Transformations in Race Relations and the Creation of Ethnic Identity in 18th-Century Ecuador

FAIN: FB-57824-14

Rachel Corr
Florida Atlantic University (Boca Raton, FL 33431-6424)

I seek to uncover changes in eighteenth century race relations and ethnic identities in the Audiencia de Quito (Ecuador), specifically among peoples in the town of Pelileo. Although the population of modern Pelileo is predominantly white-mestizo with one distinct, indigenous ethnic enclave, colonial Pelileo was a multiethnic, multiracial town. I aim not only to rectify assumptions about historical isolationism between "racial" groups, but also to understand people's varied responses to historical pressures through the creation of new identities. The research contributes to two growing bodies of scholarship in Latin American ethnohistory: (1) cooperative relations among Africans, indigenous people, Spaniards and mestizos, and (2) people's varied responses to historical contingencies, including the creation of a new ethnic identity whose origin has long baffled ethnohistorians.

Associated Products

Ritual, rumores y rebelion en Pelileo en el siglo XVIII (Article)
Title: Ritual, rumores y rebelion en Pelileo en el siglo XVIII
Author: Rachel Corr
Abstract: In this article, based on a reading of colonial documents available in the Archivo Nacional del Ecuador that I undertook between 2008-14, I analyze a case from 1768 in Pelileo (Audiencia de Quito) in which, after a rebellion in the sweatshop of San Ildefonso, the cacique of the Guamabalo was accused of planning a general uprising against Spaniards and mestizos during the fiesta of Corpus Christi. The accusations were based on various factors that were characteristics of this period: colonial suspicions of caciques and doubts about their loyalty to the Crown; the intermediary position of mestizos with respect to Spaniards and indigenous people; and the danger of rebellion that is always present in fiestas. Using theories from anthropology and history I analyze the rmors of rebellion in the specific socio-historical context of eighteenth century Pelileo and the growing tensions in interethnic relations.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: https://www.ucuenca.edu.ec/ojs/index.php/pucara
Access Model: available for purchase
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Pucara: Revista de Humanidades
Publisher: Universidad de Cuenca

Voces y silencios en testmonios indigenas de 1661 sobre el obraje de San Ildefonso. (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Voces y silencios en testmonios indigenas de 1661 sobre el obraje de San Ildefonso.
Author: Rachel Corr
Abstract: La investigación de agravios a los indígenas de Pelileo en 1661 resultó en un documento detallado de testimonios sobre los abusos que ellos sufrieron en el obraje de San Ildefonso. En esta ponencia analizo estos testimonios con la intención de entender la situación de indígenas de dos posiciones sociales diferentes: los intermediarios indígenas, y los forasteros, quienes carecían de una red de parentesco en Pelileo. No solo considero las voces, sino también los “silencios” en el documento, el que no se provee conocimiento sobre los forasteros ni testimonios de los esclavos Africanos, quienes fueron actores importantes en los acontecimientos que tuvieron lugar en San Ildefonso reportados en 1661.
Date: 08/26/2015
Conference Name: III Congreso Latinoamericano y Caribeño de Ciencias Sociales FLACSO, Quito, August 26-28, 2015

Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Economy (Book)
Title: Interwoven: Andean Lives in Colonial Ecuador's Textile Economy
Author: Rachel Corr
Abstract: Interwoven is the untold story of indigenous people’s historical experience in colonial Ecuador’s textile economy. It focuses on the lives of Native Andean families in Pelileo, a town dominated by one of Quito’s largest and longest-lasting textile mills. Quito’s textile industry developed as a secondary market to supply cloth to mining centers in the Andes; thus, the experience of indigenous people in Pelileo is linked to the history of mining in Bolivia and Peru. Although much has been written about colonial Quito’s textile economy, Rachel Corr provides a unique perspective by putting indigenous voices at the center of that history. Telling the stories of Andean families of Pelileo, she traces their varied responses to historical pressures over three hundred years; the responses range from everyday acts to the historical transformation of culture through ethnogenesis. These stories of ordinary Andean men and women provide insight into the lived experience of the people who formed the backbone of Quito’s textile industry.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://http://www.worldcat.org/title/interwoven-andean-lives-in-colonial-ecuadors-textile-economy/oclc/1010506374&referer=brief_results
Secondary URL: http://https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/interwoven
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780816537730
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

Prizes

Judy Ewell Award
Date: 4/6/2019
Organization: Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies
Abstract: The Judy Ewell Award for the best publication (book or article) on women’s history or written by a woman, that began as a RMCLAS presentation.

The Warmth of the Hearth: Andean Domestic Life among Colonial Textile Mill Workers (Book Section)
Title: The Warmth of the Hearth: Andean Domestic Life among Colonial Textile Mill Workers
Author: Rachel Corr
Editor: Rachel Corr and Jacqueline H. Fewkes
Abstract: Private Lives, Public Histories brings together diverse methods from archaeology and cultural anthropology, enabling us to glean rare information on private lives from the historical record. The chapters span geographic areas to present recent ethnohistorical research that advances our knowledge of the connections between the public and private domains and the significance of these connections for understanding the past as a lived experience, both historically and in a contemporary sense. We discuss how the use of different sources—e.g., public records, personal journals, material culture, the built environment, letters, public performances, etc.—can reveal different types of information about past cultural contexts, as well as private sentiments about official culture and society. Through an exploration of sites as varied as homes, factories, plantations, markets, and tourism attractions we address the public significance of private sentiments, the resilience of bodies, and gendered interactions in historical contexts. In doing so, this book highlights linkages between private lives and public settings that have allowed people to continue to exist within, adapt to, and/or resist dominant cultural narratives.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/private-lives-public-histories-an-ethnohistory-of-the-intimate-past/oclc/1157465571
Primary URL Description: Worldcat
Secondary URL: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793604286/Private-Lives-Public-Histories-An-Ethnohistory-of-the-Intimate-Past
Secondary URL Description: Publisher
Publisher: Lexington Books
Book Title: Private Lives, Public Histories: An Ethnohistory of the Intimate Past
ISBN: 9781793604286

---