Bobby Rivera 

Alumni 

It has been said that a young couple went to San Pablo Lake, which is located below Imbabura Volcano. When caught, the couple ran off. They then went to a single tree high on a hill that overlooked San Pablo Lake. It was there that their kiss blossomed into love. The Lechero Tree still exists outside of Quito, Ecuador in a colonial town called Otavalo. The folklore ending is that the two souls were separated by rival families, one being the lake, the other being the tree. Today, many in love take their vows at the foot of this tree in hopes of having everlasting love.

I went to Ecuador this summer to research a fictional novel that took me to three indigenous communities within this beautiful scenic country. My return trip to Ecuador was motivated by an Andean medicine class which I took from Professor Bonnie Bade in the summer of 2013. What was to have been a 5-week trip, expanded to 3 months after I fell in love with the city of Otavalo and the people of Ecuador.

My novel took me to the three regions of Ecuador. First, to the Highlands where the city of Otavalo is located. Then to the Coastal area in the city of Santo Domingo home to the Tsachila Nation. Finally, to the Amazon region where the town of Lago Agrio, where the Cofan nation is located. What ties all three nations is the respect and love of mother earth. They call it Pachamama and it’s shared by many Andean villages, towns, and cities where culture is preserved. It was quite common to see homes with gardens. It’s a spiritual belief that connects our planet earth to the outside cosmos.

The city of Otavalo can be described as a highland colonial town. In recent years the government took a moral stance and implemented Buen Vivir (Spanish for the good life) to their constitution to preserve and integrate an indigenous language and protect indigenous people. It compares to where we stood as a nation during the racial conflict in the civil rights era of the 1960’s.  Indigenous people were regarded as second class and racial stratification created a have and have not way of life in Ecuador. People of color had fewer life opportunities to improve economically and lacked educational resources. Language is a common bond for the preservation of culture in Otavalo

Quechua (pronounced keechwa) is one of the remaining indigenous languages and Otavalo is a peaceful town.  Men wear their hair braided and long and women wear gold beaded necklaces with white floral blouses. I spent nearly a month there learning Andean music, rituals and customs. As a contemporary sociologist in making, I truly evolved into an anthropologist.

I also met a musician, Ali Lema, who enlightened me on Andean traditional music.  He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Otavalo where he is leading a grassroots movement to bring Andean music into academia. While studying music, he also teaches other students to play Andean instruments that can only be found in the Andean Highlands. His family of five lives on a few thousand dollars a year. His 104 year old grandmother also lives adjacent to the home where his wife Carolina sings along with his 3-year-old daughter, Palomita. They also open up their home, which doubles as a music school, to students.

From Otavalo I went south to Santo Domingo, home to the Tsachilas nation. They use a vegetable dye to paint their hair red and they pride themselves on being self-sufficient. The Tsachillas were formerly called the Indios Colorados (redhead Indians) but a recent movement to change that has elicited the government to lead and correct this bias by using the appropriate name of Tshchilas.

It was just outside Santo Domingo that I met Henry Calazacon who represents his nation by sharing his history and customs. Henry has traveled the world and is eager to share his way of life.  Henry spent a day trying to perfect my spear throwing technique and teaching me the names of hundreds of plants that they use for teas and remedies. As the son of an elder leader, Henry is responsible with the teaching the global community about the Tsachilas and the preservation of the ancient language, Tsafiki. It is one of the oldest spoken languages in the world.

The Tsachilas invited me to spend a few days with them. They still have numerous Shamans that lead the community.  They are made up of a few thousand and are broken up into communities in Santo Domingo. At one point they had command of one the largest indigenous areas that stretched from Peru to Colombia. But little by little, they have either sold land or had it taken away from past governments.

I was privileged to be let into the community as they shared their history. It is not common to see westerners visit them and stay a few days to learn of their medicinal plants and heritage. They have an incredible command of the biological plants that surround them for medicinal purposes.  They thrive on the land and have maintained song and dances that go back thousands of years. From Santo Domingo my journey took me to the northern Amazon town of Lago Agrio along the Colombian border.

The sound of an outboard engine racing over the Aqua Rico River between two bodies of land. One side represents the Mestizos (Spanish mix) community and the other the indigenous Cofan nation. The Cofan nation rests in the Amazon area and they can be found in Colombia as well. They live off the land and receive a few thousand dollars to live on from the Ecuadorian government. Once you have cross the Aqua Rico River you know you are in the Cofan Nation from the sounds of monkeys, tapirs and chickens. There was no electricity during my three-day stay after it stopped from a recent storm. It was now time to learn another indigenous language known as Aingae.

I did a cultural exchange where I was allowed to teach English in a school in exchange for learning their customs and history. The Cofan nation once numbered in the tens of thousands. But as oil companies entered the area the numbers have dwindled to a few thousand. A nearly decade long court battle over alleged oil spilling into the land and water table has many confused about the future for the Cofan nation. Yet the Cofanes have managed to protect what little area they still control.

I entered this tribal community that dates back thousands of years with only my backpack, camera, and field notebook. I start my initial meeting apologizing for not eating monkey when it was offered to me. It gave me a teaching moment to our guests on protecting endangered species of animals around the globe. It was the only odd moment I had during my visit and I did not want to offend my hosts. I did drink a boiled water drink called caculo (plantain drink) every 3 to 4 hours for my first day. During my visit I also ate freshly roasted meal worms on a stick and had wild boar meat.

My summer of 2014 was marked with a personal epiphany of protecting those who lack the financial resources and luxuries that we see daily in most homes in the U.S. The Cofanes may lack television, computers, and high end cell phones, but their richness is in its people.  They have great pride and are very humble. They are influenced by protecting our planet and giving back to our mother earth. They have a communal system of sharing that I was envious of and wish I could see more of here in the U.S.  It is a contrast from what I see in corporate America and those who live their lives for themselves and not to improve on the human condition for others.

For anyone interested in studying abroad I highly suggest contacting the Global Studies Department on campus. The inner connection I made and shared will stay with me a lifetime. If you allow yourself to learn from those you meet, it will change your worldview and give you a more accurate account on global issues. I challenge all who read this article to look globally and help bring about individual change. Who knows . . . maybe you will also find yourself halfway around our planet thinking of ways to improve humanity, one chapter at a time.