At Home in Bolívar Province
From the perspective of life in a rural area of Ecuador, moving to the city or to another country can seem highly appealing for economic opportunity. While there are very real issues linked to things like poverty and education, there is much to be learned from the lifestyle and people of Bolívar province. I was a culture intern with El Terreno, and I wanted to counteract the negative narrative promoting disconnection by talking with local people about what they were most proud of, and seeking to unearth the beautiful experiences of what it was like growing up here. The resulting interviews record the unique points of view from people of all different walks of life, who share wisdom applicable to many places beyond Ecuador.
These interviews explore the idea of home – how we become disconnected from home, how we reconnect, and the implications of both disconnection and connection in personal, societal, and environmental contexts. Though many of the answers revealed in these conversations are particular to Bolívar province in Ecuador, they often belie themes and challenges that are shared in many other contexts and places. With a greater understanding of what home means, an appreciation of the places that are home, and how we are connected to both, we can become better stewards.
From these interviews home can be defined as relationship with family, time spent being in and around nature, community and interaction with neighbors – sharing experiences and tangible things, memories, familiarity to physical place and space, sense related memory such as with food, flavor and smells, intergenerational connection, hardship, safety and sense of independence or security, faith, history and associated landmarks, culture and customs, mutual respect, shared human experience on the planet, and occupation.
Interviewees felt or saw disconnection due to, technology, dogmas, colonization and historical trauma, overly materialized culture, destruction of natural places, lack of self-awareness, lack of appreciation for things that exist already or consumerism, media manipulation, living in the city or lack of access to nature, moving to a new place from home or migrating, stress, fear, alcohol, family members leaving, lack of self-esteem or pride in home, barriers such as illiteracy, family trauma such as divorce or abuse, discrimination, disrespect, globalization, and an absence of community.
These disconnections lead to a feelings of emptiness, seeking numbness and further disconnection, lack of stewardship due to a feeling of impermanence, feeling a lack of belonging, sickness and grief.
Participants forged connection to home through, interaction with nature especially restorative agriculture, herbal medicine, and raising animals, a mindset of coexistence with nature, conscious appreciation, relationships with people through learning, teaching, or conversation, having knowledge about a place for example the plants that grow there, stillness and solitude in nature, faith, creating new memories in a place or leaning on old ones, sharing stories and experiences especially intergenerationally, returning to values or traditions instilled or held in youth, collective memory and culture, respect, personal and cultural uniqueness, sharing, learning new things and new perspectives, preserving tradition instead of conforming to trends, and redefining one’s feeling of home.
Each individual had unique responses and perspectives, demonstrating that home is an inter-dimensional idea that affects all areas of life. Answers attested to how an awareness, appreciation, and connection with home could shift mindsets to allow for better stewardship of place and surrounding environment and lead to healthier, happier lives.
Interview 1: Sebastian
Sebastian is a student of the earth. He has studied agriculture far and wide and now dedicates his time to restorative projects. A self-described Pacha-mamero, Sebastian’s compassion for and connection with the earth is inspiring to witness. He shares how he came to know all that he does, what childhood was like for him, the impact disconnection has had on this land, and his hope for restoration.
Interview 2: Gustavo Fierro
Gustavo Fierro works in tourism unit for city of Guaranda. He shares about growing up just a couple blocks away from where he works now, and his deep connection with the community is evident. He openly shares the way his family has shaped him, and how coming into a new consciousness as an adult has formed the way he views the world and is guiding his children through life. He also states how, for him, the return home has been an internal process – a feeling in the heart and mind.
Interview 3: Cornelia Kammermann
Cornelia Kammermann has lived in Simiatug since 1986 and has witnessed the oppression of indigenous people in that region, especially women. She is working with the community to counter this through the organization she started and now helps manage – Simiatug Llakta. Her first connection to this new home in South America was as a 14-year-old, dreaming of the colors and smells of the market. She describes her path to today, and how Simiatug has become home.
Interview 4: Maria Ángela Azas Tisalema
Señora Ángela is an artisan in Simiatug that crafts shoes with Simiatug Llakta. In this interview, she shares the process of shoe making, from buying the raw material from women in the community, to sewing together the final product. She shares her connection to Simiatug and how she learned her craft.
Interview 5: Señora Blanca
Blanca is an artisan who crafts many things in Simiatug Llakta. In this interview, she shares how she makes bags and potholders. She shows some of her beautiful work and shares how she is connected to her home in Simiatug through it. Señora Blanca also shares some of her memories of growing up.
Interview 6: Señora Rosita
Señora Rosita is another artisan with Simiatug Llakta who dries teas and medicinal plants. She learned her herbal knowledge from her mother in the fields, and it has now become her craft. Home for her is living near her community and working with the other woman to harvest herbs for her trade. She loves everything about the place she lives.
Interview 7: Narsiza Lucituña
Narsiza Lucituña is skilled at embroidery among other things, and now helps manage Llakta Simiatug. Here, she talks about her job, her home, and shares memories of growing up in the countryside outside of Simiatug. She also explains the significance of some of the figures embroidered on the tapestries she purchases from women in the community.
Interview 8: Fausto Abel Chimbo Jiménez
Fausto Chimbo is an engineer and a farmer. He grew up in between Santa Fe and Guaranda and shares some of the best memories he has from that time, and one that he carries with him to this day. He also shares about his pride in this province, and his desires and methods for helping the neighbors around him who are struggling.
Interview 9: Pablo Gonzales
Pablo Gonzalez is an anthropologist and currently teaches at a local university. He describes the joy of growing up in Guaranda, and the visceral experience of walking by places associated with those memories. He offers both an anthropological and a personal perspective on what connection to home is, the dangers of disconnection, and the complicated nature of decisions to leave home.
Interview 10: Marta Jimena López Vazconez
Marta Jimena López Vazconez grew up in the countryside near Salinas. She shares both the joys and the hardships of that life, from stories about riding horses with her sister and dad, to suffering barefoot in frosted fields. She speaks of why she holds so much pride for her children, and the experiences she had growing up that she is passing on to her grandchildren.
Interview 11: Samuel Ramírez
Samuel Ramírez grew up in Salinas. He describes how his family lived, how it was working in the salt mines, and what the town of Salinas was like during his life there. He recalls the arrival of Father Antonio, and the mingas he was a part of. His strongest memories are helping his mother and community. He also shares part of his childhood that he wants kids today to experience.
Interview 12: Julio and Senaida
Julio and Senaida live in a small community near Ungubí. They eat almost exclusively food produced on their own land, from mora to cheese. They share their favorite parts about living on their property tucked away in the woods, as well as some memories from growing up in their community.
Interview 13: Giovanni
Bio construction, permaculture, and Andean medicine are only a few of Giovanni’s many passions. He grew up on a farm in the middle of the jungle, and then traveled for a long time, learning and going to school. He talks about his current ecological restoration project of 14 years, and he also shares just the beginning of a deep wealth of wisdom, both of what he’s learned personally during that time, and the disconnections and required healing he sees in Ecuador as a whole.
Interview 14: Lida Basantes
Lida Basantes grew up in the mountains above Echandia. Though she had a very difficult childhood, she recalls good memories associated with where she grew up and her excursions into the mountains to look for a certain kind of food she loved. She shares struggles she has had, but also the pride she has for raising her kids in a different way, so they have a different life than her parents and siblings had.
Interview 15: Victor
Victor has done many different jobs, but now works with medicinal plants. He shared his generational connection with his occupation, and how his connection with nature has shaped his view of the earth. He is blunt about the consequences of society’s disconnection, but conveys compassion and paths of healing.
Interview 16: Jorge Basantes
Jorge Basantes is the owner and chef at the restaurant El Sucre in Salinas. He started 15 years ago but has photos on the wall from 1970, when he was just six years old. He shares about the struggles growing up, but also the joy he had in exploring nature with his friends and learning to cook from French and Italian visitors.
Interview 17: Beatrice
Beatrice lives just up the road from El Terreno, she cooks lunch for all the workers on the weekdays. She shares about all the other work she has done and the skills she learned growing up – agriculture, market sales, and construction, and how her and Angel came to own the house and the property they do.
Interview 18: Angel
Angel is a construction worker who manages the building project at El Terreno. He shares about how he learned his skills, his perspective on living in the city in comparison to the countryside, and a beautiful metaphor for the place a house can hold in defining home.
Interview 19: Hilda Siguencia
Hilda Siguencia has dedicated herself to teaching for 42 years since she was 18 years old. She shares about her experiences teaching in rural schools, and a unique perspective on creating a different kind of home. She shares her connection to the province that continues today through the work she did as a teacher.
Interview 20: Rafael Armijos Ahumala
Rafael is a storyteller. He shares about his adventures in sports, from circus to cycling to his older brothers’ championship games. His memories are very closely associated with specific places and landmarks in Guanujo, giving the listener a very concrete connection to the history that makes Guanujo what it is for him.
Interview 21: Laura Beatriz Pilamunja
Laura has been working at the market for nearly 60 years. It has become her second home. She describes the part it played in her childhood, as well as other experiences and little joys she had growing up in the community of San Francisco.
Interview 22: Lorena
Lorena, Laura’s daughter, sells herbs at the market just around the corner from her mother. She shares where she has acquired her wealth of information about herbal medicine, as well as some memories she has from growing up. She also shares an interesting perspective on the degree to which the home affects all the other areas of a person’s life.
Interview 23: Maria
Maria grew up in San Juan. She talks about learning to work in the fields from her father. She shares her deep connection to home through her community and family, through the land, and through her faith. She recalls early mornings, when her father would make coffee before work, and late nights praying to God.
Interview 24: Vilma
Vilma works at the health center of San Juan and has made it grow from a small clinic sometimes lackng a doctor, to where it is today serving 35 communities. Vilma grew up in Echandia and tells stories of her adventures as a little girl. She also shares the values she learned from her grandmother and parents that she has passed on to her children. She also shares about her connections with the community of San Juan.
Interview 25: Paulina Garcia
Paulina is passionate about reading. She has worked at the library in Guaranda for 11 years, ever since its doors opened. In that time, she has traveled to most of the communities in the province, including the most rural ones. She shares memories of growing up, and the impact she sees in books and reading. She also shares her definition of home and the way that a library can become an unconventional home, as it has for many people in this town.
Interview 26: Wayra and Maria
Maria practices Andean medicine and Wayra teaches Kichwa both at the university and another local educational establishment. They share their deep connection with nature that began in their childhood. They also share about the disconnections they’ve experienced and wisdom that was handed down to them from their elders that has helped heal that disconnection. They also share fundamental parts of home that foster connection in community.
Interview 27: Katherine Alexandra Lopez Arnez
Kathy is a soul-searching traveler passionate about permaculture and bio construction. She grew up in Bolivia and immigrated to the United States of America for the first time when she was 19. Since then, she has made many new places home. In this interview, she shares memories from Bolivia, speaks of disconnection from her home there, and how she has been able to reconnect and make new places home.
Acknowledgements
Thank you so much to Kathy for her integral collaboration in building relationships, translating, verifying videos, bouncing ideas and developing questions. Thank you to
Joshua Holmes and El Terreno for the connections and support that made this project possible. And most of all, my deepest gratitude to the people in the community who shared with us their experiences, community, customs, and pride.
- Naomi Ohman
Intern at El Terreno
If you're looking to further your career, visit different cultures and make an impact in the world, consider one of our personalized internships for 2023. You'll receive accommodation, cooked lunches, professional mentoring and an activities budget to achieve your goals.