Frontiers and popular nationhood: geographies of identity in the 1995 Ecuador-Peru border dispute

Polir~al Geo&mqhy, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 273-293, 1998 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0962-6298/98 $19.00 + 0.00

Pergamon

PII: SO%2-6298(%)00085-6

Frontiers and popular nationhood: geographies of identity in the 1995 Ecuador-Peru border dispute SAKAH

Department

of Geography,

A.

RADCLIFFE

University of Cambridge, Downing CB2 3EN, UK

Place, Cambridge

ABSTKACX Drawing on substantive work on Ecuadorian national identities, an examination is made of the multiple geographies of identities which were articulated and negotiated during the border dispute between Ecuador and Peru in January and February 1995, an incident which became known as Tiwintza. While territorial claims and border protocols (particularly the 1942 Rio Protocol) form a significant geography of identity through which state-initiated nationbuilding imaginative geographies are articulated, these are not the only geographies imagined and expressed by citizens during and around the of of to a theoretical consideration of relations between dominant and popular imaginative geographies and national identities. The particular situation of the Shuar-Achuar indigenous groups, and of a of of 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Kwwo~rx: identity, nationhood,

In late January

Andes, border disputes. Ecuador, Peru

1995, a series of

of of in an

is There

were

dispute

immediate

at this

a low mountain

political

particular

time,

and due

military

interests

to declining

of

range,

the Cordillera de1 Condoor:

involved public

in the eruption

support

for

both

of the national

presidents. While the motivations of the major decision-makers in this dispute remain sketchy, these political actors were able to mobilize the population around issues of territory,

nationhood

and the Amazon

in ways which

can throw

light on the nature

of

national identities and their relationship with place. The boundary particularly in dispute in 1995 totalled around 100 km yet to be ‘satisfactorily’ marked with agreed marker posts according

to the Ecuadoreans.

The aim of this paper

in popular senses of nationhood understandings of identity, place

and identity, and nation.

is to examine and

the

what the border

implications

of this

means for our

Frontiers and popular nationhood

274

FIGURE1. Ecuador, showing

-=-*-I

International boundary

-----Area

in Peru claimed by Ecuador

-

Province boundary

major cities and regions

According to Ecuadorean official sources, from autumn 1994 and particularly from early January 1995, there were an increasing number of incursions by Peruvian troops into an Ecuadorean area of the undelimited zone of the Cordillera de1 Condor; at the headwaters of the Rio Cenepa, which leads to the Marafion River and then to the Amazon. Ecuadorean sources vigorously denied a Peruvian statement accusing their armed forces of attacking Peruvian positions from a helicopter in the last few days of January. The Peruvian version of events highlights a specific time-period. On the 9th and 11th January 1995, according to official statements, Ecuadorean and Peruvian patrols exchanged fire. Following this, the Ecuadoreans are claimed to have for the first time recognized the Rio Protocol agreement of January 1942. Peru in its communiqu6 on the 29th January acknowledged this recognition, but was then victim to an unprovoked attack on one of its border posts. The entire incident has subsequently became known in Ecuador as the Tiwintza event (Figure 2). That such events are written differently according to nationalist and military rationales and agendas is not new, neither in Western or Latin American contexts. Moreover, such disputes have flared up along the Cordillera de1 Condor at regular intervals during the 50 years since the international boundary was apparently settled in 1942 under the Rio Protocol agreement. Following a major dispute in 1941, the United States, Brazil, Chile and Argentina had called the warring nations together in Rio de Janeiro to sign an agreement on the location of the new frontier (St.John, 1994). Since then, however, disputes have flared up periodically, most usually on the anniversary of the Rio Protocol signing on January 29th. For example, the Paquisha incident broke out in January 1981 under

the Ecuadorian

centre-left

government

of Roldos.

A.

SARAH

275

RAIXLIFFE

The mythical and material roles of the frontier in the Latin American process

have been addressed

ideological

extensively

(Hennessy,

development

1978), highlighting

charge invested in frontiers and borders throughout

the powerful

Latin American history.

My aim in this paper is neither to detail the history of border disputes between countries

(dating from independence

geopolitical

or international

elsewhere,

in the early 19th century)

relations dimensions

there is already a considerable

the

of such disputes (which are covered

notably in Day, 1982; Segarra Iguinez,

St.John, 1994). In political geography’s

the two

nor to examine

1992; Fundacidn

El Comercio,

1993;

long history of research on frontiers and borders

emphasis on the formal and definitional aspects of borders

in the abstract (e.g. Prescott, 1965, 1972), and on the geopolitical dimensions of countries’ relations mediated by borders, following Ratzel and Hartshorne. In this tradition, research on social practice

around frontiers focuses

discursive, representational governments

and populations.

in political geography (e.g.

Painter

of states, rather than the which shape behaviours

by

In this respect, my work aims to extend the recent work

on identities, citizenship and the everyday formation of affiliations

& Philo,

geographies

on the practices

and political cultural dimensions

1995),

through

and various geographies

negotiated,

not only in periods

geographies

I mean the descriptions

the examination

of how different

imaginative

of identities are drawn upon, re-articulated

of war, but on a day-to-day and discursive constructions

basis.

and

By imaginative

around place which are

made and re-made within a particular cultural setting. The Ecuador-Peru

dispute

raises issues about the meanings

of such frontiers

for

popular subjects in these two countries (although my focus here is on Ecuador), and the ways that they envisage frontiers in relation to the places and spaces in which they ‘ground’ their identity, and the complex ways in which subjects construct, negotiate and challenge

the affiliations to national territories. In such geographies

draw upon landscapes, of belonging

and affiliation (Radcliffe & Westwood,

Approaching

issues of the complex and statements

1996).

national subjects’ affiliations and expressions

and frontiers-resonating

of identities, subjects

maps and discourses about place as elements in their expressions

with issues of sovereignty, relationships

regarding national territory

difference and distance-also

between state-originating

discourses,

raises

representations

and citizens’ own feelings about these issues. The general literature on

such issues has been changed by the growing dissatisfaction with frameworks which posit an unthinking

tie to the nation and its territory. As awareness

of differences

between

official and popular images grew, so the Marxist notion of ‘false consciousness’ explanatory

power (Cohen,

of consensus

1994). The process of hegemony,

of issues through

cultural projects

lost its

relying upon the creation

and more nuanced

power relations,

draws upon more subtle notions of creating shared meanings and common discourse. Yet the relations of domination and resistance which characterize state-civil America, movements

especially (Escobar

under

authoritarian

military

regimes

and

and Alvarez, 1992), require further examination

of the process by which concerns,

with

relations in Latin diverse

social

of the exact nature

images, feelings and attitudes are produced and shared

across social space. The ‘power geometry’ (Massey, 1993) of civil-state

relations skews

the situation towards hegemony of state concerns and discourse, yet the active indigenous movements of the region (CONAIE, 1989) and the complex geographies through which identities are constituted, suggest that the creation of shared national imaginative geographies through which to create and reaffirm identity is not straightforward. From household relations Uelin, 1989) to public work programmes (Laurie, 1995), from the varied ‘repertoires’ of social movements (Eckstein, 1989) to the adoption cartographic practices by indigenous groups (Radcliffe, 1996). the sheer resistance

of of

276

Frontiers andpopular

complex,

and often incommensurate,

nationhood

socio-spatial

relations

to creating

shared geog-

raphies of identities remains to be analysed. The current article draws upon a research identities in contemporary people position themselves places) and economically this research relationships

gathered

project

to create ‘imagined communities’ information

on citizens’

of national

and problematize

socially, spatially (in imaginative geographies (Anderson,

views on borders,

how

and material

1991).’ Although the Amazon

to Peru, the focus was on the ‘banality’ of nationalism

nationalism (Billig, 1995). By ‘banal nationalism’, nationhood

on the geographies

Ecuador, which aimed to contextualize

and

rather than ‘hot’

Billig refers to the daily reproduction

of

through its ‘flagging’ in the media and mass culture’s use of terms such as ‘the

economy’

or in sports pages. Such quotidian reiterations of the nation, which appeals to

a ‘people’-in

either a chauvinistic or benign way-are,

the extraordinary

he argues, ‘banal rehearsals for

times of crisis [‘hot’ nationalism], when the state calls upon its citizenry

to make the ultimate sacrifice’ (op. tiff 11). The aim of the current article is then to examine

in the

affiliations

Ecuadorean

context,

the

to place, and their responses

relationship

between

citizens’

quotidian

during military conflict with Peru. While the

survey material was collected prior to the conflict, this is precisely the time when national identities are being reproduced,

reiterated and re-expressed.

At least since the 1970s most inhabitants

of Ecuador have known and acknowledged

their location within, and potential affiliation to, the nation-state. The discovery of oil and a succession

of developmentalist

rural schooling, populations

governments

during the 1970s led to the extension

of

and the increasing integration of previously isolated rural and indigenous

into national economy

and society, through migration, military service and

rising living standards. ‘At the end of the 11970~1, it would not be usual to meet Indians who would not have any idea of their nationality, or they would have a diffuse notion of their state ascription’ (Silva, 1991: 4, also Crain, 1990). Certainly by the mid-1990s groups of African-Ecuadorean,

indigenous

their nationality (Radcliffe and Westwood, issues of territory, sovereignty entire Ecuadorian

and mestizo

1996). These imaginaries

and nationalist

territory-nation

Section

I begins

impinge upon the representation articulate educational

are bound up with of the

with Peru is relevant.

In order to analyse these popular geographies borders.

diverse

all acknowledged

history in which the relationship

around frontiers, Amazonia and other

places, the paper first charts the state’s frontier projects, around

populations

by examining

and the popular geographies

the nation-building

of Amazonia and international

curricula, international ‘picture’ the nation

projects

which

frontiers. Such projects

relations, nationalist histories and mapping

practices,

all of which

relevance

of the recent Ecuador-Peru

and its frontiers

protecting

a border, but with a much broader

in particular

ways. The

border dispute lies not just in the question

of

discursive field and politics around the

Amazon basin, known as the ‘Oriente’, and its connotations as an area of promise, ‘development opportunities’ and national progress. The Oriente currently comprises 45.8 percent of the national land area, compared with one-fourth in the coastal plain and 25.2 percent in the highland Sierra.’ It is argued that the lines of a national border running through the Oriente are invested with multiple layers of meanings which reverberate through various arenas of state activity. Returning to the immediate past of the 1995 dispute, Section I ends with a discussion of the commemoration of indigenous soldiers, who served in the Tiwintza incident. In Section II, popular geographies of identity are examined in relation to three major themes. First, the context of popular national identities is traced quickly and the repicturing of the Oriente by subaltern groups is examined, drawing on surveys collected

277

SARAH A. RADCLIFFE

‘v’ F/

Ecuador ’ w

Frc;vm 2. ‘Open Borders’: Santiago river area.

Border

established

under

before the 1995 clash. The specific response Tiwintza

conflict

is discussed

1942 Rio Protocol

and expressions

with reference

and

disputed

Zamora

and

of non-state groups to the

to Shuar-Achuar

populations,

and with

regard to a statement issued by 16 women’s groups, before turning to the conclusions,

in

Section III.

I. Drawing the line: state, geographies

and the Amazon

Stute nation-building: picturing the nation For the state, issues of borders, sovereignty

and prospects

high on the agenda. In their nation-building

activities, which engage citizens at numerous

points in their lives, various state institutions elaborate regions’ role in national development,

for national development

and refine ideas of sovereignty,

and nationalist histories explaining

current territorial extent (Smith, 1986; Anderson, 1991). Geography,

national

as has the process

map (Anderson,

1991).

of the ‘logoization’

The Ecuadorean

the country’s

as a discipline and as

a series of practices, has often been important in this process (Hooson, and Smith, 1994),

are

1994; Godlewska

of the officially-sanctioned

state agenda

illustrates,

via these

practices, the significance of Amazonia and a discourse concerning Peru’s borders, as well as the various considerable ‘investments’ made by the nation-state in inculcating certain geographies

of identities in citizens. The creation

involves engagement

of citizens’ imaginative geographies

with a number of different institutions, discourses

and representa-

tions. State schools, geographical institutes, and the military literally draw maps of the national space, yet there are also implicit spatial representations and place-bound images which circulate in (the highly diverse) official discourses. In Ecuador, the school

278

Frontiers andpopular

nationhood

DiSpkd

_I._

Boundary

:

Gwdiiera

l Gualaquiza

DelCondor

Mountain Range

.*---.. ,

;

l =<

::. ,.;:... .g,:

+ A:..m

Ecuador

“:’

+T+\ ,: ,‘.

945

.,11:...-.-__r

:

: .I

FIGURE3. Tiwintza zone: Undelimited zone of Ecuador-Peru Cordillera de1 Condor, rivers and border settlements.

curriculum,

military

Ecuador’s landscapes, one particular theme

agendas

and the constitution,

produce emerges

international

as well as literary

frontier,

showing

and visual images

of

a polyphonic set of imaginative geographies. However, with regularity-the notion of a national space of an

Amazonian territory ‘truncated’ by an ‘invalid’ border. It is just such a geography which has been re-circulated and refined during the recent border dispute. A coalescence around these issues occurs in relation to the line set by the Rio Protocol agreement, signed on 29 January 1942 by Ecuador was charged with marking the new international

and Peru. A demarcation commission boundaries from 1 June 1942, and

A.

SARAH

successfully Western

mapped

the border

extension

was never

and Santiago

Rivers (Figure

to the existence

*watershed‘.

Given

distinct

declared

President

Josh Maria Velasco

example,

the

repeatedly

described

agreement,

of what

between

the definition

Preceding

Protocol

government entirely

(1972:

Ecuadorean notions

watershed.

over territory counted time, period

territorial

(Fundaci6n

transformation)

El Comercio,

forceful

ideological

officials

and their

damage

done to sovereign

In this context, pertinent,

charged. is inherently

of frontiers terms,

the views

as although

contemporary

relationship

independence

from

what are now Colombia, in 1830, Ecuador

As in other nation-states,

perceived

in contemporary

Ecuador’s

Amazon

which

1995. Cutting

since

identity

faith in internal

control what is

considerably

According

about

to Peruvian

‘amicable’

Historically,

was subsequently

‘usurped’

with

Colombia

are

disputes,

the

territorial

attitudes.

After its separation

as an alliance.

and

encroachment.

Colombia,

relationship

state

the injustice

their neighbour

part of Gran

(indeed in highly

to contemporary

to feel viscerally Peruvian,

over

the early Republican is encoded

have had historic

distinctly

across

national

and has changed

namely

and Ecuador.

a more

by the

state, and is

(Silva, 1991). However,

identity.

by Ecuadoreans

formed

lies along the ratified

and Silva, 1991). The contestation

and Ecuador

Ecuador

times

territory

ambiguous

by foreign,

Venezuela

retained

during

official Ecuadorian

are expected

is couched

Spain,

formally

for the Ecuadorean

and the media

upon which

with national

held

Colombia

It is thus an discrepancies

currently

has not been

weakening

1993; Quintero

territory

over

of military settlements

as Figure 3 indicates,

by Peru and Colombia

Ecuadoreans

to the which

Sur and 20 de Noviembre

by outside-‘illegitimate’-powers eliding

texts,

aspects),

according

satisfactorily.

In (for

for a new

19941) of border

a concentration

a frontier

by the military

encroachment

phases

security

dispute’,

as Cunhuime

is one of the origin myths of Ecuadorean-ness

as internal/external

given

placed

posts known

as grievously

is emotionally

1968-72).

and called

What remains

a ‘positional

Rio

and its demarcation.

unity and sovereignty

rests, the border

in the

nationalist

national

nor demarcated

the presumed

in 1960-1,

given as 78 km [St.John,

line which,

as an ‘open frontier’ of closure,

had been

populist-nationalistic

during

emphasized

mapped

That such

side is perceived

latterly

particularly

66) terms

the border

on both sides of the (provisional) Zamora-Cenepa

frontier

anticipated

in 1960, under

by the Peruvians.

of a boundary

between

of the Zamora

ran through

to that

President,

1972-9

100 km (sometimes

Prescott

which

as ‘inejuctuble’ or unoperational

the I995 clash, both countries

and installations

described

invalid

governments,

as it has not been

example

in the Oriente

in the zone

the international

conditions

Ibarra (five-times

rejected

is around

is still in dispute,

the

the Protocol

a position

Ecuadorians

particularly

river, the Cenepa,

geophysical

Ecuadorean

military

of the total. While the

demarcation

between the two rivers. However, by the 1960s air-photos a clear demonstration of a previously uncharted area,’ and

Ecuador decades,

contentious

of a further

the

border

3). In the Rio Protocol,

Protocol, subsequent

was unproblematic,

and remained

placed along the watershed from the US military gave pointed

for over 1600 km, some 95 percent

of the border

completed,

279

RADCLIFFE

Immediately which

after

comprised

from Gran Colombia the northern

Colombia

gained

country, a part of

by Peru; this territory

is not

treated in the current maps of the country like the Peruvian frontier. Another facet of the Colombian relationship is the fact it acts as a site for potential social unrest, compared with the relative groups,

such

peace

and security

in Ecuador.

The incursions

as El Ej&cite de Liberacidn National

(National

of Colombian Liberation

Army),

guerrilla and of

drug-traffickers threatens the SOCid peace of Ecuador, compared with the Peruvian threat to sovereignty. The ‘Other’ of Peru is thus further refined by reference to a distinct alterity represented by Colombia, a potential ally over the Rio Protocol, but a source of social

280

Frontiers and popular nationhood

unrest. Such differential discourses

(self-)representations

can be juxtaposed

about Peru as ‘robber nation’, a description

with the images and

which circulates not only inside

Peru but also outside it.* One key concern issues of sovereignty Amazonian

of Ecuadorean

official and popular nationhoods

is exemplified

by

over Amazonian territory. ‘Ecuador was, is and always will be, an

country’ is a slogan used from the 1960s

not only on government

headed

notepaper (Whitten, 1985), but also in other fields of state action, such as education. In the curriculum

for geography

and history, young secondary

pupils are taught about the

‘discovery’ in 1542 of the Amazon by Francisco de Orellana, one of Pizarro’s officers, on an expedition

starting in Quito. One representative

quote from a school text reads, ‘The

discovery of the Amazon River constitutes a transcendental Gonzalez,

fact for our nationhood’ (Garcia

1992). (By contrast, the Peruvians argue that the expedition

with only a brief provisioning

started from Lima,

stop in Quito.) The event is commemorated

variety of ways. The road to Guapulo commemorates

the expedition,

in Ecuador in a

which according to

history, took this route on its way to the Amazon. In each school year, and particularly in primary state and private schools, pupils record the date of the Amazon ‘discovery’ as part of their curricular activities. Moreover, in the large-circulation divergent editorial positions

Hay), commentary

pieces

(including

national press with widely

the daily newspapers

on the anniversary

El Comercio, El Universe,

are frequent

history in divergent

and notable.

So far, so

predictable:

the writing of nationalist

(Hobsbawm

and Ranger, 1987; Gillis, 1994). Yet here I wish to highlight the specific

geography, centred on Amazonia, upon which Ecuadorean

ways is not of course

new

versions of history rest. Within

this narrative, the foundation of cities along the river and Ecuador’s ‘originary’ claim to the riverine territory aim to demonstrate to schoolchildren into Amazonia, Orellana.

displacing

the extension of national patrimony

the name of Pizarro (associated

Claim to the Oriente

is bolstered

by reference

with Peru’s conquest)

with

to the Quito Audiencia-the

colonial administrative unit whose boundaries were, under the general law of utiposseditis, to provide the boundaries 1996). Contemporary

of the new states on independence

school textbooks

(Wright, 1941; Radcliffe,

place parallel emphasis on the historic situation, in

order to create a sense of current injustice vis-d-vis boundary settlements. notes, ‘it is the duty of the present and future generations

As one book

to demand our rights over the

Amazon and its riverside territories’ (Garcia Gonzalez, 1992). There are also tracings of national history to the pre-conquest creole nationalisms of the early nineteenth the Peru-centred Ecuadorean

Inca empire-a

century (Anderson,

period, preempting

history tying Ecuador ‘too closely’ to its neighbour-

popular histories refer to the Quito kingdom. The complexity

social structures are now well documented substantially

on the unreliable

the

1991). Rather than refer to

(Salomon,

historical chronicles

of precolonial

19861, yet contemporary

texts draw

by Padre Juan de Velasco (Brading,

19911, who recorded the genealogies and histories of a non-Inca ‘Kingdom’, in his sixteenth century invention of tradition. Contemporary school historians place considerable emphasis expansion

on the Quito kingdom

in (what later became)

and its ethnic

groups,

tracing marriages

and

the national space. Quito sovereign resistance to Inca

conquest is also prominent, ‘standing in’ (Bowman, 1994) for recent international conflicts by projecting onto the screen of the past a recent event. The general dynamics of nationalist remembering and forgetting (Anderson, 1991; Renan, 1990 118821) are rearticulated in this specific context, reminding pupils of the ‘Southern threat’: adults remember books from Velasco Ibarra’s term in which they were exhorted to ‘remember that Peru is your worst enemy’ (interviews with author, 1996). The selective remembering and forgetting which traces through nationalist texts recurs in Ecuador. As Renan put it in

SARAH

A. RAIXLIFFE

281

. .’ (Renan, 1990 W3821).

1882, ‘[florgetting is a crucial factor in the creation of a nation Although people may not remember extent

Colombians)

repeated

why the territory was lost to Peruvians (or to a lesser

they remember

that it was lost, or ‘stolen’ to use a phrase often

by ordinary citizens. Even during a period of calm between

1994, diverse groups of Ecuadorians

consistently

‘remembered’

the countries

in

the issue of territorial

‘loss’ and the ‘truncated’ nature of the national territory, even if they could not remember specific events (Survey results, 1994; cf. Boyarin, Interestingly, materialism.

1994).

the historical dynamic is one largely based on the dialectics of historical

School texts use a marxist conceptual

production

and the exploitation

marxisant

writing

specifically

by

orginates

the

of indigenous

framework,

populations

in the leftist domination

Movimiento

Popular

explaining

the modes of

by colonial overlords.

Such

of the Ministry of Education,

Democr&tico

(MPD,

Democratic

People’s

Movement) associated with Chinese marxist doctrine. However, the marxist interpretation is not universal;

exceptions

recent materials elaborated

are the work by the geographer for the bilingual education

The discipline of geography, national

identities

geography

in citizens.

Tergn, and the

as well as history, is central to the project of embodying To many Ecuadorians,

young and old, the teaching

of

and civic studies at school is associated with the teaching of ‘Ecuadorian-ness’ Forming for many years a compulsory

(ecuadotianz’dad).

the nation’s territorial history comprises identities.

The core elements

Ecuador,

Francisco

programme.

a knowledge

include

part of the school curriculum,

a key part of official inculcation

an assumed

of national

love for the land and territory of

of the history of frontiers

(Historia

de Limites), and different 1996.Ch. 3).

descriptive tropes for the three regions (Figure I) (Radcliffe and Westwood, Representations schoolroom

of frontiers and territorial issues are widespread,

walls.’

Maps show the Rio Protocol

as maps are found on

line marking

the new border

after

territory was ‘lost’ to Peru in the 1941 conflict, but the line is shown running through Ecuadorean

territory, as the border‘s legitimacy is not recognized.

Peruvian connotations been

labelled

Moreover, strongly anti-

are littered through the pedagogic material. In some texts, Peru has

the ‘Cain of the South’, a labelling

reaffirms the validity of Ecuadorean

of the Other which simultaneously

identity and territory. Peruvian press reports at the

time of the January 1995 dispute referred explicitly to these textbooks, to the ‘imaginary Ecuadorean

cartography-only

the Peruvians mention ‘[Ecuador’s] education

policy has its most obvious expression

and is based on, [its] official maps, where extensive of the Amazon River appear to be Ecuadorean’ pedagogic classes. sacrifice

materials on frontier change

Texts

quote

approvingly

for the nation, of honour,

Duties to the pattia

decorum

in,

Peruvian territories on the left bank

(Peru Embassy,

1995). Since 1079, the

have been taught in civics and social science

from Renan

on the solidarity

and the wish to maintain

Patriotism is defined for secondary defense

drawing attention

available in that country’. For example,

a community

established

through

life (da

corn&z).

school pupils as ‘sacrifice for the territorial integrity,

and national glories’ (Garcia

are listed as including

Gbnzalez,

1992: 212-213).

‘constant vigilance for the integrity of our

territory’ (ibid.). In teaching on the border issues (and the curriculum is the same in state, church or private schools), respect to Peru.

Ecuadoreanness

encompasses

Imagining national territories in constitutional institutionally

to the professional

mapping

a moral of superiority

and educational geographies

and cartographic

representation

with

refers interof national

space. Generally, twentieth century nations have found in geography a ‘necessary tool for clarifying and fostering their national identity’ (Hooson, 1994: 4; also Kent, 1995). In Latin America, the professionalization of geography, extensive links with the military and

Frontiers and popular nationhood

FIGURE4. ‘In their capable

hands’: The military as mestizo, professional and scientific. Mural in the Instituto Geografico Militar foyer (with grateful acknowledgement of assistance from the IGM Director and Geographical Division).

questions of territorial security have emerged in the present century particularly from the 1920s and 1930s

(Hepple,

1992).

Geopolitics

American armed forces, which have powerfully

have been combined

state, national security doctrines and the use of cartography,

a prime concern

of frontiers

natural wealth, mirroring and extending Anderson,

and give an inventory

inventories

of the

particularly in Argentina and

Brazil (ibid.; Child, 1985; Dodds, 1993). A national map, argued the Ecuadorean in 1922, would permit knowledge

of Latin

an organic metaphor

of population

1991). After the war of 1941, the Servicio Geogdfico

military

of the country’s

and patrimony

(cf.

Militar (Geographical

Military Service), part of the military high command and later re-named the Geographical Military Institute (IGM), was responsible frontier,

while

its civilian

employees

for placing concrete were

granted

markers along the new

military

designations,

thereby

assimilating them into the military command structure (Cortes, 1960). Since the 1940s the IGM has consolidated

a powerful position for itself, as the only sanctioned

maps and cartographic

information

in the country.” The IGM benefited

producer of

financially and

institutionally from the military government of the 197Os, which presented itself as an efficient administrator of the national economy. Such conceptions of the military remain in the popular imagination, can claim to be credible,

through which the armed forces, and the IGM in particular,

prestigious

and professional

(Figure 4).

Creating national maps was, and remains, a fundamental

role of the IGM, which prides

itself on this work, arguing that making maps links them with citizens (Author’s interview with IGM high command, Quito, April, 1994). Such a tutoring role begins with the IGM building itself in Quito, with two large mural maps (Radcliffe, 1996). Once again, the inclusion of the Rio Protocol line reminds the citizens of the never forgotten fact of the country’s ‘dismemberment’, as one official described it. The authority of the maps-withRio Protocol rests not only on the power of the military, but also on the judicial system,

A.

SARAH

under

which

carries

the same of maps without

a sentence

Ecuadorean

territory

inspections

from

of bookshops

However,

the Rio Protocol

to 16 years

of up

283

RADCLIFFE

in prison.

before

1941,

and other

outlets

line is considered

Maps

a law

under

which

law

traitorous

and

include

the

must

is enforced

through

regular

by the authorities.

it is not only the Rio Protocol

line which

represents

and calls up national

identities but also the configuration of the different regions comprising specifically the Oriente, or Amazon region. Amazonia represents,

Ecuador, most in its .fertility’,

abundance

and suitable

of resources

‘development’

and ‘emptiness’,

(interpreted

a space

in this context

market,

export-oriented

economy)

Trujillo,

1993). Ironically,

Peru too has looked

and settlement and hopes awaiting

outlets

were

into national

highlight

its distinctiveness

strategic

policy

sequences

and

segment

dialectic

as well interest

‘otherness’

national

new

extraction

as the engine

activities

national

export

creating

of whom

earnings,

when

of national

(Kimberling

and elites

income resonance,

with the neat civilized To summarize, As noted

expressed

nature

below,

certain

by contemporary

its spaces.

geographies cartographies

In such

appear

to

in nationalist

nation

(Bowman, a specific carried

is already

production

hands

19941, acting national

out over a period

Oriente

in the

for the majority reality through

of export

its oil

48.7 percent budget,

earnings

1993: 24). Despite widely

sprawling

of

In many respects,

of the national

is perceived

through

Amazonia

reverberate of these

when

of

a slight and 60.2

its economic by Quito

and

and wild-compared

can become

role

with multiple

various

arenas

are rearticulated

themselves

the

As Anderson

are invested

through

meanings

positioning

vis-d-vis the nation

of mapped

reminds

us,

‘map-as-logo.

of state and re-

for pure

and many

imagined countries,

sign,

no longer

1991: 175). In the era of print capitalism, easy education, the map-as-sign can ‘stand in’ for the

as a short-hand

space.

time. Indeed,

ambitions

comprised

70 percent

imaginaries,

central.

patrimony’

landscape.

elements

compass to the world’ (Anderson, reproducibility of images and mass around

development

which

subjects be

the

border

discursive

reasons

at a similar

the Oriente

with FCUNAE,

of Andean

and connotations,

civilian

security

‘national

is a land of promise.

and unaesthetic-ugly,

lines of a national

layers of meanings

reflecting

oil represented

however,

as uncivilized

its small

later

with Brazil’s Amazon

geopolitical

while in 1988, it was 40.3 percent

from the mid-1980s

the

parallels

expressed

In 1989, its petrol

percent Guayaquil

and

live elsewhere)

decline

significance

to conserve

conwithin

expansion.

of national

and exports.

and

for national

has strong being

toward

military

military

attention

eastwards

1970s

that Brazil may have

in its eastward

surface

(95 percent

the role of Oriente

been

and

into material

‘national

turned

region

of its Oriente

incorporated

explains,

1993;

attention

resource-rich

far-reaching

of Amazonia,

interests,

concern

factor

discursive

Ecuadoreans

and

have

has

culture

Patagonian

military’s

was a further

activity.

when

plans,

1985: 35). The

FCUNAE,

1990). Images

which,

for free-

for future growth

increasing

an untapped

As Whitten

the state ‘occupation’

and Argentina’s

with

territory

(Ram&,

and Silva, 1991: 226). Such an agenda

the Ecuadorean The

Oriente,

development

populations.

as to invigorate

(Quintero

1985; Kimberling

development

(Whitten,

endorsed

into the increasingly

to its Amazonian

[Quito-Guayaquil]

of Amazonia’

governments

region

and

national

for the region’s

[the] two-city

(Whitten,

on the Ecuadorean

incorporation

is both available

1993).From the 1970s oil discoveries,

(Orlove,

pinned

which

as incorporation

In Ecuador,

of around

for the speczjk the ‘logoization’

50 years. Whether

meanings

of national

in a textbook

circulating territory

has

or a mural, the

national territory marked with the Rio Protocol line has become an (unofficial) national symbol (as opposed to the constitutionally endorsed symbols of the flag, anthem and

284

Frontiers andpopular nationhood

shield). By contrast, the map calls upon shared imaginings of the nation and the truncated/mutilated nature of its space. Frontiers become highly significant places in this imaginative geography, to mark the limits of inclusion/exclusion remind citizens of the oppositional imagination around Peru.

Making heroes: the commemoration

of indigenous

The armed forces in Ecuador are predominantly with large numbers of indigenous in the

armed

command,

forces

vigorously

led by provincial mestizo professionals, recruits and staff. While racism

(Author’s

interviews

Quito, April, 19941, the patterns of advancement

reinforce differences

between

to

soldiers in the 1995 dispute

and African-Ecuadorian

is denied

and additionally

with military

high

and career structures tend to

racial groups as well as military grades (Pacari, quoted in

Ortiz et al., 1995: lS5>, although this distance is arguably less than in other Latin American countries,

such as Bolivia and Guatemala.

widespread

indigenous

the intensity

of the indigenous

unprecedented

the 1995 border dispute led to

effort

in protecting

the nation

of the dispute,

indigenous

soldiers

structures, while

which

armed confrontations.

The extent to which their involvement

represented

a novel departure

for the treatment

public culture.

Shuar ‘warriors’-a

social category

within that indigenous

group (see below&-were

profiled

reconnaissance

endorsed

area-including

Achuar and Quichua

populations-also

of certain ‘fallen heroes’ (Smith, 1986)--and

masculinities

1995)-is

of national commemorations, such a scale represented countries).

a vital component

Although

working-class

in

as exemplary

groups from the joined the armed

in particular certain

of the reordering and consolidation

the adoption of indigenous

a significant turn-around

and

groups

and reserves (Espinoza,

1995). While the celebration (Johnson,

with

and celebrated

and offered

forces in large numbers, entering the elite forces, the command

American

as

and in

was acknowledged of indigenous

citizens in the press, television and popular discourse. Other indigenous Amazonian

was seen

were made into heroes,

placed particularly on their roles in strategic planning,

celebrated national

Nevertheless,

into formal and informal defense

and worthy of great praise.

In the aftermath emphasis

mobilization

minority soldiers as heroes on

for Ecuador (and indeed other Latin

mestizo,

as opposed

to ‘white’/creole,

heroes are found in Latin America (such as Juan Santamaria in Costa Rica [Palmer, 1995]), the impossibility characterized

of imagining

indigenous

culturally-reconverted

symbolism

(Rowe and Schelling,

19911, the adoption

indigenous question

groups

as part of the nation

the region (e.g. Mallon, 1995). While African-Venezuelans

heroes

is striking,

of how indigenous

of the independence

I examine

hero Simon Bolivar

as black

in mass public national culture of explicitly

and probably

unprecedented.

This raises in turn the

groups in Ecuador now perceive the national community.

II. One nation at war? Popular geographies In this section,

has long

have created a

of war

the understandings

of war and border conflicts for popular

subjects in Ecuador some of which have been discussed by Ecuadorean

commentators

(Gallardo et al., 1995; Ortiz et al., 1995; Vargas Pazzos, n.d.1. Here, the general view of subjects regarding the issue of control over Oriente and the nation’s territorial history is examined, followed by a discussion of the specific situation of Shuar and Achuar indigenous groups, before turning to the issue of the gendering of nation and frontiers through an examination of women’s groups’ response to Tiwintza.

&UN

of these

Each

responses citizens

to border

arbitration

clashes

(which

Guayaquil

and

encouraged

with Peru have been

(op.&

31 January by (even

Beyond decentred

families

of mobilization

their national

activities

‘cultural

as diverse (Rowe

reconversion’

positionalities location,

appear

of crisis,

19941, there

in Ecuadorean

‘nation‘ and ‘community’.

there

are various

and

Westwood,

as television-viewing, and Schelling, Canclini,

music,

culture

and their degree of popular

broadcast

to larger audiences

hear

cultural

referred themselves Placing sense

In this respect,

it is the Peruvian

the proliferation

of media

zlis-d-vis the national community the Oriente

within

region’s

a wider

significance

explained,

occur.

‘the Amazon

national for

practices

subjective

can be illustrated

viewing.

In this region,

(which

tends

In this context.

1995). When

ordinary

Oriente

the national budget’; only slightly over-stating the perceive themselves to be living in a country defined

and

because

to

does

viewers

economy

Ecuadoreans

being

positioned

and affiliations.

Ecuadoreans

growth

Ecuador

unable

with the visual media

in their expectations picture,

and

and Venezuelan

and not the Ecuadorean channels,

to be

is owned

and local events.

(Billig,

on

with ideas of

and mestizo people

channels

engagement

for

depending

‘at odds’ with their viewing,

national

maintains

ceremonies

The

from Mexican

national

feeling

of ‘banal nationalism’

‘the’ economy,

of the

respondent

to regional,

programmes

their nationality.

to. Despite

Ecuadorean

and

culture

the possibilities

Indigenous

of programmes-apart

references Peruvian

in Ecuador.

than

which

culture

religious

in the Coast and Sierra). None of the channels

yet the content

the reproduction

about

is better

popular

of engagement

the issue of their television

raised

in and through

vary considerably,

spontaneously reception

of how

1993) or hybridization

The importance

television

not permit

brigades

sites of a

in which

in the Oriente

take for granted

food

In the multiple

popular

19911, activities

of participants

Peruvian

watch

(The

of voluntary

1996, Ch. 4). Popular

patterns

operas----makes

towns

is also a question

arenas

to television-viewing

Ecuadoreans

for once

border

of voluntary

including

with reference

soap

been

support

Up with Ecuador!‘ reports

situations.

can take place,

by such sites of popular

the social situation

run by the state,

Peru in

have

to have changed

and of the formation

in quotidian

(Radcliffe

(Garcia

offered

civilian

there were numerous

with the nation

of regions

and craft production

was only limited

demonstrations

in times

identities

(Rattansi,

side-by-side

appreciation

against may

would

was

Preempting

demonstrations

with the Rio Protocol!

to soldiers,

to Peru.

demonstrations’

Spanish

which

1995).

social sphere

a positioning

of popular of ‘Down

1995: 7). Moreover,

(Ortiz,

the issue

manage

reports

poor)

duties

In 1941, there

popular

of Ecuador’s

a process

favourable

‘violent

124). By 1995, the situation

the crowds

initiated,

in a ruling

1994: 123). However,

(St.John,

of changing

the responses

In the latet 19th century,

was

false) produced

Guardian, for lookout

variable.

dispute

eventually

in terms

century,

may have been

among

includes

border

to result

with newspaper

donations

however,

Quito

and chants

people

must be framed,

by the then government.

the war effort

285

~IXLIFFE

Since the nineteenth

Ecuador-Peru

by Ecuador

rumours

the

issues

conflicts.

of the

expected

again,

specific

to border

A.

at times have a good development.

it generates

As one

67 percent

of

situation. Generally, Ecuadoreans by its Amazonian terrain, reflected

in the 1994 survey. Asked if Ecuador was an Amazon country, 77 percent of largely indigenous and mestizo Andean communities affirmed it was. Asking u+!J~it was elicited varying responses, the majority with citizens’ knowledge gained Andean

respondents

Amazon.

Similarly,

claimed

utilized

connected with nationalist geography and history and during schooling. Overall, nearly half (49 percent) of all

the arguments

one middle-aged

that the country

found

Quichua-speaking

was Amazonian

‘because

in official

state discourses

man in a provincial President

Velasco

Ibarra

about

lowland

the town

said it was‘.

286

Frontiers

and popular nationhood

Shuar and Achuar experiences of nation and war

Despite the widespread reiteration of state-led nationalist discourses, the imaginative geographies of residents in the Oriente region often differ from the official ‘commonsense’ about the region. Since the 19th century rubber boom, Amazonian indigenous groups (ethnically distinct to highland and coastal groups) were forced to be mobile, migrating to rubber-producing areas or fleeing recruitment. Nowadays, the Quichua group is one of the largest indigenous groups in the Ecuadorean Amazon, totalling some 60000 (Hudelson, 1987; CONAIE 1989). Rather than seeing the Oriente as a wild proliferation of out-of-control tropical nature, men and women in Napo province had a different aesthetics around place, according to the survey. Self-identifying indigenous groups in Napo province persistently referred to the town of Coca or the entire Oriente as the most beautiful part of the country, compared with other ethnic groups (here and elsewhere), who said it was the least beautiful national landscape. Such positive views of the region suggested a closer affiliation to that place than among mestizos and white-creoles, who affiliated themselves in aesthetic judgements with more ‘civilized’ Andean and urban areas, such as the capital Quito. The role of the Shuar-Achuar populations in the 1995 incident has been touched on above, with respect to the public cultures of nationalism arising out of the dispute. However, this needs careful contextualization in light of the long-term relationships between state and indigenous groups, and in light of the particular experiences of ShuarAchuar groups in previous disputes, These factors differentiated their experiences from their co-nationals’. Numbering some 42400, Shuar-Achuar are located largely in the southern Oriente provinces, hence their lands and settlements are close to the undelimited zone where the Tiwintza events occurred. Moreover, the recruitment of Shuar-Achuar men into the Ecuadorean armed forces has occurred at the same time as their federations have demanded land-titles from the state. Such factors involve a multifaceted engagement with nationhood and national community among these populations. The agenda of indigenous organizations, specifically the Federation de Centros ShuarAchuar (Federation of Shuar Achuar Centres, FCSA), has been to call for decentralized decision-making and acknowledgement of cultural difference. The Federation’s main objective is to defend Shuar territory, couched in a discourse of citizens’ rights to landtitling and security. These conditions have not so far been met under republican missionary schemes or agrarian reform. Initially, the Federation fought for individual land titles but soon moved onto communal landclaims, via the legal process (which engaged them in a variety of hybridizations and cultural transformations). Another priority for the Federation is education, whereby cultural values and integral involvement in national society are brought together in tension. Nevertheless, the policy of using radio-schools, adopted in 1972, has been successful, being endorsed by the state and then extended via the Bilingual Education Programme in the 1980s. The imaginative geographies and ‘national’ identities of Shuar-Achuar groups are quite distinct to ‘official’ geographies, as well as being differentiated from popular geographies elsewhere in Ecuador. Since the early colonial period, settlements and gold extraction using Indian labour forced the interaction between Shuar-Achuar and colonizer and later, republican citizens. After various indigenous uprisings through the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a major republican drive to integrate these populations through the creation of the Catholic mission of Mendez and Gualaquiza. While the Salesian mission

SARAH

was

to ‘civilize’

the

indigenous,

their

A.

287

RADCLIFFE

period

is now

viewed

by the Shuar-Achuar

as

negative. [Missionaries] taught us to respect authorities which were not Shuar, that we were part of a different nation, so we could not visit our brothers who remained on Peruvian territory (CONAIE, 1989: 89) The

setting

separation small-scale

up

of a national

border

between

Ecuador

of Shuar families on either side. Although skirmishes and acknowledge themselves

for warfare

was transformed,

as noted

and

Peru

resulted

groups had previously to be warrior societies,

in the

engaged in the context

in an FCSA account:

During and before the arrival of the Spanish and other foreigners, we were involved in inter-ethnic or tribal wars. One day, as in 1941, there was a war between two peoples (pueblos) who we had never known before, they were Ecuador and Peru. Later they divided our lands without taking us into account and obliged us to call our families Peruvians, and ourselves Ecuadoreans. They put up border markers and they called it [aI boundary and established military settlements (Federaci6n de Centros Shuar-Achuar, 1992) It is ironic, and perhaps identity

around,

nationalist

geographies.

demands their

surprising,

to find an indigenous

war and conflict

as the grounds

Yet indigenous

narratives,

for land and decentralization,

alter/native

through

which

recruitment

the

nation-state

community.

by the state as traitorous, quote

and

a memory

a specific

operates

politics

However,

of inclusion

Amazon

in ethnic indigenous

the sovereignty

based

on

inherent

in

and exclusion

in Latin America resulting

of, and

to the official

fully with the contradictions

armies,

threatening

utilizing

a challenge

The mechanisms

men into national

of national

the following

engage

in nationhood.

modernist

of indigenous

a discourse perceived

position

group

for offering

resulted

in the

killings framed demands

by

were

and unity of the state, as

illustrates.

Such Was the history of the wars between Ecuador and Peru, we were forced to kill ourselves and they declared victories and each time there are conflicts, the first victims are us, the Shuar-Achuar, and our sons [in their capacity as soldiers] are obliged to build trenches against their other brothers Shuar, Achuar, Awajun, Wampis on the Peruvian side. They call our Federation leaders subversives, enemies of the nation Ipatrid, who threaten the integrity of the state by proposing a parallel state (op.cit) The Tiwintza only through dispute.

During

considerable

incident

engaged

recruitment the

incidences

displacement

were demanded,

the Shuar-Achuar

into the national

mostly

populations

of January,

and insecurity. by the Armed

1995, the Shuar-Achuar Evacuations from the immediate

Forces,

who predicted

possibility

of bombing

raids by the Peruvians.

Among

proposed

evacuations

caused

given

daily care. In this context,

much

children

in very specific

ways, not

army but also in the wider civilian effects

concern, and women

of the

experienced frontier area

in rather alarmist

terms the

the Shuar living on the border, the reliance

were moved

of their cattle herds

away from the zones,

the on

while

men remained to care for livestock.’ While Shuar combatants were commemorated, FCSA political demands for land and rights have not been forgotten in post-bellum Ecuador, as the following quote from an Amazonian leader explains. The quote echoes the state’s historical

claims

to the region,

[The boundary markers ofl Tiwintsa, Base Sur, Cueva de 10s Tayos, Coangos, Condor Mirador, Ortiz, Monge, Etsa have been, are and will be indigenous territories of Ecuador. (Pandam, 1995: 131)

288

Frontiers and popular nationhood

Just as the state historically

has claimed

rights over the Amazon

indigenous

federations

using

unprecedented

international

conflict to articulate their claims to land.

Women and frontiers:

are

brotherhood’ community.

1990)

which

as full citizens

is the masculinist

Yet despite such ambivalent

exclusions,

the setting of limits to nation, through experiencing relations of exclusion/inclusion writers note, women biologically

region,

now the

recognition

position in the modern project of nationhood

1993, not being imagined

(Pratt,

public

in

an

the gender politics of the border dispute

Women have an ambivalent

1991;McClintock,

their

interpretation

of the imagined

women have played a vital role in and, in some cases, reinforcing,

upon which nationalisms

may be involved

reproduce

(Kandiyoti,

within the ‘republican

so frequently

in the nation through

the nation, they physiologically

the

rest. As several

five key arenas:

‘mark’ the boundaries

they

between

national groups, they transmit the cultural values labelled ‘national’, they may be signifiers of national difference, and finally, they can participate in national/liberation struggles (layawardena,

1988; Yuval-Davis and Anthias, 1989). In many cases, the embodiment

heroism in war and conflict is masculinized,

while ‘womenandchildren’

of

(Enloe, 1989) are

the objects of male protection. However, in the Peru-Ecuador and infantilized

groups

border dispute no such easy overlap between gendered

could be drawn.

In January

1995, Ecuadorian

and Peruvian

women re-drew the borders around a different and gendered space, thereby articulating an alternative geography

of identity through which to express ideas about the incident.

Soon after the emergence

of conflict on the border in early 1995, sixteen women’s rights

groups8 in Peru and Ecuador issued a statement demanding an immediate ceasefire and for dialogue between

the governments.

One key section of the statement reads:

Our peoples [ptreblosl-united by history and culture--suffer hunger and injustice and must not fall into the trap of war. We will not feed the arms industry, we will stop those who encourage violence and we will not fall into the dirty game of fratricidal wars. (La Epoca [Santiago, Chile], 28 January, 1995: 4) Positioning themselves

‘outside’ the national space, the women’s groups claimed a higher

authority for their actions than patriotism. The quote illustrates the possible grounds on which to reject the war-the rejection context.

of economies

common history and culture of the countries involved; the

oriented

to war -yet

In part, such a re-positioning

it places the reasons within a gendered

rested upon a notion of a wider ‘Latin American’

identity; part of the statement referred to the women ‘being guided by love [amod for this tormented Latin America’. Couching such emotional attachment in regional-continental terms recast nationalism as not the sole primary subjective attachment. (Latin Americanwide affiliations are not only expressed by women; in the 1994survey, men and women throughout Ecuador referred to Latin America as a potential or actual space with which to identify, often in opposition to narrow patriotism or to United States hegemony.) Moreover, the text of the statement recirculated and re-situated the domestic spaces and socialities with which Latin American women have been so closely associated, and which are historically linked with ‘republican motherhood’, thereby making them ‘precariously other to the nation’ (Pratt, 1990). In their statement, the Ecuadorean and Peruvian women described themselves as ‘citizens, mothers, wives and daughters’. In one way, this expression of identity draws upon wider social discourses in which women are

A.

SARAH

acknowledged

as (special)

development

agents

contribute While

citizens,

to the ‘modern’

the women’s

groups’,

nation

oppositional

it does indicate national throughout

Latin America,

Laurie,

offers

level,

which

in

and

a further standard

In many

of politics, of

new

and violation central

political ways

most

identity

which

continues

a

rights

In a less overtly in the elaboration

which

in turn have

struggles

then,

a

identities,

of human

the

(lelin,

women’s

of it operating

community,

ways.

women’s

through

statement

to deal with poverty,

1992).

notions

national

and Central America.

and

Alvarez,

and

of identities,

The anti-war

relations,

articulation

women

not represent

of gendered

and Peru have been

and strategies

feminist

persuasions-did

geographies

in Argentina

in Ecuador

of gender

1995; Escobar

statement

political

to military governments

forms of organization

led to the renegotiation

by diverse

and experienced.

particularly

community

(and racial, class and located)

signed

in the gendered

groups

in reproduction,

(Luna, 1993: 14): ‘modern’

or recontextualization

opposition

way, women’s

of grassroots

was

are apprehended

of women’s

work

gendered

and with differing

long history political

in these

imagination

a repositioning

identies

their

crisis managers

statement-which

rural and urban,

complete

through

and as domestic

289

RAIKLIFFE

1989: group

at the grassroots

and

place

are

being

moved

onto

a stage

renegotiated.

III. Ceasefire? The

Some concluding

dispute

over

negotiations, wounded

alone

of some

and disappeared

widely

of national

perceived

identity’

1995 dispute

the

nation,

in addition

are not fixed, infinitely

costs for Ecuador 19951), the dispute

of belonging,

suggested

that

as the

ethnic-racial

and

ways

nations,

regions,

frontiers

to their senses

success,

location

they imaginatively

pattias

chicas and towns. of belonging

event

nation

region

and complex as some gave position

and ‘trajectories

the

of allegiance’

here

in light of the

to places

suggests

approaches

impression within

and might

educational,

of the diverse, a geography

the persistence

of affiliation’

within

that geographies

with diverse

themselves

Nevertheless,

circles

postmodern

a vivid

through

and so on) with modern

affiliations

Ecuadoreans

in Ecuador.

emerges

examined which

to

looks set to have long

of ‘concentric

material,

an end

The ‘recuperation

and affiliation

(to village,

identifications,

backgrounds

in which

people.

identity

notion

are they,

demonstrating

defeated

national

survey

multifaceted

but neither

in 500

immediate

as a national

to national

an estimated

[Gallardo,

senses

such

Despite

and direct

in play and flux. Interviewing

complex

a dialogue.

of a ‘vanquished’,

1986). By contrast,

of

of Peace of Itamaraty’

to official figures

local affiliation

with Peru, found

the nation,

suggest. class,

with

and Smith,

of identity

been

of a pre-modern,

identification

beyond

it has

towards

et al., 1995: 131) in the Tiwintza

(Ortiz

for everyday

past,

replacement

in Ecuador

frontier

of the Declaration

on both sides, (according

as a discourse

term implications In the

and moves

US$25O million

what was perceived

international

by both parties

led to a ceasefire

dead,

(Williams

Ecuador-Peru

with the signing

Brasilia, which

has been

the

comments

of Oriente

(Desmond,

of and

1993) was

striking. While the geographies to international conflict, which border disputes geographies

through

For Ecuadoreans access, territorial tion

of Amazonian

of identities outlined here do not contribute directly and simply they do arguably frame and contextualize the situation within can occur, by reiterating on a daily basis the imaginative

which

interviewed sovereignty resources,

people

apprehend

and understand

their place

in the world.

before the 1995 border dispute, the issues of Amazonian and prospects for material development through exploitawere

crucial

ways

through

which

they

thought

about

Frontiers andpopular nationhood

290

themselves as Ecuadorean. If the nation is an imagined community, then Ecuadorean national identities are very fundamentally organized around a sense of shared grievances and around the imaginative geographies of the dual issue of borders, and Amazonian ‘promise’. When the two issues come together, as in the 1995 clash, the mobilizing potential around such an event reminds subjects of the never-forgotten issue and spaces around these themes. Nevertheless, Ecuadorean citizens are not mindless dupes, with a ‘false consciousness’ of nationhood somehow imposed by the state. Indigenous groups resident in the Amazon retain and elaborate their own politicized and selective imaginative geographies in which the parameters of ‘development’, ‘promise’ and resource use may be different but still articulate certain notions of community, landscape and progress. In this sense then, Ecuadoreans experience cross-cutting geographies of identity in which the nation (and its specific configuration) is only one space onto which senses of belonging are mapped. Such diverse positionings, imaginative geographies and aesthetics raise the issue of subjects’ cross-cutting affiliations to place and to various communities simultaneously. The nation in this context represents a place, a geography and an imagined community among others, not replacing other belongings. Popular nationhood and conceptions of frontiers lie at the interface in collective subjects between official discourses of place and belonging in the nation, and ‘ordinary’ senses, practices, and discourses about affiliation to place and people; these geographies of identities hence provide positionalities. In theoretical terms, such a relationship between community, place and identity implies that previous discussions of national identity have not sufficiently taken on board the multiple geographies in and through which subjects articulate and imagine their communities and places, including the national space. The juxtaposition of local, regional and national affiliations concurrently allows subjects to position themselves in certain ways, thereby qualifying or conditioning a state-generated national identity. These cross-cutting (yet mutually constituting) geographies of identities, emerging with great clarity in the 1995 border dispute, suggest that they provide positionalities from which to interpret and critique official geographies of international frontiers.

Acknowledgements In writing

this

bibliographic

paper,

and Peru about IBG, and the nation:

indebted

invaluable

the topic.

Society

Sallie Westwood, gratefully

I am

help were

to

Pilar

A preliminary

version

for Latin American

Studies,

on which

is based,

a social

this paper

geography

acknowledged.

Larreamendy,

in its preparation.

was presented where

detailed

helpful

(No.

reports

comments.

by an ESRC project

in Ecuador’

and suggestions

comments

useful

and

from Chile

1996 conferences of the RGS-

at the

I received

was funded

of nationalisms

Comments

whose

Nina Laurie provided

R0002343211,

from three anonymous

Research

entitled funding

reviewers

with

‘Re-Making which clarified

is my

argument.

Notes 1, The project involved based

in seven

interviews

(50 women,

lower-middle village;

a questionnaire

locations, and

largely

Guayaquil; Additionally,

50 men)

middle-class

Afro-Ecuadorean

elite

survey

of varying

Guayquil;

semi-structured

were Quito; area

mixed

1994 and 700 Ecuadorean origin

carried

out in each

area,

Andean

indigenous

and

of Esmeraldas,

AmZOn

interviews

during

racial-ethnic

were

class

women

background.

including: mestizo

and the urban

populations carried

and

in urban

black and

One

and men, hundred

upper-class provincial poor rural

out in 1994 with diverse

Quito; town

and

communities Napo

of

province.

government

and

SAIWH

2. 3. 4. i. 6. 7. 8.

A.

291

RADCLIFFE

organization officials (indigenous confederations, women’s movements, education groups. church groups, military etc.). Newspapers, official and organizational literatures were collected and analysed. When the dispute arose in 1995, further material from newspapers and publications were gathered from Embassies of both countries in London and from Ecuador, Chile and Peru, while additional information was collected in Ecuador during July 1996. The remainder is accounted for by the Galapagos Iskinds. I am grateful to a reviewer for pointing out that, along with other countries, Ecuador subsequently signed a treaty protesting surveillance by superpowers. On the relationship with Colombia, I am grateful to Pilar Larreamendy for explaining this, while on Peru as a robber nation I am grateful to Nina Laurie for pointing this out. On maps in other institutional settings, particularly the military, see Radcliffe (1996). See Radcliffe (1096) for an example of popular ‘seizure’ of mapping from the state. I am grateful to Pilar Larreamendy for clarifying this. The groups included Foro de la Mujer Ecuatoriana, Red de Mujeres de Azuay, Movimiento de Mujeres de Guayaquil, Mujeres por la Democracia, Centro de Investigaciones Ciudad, Cepam, Ceimme, Repem y Ceplaes, from Ecuador, and from Peru, Fundaci6n Maria Elena MOpnO, Movimiento Ramos, Foro Mujer, Grupo Promotor Mujer, Movimiento Democr%ico Popular de Mujeres, and Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristan.

9. The distinction groups

between

is increasingly

America’s

women’s

middle-class, problematic,

largely yet

feminist,

it is worth

groups

stressing

and the

lower-income

multi-class

‘women’s’

nature

of Latin

movement.

References Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Commtw~ities: reflections on the origi?z and spread of tzatiomdsm, 2nd edn. Vtrso, London. Billig, M. (1995) Bunul mbmulism. Sage, London. Bowman, G (1994) ‘A country of words‘: conceiving the Palestinian nation from rhe position of exile. In 7br ma&q qfpoliticul identities, ed. E. La&u. Versa, London. Boyarin. J. (ed.1 (1994) Ke-Mapping Memov: the politics of rime-spas. IJniversity of Mmnesora Press. Minneapolis. Brading,

(1991) The First

Il.

America:

the Spanish momwch~~, creolepcrtriots

and the I.ibeml St&

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Child, J. (1985) Geopolitics and conflict i?z South America. I’rarger, New York. Cohen, A. ( 1994) Self-colzsciouslzrss: a,~ altenzatiw a&wopologv gf ident$v. Routledge, London. CONAIE (19893 Las naciow1idude.s indigenus e,z el Ecuudor: nuestro prows0 orguniratiw (2nd Yala, Cartes,

1492-1867

edn.).

Ahyd-

Quito.

S. A.

(1960) Breve resend histbricd del Institute Geogrlfico Militar In Institute C;Logr@co Militur; Quito. 192#- 1960. Institute Geogtifico Militdr, Quito. Grain. M. (1990) The social construction of national identity in Highland Ecuador. Anthropology Q~ar/rr(~~XV(3) Ecuador

+3-59. A. J (ed.) (19821 Border and twritoriul disputes. Longman, Harlow. Desmond, J. (1993) Where is ‘the nation’? Public discourse, the body and visual display. Eust-We.st Film,/owmr/ 7(2): 81-110. IX)dds. K (1993) Geopolitics, cartography and rhe state in South America. Politiwl Geogruph_~ 12(4) 361-3X1. Eckstein. S. (ed.1 (1989) Pouzr undpopulurprotest: Lath American social mo~wnwts. IJnivcrsiry of California I’ress. Berkeley Ihy.

Espinozd, R (1995) Discurso y solidaridades sociales en Onlz ef al. Fundacihn Jose Perdkd/CEDEl’, Quito.

la gurrrd

In

Tiwiiau.

h d@qlidud dc, w~pwhh,

ed IS.

Frontiers andpopular

292

nationhood

El Comercio (1993) Ecuadory Peru: Future de Paz? FundaciBn El Comercio, Quito. M. and Spur&r, W. et al. (1995) Tiwintsa. Editorial El Conejo, Quito. Canclini, N. (1993) Transforming Modern@ popzdar culture in Mexico. University of Texas

Fundacibn GaIkIrdo, Garcia

J., Alemrin,

Press,

Austin. Garcia

G6n.?aIez,

L. (1992) Resumen de Geografia, historia .y civica.

Editorial

Andina,

Quito.

The politics of national identity. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Godiewska, A. and Smith, N. (eds) (1994) Geog~uphy and Empire. Oxford, Blackwell. Hennessy, A. (1978) The frontier in Latin American history. Edward Arnold, London Hepple, L. (1992) Metaphor, geopolitical discourse and the military in South America. In Writing Worlds, ed. J. Gillis, J. (ed.) (1994) Commemorutions:

Duncan Hobsbawm,

and T. Barnes. E.

and

Routledge,

Ranger,

T. (eds)

London. (1983)

The

invention

of tmditiol2.

Cambridge

IJniversity

Press,

Cambridge.

Hooson, Hudelson,

D. (ed.) (1994) Geograph.y and national identity. Blackwell, Oxford. J. (1987) La cuhra quichuu de transicih: su expunsiony desarrol6o en elAlto Amazonas.

Aby-bla,

Quito.

K. (1988) Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World. Zed, London. Women and social change in Latin America. Zed/LJNRISD, London. Johnson, N. (1995) Cast in stone: monuments, geography and nationalism. Society a?zd Space 13: 51-66. Kandiyoti, D. (1991) Identity and its discontents: women and the nation. Millenium: Jourmal oflnternational Studies 20(3): 429-443. Kent, R. B. (1995) Homenaje a laputria: Latin American national A&es. Latin Americalz Research Review 30(l): 256-265. Kimherling, J. with FCIJNAE (1993) Credo Amazhico. EDIJC, Quito. Laurie, N. (1995) Negotiating gender: women and emergency employment in Peru. Ilnpuhlished PhD

JayawrdeIId,

Jelin,

E. (ed.) (1989)

dissertation.

IJniversity

of London.

de mujeres y participdcibn politica en AmCrica Ldtina. Paper prepared for Semindrio International Presente y Future de 10s Estudios de Genera en Am&icd Latina. Mallon, F. (1995) Peasant and nation: the making ofpostcoloniulMexico and Peru. University of California Press, Berkeley. Massey, D. (1993) Power geometry and a progressive sense of place. In Map@ng the Futures: local cultures, global change, ed. J. Bird, B. Curtis, T. Putnam et al. Routledge, London. McClintock, A. (1993) Family feuds: gender, nationalism and the family. Feminist Review 44: 61-80. Orlove, B. S. (1993) Putting race in its place: order in colonial and postcolonial Peruvian geography. Social Reseurch 60(2): 301-336. Ortiz B., ESpinOd, R., Silvd, E. et al. (1995) Tiwintza: la dignidad de an pueblo. Funddcihn Jose Perdka/CEDEP: Quito. Painter, J, and Philo, C. (eds) (1995) Spaces of citizenship. Political Geography 14(2): 107-170. Palmer, S. (1995) Getting to know the unknown soldier: official nationalism in liberal Costa Rica, 1X80-1900. Journal of Latin American Studies 25(l): 45-72. Pandam, R. (1995) Los pueblos Shuar y Achuar frente al contlicto Ecuador-Peru 1995. In Thin&a, ed. J, Gallard et al. Editorial El Conejo, Quito. Peru Embassy (1995) Summary and Press Release (9 February, 13 February). Peruvian Embassy, London. Pratt, M. L. (1990) Woman, literature and national brotherhood. In Women, culture atzdpolitics i?z Latin America, ed. E. Bergmann. University of California Press; Berkeley. Prescott, J. R. V. (1965) The geogra/@y of,frontier.s and boundark. Hutchinson, London. Prescott, J, R. V. (1972) Politicalgeograp@. Methuen, London. Press Source (1995) Neighhours snarl and trade at the same time. The guardialz (London) 31 January 1995, p. 7. Press source (1995) Mujeres rechazan bd guerrd. kI Epocd (%UXidgO) 28 January 1995, p. 4. Quintero, L. and Silva, E. (1991) Ecuador: ana tzacidn en ciemes. FLASCO, Quito. Radcliffe, S. A. (1996) Imaginative geographies, postcolonialism and national identities: contemporary discourses of the nation in Ecuador. Ecume,le 3(l): 23-42. Radcliffe, S. A. and Westwood, 5 (1996) Re-Makiizg the Natiom pluce, politics and identi(y i?z Lath America. Routledge, London. Ramon, V. G. (1990) Elpodqy 10s norandinos. CAAP, Quito. Rattansi, A. (1994) Western racisms, ethnicities and identities in a ‘postmodern’ frame. In Rub-m, Moderni& afzd Ide~enticy,ed. A. Rattan& and W. Westwood. Polity, Cambridge. Renan, E. (1990) [18821 What is a Nation? In Naticm axd Narratiott, ed. Homi Bhdhha. Routledge, London.

Luna, L. (1993) Movimientos

SARAH

A.

RAIXLIFFF

293

Rowe, W. and Schelling, V. (1991) Mernol?:crtzd modeiemi@ popdur culture ztt L&i? America Versa. London. Sdlomon, F. (1986) Nutite lords of Qttito ii2 the age of the Incus: the politicul ecotto+n,v of nortbwn Andem chiefdorm Cambridge IJniversity Press, Cambridge. Segarrd Iguinez, G. (1992) Nzmtru frontera siafronteru Ediciones Ecuador. Quito. Silvd, E (1991) Los mites de b Ec‘cuutotiunidud: emqo sohre lu identidud nmcioaul. Abyd-Ydkt,Quito. Smith. A. 1).

Vargds l’azzos, F (n.d ) 7’iubztzu: to& b terdad. No publisher given, Quito. Whitten, N. E. (1985) Siczuzqu Rtma. llniversity of Illinois Press, Chicago. Williams. C. and Smith, A. (1986) The national construction of social space Progress irz Hummz Ge;eogrupbq~ 7: iO2-518. Wright. L. A (1941) A study of the conflict between the republics of Peru ancl Ecuador. ~~oXru~~icul,/ozlrllul XCVIII:253-272. Yuval-Davis. N. and Anthias, F. (eds) (1989) Womml2-iVutio,z-StMle. Macmillan, London.