p re n e u ria lis m o f, 19 8—2 0 0 ,2 0 7 —8;
fa m ily o f, 1 7 9 - 8 0 , 2 0 0 - 2 0 5 ; g o v e rn a n c e o f, 18 0 ,
2 0 0 —2 0 1, 2 0 3 ; h isto ric a l m a n ip u la tio n of, 205,
20 8, 2 6 o n 8 3 . See also C o lla h u a so , Jo sé G a b rie l;
S a n ta C la ra d e S a n M illá n
T u m ip a m b a , Ju a n d e D io s, 2 0 0 —1
T u m ip a m b a , L u is , 2 0 3 —5
T u n g u r a h u a p ro v in c e , 19 1—92. See also A m b a to
T u ru b a m b a p la in , 4 4 , 4 6 ,18 3
U llo a , A n to n io d e , 8, 2 9 —3 1 ,3 4 , 1 4 9 . See also F ra n c o -
H is p a n ic G e o d e sic M iss io n (1736 —1745)
U n a m u n o , M ig u e l d e , 6 5 ,17 5
U N E S C O W o rld H e rita g e P ro g ra m , x v iii, 59, 8 4 ,113
U n ió n Ib e ro a m e ric a n a , 6 4, 67
U n iv e rsa l E x p o sitio n (1889), 1 6 ,3 7 , 99
U n iv e rsid a d C e n tra l (U n iv e rsity o f Q u ito ), 33,
10 7 —9, ! 4 4 . í 53> i 6 4 , 168
U rb in a , Jo sé M a r ia , 1 1 - 1 2 , 1 8 7 , 1 9 0 , 2581137
V a ca s G a lin d o , E n riq u e , 4 0 —4 1, 2 2 9 ^ 6
V a rg a s, Jo sé M a r ia , 84
V a sc o n c e lo s, Jo sé , 193
V a tic a n , th e, 17, 69—70
vecindad, x v ii, 5—6, 27, 6 4, 2 15 , 22 o n 8 ; in d ig en o u s
ve c in o s in Q u ito , 18 2 ,19 9 ; S p a n ish v e cin o s in
Q u ito , 22 , 59, 7 3 , 7 8 ,15 6
V e in tim illa , G e n e ra l Ig n a c io de, 14
V ela sco , Ju a n de 2 6 ,3 2 , 7 2, 25 7n i9
V ela sco Ib a rra , Jo sé M a r ia , 2 1 , 1 1 3 , 1 9 5 , 2 0 4 , 2 5 9 ^ 8
V ela sco Ib a rra , P ed ro , 20 4
V e n e z u e la , 1 1 , 53 , 58
V ie jo L u c h a d o r. See A lfa r o , E lo y
V ie n n a , 9 9 ,1 0 7 ,1 1 7 —19 ,1 3 0
V in u e s a -O n ta n e d a f irm , 9 2—9 3 , 2 3 9 ^ 9
W illia m s , D erek , 1 3 ,1 8 6 —87
W o lf, T e o d o ro , 3 4 ,3 6 , 38
W o rld H e rita g e P ro g r a m . See U N E S C O W orld
H e rita g e P ro g ra m
Y a ru q u i, 29, 60
Y a ru q u ie s, 1 8 1 ,1 9 0
 V

LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY / URBAN STUDIES

“City at the Center of the W orld e x p lo re s the e in L r g e n g 2 d S j2 C 2 !3 B B S H 3 l

e rn national capital. C a p e llo ’s elegantly-written ai
ines strategic moments in th e city's history in reh |j 1 j| ! ¡1 | I |1|!| j
regional contexts as c ity elites and indigenous co |||jjj| I ll | Jl jljj
‘trad itio n al’ historical discourses and city space
th eir respective advantage."
— M ark O verm yer-Velazquez, U n iversity o f Connecticut

v, “ In this highly original b o o k , Capello exam ines th e city o f Quito on bo th sides

4 o f the twentieth century. He reveals an evolving c ity and a city in crisis, a form er
colonial capital torn betw een alleged Hispanic traditions and long-suppressed
J indigenous aspirations, u n certain o f its su rv iv a l, yet proud o f its past glory.
=» f; M arshaling an astonishing array o f written, v isu a l- and architectonic sources,
C apello traces Quito’s p a in fu l transition to m od ernity. T h is book w ill no d oubt
1 •' inspire new approaches to u rb an studies in the A m ericas and beyond.”
1 £> f j , — K ris Lane, Tulane U n iversity

In the seventeenth cen tury, local Jesuits and Franciscans imagined Quito as the
“new Rome.” It was the o rig in o f crusades into th e w ilderness and the p u rveyo r o f
civilization to the entire region. By the early tw entieth century, elites envisioned
the city as the heart o f a m odern, advanced society— poised at the physical and
metaphysical centers o f th e world.
In this original cu ltu ra l history, Ernesto C ap ello analyzes the form ation o f
mem ory, myth, and m od ern ity through the eyes o f Q uito’s diverse populations.
By employing M ikhail B ak h tin ’s concept o f chronotopes, Capello views the con fig­
uration o f time and space in narratives that d efined Q uito’s identity and its place
in the world. He explores the proliferation o f these im aginings in architecture,
museum s, monuments, to u rism , art, urban p la n n in g, literature, religion, in d ig­
enous rights, and politics. To Capello, these tropes began to crystallize at th e end
o f the nineteenth century, serving as a tool fo r d istin ct groups who laid c la im to
history for economic or p olitical gain during th e upheavals o f m odernism . In the
process o f both destroying and renewing elements o f the past, modern Q uito thus
emerged at the crux o f H ispanism and Liberalism , as an independent global soci­
ety struggling to keep th e m em ory of its colonial and indigenous roots alive.

Ernesto Capello is assistant professor o f history at M acalester College.

P IT T LA T IN A M E R IC A N SERIES
University of Pittsburgh Press
www.upress.pitt.edu
ISBN 13:978-0-8229-6166-6
C over art: From Jo rge Juan and A n to n io d e Ulloa ISBN 10:0-8229-6166-0
Plano de la äudad de San Francisco de Quito (1748).
C ou rtesy Library of Congress.

. C over design: AnnW alston______