The Ecuador Reader: History, Culture, Politics

PEncompassing Amazonian rainforests, Andean peaks, coastal lowlands, and the Galaacute;pagos Islands, Ecuadorrsquo;s geography is notably diverse. So too are its history, culture, and politics, all of which are examined from many perspectives in iThe Ecuador Reader/i. Spanning the years before the arrival of the Spanish in the early 1500s to the present, this rich anthology addresses colonialism, independence, the nationrsquo;s integration into the world economy, and its tumultuous twentieth century. Interspersed among forty-eight written selections are more than three dozen images.PThe voices and creations of Ecuadorian politicians, writers, artists, scholars, activists, and journalists fill the iReader/i, from Joseacute; Mariacute;a Velasco Ibarra, the nationrsquo;s ultimate populist and five-time president, to Pancho Jaime, a political satirist; from Julio Jaramillo, a popular twentieth-century singer, to anonymous indigenous women artists who produced ceramics in the 1500s; and from the poems of Afro-Ecuadorians, to the fiction of the vanguardist Pablo Palacio, to a recipe for traditional Quitentilde;o-style shrimp. The iReader/i includes an interview with Nina Pacari, the first indigenous woman elected to Ecuadorrsquo;s national assembly, and a reflection on how to balance tourism with the protection of the Galaacute;pagos Islandsrsquo; magnificent ecosystem. Complementing selections by Ecuadorians, many never published in English, are samples of some of the best writing on Ecuador by outsiders, including an account of how an indigenous group with non-Inca origins came to see themselves as definitively Incan, an exploration of the fascination with the Andes from the 1700s to the present, chronicles of the less-than-exemplary behavior of U.S. corporations in Ecuador, an examination of Ecuadoriansrsquo; overseas migration, and a look at the controversy surrounding the selection of the first black Miss Ecuador.