University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2013 Antonio Preciado and the Afro Presence in Ecuadorian Literature Rebecca Gail Howes [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the African History Commons, Latin American History Commons, Latin American Languages and Societies Commons, Latin American Literature Commons, Modern Languages Commons, Modern Literature Commons, and the Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons Recommended Citation Howes, Rebecca Gail, "Antonio Preciado and the Afro Presence in Ecuadorian Literature. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1735 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Rebecca Gail Howes entitled "Antonio Preciado and the Afro Presence in Ecuadorian Literature." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Modern Foreign Languages. Michael Handelsman, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Óscar Rivera-Rodas, Dawn Duke, Chad Black Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Antonio Preciado and the Afro Presence in Ecuadorian Literature A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Rebecca Gail Howes May 2013 DEDICATION To my parents, William and Gail Howes. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Apart from my individual efforts, the success of any project depends largely on the encouragement and guidance of many others. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who have been instrumental in the successful completion of my Doctor of Philosophy degree in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures. I am above all indebted to my dissertation director, advisor, and mentor Dr. Michael Handelsman who patiently provided the vision, encouragement and advice necessary for me to complete my dissertation. Dr. Handelsman, I owe a great deal of my intellectual growth and development to you. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Antonio Preciado and his family for allowing me to stay with them in Managua, Nicaragua. I am thankful for their hospitality and kindness, and I am especially grateful to Antonio for taking the time to discuss his life and life’s works. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee: Dr. Óscar Rivera-Rodas, Dr. Dawn Duke and Dr. Chad Black for their time and consideration of my work. Dr. Rivera-Rodas, thank you for your insight, recommendations and constant encouragement throughout these seven years. Dr. Duke, thank you for your assistance, support and guidance. I would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to Rossy Toledo for helping me transcribe the interview I conducted with Antonio Preciado. My thanks and appreciations also go out to my constant ally and friend, Alan Watts. I would especially like to thank my family for iii the love, support, and constant encouragement I have gotten over the years. In particular, I would like to thank both my mom and dad for being such great role models and a tough act to follow. Finally, I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who shared their knowledge, ideas, resources and numerous stories all of which contributed to my understanding of Ecuadorian literature and culture: Alicia Ortega, Fernando Cazón Vera, Catherine Walsh, Edgar Allan García, Esther Bermejo de Crespo, Fernando Balseca, Hugo Jaramillo, Humberto Vinueza, José Ron Rodríguez, Julio Pazos Barrera, Simón Zavala Guzmán, Ulises Estrella, Carlos Calderón Chico, Carlos Eduardo Jaramillo, Cecilia Ansaldo, Sonya Manzano, Jalisco González, José Sosa, Juan García Salazar, Juan Montaño Escobar, Julio Micolta and Orlando Tenorio. iv ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the literary trajectory of Antonio Preciado Bedoya (1941), a major Afroecuadorian writer, poet and diplomat whose work spans more than 50 years. Although relatively unknown outside of Ecuador, this dissertation will address that lack of recognition by studying his work in the more general context of the African Diaspora. It will reflect upon Preciado’s re-definition of Ecuadorian identity in the new millennium. Preciado is a poet who portrays the Afro presence as central to the national experience of ethnic diversity and the construction of a pluricultural Ecuador. He emphasizes that Afroecuadorians be recognized as an integral component of national identity, and this all encompassing paradigm affirms the existence, subjectivity, and importance of Ecuador’s Afro descendants. Additionally, this dissertation examines Afro-Latin American diasporic thought. It seeks to analyze the various ways in which Afro-diasporic subjects assert their identities and being in the world, particularly in Ecuador. Preciado’s poetry stresses the positive values of the black experience by concentrating on negritude. According to the poet, a spiritual awakening found in negritude and the African connection will lead to the physical liberation of Blacks. In other words, freedom for the people of African descent is predicated upon the conscious activation of one’s Africanness and ultimately, their own agency. Many of his works are rooted in the ethnic memory of past experiences which he recovers through the African tradition of the talking drums. His poems reflect his African heritage and emphasize black ethnic identity as positive. Finally, his Afro-centered worldview stresses the propagation of an ‘other’s’ sensibility, the v tolerance of difference, respect for all mankind regardless of racial and ideological difference, identification with and love of nature and universality. While Preciado’s poetry is most definitely Afro-centered, his works also address a wide- range of themes that transcend geographical and cultural borders. Therefore, his Afro-centric poetry should not be interpreted as isolationist. His poetic message reflects not only a black experience, but he has also adapted his poetry to the national needs of his country which reflect a collective experience, thus utilizing his personal trials to convey the pathos of the Ecuadorian nation. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology of the Dissertation................................................................................... 11 Organization of the Dissertation.................................................................................... 12 Justification of Topic..................................................................................................... 19 1. Precursors of Blackness in Ecuador.............................................................................. 22 1.1 Regional Origins of Blackness................................................................................ 22 1.2 Mestizaje and the Myth of Racial Democracy in Latin America............................ 29 1.3 Adalberto Ortiz........................................................................................................ 45 1.4 Nelson Estupiñán Bass ............................................................................................ 60 2. Antonio Preciado and the Emergence of an Afroecuadorian Poet (1961-1969) .......... 66 2.1 Historical and Literary Foundation ......................................................................... 66 2.2 Jolgorio.................................................................................................................... 78 2.3 Más áca de los muertos ......................................................................................... 109 2.4 Tal como somos .................................................................................................... 121 3. Antonio Preciado, Afro Poet Unbound (1992-1998)................................................. 158 3.1 Historical and Literary Foundation ....................................................................... 158 3.2 De ahora en adelante ............................................................................................. 165 3.3 Jututo ..................................................................................................................... 225 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 247 vii Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 251 Vita.................................................................................................................................. 275 viii Introduction Throughout Latin America the exclusion of Blacks from official history, politics, economic spheres of influence, civic and social organizations, and institutions vis-à-vis