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UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Devoted abandonment : the children left behind by parental emigration in Ecuador Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6ws9w6ww Author Rae-Espinoza, Heather Publication Date 2006 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Devoted Abandonment: The Children Left Behind by Parental Emigration in Ecuador A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology by Heather Rae-Espinoza Committee in charge: Professor Steven M. Parish, Chair Professor Michael Cole Professor Lawrence Palinkas Professor David Pedersen Professor Melford E. Spiro 2006 © Copyright Heather Rae-Espinoza, 2006 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Heather Rae-Espinoza is approved and is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: CHAIR University of California, San Diego 2006 iii Dedication To all those who taught me that the experience of abandonment is socially constructed. To the memory of Corona and Biela, my fellow travelers throughout this project, who ironically both died of separation anxiety at its completion. Their barks are echoed throughout this work. iv Table of Contents Signature Page iii Dedication iv Table of Contents v List of Figures vi Preface vii Acknowledgements viii Vita xii Abstract xv Part I: Setting, Reflexivity & Methods for Urban Anthropology 1 Chapter 1 — The Anthropology of a City 3 Chapter 2 — The Anthropologist in a City 27 Chapter 3 — Methodology for a City 39 Part II: Context & Diversity of Migration Experiences 79 Chapter 4 — A Culture of Migration: Ecuadorian History 80 Chapter 5 — A Garden of Orchids: Family & Neighborhood in Guayaquil 114 Chapter 6 — Uprooted Children: Experiences of Migration 165 Part III: Responses to Parental Emigration 214 Chapter 7 — Devoted Sacrifice: Parental Emigration & Cultural Learning 216 Chapter 8 — Family Feud: Parental Emigration & Culturally Constituted Defense Mechanisms 295 Chapter 9 — To Each His Own: Parental Emigration & Individual Defense Mechanisms 370 Conclusion 459 Epilogue 471 Appendix A: Informant Interview Schedules 477 Appendix B: Respondent Interview Schedules 487 References 498 v List of Figures Figure 1: Map of Ecuador 8 Figure 2: Neighborhood Schematic 11 Figure 3: Summary of Instruments 73 Figure 4: Colon Statue 87 Figure 5: Map of Las Orquídeas Sub-section 117 Figure 6: Mendoza-Cardosa Kinship Chart 152 Figure 7: Individual Defense Pairs 383 Figure 8: Typology of Reactions to Parental Emigration 467 vi Preface In order to protect the confidentiality of the subjects of this research, I changed the names of all informants and respondents along with the names of certain places. I have not changed identifying information because it would confound the role of context as it influences the children’s psychological adaptations and social adjustments to parental emigration. I preserved the names of fellow scholars and others who assist migrants in Ecuador to thank them for their theoretical inspiration, generous encouragement, and practical assistance. I have included the Spanish citations from their original published work and research participants’ statements in footnotes and parenthetical phrases in the text to preserve their words and to avoid any inaccuracies from my translations. When no exact English translation was appropriate, I italicized Spanish words (other than proper nouns). The one exception to this is the word “consentir.” Even though there was no exact English translation for the word, I substituted the English word “consent” after outlining the distinctions between the two terms. I chose this method because of the grammatical complications for the reader with continued use of the Spanish term. vii Acknowledgements This research has not just meant the fulfillment of requirements for my doctorate, but the fulfillment of unforeseen ambitions. In the field, I found perspective, confidence, patience, and acceptance. I could never have accomplished this without the precious assistance I received from faculty, scholars, and friends, which are most certainly overlapping categories. The opportunity would not have been possible without the generous grants that I received throughout the planning, researching, and writing phases. I thank the Bristol Fellowship for funding exploratory research and the University of California, San Diego President’s Pre-Doctoral Humanities Fellowship for funding the preparation and writing of this research. I am also indebted to the Fulbright Commission, National Science Foundation, Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, and the F. G. Bailey Fellowship for supporting my fieldwork. These grants were possible because of the assistance of the administration and my faculty at the Department of Anthropology. I am unsure how I became so fortunate to receive such an enthusiastic, involved, and supportive committee. I am indebted to Steve Parish, who was not only a dissertation chair, but also a diligent guide through coursework, grants, and professional preparation. Although I did not intend to work with children, his admirable research demonstrated to me the value that the study of children can have for understanding culture and psychodynamic processes. I thank him for his careful consideration of my work, thoughtful critiques, and introducing me to stimulating material. His patience while I experimented on tangents and rehashed data options is the only reason why this dissertation could reach the claims that it has. viii I would also like to thank Mel Spiro for his challenging feedback and belief in my potential. He waded through stacks of drafts, even when I had a tendency to put a newly revised version in his mailbox before he could review the first version. He has allowed “do-overs” when I missed the mark, and encouraged me when I arrived close to the target. His expertise in scrutinizing psychodynamic processes is reflected in the development of a number of arguments in this dissertation. In our meetings, he fairly questioned any claim I made, which has improved this dissertation as well as my analytic skills as a teacher and a researcher. The rest of my committee has also been invaluable. I thank Michael Cole for his feedback on child research and David Pedersen for comments on the final version of my dissertation. I also thank Roy D’Andrade and Larry Palinkas for help in the formation of this research project. Roy allowed me to gain confidence in my research through the Psychodynamic Seminar and Larry Palinkas helped me to connect with a foster care program in the United States at the Children’s Hospital for comparison purposes. These experiences were invaluable for the formation of this project. I am beholden to Doug Raybeck who found me floundering in architectural engineering and life at Hamilton College. I appreciate his dedication as I have continued to rely on him long after graduating. The tab of six-packs must be rather high at this point. He has provided gracious guidance in coursework, introductions to scholars, and encouragement for presenting my research for years. I found beneficial audience feedback in presenting my research in a number of forums both in the United States and in Ecuador. I thank the Society for Psychological Anthropology, Society for Cross-Cultural Research, and the American Anthropological ix Association for providing such forums, along with the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, the Ecuadorian Fulbright Commission, and Servicio Jesuita de Emigrantes. I owe a debt of gratitude to Pablo Cozzaglio for being my psychoanalysis to Spanish translator for the presentations in Ecuador. In addition, my students at California State University, Long Beach have helped me to clarify my research. Colleagues in Guayaquil aided my fieldwork as well. The Asociación Solidaridad Internacional de Emigrantes Ecuatorianos kindly opened their lives and work to me. Chris Garces provided entree into the intelligentsia of the nation, which proved to be invaluable for the development of this research. Along with necessary research breaks, my co-Fulbright Scholars in Guayaquil offered encouragement to call possible participants, to knock on doors, and to talk to strangers. These scholars, along with my dogs Corona and Biela, were fellow travelers and sounding boards for adjusting to surprisingly odd and surprisingly normal experiences. I would also like to thank my brother-in-law, Gerard Martorano, whose pride at my accomplishments has motivated me to accomplish more. When I lost my sister, she left me with a brother who has never wavered in his promise to watch out for me, including proof-reading a version of this dissertation. I also thank Mrs. Wilson, without whom I may not even have a high school diploma, let alone the subsequent ones. Her offer to drive me to her school so that I could avoid a tarnished academic past is the reason I learned that academic achievement was worth the effort. In my brief stint in foster care, I found a foster mother in a teacher. In addition, I would like to thank my Ecuadorian in-laws, whose humor and concern for me in the field provided a foundation x for my research. I never knew I could laugh so hard in a second language. These people confirm the validity of fictive kin as reality. After interaction-filled and extensively planned fieldwork, writing-up research can be a confusing and isolating time. I thank the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego for their high expectations, especially Bambi Chapin who would show me the light at the end of the tunnel. I also thank the Anthro-Pub goers for their tolerance of my egotistic ramblings about my research. This research would never have been possible without the kind welcome I received from numerous Ecuadorian families, schools, organizations, and government officials that allowed me to conduct my research. I especially thank the family and school referred to as the “Mendozas” and “The Muppet Academy” for not tiring of seeing me on a daily basis.
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