The indigenous movement is best understood as a movement in protest against a legacy of discrimination and exclusion in Ecuador. The movement flourished after the new democratic system of 1979 encouraged indigenous people to demand change and exercise their rights as citizens for the first time. Their method of appealing to policymakers became civic action through uprisings and roadblocks. While many scholars have attempted to compartmentalize the different branches of the movement, the complexities and constantly changing allegiances and ideologies of social movements makes this difficult. Rather than seeking to grasp the difference among indigenous groups and actors in the movement, this chapter seeks to: (1) trace the broad trends in indigenous …show more content…
Prior to the development of the movement, indigenous people in Ecuador remained politically and socially excluded, with no voice to express the grievances of their communities. From its birth as a republic in 1830, Ecuador maintained a tense relationship with its diverse population. Then and now, indigenous communities can be found throughout the three inland regions of Ecuador: the tropical Pacific coastal lands, the temperate Sierra highlands, and the eastern upper Amazon basin called “el Oriente.” Fourteen different indigenous nationalities exist in these regions: the Kichwa nationality in the highlands; the Achuar, Cofan, Huaorani, Secoya, Shuar, Siona, and Zapara nationalities in the Amazon; and the Awa, Chachi, Epera, Manta, Taschila, and Wankavilka nationalities in the coast. The multitude of these communities represented a problem for the new republic in the 1800s as they were perceived as obstacles to the modernization and state planning …show more content…
In light of this perspective, institutional barriers to keep indigenous people from political participation became easily justified and maintained. For example, indigenous people in Ecuador could not vote nor enjoy rights and privileges reserved for citizens for close to three centuries. Citizen laws, enacted in the 1800s, explicitly removed indigenous people from politics by requiring property ownership worth at least 300 pesos and the ability to read and write. Ultimately, this law meant that indigenous people did not meet the criteria to be considered citizens since most of them were illiterate day-workers in haciendas. This political exclusion of indigenous people consequently led to their social isolation in