Race, state and nation in early twentieth century Ecuador^*

Abstract

This article aims to explore the ways in which the tensions involved in nation-building and state consolidation during the half-century following the Liberal Revolution of 1895 in Ecuador were refracted through the locus of race and the manipulation of racial ideologies. It centres the state as the primary motor of nationbuilding and racialisation, arguing that nation-building and state formation in Ecuador operated in close conjunction, and that race was central to each. Through case studies of citizenship, education and the integration of territory and resources, it explores how state discourse and policy shaped the racial boundaries of national inclusion, and how these were negotiated and contested by subalterns at the level of the state.

“A Fatherland worth living in”: Anarchism, citizenship and nation in Bolivia, 1900–1941

“…While this process was contested in Ecuador by racialised identities working through liberalism (Foote, 2006), in Bolivia autonomous indigenous mobilisations (Gotkowitz, 2007;Larson, 2004) anticipated and then converged with anarchism.…”

“…As in other Latin American countries, ethnicity was resilient, showing “its unpredictable malleability and capacity of response and organization throughout significant political mobilizations.” It was never “passive or indifferent to mainstream affairs” (Gutiérrez, 2018, p. 275). While this process was contested in Ecuador by racialised identities working through liberalism (Foote, 2006), in Bolivia autonomous indigenous mobilisations (Gotkowitz, 2007; Larson, 2004) anticipated and then converged with anarchism.…”

Navigating Racial Boundaries: The One-Drop Rule and Mixed-Race Jamaicans in South Florida

“…Efforts at nation-building in various colonial societies have shaped constructions of race and ethnicity (Appelbaum et al 2003, Foote 2006, Johnson 2005, Spickard 2005, Stone 1973). In many colonial societies, concerns regarding nation-building centered on the development within a particular collectivity of a shared sense of identity and the desire for self-government (autonomy) (Spickard 2005).…”