2020-04-20
Cars and trucks honked endlessly to celebrate the end of the paro, with the government withdrawing its Decree to stop gas subsidies. It was October 13, 2019, 11 days since everyone had been confined within their communities. While life appeared to return to normal, throughout the rest of the year, there had always been tense...
Read More2020-01-24
Left to right: Official Poster of her titled “Voices of the Past” Mother-in-law, my supervisor Luzmila In my apprenticeship, my supervisor’s mother-in-law talks to me whenever I pass her. Since she speaks a mix of 90% Kichwa and 10% Spanish, I often don’t understand her and just smile. For two weeks, I missed...
Read More2020-01-20
A Manosalvas Fonte Christmas tradition where each family unit prepares a skit with the funniest skit winning a grand prize. Our family were characters from the Mexican comedy “El Chavo del Ocho”, and I was the main character, Chavo. We won the grand prize- a baby cow. ¡Qué chavo! Context: For my Christmas dinner with...
Read More2020-01-02
Views of the inactive volcano, Tayta Imbabura, from one of our morning hikes. 5AM – 8AM Wake up, with hours depending on whether or not we will take a morning hike around the volcano. I awake with the all-natural alarms of geese honking, roosters crowing, and the baby...
Read More2019-11-14
Chicha is a fermented corn drink essential to all the fiestas and festivals of the indigenous community. In the past, the militaristic government did everything in their power to prevent the indigenous from drinking or making chicha. Anyone who tried was killed on the spot. However, that didn’t deter el pueblo Imbabureño – in fact,...
Read More2019-09-08
The smiles of Mami Rosa, the friendliness of Papi Jose, the openness of mis hermanas – all warmly welcomed me into the house of Manosalvas Fonte, located in the city of González Suárez. Yet, when Jose asked me “¿Extrañas a tus padres?”, I couldn’t prevent my smile from twitching downwards. I quickly helped clear the...
Read More2019-08-31
I was scrolling through my Linkedln feed one pleasant morning when I came upon the following post from my soon-to-be alma mater: I do admit that I am a rather verbose writer. I tend to read verbose authors (looking at you, Edith Wharton) and enjoy the colorful world that adjectives and long descriptions paint. But,...
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