2023-09-15 07:05:00
For the majority of Ecuadorians, indigenous people do not seem to exist in the country, although around 7-8% of the population is made up of direct descendants of the native peoples.
The presidential candidates, by omitting the issue almost completely in their campaigns, show that they do not understand the Ecuadorian reality in its totality and complexity, and show signs of hypocrisy by including the occasional name of indigenous candidates to complete the assembly ballots. .
In 2008, it was established in the Constitution of the Republic that the Ecuadorian State is plurinational; However, this has not served to eliminate the enormous socioeconomic and cultural differences between the Spanish-speaking nation and indigenous nationalities. Since compliance with the constitutional precept has not become State policy, the obligation to specify attention to the linguistic, cultural and existential rights of nationalities has been omitted.
The institutions of the centralized nation-state fail to understand or address the multiple and specific problems and characteristics of nationalities. For example, the ritual of “Los Danzantes” is barely considered a tourist attraction by the ministry of the branch, contrary to the deep religious meaning, the solemnity of its own spiritual practice and the originality of the worldview that it entails.
The same thing happens with education: the majority of teachers in bilingual schools do not know the native languages, which means that children assimilate the Spanish-speaking language and culture very soon, with the consequent abandonment – and even forgetting – of their own. own.
The situation is repeated at the agricultural level. The community contribution to meeting the food needs of the population is very large. However, the communities that grow essential products for a large part of Ecuadorians are forgotten, and the small plots do not supply the community members.
Does this mean that only indigenous people should be cared for by state institutions? Of course not. The plurinational State also includes the Spanish-speaking nation, with its millions of people relegated by the State. In this sense, the situation of the poor is close to that of the indigenous, but they are not completely identified because some demands are different, such as the fight for the rights of nationalities, which include demands specific to ancestral peoples: protection of language, culture, history, aspects of existence.
However, should each nationality – and only it – benefit from the resources of its small or large territories? The positive statement is not correct, and deserves careful reflection. As a specialist in the National Question, Yulián Bromlei, believes, while the ethno-cultural aspects are, fundamentally, linked to the people, the economic aspects are linked to the territory. The resources of each jurisdiction or area should preferably benefit the inhabitants of the space in question, considering that the economic condition of indigenous peoples is extremely disastrous. But the benefits of all the resources would also serve the development of the entire Ecuador.
The national problem requires well-oriented and willing political will on the part of political power, of course, but it is also imperative to resort to updated science and technology. Universities and polytechnics should train specialists in the National Question to thoroughly study the characteristics and problems of each nationality, in order to guide the solutions they demand. For now, the candidates for the presidency of the Republic would have to speak out on the urgent need to launch the real and concrete existence of the Plurinational State of our country.
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