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This is a series of articles showing, from different angles, how the nation-state of Latin American countries tries to colonize all the potential possibilities of indigenous peoples: rituals and religious festivals are used for tourist purposes, ancient languages are forgotten, ancestral territories are ceded to national and foreign companies, even territories of refuge of isolated peoples are invaded. In this hostile environment many ancestral communities are maintained, but they tend to disappear in the "modern" world that annuls them. The young people who migrate to the cities break the traditional links with the collective life, those who work in the state administration owe political obedience to the State, they think of themselves only as citizens and forget their national processes. Cover image: Tapestry made by the Quichua women of Simiatuk, Guaranda.
About the author
Ileana Almeida Vélez has a master's degree in Philology. She has been a university professor and researcher, Universidad Central del Ecuador. She is the author of several books, essays and articles on the Indigenous Question in Ecuador and other Latin American countries. She is currently an editorialist for the newspaper El Comercio and the magazines Línea de Fuego and Rebelión.
