Ecuadorian Danza and Regional Comida

This week, La Unidad Educativa Rafael Vasconez Gomez, where Lucia teaches fourth grade and her  granddaughter, Sandy, attends sixth, celebrated their annual fiestas in La Maná. It is definitely not an American thing to have a school spend several weeks preparing for and then several days celebrating national culture. I cannot even imagine what the equivalent in the US would look like. And this, less than a month after the same students spent at least a week of class time in inter-scholastic athletic competitions. But, alas, my critique of the Ecuadorian education system can be addressed elsewhere. Here let us celebrate the richness of Ecuadorian culture and the blessings of my family partaking in such a celebration.

The school is huge -- over 2000 students -- kindergarten through vocational high school. It spans three campuses on the outskirts of La Maná. As the second-largest public school in a city of 17,000, one can safely assume that everyone in town has at least one family member who attends or works there. As such, perhaps it is not so strange to see the city's main streets shut down for hours on a Wednesday afternoon for a school-wide city-wide parade. Youth from every single classroom, led by their teachers, were decked out in traditional folkloric costumes representing traditional dances of Ecuador, some regional and some indigenous. Each had prepared a dance to perform, and the competition after the parade lasted late into the night at the school stadium. 

We did not make it to the dance competition (we are early-to-bedders), but we did thoroughly enjoy the parade of beautifully-garbed children, teens, and adults dancing their way through the streets of La Maná, each following a decorated car that provided music blaring from their open trunk. We spent much of the afternoon in joyful parade bliss:  commenting on dance routines, dancing a little to our favorite music, and choosing our favorite costumes. We found the truck of prince and princess preschoolers and the one adorned with real banana trees to win the prizes for cutest and coolest cars, respectively. And since it was a parade, the kids ran happily into the street to collect the candy that was thrown. Jonah even caught a rose. Unfortunately, while each grade was labelled, the ethnic groups and/or regions were not, so I apologize that I cannot be specific about the origins of the dancers in the pictures. 

As in any parade I've ever attended, there is something special about having a personal relationship with someone who is participating -- the anticipation of their imminent arrival, spotting them in the crowd, catching their eye, and eliciting a personal wave. Nothing beats it! We were lucky to have two parading people to greet and wave and even sneak in a hug. As the only gringo family for miles and miles, we are always a bit on display; I won't deny that while I was snapping photos of beautifully-dressed dancers, some Ecuadorians in the crowd were taking pictures of us... in all our natural beauty. :)

Dillon and Brynna in front of the prince and princesses truck. Too cute!

Decorations included real banana trees, real leaves, and even real mandarin oranges.

This is Lucia's class of fourth graders

Lucia's class of fourth graders. I love how boys willingly dance in Latin America

Lucia, decked out in traditional dress

Jonah was thrown a beautiful rose

This was my favorite group. The colors of the flag of Ecuador: yellow, blue and red

Sandy's class of sixth graders

Sandy with a beautiful smile on her face

Brynna greets Sandy, mid-parade

This is the mechanical engineers and metal workers entry (no dancing for them!)

The next day was a school-wide traditional food fair. Once again, each classroom had their assigned region/ethnic group and prepared a traditional food item to share. And we got to try a bunch! We had nibbles and sips of quimbolitos, humitas, ceviche de camarón, hornado, fritada con mote, morocho dulce, colada morada, chicha de maracuyá, chochos y tostado, torta de papa, tilapia, and even cuy. (That is, sweet wheat muffins baked in banana leaves, corn tamales, shrimp ceviche, baked pork, fried pork with cracked corn, sweet corn milk drink, passion fruit oatmeal drink, Andean legumes and Incan popcorn, potato pie, tilapia fish, and even guinea pig). 

Yes, cuy is guinea pig, pronunced COO-EE. Lucia's class chose to bbq a guinea pig, a traditional, somewhat exotic, Andean dish.  And to be honest, we didn't actually eat any cuy; it was wrapped in saran wrap for a raffle later that day. I am sorry to report, but I do not have a picture of said charred guinea pig. I'll let you imagine it.

There was something super sweet about the Ecuadorian school kids' excitement to share the stories of their traditional foods with us; many had prepared presentations about ingredients, preparation, and regional customs. Some of them, particularly the littles, were also dressed up in super cute cooking outfits with chef hats. 

Dillon wins my prize for being the most food adventurous. Perhaps, even more excitingly, he seems to enjoy new flavors and culinary experiences these days in a way I could only have dreamed just six months ago. Three cheers for growing up! Poor Brynna was recovering from a febrile illness and was not her best self, but she was a trooper. It's funny how many Ecuadorian foods are quite comforting to me, even though they are obviously not my own traditional foods, I find several -- yuca, patacones, chochos with tostados -- to be both familiar and predictably delicious. In fact, ever since Peace Corps, rice and a fried egg are my go to comfort food back home.

Jonah pulled me aside during the food fair and said, "Hey mom, if we were doing this back home, I know what our foods would be." I looked at him unsure what he might be thinking mostly because I have no idea what our foods would be. He paused and then spoke confidently, "It would be tacos and pupusas." I guess you could say he's a good Californian if Mexican and El Salvadoran foods are his traditional foods, despite being mostly of Irish and European-mutt stock.

It is not uncommon for Ecuadorians, young and old, to ask sweeping cultural questions: What kind of music do people dance to in the US? What kind of music is played at parties? What do most Americans eat for dinner? What is typical American food? What kinds of churches do people attend? These are reasonable inquiries coming from a diverse, yet homogeneous little country like Ecuador. 

What I usually say is something that never feels quite right, perhaps because I don't know how to lift up the decimation of Native American peoples and cultures without getting dark fast, and because I don't know really how I feel about my nation's lack of unifying culture. It feels simultaneously beautiful and sad. 

I say something like, "We don't really have a typical food, genre of music, or collective dance style in my country. The US is very much a country of immigrants, a mix of people from all over the world, and while there certainly exist groupings of people from geographical regions or cultural identities who eat similar foods, listen to similar music, and dance certain dances, it is impossible to claim one particular genre of music, dance or cuisine and call it truly American. We are kind of a big sticky mess." 

To be sure, there are layers of darkness and complexity underlying any nation and its culture, and I don't want to overly romanticize Ecuador. Like much of the world, there have been centuries of oppression and structural racism here, and BIPOC Ecuadorians have been systematically devalued. But for a couple of days this week, native, regional, ethnic and cultural roots were lifted up and celebrated by a community of well-intentioned educators and their students. And I am so glad that my little family had the chance to be witness to the beauty. 

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Some photos from the food fair: