A Liberalism of Fear: Imagining Indigenous Citizenship and Race in Postcolonial Ecuador, 1895-1950
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A LIBERALISM OF FEAR: IMAGINING INDIGENOUS SUBJECTS IN POSTCOLONIAL ECUADOR, 1895-1950 By MERCEDES PRIETO A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2003 Copyright 2003 by Mercedes Prieto ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am indebted to several persons that encouraged me to undertake my doctoral studies as a mature student and helped me to overcome the isolation that I risked by undertaking an interdisciplinary track. In addition to my committee members—Mark Thurner, Anthony Oliver-Smith, Kesha Fikes, and Luise White—I discussed my research and writing projects with Andrés Guerrero, Blanca Muratorio, Francisco Carrión, Kim Clark, Thomas Carroll, and several faculty members of the Quito campus of FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales), the institution that provided me with local academic affiliation during my research. I am very grateful for their persuasive comments and suggestions. I also wish to acknowledge the fruitful insights that I received from the members of my committee during my defense. I am particularly indebted to Mark Thurner whose questions and commentaries challenged my writings and pushed me to revise them several times. I am also thankful for the help I received in my search for archival sources: José Barrera and Patricio Carrillo at the Congressional Archive; Honorio Granja at the Central Bank’s Historical Archive; Leonardo Loyza, and specially José Vera, at the Central Bank’s Library; Emith Costa at the Pío Jaramillo Alvarado Library in Loja; and Alicia Andrade at the Aurelio Espinosa Pólit Library in Quito. Many thanks to the Rodríguez- Alvarado and the Yépez-Murgueytio families, Erika Hanekamp, Maruja Martínez de Suárez, Plutarco Naranjo, and Alfredo Costales who provided me with important clues regarding the intellectual community of Quito during the first half of the twentieth iii century. Francisca Romeo, Coco Laso, and Angela Prieto helped me with the images and photographs that I collected during my research. My doctoral studies were made possible by a fellowship granted by the Inter- American Foundation, by the John Goggin Award, and by a teaching assistantship provided by the University of Florida. My writing group colleagues—Antoinette Jackson, Fatma Soud, Elli Sugita, and Roos Willems—lightened the difficult task of writing in a foreign language. Francisco Carrión and Mark Thurner had the patience to review numerous drafts and to transform my at times unintelligible writing into a communicative language. Finally, several friends helped me with everyday problems during my studies, research, and writing. My gratitude goes to Anita Lloré for her friendship and generous help; to my son, Nicolás, who had the courage to accept a student mother while he himself undertook his undergraduate studies; and to my father, Joaquín, who in several occasions came to my financial rescue. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 Framing the Research Question....................................................................................8 Historiographical Review ...........................................................................................12 Outline of the Chapters...............................................................................................16 Sources........................................................................................................................18 Notes...........................................................................................................................20 2 THE POLITICAL DEBATE ON INDIAN INDENTURED LABOR (CONCERTAJE), ca. 1895-1924 ................................................................................22 The Liberal Revolution and Indian Protection ...........................................................23 Historical Interpretations.....................................................................................24 Memories of the Revolution of 1895...................................................................27 Protecting the Indian Race...................................................................................28 Concertaje and the Indian Race ..................................................................................34 Petitions to Congress ...........................................................................................36 The Liberal Reform Strategy...............................................................................39 Critiques of Concertaje........................................................................................40 Contract Guarantees and the Inferiority of Indians ....................................................44 The Academia de Abogados................................................................................44 The Landowners’ Resistance...............................................................................51 Disseminating the Debate....................................................................................52 The Debate on Debtors Prison.............................................................................55 The Concertaje Metaphor....................................................................................58 Notes...........................................................................................................................62 3 THE SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC INVENTION OF A VANQUISHED RACE, ca. 1900-1930 .............................................................................................................70 Sociology and the Peculiar Psychology of Indians.....................................................71 v The Sociedad Jurídico-Literaria ..........................................................................72 The Universidad Central......................................................................................75 Dividing the Indigenous Race .............................................................................79 Indian Peculiarities ..............................................................................................82 The Critique of Race ...........................................................................................84 Archeology and Queries about the Indian Past...........................................................86 The Academia Nacional de Historia....................................................................87 Scientific Expeditions..........................................................................................89 The Polemic over the Kingdom of Quito ............................................................92 Doubts about Velasco’s history....................................................................93 Indian nobility and feasts .............................................................................95 An open-ended polemic ...............................................................................99 The Vanquished Race and Contemporary Indians ...................................................102 Evolution and Conquest ....................................................................................102 The Fear of Rebelliousness ...............................................................................106 Vanquishing the ‘Evolved Indians’...................................................................110 Notes.........................................................................................................................112 4 POLITICAL DEBATES ON THE REPRESENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF INDIAN COMMUNITIES, ca. 1925-1945 ....................118 Corporate Representation of the Indian Race...........................................................120 Indians Responses .............................................................................................124 Consulting the Indians: The 1944-45 Aperture.................................................128 The Indian Community.............................................................................................130 The Collective Lands.........................................................................................132 Land contract and status.............................................................................133 Land division..............................................................................................137 Representation ...................................................................................................139 Subjection to the State.......................................................................................141 State Management of Communal Indians.................................................................142 The Ejidos of Loja.............................................................................................144 The Community Constituency...........................................................................147 The Welfare Proposal........................................................................................150