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Ecuador ETHNIC GROUPS
The country's ethnic groups descended from Spanish colonizers
and South American Indians; indeed, the relationship between the
two groups defined Ecuador's subsequent pattern of ethnicity. The
mix of these groups created a third category, described variously
as mestizos or cholos. The fourth element consisted of
descendants of black slaves who arrived to work on coastal
plantations in the sixteenth century. Censuses did not record
ethnic affiliation, which in any event remained fluid; thus,
estimates of the numbers of each group should be taken only as
approximations. In the 1980s, Indians and mestizos represented the
bulk of the population, with each group accounting for roughly 40
percent of total population. Whites represented 10 to 15 percent
and blacks the remaining 5 percent.
The precise criteria for defining ethnic groups varied
considerably. The vocabulary that more prosperous mestizos and
whites used in describing ethnic groups mixed social and biological
characteristics. Typically, higher-status whites considered their
own positions as derived from a superior racial background.
Nonetheless, ethnic affiliation remained dynamic; Indians often
became mestizos, and prosperous mestizos sought to improve their
status sufficiently to be considered whites. Ethnic identity
reflected numerous characteristics, only one of which was physical
appearance; others included dress, language, community membership,
and self-identification.
No pretense to equality or egalitarianism existed in ethnic
relations. From the perspective of those in the upper echelons, the
ranking of ethnic groups was undisputed: whites, mestizos, blacks,
and Indians. As the self-proclaimed standard bearers of
civilization, whites contended that only they manifested proper
behavior, an appropriate sense of duty to family and kin, and the
values integral to the Christian, European culture.
As with much of social life, this particular view of ethnicity
had strongly feudal overtones. The conquistadors accepted and
lauded hierarchy and rank. Their success in subduing the Inca
Empire made them lords of the land and justified holding Indians as
serfs, to serve as a cheap source of labor. Although individuals
might change their position in the hierarchy, social mobility
itself was not positively viewed. The movement of individuals up
and down the social scale was regrettable--ideally, a person should
be content with, and maintain, his or her assigned role in the
social order.
The geography of ethnicity remained well-defined until the
surge in migration that began in the 1950s. Whites resided
primarily in larger cities. Mestizos lived in small towns scattered
throughout the countryside. Indians formed the bulk of the Sierra
rural populace, although mestizos filled this role in the areas
with few Indians. Most blacks lived in Esmeraldas Province, with
small enclaves found in the Carchi and Imbabura provinces. Pressure
on Sierra land resources and the dissolution of the traditional
hacienda, however, increased the numbers of Indians migrating to
the Costa, the Oriente, and the cities. By the 1980s, Sierra
Indians--or Indians in the process of switching their ethnic
identity to that of mestizos--lived on Costa plantations, in Quito,
Guayaquil, and other cities, and in colonization areas in the
Oriente and the Costa. Indeed, Sierra Indians residing in the
coastal region substantially outnumbered the remaining original
Costa inhabitants, the Cayapa and Colorado Indians. In the late
1980s, analysts estimated that there were only about 4,000 Cayapas
and Colorados. Some blacks had migrated from the remote region of
the Ecuadorian-Colombian border to the towns and cities of
Esmeraldas.
Data as of 1989
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