Philip S. MacLeod, Curator
April 1 - May 30, 2000
In 1945 Pál Kelemen and his wife Elisabeth traveled to Ecuador as part of a trip through South America. This exhibit documents part of that visit. Mr. Kelemen was a Hungarian historian who became a noted expert on Latin American Art. Most of the photos displayed here were taken by Mrs. Kelemen. The Latin American Library Photographic Archive's Pál and Elisabeth Kelemen Collection consists of 4000 prints, negatives, slides, contact sheets and items of correspondence.
The intent of this exhibition is to show the viewer the nation outside of Quito. The second display case presents 12 pictures from 9 cities and places throughout Ecuador. The third and fourth display cases present a unique series of 21 photographs shot at the famous market in Otavalo, which show the variety of available goods and the indigenous peoples. The text that accompanies these market photos was drawn from "The Market" in The Awakening Valley (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949) pp. 12, 15, 18-20.
The Market
Text taken from The Awakening Valley by John Collier Jr. and Anibal Buitron (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949), pp. 12, 15, 18-20.
Saturday morning, the trails leading to Otavalo are crowded with old and young pressing foward at a run, their bare feet moving noiselessly over the dusty paths. Everywhere there are lines of burdened Indians coming from every quarter of the mountain-ringed world. Down over footpaths that join trails, trails that converge into roads, roads that pour into the market town like streams till the streets of Otavalo become an endless river of dark-blue ponchos, bright-red ponchos, brilliantly striped with gold and green and turquoise.
The trails leading from the highlands are worn to deep canyons. The ancient stairways descending into the city are hollowed by centuries of hurrying feet. For the market is very old. The people of the town will tell you that it is old. Their great-grandfathers were born near the market square. But it is older than that by hundreds and hundreds of years. Long before the Spaniards came, there had been a market in the valley. Even before the Incas came, it was there. Since the beginning of now-forgotten time, the Indians have been getting up with the dawn, shouldering their burdens, and descending into the valley of Otavalo to trade.
Before the coming of the Spaniards, traders from distant parts of Ecuador carried their wares to the market, Indians from the far headwaters of the Amazon brought native cotton and achiote , the red seeds of a tropical tree which are still used for coloring food. They brought parrots, monkeys, and strange herbs from the jungle to trade with the highland Indians for salt, blankets and dogs.
Today the Indians still trade their blankets with travelers from far away, but now it is for money with which to buy iron plow blades, hoes, and axes. The strangers are for the most part white men and mestizos (of mixed Indian and white blood), who have gotten up with the dawn to trade with the Indians.
During the week the Indians--men, women, and children--work industriously in their own homes preparing articles for the Saturday market. Each community has some specialty to sell. Ponchos of the heaviest wool to guard against the intense Andean cold. Heavy wool shawls for the women of the highland valleys. Woolen cloth of many varieties, woven belts, blankets. Cotton homespuns, worn by all the Indians. Rope made from the fiber of the cabuya cactus. Mats and fans fashioned from lake rushes. Baskets and hats made from split cane. Pottery cooking pots and diverse other household utensils. Vegetables, grains, maize, beans and fat green haba beans. Chickens and eggs. Salt, bread, meat and fat.
The white man also brings his wares to trade. Every temptation is offered to attract the sucres of the thrifty Indians. Bolts of factory-made cloth. Aniline dyes of all hues that are sold by the pinch. Kerosene to light their mountain homes. Cheap jewelery, iron and tinware. Leather goods, mirrors, needles, spices and medicinal remedies. Every article has its customary place in one of the four market squares, week after week, year after year.
The first long rays of sunlight find the market already in full swing. In one broad plaza almost all the buyers and sellers are Indian. Men with ponchos to sell occupy one long row at the edge of the square. Each Indian has placed his ponchos on a cotton cloth on the ground and stands behind them against the wall waiting patiently for customers, confident that his handiwork is known and sought after throughout Ecuador. A customer examines the quality, size and color, asks the price, makes an offer, pretends to go looking for a better bargain, returns and offers a few sucres more. Finally, seller and buyer reach an agreement, and the transaction is complete. Among the crowd there are dealers who buy as many of the ponchos and other woolen goods as they can carry. These dealers come to the Otavalo market early in order to choose quietly and avoid too may competitors. By seven o'clock the best ponchos, shawls and woolen suitings are gone, and the dealers are already on their way to other markets of the Ecuadorian highlands as far north as Tulcán and as far south as Loja.
In the row next to the ponchos there are woolen materials which copy English tweeds. These are hand-spun and hand-woven to sell to the white world of big cities--Quito, Bogotá, and even far-off Caracas. In the same row there are the great shawls which the conservative white and mestizo women of the small towns wear, just as did their early Spanish ancestors. In another row are the rectangles of dark-blue or black flannel that the Indian women buy for their wrap-around skirts and shoulder shawls. Then come the blue and white cotton headcloths called fachallinas; the heavy cotton homespun cloth for making petticoats, shirts, and trousers; and the broad and narrow belts worn by all Indian women. Father along is the raw wool which Indian dealers have brought from the large estates of the next valley. Beyond are the rush mast and fans woven by the Indians from the vicinity of Lake San Pablo. At the back of the market are pottery dishes, cooking pots, water jugs and large flat plates for toasting corn. These are made by mestizos or by a few Indians from the community of Peguche. On one side of the plaza, in the shade of the tall palm trees, Indian made whole-wheat bread is on sale, together with a few onions and cabbages and other hot ready-to-eat foods.
Several blocks up the streets from the Indian plaza is the big general market. Here in the first row there are vegetables, raised for the most part by Indian gardeners on white property. Beyond are booths offering salt, the rendered fat of beef, sheep or swine and meat both raw and cooked. Next is a row of spices, remedies and charms. These include the beaks of eastern jungle birds, the hoofs of animals from the high mountains and low jungles, fruits and seeds of strange forms and colors, herbs, insects with iridescent wings. Ask a vendor what any one of these things is good for, and invariably he answers, "For heart trouble."
Nearby whites and mestizos are selling white bread, corn and beans cooked and raw. Next come bright piles of oranges, bananas and pineapples brought from the tropical valleys beyond the mountain. Then there are the blacksmiths selling, picks, axes, knives, scissors and iron tips for the wooden plows. All these articles may have been transformed from the chassis of an old truck. Then come the tinkers with pails, kettles, and lamps of various kinds. Next are the jewelers from the nearby town of Cotacachi selling cooper rings set with bits of color glass, cylindrical copper beads, earrings made of old and modern coins, silver and copper pins. Leather workers, also from Cotacachi, are there with pocket-books and belts. Across the way are those who offer embroidered blouses, aniline dyes and colored thread. Beyond are the vendors of potatoes and sweets potatoes, red carrots and white carrots.
In this general market three-fourths of the people are Indians, a proportion which holds true for all the region....
Besides the Indian market and the general market there are two animal markets, one where small animals such as pigs and sheep are sold, the other for horses, cattle, mules and burros.
In the early-morning sunlight each market is a swirl of color, a formless pattern that fills the square like the flooding tide. Dark-red ponchos, wine-purple, deep-blue, mixing with magenta shawls, cherry-red shoulder cloths, electric-blue and emerald-green shoulder cloths, white hats and brick-red hats, white shirts and pants of homespun cotton. Blouses embroidered with bright and harmoniously blended colors, the flashing red of coral and gilded beads..
But soon after eight o'clock most of the purchases have been made and bargains closed, and the sea of hats begins ebbing away, spreading through the many streets of the town. Now the straight-spaced lines of vendors and stalls can be distinguished. The white canvas booth tops catch the growing glare of the sun. Lingering crowds gather in knots, gossiping and arguing. The vendors count their money. A hungry dog slinks along the ground looking for food. The market is over.
