R.U.E. Poster for International Education

Over my spring break, I got the opportunity to travel to Ecuador with my classmates and anthropology professors. We were only there for twelve days but experienced the diversity held inside such a small country. We traveled from the highlands to the jungle to the coast and I absorbed as much of it as possible. Our tour guide Tomas said that Ecuadorians love to talk about politics and fútbol to anyone so I chose to focus my research on something political. While in Quito we visited the presidential palace where I first saw the flag and seal. I noticed the Andean Condor atop the crest and remembered hearing how important they were to the country. I wanted to relate the meaning of the symbolism in the flag to the values currently becoming national in a changing country.

Ecuador is a democratic republic which is currently taking a shift towards the political left for the first time in their history. The past social class system was left over from the Spanish rule. It was a class system determined by race where the lighter skinned were atop the social structure. The conquistadors from Spain used this to divide the natives so they could have power. After gaining independence they struggled to establish political stability until electing President Correa in 2006. He has started to homologize the country but it still maintains some fiscal imbalance. I got to see parts of cities in Ecuador that were cleaner and just as developed as in the States, but I also people just barely scraping by to survive. I didn’t really know anything about Ecuador so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I felt comfortable in a socialist society because everyone was working together as one rather than competing to be the best. The idea of community was a new concept that has a different meaning than in the USA. I was feeling sick the first few days until leaving the high elevation. When getting to the jungle the yachak suggested he had a natural medicine that helps that but only with good community. I thought he meant immunity at the time until hearing it a few more times. I asked what he meant and he explained that some of their medicines only will work if one is connected with the environment and those around him in a way that doesn’t seem logical in the eyes of outsiders.

While abroad I experienced life in a country that has a different attitude then what I have been used to. I felt that no matter how little the natives seemed to have in material things, they made up for it in local knowledge or appreciation for those around them. My research while in Ecuador focused on how these values are helping to shape a changing country. Ecuadorians are using values important to all their ancestors and using it to create a more progressive Ecuador. They are acknowledging their past and moving forward into a country that is embracing those who would have been left to fend for themselves in the past.