A Visit from Ecuador

On September 12, five Indigenous students gathered for a day full of fun and discovery at Fozzie’s Farm. The students are Kichwa Otavalo, an ethnic group hailing from different corners of the Imbabura province, a rural and mountainous region in northern Ecuador. Thanks to a scholarship from the Tandana Foundation, these five students are among the first in their families to attend university, studying in a range of fields from marketing to agronomy. As part of their scholarship, they took a 2-week trip to the southwestern United States, where they participated in cultural exchange and learning opportunities in Montezuma and La Plata counties, and the Zuni and Navajo reservations.

Their timing was impeccable. Their visit to Fozzie’s coincided with the peak harvest of our high tunnel, with many tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro ripe for picking. Sungold Tomatoes lit up the students’ faces as they tasted the tomato variety for the first time in their lives. Vero, the trip leader, noticed the resemblance of tomatillos to a plant that grows wildly in northern Ecuador. After I told her they are not traditionally eaten as a raw snack, Vero proceeded to bite into a ripe tomatillo. (Have you seen what a tomatillo looks like on the inside? Off the vine, a ball of seeds sits in a winding pattern that shimmers like crystals when held up to the light.) “Very watery! I will eat this in the mountain if I become thirsty,” Vero added. The students told us that where they grew up, they must always take care of plants—in addition to the whims of Pachamama (Mother Earth), our presence can also affect the plant life cycles. “Trees may no longer produce fruit, and our harvests may not be as rich, depending on the way we act around the plants,” said Vero. MLC Cross-Cultural Programs Director, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, added that in Ute culture, adults must take extra care with children when harvesting pinon nuts. If the children’s energy is too intense, “we may end up with a hollow nut.”

Regina then shared the story of becoming, at a very young age, a water carrier during important Ute Mountain Ute ceremony. The students learned how Regina’s ancestors moved with the seasons, with the women playing a pivotal role in knowing which foods and water sources were available at different times of the year. After the story, Regina gifted a copy of “Water Bodies” to Vero, and Vero gifted a woven figurine of an alpaca from Otavalo, Ecuador. In Kichwa Otavalo culture, alpacas inhabit alpine lakes and near water sources and are thought to be important connectors of water.

While worlds away, several common threads appeared to run through the Kichwa Otavalo and Ute Mountain Ute peoples. Years are punctuated by ceremony, which is in turn dictated by natural cycles of the land. The Utes celebrate Bear Dance (coinciding with the emergence from Spring) and Sundance, a ceremony of the summer season. The Ute people celebrate and share song, dance and prayers in gratitude for the honor to partake of the resources our Mother Earth provides.  The Kichwa Otavalo people celebrate Inti Raymi (Festival of the Sun) and Pawkar Raymi (Festival of the Flowering). While these ceremonies may differ in nature, they all involve elements of giving back to the land.

After the students’ visit to Fozzie’s, our community programs team went to the Sunflower Theater in Cortez where each student shared a piece of their culture with the audience: quimbolitos (a dessert with a fluffy, cloud-like texture), colada morada, and the minga. The minga is a work practice that invokes the “hoy por ti, mañana por mí” idea: “You help me out today, I’ll help you out tomorrow.” As a way of showing solidarity, you must bring your own tool and your own food to a minga. At lunch time, food is assembled together and shared in a central space.

At the closing of the Sunflower event, Sisa, one of the students, took off her shawl and assembled a mini altar on the stage. Sisa sprinkled flower petals in a circle, and within the circle arranged beans and corn kernels in the shape of a chakana, or an Andean cross. In Kichwa, she offered words of gratitude in each cardinal direction. Sisa then invited us all to join in dance. As we went around the circle, another student, Freddy, added, “we stomp our feet so that Pachamama can feel our thanks.”