The Life and Times of Grandfather Alonso: Culture and History in the Upper Amazon (Hegemony and Experience)

In Blanca Muratorio's book, we are introduced to Rucuyaya Alonso, an elderly Quichua Indian of the Upper Ecuadorean Amazon. Alonso is a hunter, but like most Quichuas, he has done other work as well, bearing loads, panning gold, tapping rubber trees, and working for Shell Oil. He tells of his work, his hunting, his marriage, his fights, his fears, and his dreams. His story covers about a century because he incorporates the oral tradition of his father and grandfather along with his own memories. Through his life story, we learn about the social and economic life of that region. Chapters of Alonso's life history and oral tradition alternate with chapters detailing the history of the world around him--the domination of missionaries, the white settlers' expropriation of land, the debt system workers were subjected to, the rubber boom, the world-wide crisis of the 1930s, and the booms and busts of the international oil market. Muratorio explains the larger social, economic, and ideological bases of white domination over native peoples in Amazonia. She shows how through everyday actions and thoughts, the Quichua Indians resisted attacks against their social identity, their ethnic dignity, and their symbolic systems. They were far from submissive, as they have often been portrayed.

Blanca Muratorio introduces us to Rucuyaya Alonso, a Quichua elder from the Upper Ecuadorian Amazon. Grandfather Alonso's story spans a century, as his narrative incoporates oral tradition learned from both his father and grandfather. The book alternates between chapters of Alonso's life history, and chapters analyzing the history of the world around him--the domination of the missionaries and the state, the white settlers' expropriation of land, the debt-peonage system during the rubber boom, the world-wide crisis of the 1930s, and the booms and busts of the iternational oil market.

Muratorio explains the larger social, economic, and ideological bases of white domination over native peoples in Amazonia. Her analysis of Quichua culture shows how through everyday practices of accommodation and resistance, and through expressions of humor, irony, and anger, the Quichua Indians were able to protect their cultural identity, their ethnic dignity, and their symbolic systems against the hegemonic forces of a white-dominated world.

Frontmatter List of Illustrations (page ix) Acknowledgments (page xi) Introduction (page 1) 1. The Forest Travelers (page 18) 2. Ethnicity, Language, Culture (page 36) 3. Family and Youth (page 50) 4. The Forest and the River (page 64) 5. The State, Missionaries, and Native Consciousness, 1767-1896 (page 72) 6. Christianity and the Missions (page 94) 7. Liberalism and Rubber: The Early Twentieth Century in the Oriente (page 99) 8. The Days of the Varas, the Apu, and the Patrons (page 122) 9. The Company and the Auca (page 133) 10. Gold, Oil, and Cattle: The Twentieth Century in Tena-Archidona (page 141) 11. My Friends the Yachaj (page 181) 12. Dreams of Death (page 191) 13. Reflections (page 196) 14. The Cultural Bases of Resistance (page 202) Epilogue (page 230) Appendix 1. Employment Contract of a Rubber Laborer, 1909 (AGN) (page 237) Appendix 2. Settlement of Peon's Account, Marking the Articles in Dispute, 1930 (AGN) (page 239) Notes (page 243) Glossary (page 259) References (page 269) Index (page 283) Introduces readers to Rucuyaya Alonso, an elderly Quichua Indian of the Upper Ecuadorean Amazon. Alonso is a hunter, but like most Quichuas, he has done other work as well, bearing loads, panning gold, tapping rubber trees, and working for Shell Oil. He tells of his work, his hunting, his marriage, his fights, his fears, and his dreams.