Transforming Ethnicity : Youth and Migration in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes

This book explores how global migration transforms local dynamics in the communal life of indigenous peoples in southern Ecuador. At its heart, the focus is on Cañar, a region marked by more than seven decades of migratory flows to the United States. Cañar features one of the areas of greatest human mobility in the entire Andean Region. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews and dialogue-based workshops with indigenous youths, the author shows how migratory processes and forms of self-representation have challenged the idea that ethnic identity is tied to fixed cultural patterns. He further shows how youths’ transnational experiences reconfigure generational differences within indigenous communities. In analyzing how transnational life, adultcentrism, gender power dynamics, and institutional discourses intersect in the production of indigenous youths’ subjectivities, this book provides an innovative approach to the studies of indigenous peoples and migration. Acknowledgements Praise for Transforming Ethnicity Contents About the Author List of Abbreviations List of Figures List of Graphs Chapter 1: Indigenous Identities, Migration, and Youth in Southern Ecuador Introduction The Historical Struggle for Indigenous Identities in Ecuador Cañar and Its History of Migration Researching Indigenous Youth in Latin America and Ecuador Exploring Cañar’s Indigenous Communities: Theory and Questions Youth and Adultcentrism Identity and Ethnicity Transnationalism and Experience Questions Fieldwork and Methodology Organization of the Book References Chapter 2: Leaving Cañar: Transnational Experience and the Production of a Migrant Subjectivity Individualization and Gender Establishing Generational Differences: Education and Imagination References Chapter 3: Guarantee, Reinvention, and Disconnections of Ethnic Identities “But they cannot remove the blood they carry” “All of us musicians here are migrants’ children” “They have even called the police without knowing what we are doing” References Chapter 4: Adultcentrism and the Dispute about Representation The Local Construction of Adultcentrism Why Dispute Representations? References Chapter 5: A Recapitulation A Final Thought from the Field Index