OBOC - Ecuador

Jorge Icaza's novel Huasipungo ("The Villagers") is often credited for exposing the plight of Native Americans in Ecuador under the Spanish Colonizers. While many Latin American writers are famous for magical realism, this novel has none of that - it is harsh and it is real. The novel was published first in 1934 and in the English translation the introduction sadly notes how unlike in the Grapes of Wrath (which it is often compared to), the plight of the Indians are not any different even three decades later, which cannot be said of the Okies of Steinbeck.

In the book, the landowning elites, the clergy and the white masters form an unholy trinity exploiting the land and resources of Ecuador and in this process treat the Indians as disposables. There are also the Cholos of mixed race who are in a slightly more favorable position than the Indians and who often did the dirty work for their masters.

Don Alfonso the landowner decides to lay a road with Indian labor so that the whiteman can bring in his equipment and machinery to exploit the virgin forests. To achieve this aim, he enlists the help of the local clergyman and the cholos to drive fear (of god, of law) into the heart of the Indian. Andres Chiliquinga is the tragic hero of this novel who loses just about everything, his limbs, his cunshi, his home, his village and above all his dignity before he leads an unsuccessful rebellion against the exploiters.

If you thought the Indian was at the bottom of this hierarchy (the white, the landowner, the cholo and the indian), you are only partly correct. The Indian woman is at the absolute bottom - facing rape and harassment from the masters and violence from her man - your heart reaches out to the Cunshis of this world - when one doesn't even have control over the milk produced from one's breasts there is no doubt as to one's position in society.

Despite the bleak nature of the book, it is a must read book as it is a story that humanity needs to understand. Coincidentally, around the time i was wrapping up this book, I also heard about the controversy surrounding REDD which is now the new green. While voices like Jane Goodall, Wangari Mathai are coming out in favor of REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), what about the indigenous people everywhere? There was a time when they were evicted as the world needed to clear out their forests. Now are they facing eviction as the world decides to protect their forests lands? I don't know the answer and I haven't studied the issue in-depth - but when I heard the Ecuadorian President say he was in favor of REDD despite protests from the indigenous people, I couldn't help thinking about the novel I just finished.