COSMOPOLITAN COMUNEROS: CELEBRATING INDIGENEITY THROUGH THE APPROPRIATION OF URBANITY IN THE QUITO BASIN BY JULIE LYNN WILLIAMS DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Andrew Orta, Chair Professor Emeritus Norman E. Whitten Jr., Director of Research Associate Professor Arlene Torres Associate Professor Martin F. Manalansan IV Abstract My dissertation examines urban indigenous identity in the Quito Basin in contrast to essentialized representations of indigenousness that emanate from emerging multicultural state policy and prominent indigenous movements in Ecuador. Based on ethnographic research I conducted between 2003-2011, I focus on the indigenous identity celebrated in Lumbisí, an urban indigenous community that borders Quito. Dominant national stereotypes of indigeneity position Lumbiseños as culturally and ethnically assimilated members of Ecuadorian society (mestizos) or as unrecognized citizens of the Cumbayá Valley community. By contrast, Lumbiseños reject claims of assimilation and assert an indigenous identity rooted in their communal land rights, ancestry, traditions, and social networks. While Lumbiseños adhere to their own conventional markers of indigeneity, they also depend on urban earned salaries and related social capital to reinvest in their community. I argue that the local indigeneity recognized and practiced within Lumbisí represents a distinct urban indigeneity that selectively draws on urban capital, education, and interactions with non-indigenous others to reinvest in their community and bolster their indigenous identity outside the processes of acculturation, hybridity, and mestizaje. This dissertation contributes to long-standing discussions in the social sciences regarding the apparent tensions between indigeneity and urban modernity with relation to race, class, and emerging concepts of plurinational citizenship in Ecuador. I engage the influential ideologies of the folk-urban continuum (Redfield 1941) and blanqueamiento or the process of cultural and ethnic whitening through assimilation from various academic perspectives (Hurtado 2007, Quijia et al 2006, Stutzman 1981, Whitten 1981, Whitten 2003), which correlate increased indigenous contact with urban spaces with the loss of indigenous culture in favor of modernity and an ii idealized mestizo citizenship. In the case of Lumbisí, I argue that the more contact indigenous people experience within the city, the stronger and more empowered their indigenous identity becomes. I demonstrate that urban indigenous peoples choose to reinvest in their home community and identity by appropriating urban capital and prestige goods as an integral part of their indigeneity without implications of assimilation. I also provide insight to local symbolic, ideological, and performative interpretations of urban and global experiences in Lumbisí through the ritual analysis of large-scale, local festival production. Building upon recent Ecuadorianist research that underscores festivals as sites for the negotiation of new forms of rural indigeneity (e.g. Corr 2004, 2010, Wogan 2003, Wibbelsman 2005, 2008, and Fine-Dare 2006), my dissertation examines comparable processes in an overlooked urban case. iii To the people of the Comuna San Bartolomé de Lumbisí, especially the abuelitos, whose stories give these pages their meaning. Dios le pague. iv Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge and give my sincere gratitude to the “village” of people that helped me throughout my journey to achieve this milestone. This village spans many geographic spaces and time and consists of a vast range of people including academics and non-academics, mentors, colleagues, family, neighbors, and friends, who chose to believe in a little tomboy from the deep, rural south, and her ability to achieve great things. While this journey has delivered tremendous highs and lows, triumphs and defeats, gifts and sacrifices, the people in my village never wavered in their support of me. I could never thank everyone enough for all they have done, but I would like to share my success with that entire village and credit the people within it for helping me achieve my goals. The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant funded my principal ethnographic research period from August 2007-August 2009. These funding opportunities provided me the economic means and afforded me the luxury to concentrate solely on my research and accomplish my project’s goals. The Tinker Foundation and the UIUC’s Anthropology Department’s Summer Research Fund provided four summers of preliminary ethnographic and archival research in Lumbisí and Quito from 2004-2006. These summer research opportunities enriched my dissertation research and provided an incredibly strong foundation from which to begin the larger project. I especially would like to thank the people of Lumbisí, the heart of this project, who gave me the chance to live with them and trusted me with their words after many years of shared work, stories, and meals. They taught me to see, understand, and appreciate their lifestyle and community. I am indebted to the people of Lumbisí and only hope that this dissertation serves as a beginning of my repayment for their generosity. Don Luis Cajas and family, Don Miguel v Ángel and Doña Alegría Cusi and family, Don Calisto Ushiña and family have always welcomed me into their homes and shared their amazing experiences with me. They created my home away from home and accepted me as family. I will forever be grateful to them. My family has been a pillar of strength and support during this entire process. My parents, Al and Sue Williams, endured every failure and celebrated each success with me along the way, despite the geographical distance that kept us apart. I adore them for giving me the space to pursue my dreams and goals as I envisioned them, not as traditional southern gender roles dictate. I am grateful for and inspired by my uncle, Lewis Williams, who has supported my academic career from beginning to end and has contributed to one of the service projects with which I am heavily involved, El Comedor Maria Auxilidora, in Lumbisí. My brothers Alan, Tim, and Andy Williams have also been a source of comfort and understanding when times were tough. I also want to thank my “sister” Christine McDonald Williams, for taking care of me, sharing her home, and for being an amazing friend. In Quito, I extend my gratitude to the families, who embraced me and adopted me into their homes and hearts. My original host-mother Marcia Bonilla and host-sister María Belén Tinajero, have remained sources of incredible support and friendship over the last fifteen years. Paulina Terán González, who I met as my program director during my 1997 exchange program at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, has played a crucial role in developing my academic interests and professional anthropology career, while becoming a dear family friend. She has always provided insight, moral support, and a place to call “home” away from home. These women serve as the professional and personal role models that I will always cherish and admire. I also recognize and show my deepest gratitude to the long term assistance provided by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. I am especially indebted to Carlos Montúfar and Diego vi Quiroga, both UIUC alum, who have always expressed interest and support in my project in Lumbisí. Additionally, I thank María del Carmen Molestina for guiding me to UIUC and her early support of my research and studies. Without their support, my research would have never gotten off the ground. As a first generation PhD, I needed academic guidance, support, professional advice, and encouragement along the way, and I was very fortunate to find all of that and more in my dissertation committee. Each member of my committee, Andrew Orta, Norman E. Whitten, Jr., Arlene Torres, and Martin Manalansan IV, offered their unique areas of expertise to help me complete my best thesis. I am indebted to my dissertation committee chair, Andrew Orta, who challenged me to see beyond the borders of Ecuador to grasp the big picture of identity in relation to colonialism, nationalism, and class in the Andes. He helped me broaden my research scope and continuously pushed me to be a better scholar. For his incredible patience, time, and investment in me and my project, I am truly thankful. Norman E. Whitten Jr., my director of dissertation research, has been an invaluable mentor and has given his time selflessly to see this project through to completion. His prolific knowledge of Ecuador and attention to detail have enhanced these chapters and my foundation in Ecuadorian studies beyond measure. Arlene Torres not only offered amazing insight to race, class, and power in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also stood as a strong, female mentor throughout this experience. I am very grateful to her for all of our talks, her ability to help me understand even when I felt my world was upside-down, her constant support, and her guidance. Martin Manalansan IV provided his expertise on socio-linguistic analysis and identity as well as sensory anthropology. He gave me the space to develop my ideas and offered constructive feedback that helped strengthen my position. I thank Martin for always being the voice of reason and for keeping me focused on vii moving forward, rather than falling back. Finally, I would like to thank a fifth, honorary member of my committee, Elizabeth Spears, the graduate program coordinator in the Anthropology Department. Liz always takes the time to help all graduate students in our department through every step of the graduation process. I cannot thank her enough for all of her time and dedication. I feel very fortunate to have worked within a larger academic network, which has influenced my work tremendously over the years.