Schooling, Blackness and national identity in Esmeraldas, Ecuador

Abstract

In Esmeraldas, Ecuador, students of African descent make sense of racial identity and discrimination in multiple and contradictory ways as they negotiate the dominant discourse of national identity. In Ecuador two simultaneous processes shape the dominant discourse of national identity: racial mixture and the movement towards Whiteness. This study is based primarily on formal interviews and classroom and school site observations. In this article I focus on the relationship between educational practices at the national and local level and the perceptions and negotiations of students of African descent concerning racial identity and discrimination. I show that the racial and spatial topography of the nation of Ecuador is transposed onto the cultural landscape of the city of Esmeraldas. I show that the formal curriculum attempts to erase the significance of Black people and Blackness from the economic and social development of the nation, while racial discrimination is pervasive inside and outside of the classroom at the research site. Finally, I show that students of African descent often attempt to move towards Whiteness as they negotiate the dominant discourse of national identity. I conclude with a summary of my findings and suggest what the implications are for schooling in Esmeraldas, Ecuador and more broadly.

Notes

1. All names of persons referred to throughout the study are fictitious.

2. All subsequent citations of informants are from Spanish and translated by the researcher.

3. I use the term Latin America (see Andrews, 2004) to refer to all Spanish and Portuguese speaking nations of the Americas and the Caribbean.

4. During the year I conducted my research I made presentations to classes about the nature of my research. During these presentations I explained I was conducting a study about race, class and education and asked students if they would be interested in participating in the study. After class was over students would often engage me in conversation. During these conversations I provided students with a written introduction to my study and a consent form they were to have their parent sigh if they were interested.

5. Rahier (1998) has also pointed out in previous studies that Blackness is consistently negatively represented at a national scale on television and in the printed media.

6. The mural panel of the Black people is strikingly similar to a drawing found in elementary school texts used in Esmeraldas in the late 1980s.

7. This title refers to the long history of struggle by Black people throughout the colonial and republican history of the region.

8. He is represented in the mural in the upper left hand corner of the first mural figure. He is from the province of Esmeraldas and is often claimed by Black people as a local hero who fought for the rights of poor and Black people. He belonged to the MPD, or the Popular Democratic Movement party. This party is the dominant Marxist party in Ecuadorian politics and Jaime Hurtado was its leader. He was assassinated five years ago in the city of Quito. His killers were never captured.

9. Similar to the concept of a homecoming queen in high schools in the US, a female student was chosen to represent the school in a city‐wide beauty contest. This position required a minimum academic standard. Besides that, the criteria were rather vague and also depended on one nominating oneself.

10. Several other participants have mentioned ‘castigo de lengua’ or punishment of the tongue. Punishment of the tongue refers to the understanding of ones circumstances as punishment by God. That is, if you say you hate a certain kind of person, God will punish you by putting you together with that type of person.