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Ecuador Blacks
Approximately one-half million blacks lived on the north coast
and its riparian hinterlands, the descendants of African slaves who
worked on coastal sugar plantations in the sixteenth century.
Blacks held a slightly higher position in the ethnic hierarchy than
Indians, manifesting little of the subservience that characterized
Indians in dealing with whites and mestizos. Few readily
identifiable elements of African heritage remained, although
observers noted aspects of dance, music, and magical belief that
represented purported vestiges of African influence. Some linguists
saw evidence of an "Africanized" Spanish in the dialects spoken by
those blacks living in the more remote areas.
Most blacks earned their livelihood in subsistence agriculture
supplemented by wage labor, fishing, and work on cargo boats. Women
on the coast earned income through shellfish gathering. Before the
onslaught of Sierra to Costa migration in the 1960s and 1970s, some
black males earned their living running small stores and cantinas
and others served as intermediaries between black laborers and
white and mestizo employers. White and mestizo migrants, however,
took over virtually all small-scale commerce and marketing efforts
and increasingly served as employment brokers. The switch made skin
color more important as an ethnic marker, with light-skinned blacks
enjoying greater opportunities for mobility than those with darker
skin.
Data as of 1989
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