"La división del mundo entre los que se rehúsan a ser comprendidos y los que buscan darse a entender sin que esto les aporte privilegio alguno": Vindication of Land and Reason in Saraguro, Ecuador A thesis presented to the faculty of the Center for International Studies of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Leah C. Vincent March 2010 © 2010 Leah C. Vincent. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled "La división del mundo entre los que se rehúsan a ser comprendidos y los que buscan darse a entender sin que esto les aporte privilegio alguno": Vindication of Land and Reason in Saraguro, Ecuador by LEAH C. VINCENT has been approved for the Center for International Studies by Amado J. Láscar Associate Professor of Modern Languages Jose' A. Delgado Director, Latin American Studies Daniel Weiner Executive Director, Center for International Studies 3 ABSTRACT VINCENT, LEAH C., M.A., March 2010, Latin American Studies "La división del mundo entre los que se rehúsan a ser comprendidos y los que buscan darse a entender sin que esto les aporte privilegio alguno": Vindication of Land and Reason in Saraguro, Ecuador (185 pp.) Director of Thesis: Amado J. Láscar As a starting point for exploring regimes of truth, I consider Michael Taussig’s question: “Can we understand the effects of truth in ruling ideologies without taking their poetics into account?” I wanted to understand the tensions in Saraguro, Ecuador revealed in narratives about a water conflict and the underlying historical conditions. My question was: Why have the mayor and the communities not been able to come to a “meeting point” despite apparent dialogue? Analyzing the conflict required excavations into local, national and continental histories that flickered in and out of the stories told to me as “flowerings” of great cycles of buried history. The conflict is not about the water; instead, it reflects the nature of conflicts between the State and indigenous people; the inability to advance a dialogue exposes two historical difficulties: the first is a “regime of truth” that says Indians are not fully capable of possessing “reason,” and thus are not seen as “equals” in a dialogue; and second is that the points of contention actually revolve around territorial sovereignty. I used a discursive-historical and textual analysis, informed by a decolonial perspective, of my interviews and scholarly literature to explore these two historical avenues. 4 Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Amado J. Láscar Associate Professor of Modern Languages 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank a great many beings who have contributed not just to the final product of this thesis, but to the original document I wrote, as well as the entire process of my university studies and even beyond. Thank you to Anne Scott and Amanda Harris, two inspiring Spanish professors who helped early in my college career to cultivate in me a love and interest in the Spanish language. Thank you to Betsy Partyka, who was an immense help in the beginning stages of this thesis, which was a different thesis at that time, especially with my applications for grants; also for the books she lent me, and the time she has given me answering questions and providing academic guidance. Thank you to Anne Porter, friend and confidant, with whom I share a love for Ecuador and who has been an emotional support not just for my studies on Ecuador but also for life in general. Thank you to my colleagues at the Student Writing Center, Susan and Erica, who helped me in a critical moment. Also to Nuch, who I know understands exactly. Also thank you to Sara Armstrong at Thesis and Dissertation Services who so patiently answered my questions. Thank you especially to the following scholars and writers with whom I have been dialoguing in the past two years on this thesis, and who have all opened my eyes to new ways of seeing the world: David Abrams, Josef Estermann, Galo Ramón, Leslie Marmon Silko, Michel Foucault, Fernando Mires, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, Frantz Fanon, Aime 6 Cesaire, Beatriz Gonzalez Stephan, Andrés Guerrero, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Javier Ponce, Anibal Quijano, Patricia Seed, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Michael Taussig, Arundhati Roy. Thank you to Linda and Jim Belote, whose work increased my understanding of Saraguro, and who treated me to lunch in Cuenca and have given me advice and support as a young and overwhelmed researcher. Thank you to the staff of Alden Library that keeps the second floor open for 24 hours. I also want to acknowledge all the anonymous glazed-eyed souls that spend their nights in the library, either for necessity, study, or pleasure, my heart is with you. Tatiana and Hernan, you both deserve a long break after how hard you have worked these past three years. Lastly, I would to thank my library companions Matt, and above all, Ray, who on separate occasions have taught me much about life and have listened with patience to my intellectual or emotional rants. Thank you to Sarah West and Alicia Miklos for their enormous help in the Spanish translations of my citations. The translations in my text are as follows: Sarah, pages 39- 70; me, pages 70-128; Alicia, pages 129-153; me, pages 154-162. Thank you to the following entities for helping to keep me sane during two months of intense writing or without whom, this work would simply not be possible: my computer, music, Casa Cantina, the TV series The Office, the cemetery across the street from my house, the stars, the film Finding Forrester, and Harry & David’s dark chocolate truffles. Thank you to my esteemed and brilliant committee members Ghirmai Negash and George Hartley, who always supported, trusted, and believed in my work; who helped 7 introduce me to other scholars and ideas; and who held stimulating conversations with me about these topics. Thank you so much to all my friends throughout these seven years who have encouraged, supported and understood me in this time of intense growth. Natalia, Rachel, and Debbie – I felt strengthened by your presence at OU while I was writing, even though you had all graduated and left. How much I’ve missed you during this time. Thank you to my friends who were able to attend my defense – I cannot express enough my gratitude at your support and physical presence during that very long and challenging hour and a half, which was the culmination of seven years of study, thinking and conversing. Thank you to those who I’m sure would have been there had I remembered to tell you about it, or had you been at OU. Thank you so much to all of the people I interviewed in Saraguro, most especially to the people who willingly spent much time with me on more than one occasion to discuss anything about the water conflict or Saraguro in general. Thank you to those leaders who provided me with materials about the conflict. Thank you most especially to A.S., who I’m sure had better things to do than spend the day tromping around the sites with an unsteady gringa; I very much enjoyed our conversations. Thank you to every Saraguro individual, all those who have eaten with, danced with, conversed with, and taught me about life and about their lives. Thank you above all, to a certain family in Saraguro, for all of the support they have provided in countless ways, for the meals and conversations, for allowing me to participate in and learn about their lives, for shelter, for emotional support, for the jokes, 8 for logistical help, for letting me tag along to social events; my gratitude is expressed through the tears that come when I think about all the wonderful memories. Thank you to the two professors at OU that without a doubt have had the most influence on me: Steve Hays and Amado Láscar. Thank you for all the time you have invested in my personal and intellectual growth and process of maturation. I absolutely would not understand the world as I do now without your help; whether I am in Athens or not, you will always, always, always be present in my life as I continue to grow and mature and confront new challenges. Finally, thank you to my family. Thank you to my parents for decisions they made long ago that have allowed me to pursue university studies and to travel; I cannot express how grateful I am for the financial possibility to study and travel, I can only hope to use all this in a way that gives back to the world and the people who have helped me. Thank you to Aunt Ellie and to Grandpa for their support and inspiration in writing since I was a child; to my brother and sister for their continuous support, to my Grandma for her interest and also financial support to my travels, and to my mom for everything. 9 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 11 Part I: Orientations ............................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 1: Introduction to Researcher and Research; Methodology ................................ 12 How I Stumbled into Saraguro ..................................................................................... 12 How I Stumbled into a Water Conflict ........................................................................