Otavalo

This weekend I went to Otavalo, which was quite an experience.

Otavalo is about 3 hours north of Quito by bus, and is known for being the largest market of indigenous goods in Latin America. It is a small town but has a large and distinct indigenous population known as Otavaleños. I found the town very interesting because there were so many indigenous people in their traditional dress. This does not happen in the city as it is considered a more “business-oriented” kind of place and traditional dress is not as accepted. There has been a stigma against indigenous people, much like in Canada, where they are not generally accepted in society unless you revoke some of your heritage (and sometimes not even then). This is exemplified by the fact that the indigenous people in Ecuador only gained citizenship in 2007. Yeah, that was 4 years ago... Another interesting thing about this is that there is no concrete statistic for the number of indigenous people in Ecuador. When censuses happened, indigenous were not included in it, so many people claimed that they were mestizo (a mixture of Spanish and indigenous) instead. This is interesting because there is a very large indigenous population in Ecuador, although the projected number is somewhere in the range of 25 to 75%. Now, with indigenous status being more widely recognized, it will be interesting to see how many more people claim their indigeneity in the census next year.

The traditional dress for women is the traditional navy skirt (velvet-looking), a white blouse with colourful embroidery, and navy sandals. They also wear a colourful belt around their waist, large amounts of gold or red beads around their neck, and their long hair is usually braided down their back. The men usually wear white pants and a sweater, with a black or navy hat. However, the traditional wear is with a colourful poncho, a white shirt underneath, white sandals, and their long hair braided down their back as well.

I was talking with my professor Julie, who is currently working on her Ph.D (in anthropology on Andean indigenous groups). She said that the main sign of your indigeneity is not the clothes you wear, although that is important, but the braid in your hair. Many people, especially men, cut off their hair when they come to the city to attend university or to work. She said in Otavalo, there are also hair-cutting ceremonies where their braid will be cut, framed, and hung in their home in the community. It is to symbolize that they still maintain their indigenous identity, but cannot outwardly portray it when studying or working.

I also asked her about my observation of the many, many more women in traditional dress than men. She told me that my observation was right, and that dressing in traditional dress has taken on more of a women’s role in the community. It is their role to uphold the culture while the men’s role is one more centred on modernity, which includes working in businesses or in the city. This is changing; however, as indigeneity is becoming more accepted and more men don their traditional clothing.

Overall, the weekend was good. The 6 of us on the trip bonded with cheap and light Ecuadorian beer (Club o Pilsener, por favour!), and cards on Friday night. Then on Saturday, we lazed around town and spent copious amounts of time at the market (all of us buying way too much!). On Sunday we hiked up the Peguche waterfalls, just outside of town, and swam/dunked ourselves in a hidden waterfall behind the main one. We also ignored signs and decided to sit right next to the main waterfall. One wrong move and we would have fallen a very, very long way down. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend and a much needed break from the bustle and pollution of Quito.