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Writing the history of the twentieth-century Indigenous movement in Ecuador through Ñucanchic Allpa

by Marc Becker
November 14, 2005

This essay includes the following issues of Ñucanchic Allpa:

Ñucanchic Allpa (Quechua: "Our Land") was a bilingual newspaper that Indigenous activists and their allies published on and off from the 1930s to the 1960s. It was published mostly in Spanish, but almost always there was at least one article in Kichwa. It was usually a short publication (starting with four pages), and sold at a relatively cheap price (originally for ten centavos). In its first incarnation in the 1930s it presented itself as an "órgano de los Sindicatos, Comunidades e indios, en general." After the founding of the Federación Ecuatoriano de Indios (FEI) in 1944, Ñucanchic Allpa became an official publication of the Federation and was subsequently known as such. Government officials complained about its distribution in rural communities, and the threat that it represented to their hegemonic control over the Indigenous population. Despite a team of investigators searching archival collections throughout Ecuador and internationally, we have only been able to locate six issues of this important publication. These six issues, however, demonstrate how a largely illiterate population used the written word to organize themselves and to present their concerns to the broader public.

Ñucanchic Allpa (Nuestra Tierra)
Organo de los Sindicatos, Comunidades e indios, en general
Año 1, Número 8, Quito, 17 de Marzo de 1936
Directora responsable: Nela Martínez
Valor: 10 centavos, 4 pp., Imp. Editorial de el Correo
Source: Letter from Heriberto Maldonado to Junta Central de Asistencia Pública Director, April 24, 1936, Comunicaciones Recibidas, Julio-Diciembre 1936, JCAP, 763-68.

The first incarnation of Ñucanchic Allpa, subtitled with the Spanish "Nuestra Tierra," apparently appeared in the aftermath of a November 1935 Conferencia de Cabecillas Indígenas meeting at the Casa del Obrero in Quito. This conference, a forerunner of the subsequent Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios (FEI), sought to create a regional or national organization to defend Indigenous interests. In its closing session on November 5, the conference noted that its second topic of discussion would be "Sostengamos a Ñucanchic Allpa, c. Gustavo Salgado." (1) Although this would indicate that the newspaper had commenced publication before the conference, the first issue we have been able to locate is dated March 17, 1936, more than four months afterwards. Dated articles in this issue range from November 5 through March, seemingly indicating that the newspaper appeared rather infrequently and possibly had predated the November 1935 meeting by several years. In 1936, a local correspondent for the Quiteño conservative daily newspaper El Comercio lamented that known agitators were broadly distributing Ñucanchic Allpa in Cayambe, and that it was creating openings for leftist organizing efforts in the region. "El órgano comunista 'Nuestra Tierra' ha sido profusamente difundido por los conocidos agitadores de este lugar," the reporter wrote, "probablemente como preámbulo de las actividades a desarrollar con la legión de extranjeros que han tomado rumbo al Ecuador con fines de propaganda comunista." (2) Nela Martínez, a 23-year-old writer who had been a member of the Partido Comunista Ecuatoriano (PCE) since 1934, is listed as the newspaper's editor.

Jesús Gualavisí, the leader of the Juan Montalvo Agricultural Syndicate in Cayambe, emerged as the Secretary General of an organization called the Consejo General de Cabecillas Indios. A notice on the masthead of Ñucanchic Allpa stated:

Organización y Peticiones de Indios

Los sindicatos, comunas y cabecillas indígenas para recibir órdenes para la organización y para hacer peticiones de indios diríjanse al Secretario General del Consejo General de Cabecillas Indios, poniendo esta Dirección: Sr. Jesús Gualavisí.=Cayambe. (3)

The newspaper always served as an organizing tool for Indigenous movements, and the audience was both Indigenous peoples as well as the broader public. The paper published articles in both Spanish and Kichwa, though there never was a clear attempt to publish the material completely bilingually.

The lead article on the March 17 issue asked ¿Imanamana indio cuna causan?, and was the only article in this issue published in Kichwa. The article reports on abuses of Manuel Andrango by Heriberto Maldonado, the renter of the Pisambilla hacienda; José María Cacuango and José Antonio Otavalo by Julio Miguel Páez, the renter of the Moyurco hacienda; the Junta Central de Asistencia Pública's director Leonidad Egas' lack of action on the Pucara hacienda; and Rosa María Tabango from Yanahuaico. (4) In a section on the third page entitled "En latifundios y comunidades," the newspaper printed more reports of abuses: lack of payment of wages at Pucará, Tigua, and La Chimba; beatings of women at San Pablourco; abuses and robberies at La Chimba. One note from La Chimba stated

Al compañero Doctorcito Ricardo Paredes y a todos los compañeros de Quito, nos dirigimos pidiéndoles ayuda. Nuestra situación es muy mala. Aquí, como en todas partes de nuestra sierra, somos victimas de robo de nuestros salarios y de nuestras tierras y de los atropellos y violencias de los gamonales y sus sirvientes. Especialmente es duro el maltrato a las compañeras. Se trabaja en la máquina, empezando a las 4 de la mañana, casi en la noche mismo y dura todo el día el trabajo, hasta las 7 de la noche y más. Hace tres meses que no se nos paga nuestros salarios. Hemos empezado la lucha, pero para continuarla hace falta el apoyo de todos, en Quito y en todas partes. (5)

In a sense summarizing these reports, Martínez added a note to the front page stating

Las numerosas correspondencias indígenas y los artículos de urgente interes para la raza explotada que aparecen en el presente número, nos privan de publicar, por la falta de espacio, el memorial que un crecido grupo de gente trabajadora del pueblo de Cayambe dirige al Jefe Supremo. En este memorial se detallan los infinitos atropellos, violencias y artimanas con que los hacendados vecinos del pubelos han robado, por generaciones, sus tierras a los comuneros.

Martínez noted that this communication would be printed in the next issue of the newspaper, and stated her hope that the current chief executive of Ecuador, Federico Páez, would "haga justicia a las masas indígenas devolviéndoles sus tierras usurpadas." (6) Representing a swing to the left, Páez took power in the aftermath of a 1935 military coup that deposed perennial populist president José María Velasco Ibarra for the first of five time. Páez appointed socialists to the Ministries of Social Welfare and Education as well as many more to lesser posts, and indicated that he would quickly implement extensive social reforms. (7) When leftists pressed for deeper reforms he refused and became more dictatorial, implemented legislation such as the Ley de Organización y Regimen de Comunas designed to collapse independence organizing efforts, and outlawed the Communist Party.

A third article on the front page of Ñuchanchi Allpa discussed the division of the government's La Remonta hacienda in Cayambe to peasants. The division would offer poor peasant families completely surrounded by haciendas "una posibilidad de establecerse, como pequeños propietarios territoriales, sin las desagradables contingencias que supone sembrar al partido en las haciendas." The land registrations was to close on March 20, and the article's author asked "¿se puede garantizar que las intenciones del gobierno se han realizado?" In particular, the local powerful hacendado Heriberto Maldonado had attempted to control this process. The history of haciendas extracting land from neighboring communities through foreclosing loans they contracted with small landholders, the anonymous author noted, is well known. The author feared that the same thing could happen with La Remonta, with the land eventually passing to Maldonado's hands. In order to avoid this problem, it was important that the land be made inalienable. "Llamamos urgentemente la atención del poder público hacia el peligro que acabamos de señalar," he noted. Authorities must closely monitor this process so that the land does not fall into the hands of gamonales, or the entire process would be a "fracaso." (8)

Of four front page articles, only one was not focused on the canton of Cayambe (in fact, much of the material over the years the newspaper was published was from the state-owned haciendas in northern Cayambe). Author and communist militant Joaquín Gallegos Lara contributed the fourth article demanding freedom for Ambrosio Lasso who had been imprisoned for his actions on the Pull hacienda in Chimborazo. Lasso was not a stranger to such struggles. In 1928, Lasso had been evicted from the Pull hacienda because of his complaints against the owner. (9) On May 1, 1934, he joined hundreds of workers and students in an International Workers Day commemoration at the Casa del Obrero in Quito. (10) Increased work demands on the Pull hacienda undermined survival strategies, and threatened the workers with starvation. Rather than listening to Indigenous demands, the landowners were imprisoning workers on the hacienda-including men, women, children, and old people-without provocation. Gallegos had recently joined the Defensa Obrera y Campesina in Guayaquil which launched a campaign to demand Lasso's freedom. He called on "cada ecuatoriano que ame a su tierra y la ame como una tierra de civilización, se junte a los que protestamos por la prolongación, inmotivada y sostenida sin pretextos, de este bárbaro encierro." Beyond writers, artists, intellectuals, women, and workers, he called for this demand to be sent throughout the American continent so that all "agitarán y reclamarán por nuestro joven jefe indígena bárbarmente encarcelado los hombros libres de toda la América." (11)

The theme of defending Indigenous workers on the Pull hacienda was carried on to the interior papers of Ñucanchic Allpa which carried the banner "Lucad por la libertad de Ambrosio Laso y sus compañeros." A group in Quito called the Comisión de Ayuda Indígena drafted a "memorandum para el Sr. Jefe Supremo, Ministro de Gobierno, Previsión Social y Hacienda, sobre el establecimiento de una colonia agrícola en Saloya con los indios de Pull." This agricultural cooperative would provide a solution to the recent uprisings on the Pull and Galte haciendas through the granting of communal landholdings that were "indivisible e intransferible" to Indigenous workers. (12)

The Conferencia de Cabecillas Indios published a 17-point list of demands "para unir u organizar a los indios para la defensa de sus intereses de clase y como nacionalidades oprimidas." These included denouncing the "quishca o al abogado q' les saca plata y q' casi nunca les hace una defensa justa," low wages, lack of access to firewood and water on haciendas, abuses of hacendados and priests. "Todos los campesinos," including "negros, mestizos y mulatos ... deben unirse para defenderse de todos su enemigos." These "obreros agrícolas" should join with the "clase obrera industrial" because "todos los obreros están explotados por los capitalistas." Nevertheless,

los indios trabajadores tienen además algo que les diferencia de los demás obreros y campesinos blancos, mestizos, negros y mulatos: los indios tienen lenguas que hablan sólo ellos [el quichua, el cayapas, el cofane, etc.], tienen sus ropas y costumbres propias, pertenecen a razas propias y a nacionalidades o pueblos que hacen más de cuatrocientos años vivían libres sin estar sometidos como hoy a los blancos y mestizos.

Es por esto que los indios han sido por más de cuatro siglos sometidos a una gran opresión de todo su pueblo o nacionalidad, despreciados como si fueran de una raza inferior...

Por todo esto es muy concorriente que los indios peones de hacienda, los campesinos se aparicen aparte de los blancos, mestizos, mulatos y negros. Sin embargo los peones obreros indios nunca deben considerar como sus enemigos los obreros o campesinos blancos, mestizos, negros o mulatos porque ellos son también explotados por hacendados, capitalistas y oprimidos por las autoridades.

The statement continues to emphasize that Indians should organize in every hacienda, beginning with the largest ones. It was the responsibilities of the "cabecillas indígenas" to first "convencer a los peones que es preciso unirse, organizarse, para reclamar sus derechos, para defenderse contra los abusos, para reclamar sus salarios." It proceeded with instructions to meet "en lugar apartado de la hacienda, donde no los vean los mayordomos, sirvientes, patrones, autoridades ni sus esbirros." The peons should elect one leader for each ten people, and out of those leaders should be elected a Secretario General who was "más valiente, el que mejor defienda a sus compañeros, el que sepa hablar ante el patrón o la autoridad en defensa de los demás indios." If any Indian was literate, that person should serve as "Secretario de Propaganda" to write letters and educate the other Indians. If the organization was larger, there should also be a Secretario de Organización and a Secretario de Finanzas (Tesorero). This leadership group should gather every Sunday morning to review Indigenous complaints and account for their work on behalf of the organization, and they should have a general assembly once a month. Everyone older than 15 years old, both men and women, should be part of the syndicate. To cover expenses (including paper, stamps, travel, lawyers, scribes, etc.), members should pay dues of twenty cents per month for men, and fifteen cents for women and children older than 15 years. Those on haciendas should form sindicatos, whereas "indios campesinos sueltos" should form a "Liga Campesina" and those in comunas a "Comuna Indígena." Together, all of these organizations were to form a Consejo General de Indígenas made up of five of the most respected leaders. The Conferencia de Cabecillas Indios would elect this Consejo until they had a chance to call a general congress of all Indians to form such a group. (13)

It appeared that the readers of the newspaper claimed it as their own, submitting news of their struggles. "En nuestro valiente periódico 'Ñucanchic Allpa', por medio del cual luchamos para recuperar nuestras tierras robadas," one group wrote, "queremos denunciar el comprtamiento infame de un cura que, para desgracia del indio, vive aquí, chupando la sangre del trabjador, como en todas partes." A group at Chimba added that "denunciamos estos robos de los patrones en el defensor de la raza india y de la clase campesina 'Ñucanchic Allpa.'" (14) When José María Cacuango and José Antonio Otavalo, two workers at San Pablourco who were imprisoned when a bull under their care died, the newspaper noted that "todos los indígenas del Ecuador y a las masas obreras y populares en general, hace un llamamiento caluroso 'Ñucanchic Allpa', reclamando su intervención en la lucha por libertar a los dos compañeros indígenas presos." (15) The editor added a call for more news from communities, stating that

Nuestro periódico indígena inicia desde este número una nueva etapa en su vida. Esta se caracterizará por un más estrecha e intima ligazón con las masas indígenas. Es por ello que hacemos un llamamiente a estas columnas a todo el indigenado ecuatoriano. Necesitamos correspondencias de todos los lugares del país donde hay indios. Denuncia en 'Ñucanchic Allpa' todos los abusos, todos los robos, todas las violencias que los gamonales cometan con vosotros, compañeros. Forjemos valientes correspondales indígenas. (16)

The final article in this edition of the newspaper reported on an effort of textile workers to form a national labor union. Seemingly part of an ongoing-effort to build worker-peasant alliances, the article ended with a note that "adelante que nosotros os seguimos por el mismo camino, vuestras necesidades son nuestras, perseguimos los mismos objetivos." (17) Whether the perceived audience was informing urban workers of rural struggles or presenting Indigenous peoples with models of labor organizing, the important theme was that the struggle was one, and it would be won by working together.

Fue en vista de estas denuncias que el corresponsal de El Comercio quejó sobre la distribución de Ñucanchic Allpa en Cayambe. Escribió:

Como siempre, todo artículo se plantea con la mayor audacia; cualquier acusación calumniosa es lo más natural. Entre lo relativo a Cayambe, se tergiversa con todo cinismo la sana aspiración de los pobladores en el asunto parcelación de la Remonta, pero esto no debe admirar, ya que nunca ha simpatizado el sector comunista con la verdadera independencia económica y moral del individuo, les conviene que subsista la necesidad para mantener la explotación, ya que, mientras el pueblo esté privado de recursos, a pretexto de reivindicaciones, hay elemento propicio a la sedición. (18)

Ñucanchic Allpa tenia un impacto no solo en las páginas de El Comercio. Su influencia también llegó al correspondencia entre la Junta Central de Asistencia Pública y Heriberto Maldonado quien era arrendatario de la hacienda Pisambilla. Gregorio Ormaza, el director de la Junta, escribió a Maldonado el 20 de abril de 1936 que Juan Pilataxi, Francisco Andrango, y Vicenta Andrango se habían presentado en su oficia para quejarse de que han sido expulsados de la hacienda sin justo motivo. Maldonado respondió con una carta el 24 de abril de 1936 que Francisco Quinche (hoy Andrango) fue expulsado de la hacienda hace dos años con la autorización del entonces director de Asistencia Pública Augusto Egas "por pernicioso y promotor de levantamientos de la gente de Pisambilla. Sin embargo de hallarse separado, ha mantenido contacto clandestino con la peonada en cumplimiento de órdenes comunistas". Como evidencia de la veracidad de lo que dice, Maldonado adjuntó a su carta "el periódico comunista "Mi Tierra" en el cual tiene directa participación Francisco Quinche (Andrango)." (19)

Por eso, el número 8 de Ñucanchic Allpa con la fecha de 17 de marzo de 1936 se encuentra junta con la carta de Heriberto Maldonado en el Fondo Junta Central de Asistencia Pública (JCAP) del Archivo Nacional de Medicina del Museo Nacional de Medicina "Dr. Eduardo Estrella," en Quito. Gracias a los intentos de los terratenientes y el estado ecuatoriano de reprimir el movimiento indígena para sus justos reclamos tenemos acceso a un importante sino raro fuente de información para escribir la historia del movimiento indígena ecuatoriano.

Ñucanchic Allpa
Organo de los Sindicatos, Comunidades e indios, en general
Epoca II, No. 15, Quito, 28 de Mayo de 1940
Director responsable: Leonardo Burbano; Administrador: Alejandro Narváez
Valor: 10 centavos, 4 pp.
Source: Biblioteca Ecuatoriana Aurelio Espinosa Pólit (BEAEP), Cotocollao, Ecuador.

At some point in the late 1930s, Ñucanchic Allpa stopped publishing and restarted under the leadership of Alejandro Narváez. The front page of a May 1940 edition was monopolized with an editorial, printed in both Spanish and Kichwa, that challenged the idea that the Indians were an "raza inferior." The paper noted that there were two groups in Ecuador: proletarians and capitalists. The proletarian class included two million Indians in addition to poor mestizos and Afro-Ecuadorians, whereas the capitalists were the large landholders, industrialists, bankers, and whites in general. Viewing Indians as inferior emerged out of racist assumptions from the colonial period. "A estas horas," the editorial states, "la citada teoría racial ni siquiera merece los honores de la discusión puesto que no resiste al análisis cientifico." Recounting the achievements of various Indigenous historical figures, the editorial concludes that "sólo en el cerebro de los explotadores criollos, encenagados en prejuicios, persiste aún la idea de que el <indio> es de <raza inferior...>." A close ideological alliance with the communist left is apparent not only in the class discourse, but also in reference to a work of Rafael Ramos Pedrueza, Lucha de clases a través de la historia de Méjico, a Mexican diplomat stationed in Quito in the 1920s who had a notable influence on the organization of Ecuador's Socialist Party. (20) The editorial included a list of nineteen demands which would need to be achieved in order to end the exploitation which the Indians faced:

  1. Parcelación de los latifundios del Estado y de los particulares y entrega gratiuita de las tierras, incluso las aguas, a quienes las trabajan.
  2. Abolición práctica del trabajo forzado y gratuito.
  3. Prohibición absoluta de las <entradas>, >cargos>, priostazgos, capitanias, guiones.
  4. Abolición efectiva de los diezmos y primicias, conforme a la ley.
  5. Abolición práctiva del concertaje.
  6. Reducción de la jornada diaria de trabajo a ocho horas, de acuerdo con la ley.
  7. Estricto cumplimiento de la Ley de Salario Minimo.
  8. Fundación de un Banco Agrícola para los campesinos.
  9. Creación de un Instituto Agro-Pecuario.
  10. Abaratamiento de los instrumentos de labranza.
  11. Gratuidad de todos los servicios religiosos.
  12. Absoluta libertad de organización, de reunión y reclamo.
  13. Abolición de <gobernadores>, <regidores> y <alcaldes>.
  14. Abolición del castigo corporal y del uso de términos soeces.
  15. Supresión absoluta de los servicios que prestan al cura las novias durante la semana o semana que preceden al matrimonio en calidad de <depositadas>...
  16. Abolición de la <doctrina> y de la <confesión> impuestas por el cura o sus <alcaldes>.
  17. Multiplicación de escuelas diurnas para los niños, organizándolas con miras hacia su completa liberación espiritual y económica.
  18. Fundación de escuelas dominicales y nocturnas para adultos de ambos sexos, organizándolas con los mismos fines que las diurnas.
  19. Supresión de la prestación de servicios en calidad de domésticos de los blancos y de los mestizos.

The editorial ended with the note that "¡después de cuatro largos siglos de esclavitud espiritual y económcia, es improrrogable la necesidad de llevar a la práctica todas estas reivindicaciones, EN NOMBRE DE LA CIVILIZACIÓN." (21) The demands revolved around both economic issues (land reform, salaries, and working conditions) as well as a variety of cultural issues. This statement challenged the perception of the submissive role which Indians traditionally played in society. It was also a call for structural changes, such as the extension of credit and technical training which was critical to the success of any agrarian reform program but which was almost always missing from governmental proposals. This document also stressed the importance of education in order to achieve the "liberation" of the Indians. Taken in its entirety, this virtual laundry list of demands indicates the breadth of Indian demands in the 1930s and 1940s, and suggests that class (economic) and ethnic (cultural) demands played equally important roles in organizational ideologies.

Significantly, unlike a list of demands nine years earlier during an uprising in Cayambe, land reform headed this lengthy list of demands. Land was not even an issue in the earlier Indigenous manifesto. Had land tenure patterns changed so significantly during the 1930s that a previously ignored topic would now head the list of demands? No, and in fact the presence of some of the same issues such as an eight-hour day and salary raises which were to have been settled in 1931 still appear here. Rather, what this represents is a shift in the ideology of the Indigenous movement. This shift was not away from ethnicity; the document raises many of the same cultural issues which the Indians presented at Pesillo in 1931, particularly those related to education and service obligations to the dominant society. Rather, the addition of more specific economic demands relating to land tenure and working conditions represents a deepening of the movement. In a ten-year period, Indigenous organizing efforts had moved noticeably in the direction of demanding more fundamental structural changes in society. Partially this was due to the fact that while in the 1920s Ecuador had experienced economic growth, throughout the 1930s it felt the effects of the global economic downturn. (22) Undoubtedly, this political change was also partially (or maybe even largely) the result of the influence of leftist elements, most significantly the Communist Party, which stressed class and economic issues. But it must be noted that this ideological shift did not change the ethnic and cultural mooring of the movement. The demands leave no doubt that, above all, this was an Indigenous movement.

The May 1940 issue of Ñucanchic Allpa also carried a lengthy article on peasant education in Bolivia. Indigenous rural education became one of the FEI's principal demands and a critical issue in activist communities like Cayambe, so it is not surprising that such topics monopolized the pages of the newspaper. As in 1936, the newspaper also reported on other protests in Cayambe. For example, In 1940 a group of sixty-seven workers (both male and female) on the Pesillo hacienda protested to the Ministry of Labor concerning working conditions on the hacienda and violations of the 1938 Labor Code. The protest was not in vain. The Ministry acknowledged that Article 253 of the Labor Code gave them the right to cut firewood and pasture animals on the hacienda. Furthermore, the Ministry informed local officials of these laws so that they would respect the rights of the Indigenous peoples. (23) Their demands revealed an intimate knowledge of the details of this law and the usefulness of the printed word in pressing their demands. With the assistance of urban sympathizers and under the threat of revolt, rural workers could utilize the code to force concessions from their employers.

The composition and ideological orientation of the FEI is in marked contrast to the Instituto Indigenista Ecuatoriano (IIE) organized by a prominent group of urban physicians, economists, sociologists, and lawyers. The IIE emerged out of the initiative of the Patzcuaro Congreso Indigenista that Lázaro Cárdenas organized in Mexico in 1940. The editors of Ñucanchic Allpa directly challenged the conceptualization and composition of this indigenista project. The government had named delegates to attend this congress, and the paper asked

¿Con qué criterio democrático se está selecionando el personal que debe constituir la Representación Ecuatoriana? ¿Se ha pensado siquiera en que los dos millones de indios-aplastante mayoría de la población ecuatoriana-son los únicos que tienen pleno derecho a designar sus genuinos y auténticos representantes, por los mismo que se trata de la defensa de sus propios y vitales intereses?

The paper proceeded to note that

En el Ecuador existen, desde años atrás, numerosas organizaciones jurídicas de indígenas, que tiene suficiente conocimiento de causa, y, por lo mismo, son ellas las llamadas a hacer oir su milinaria voz en estos momentos históricos de gran trascendencia para su vida económica, política, cultural y social.

Why, the paper logically asked, should outsiders represent Indigenous peoples at an international conference when they could represent themselves? They challenged elite assumptions that this was a ploy to gain representation for Indigenous groups, that they were trying to "hacernos candidatizar por las autenticas organizaciones indígenas." They noted that "no somos indigenistas de última hora; nuestra labor periodista en pro del indio, dota de hace años, pero no con fines comerciales." Rather, they argued that "¡sepa el indio que la redención de los trabajadores, es obra de los trabajadores mismos!" (24) Unlike the IIE, Ñucanchic Allpa and its related organizations were collaborative projects that cultivated the active participation of Indigenous militants.

Ñucanchic Allpa
Organo de los Sindicatos, Comunidades e indios, en general
Epoca II, No. 16, Quito, Noviembre 5 de 1944
Administrador: Alejandro Narváez
Valor: 10 centavos, 6 pp., Editorial Quito
Source: Letter from César Wandemberg, Governor, Chimborazo, to Ministro de Gobierno, November 15, 1944, Oficio no. 182, Oficios Recibidos del Sr. Ministerio de Gobierno, Julio a Diciembre 1944, Archivo General del Ministerio de Gobierno.

If the numbering system of Ñucanchic Allpa is to be believed, it was over four years before the next issue of the newspaper was to appear. It would take the successful organization of the FEI in August 1944 for the newspaper to resume publication. Alejandro Narváez continued to edit the newspaper, though this new organization definitely pumped energy and passion into the publication. Previously the publication had only four pages, but now it expanded to six. The May 1940 edition (unlike that from 1936) contained little information from local communities, but now with the Glorious May Revolution introducing a period of heightened activism the pages were flush with activist reports. The paper was also written predominantly in Spanish, but always with at least one article in Kichwa. This time the paper featured a Kichwa translation of the relevant articles of the 1938 Código de Trabajo that extended significant rights to agricultural workers, as well as translations of two other articles. In keeping with the importance of rural education, the paper included an article "Ideario del maestro indoamericano" by Profesor Angel M. Corzo. The paper also published a poem "Chicha de Jora" by communist militant Primativo Barreto, and the lyrics of a song "Ronda de los Segadores."

As always, however, the focus of the paper was on political developments, and it was the political aspects of the newspaper that led to the preservation of this issue in the archives of the Ministerio de Gobierno. In November 1944, three months after the formation of the FEI, Luis F. Alvaro, the Secretario General of the Comité Central de Defensa Indígena, was distributing the newspaper in Chimborazo urging workers on activists to organize sindicatos and fight for their rights. "Unidos como un solo hombre," he wrote in a cover letter, "seremos una fuerza poderosa para conseguir más luego, pan, justicia, y libertad." Ñucanchic Allpa, though up until now only published once in a while, was to be an important tool in that process. Unfortunately, the government intercepted the communication, and the governor of Chimborazo forwarded the cover letter and newspaper to the Ministerio de Gobierno. The governor denounced what he perceived to be "una nueva forma de explotación a los indígenas, que nada saben de los problemas sociales, menos de los ideales i finalidades de un periódico." He feared that

se tiende a una revolución queriendo imitar lo que se hizo en Rusia, de unir campesinos, obreros i ya veremos, o quizá existe ya, trabajos en el soldado, pero no comprenden que en Rusia se trataba de una sola raza, i aquí se quiere levantar al indio, que fuera de ser ignorante, sus condiciones de vida para el estado actual de cultura son más que suficientes. El problema del indio, dentro de su estado actual, no es de compasión sin de civilización.

He called the government's attention to these issues so that they could solve the problem. (25)

Revealing the communist orientation of the newspaper, the November 1944 edition featured a front-page photograph of Ricardo Paredes, founder of the communist party and FEI's Functional Representative for the Indigenous Race to the 1944 National Constituent Assembly. They applauded that he had "dedicado toda su recia contextura ideológica a la causa de las masas oprimidas, en especial, del indio, en acción del indio, en acción vigorosa, fecunda." (26) The newspaper also included a statement from the FEI signed by its Secretary General Dolores Cacaungo denouncing an attack on Paredes in Esmeraldas on August 28, 1944. (27) The paper also contained a note commemorating the anniversary of the triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution with its "bandera de la verdadera libertad, la bandera de la democracia proletaria." (28) Wrapped around Paredes's front-page biography, an article by José del Campo emphasized that the problems facing Indigenous peoples were predominantly socio-economic, particularly low salaries, long work days, and abuses. (29) An editorial criticized, similar in tone to José Carlos Mariátegui's writings, sociological, political, medical, legal, military, and religious approaches to the "Indian Problem." Rather, Ñucanchic Allpa concluded that

el problema del indio es fundamentalmente un problema nacional; los pueblos indígenas son nacionalidades oprimidas, ayer por la Colonia y hoy por la República. Su solución verdadera radica en el derecho de autodeterminación de sus destinos." (30)

Such statements drew on ideas that the Comintern had formed in the 1920s, and foreshadowed rhetoric that later become popular in the 1980s.

The newspaper also included news on the founding of the FEI, and published (in Spanish and Kichwa) statements that had come out of the meeting. (31) Huasipungueros and peones sueltos on the Rumiquinche hacienda in Salcedo, Cotopaxi denounced abuses to the president, José María Velasco Ibarra, and asking for compliance with the 1938 Labor Code which included better treatment, shorter work days, and better salaries. (32) The newspaper also printed the September 30, 1918 decree outlawing concertaje, reminding Minister of Government Carlos Guevara Moreno his promise to comply with such legislation. (33)

Ñucanchic Allpa
Organo de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios
Epoca IV, No. 18, Quito, 5 de Octubre de 1946
Director: Manuel Albornoz; Administrador: Aníbal Díaz
Precio: $0,30, 4 pp., Imp. Cosmopolita
Source: Biblioteca Ecuatoriana Aurelio Espinosa Pólit (BEAEP), Cotocollao, Ecuador.

Despite attempts to publish Ñuchanchic Allpa on a regular basis, apparently only three issues were published in the two years after the founding of the FEI in August 1944. A copy of the second issue has not been found but an October 1944 publication is located in the Biblioteca Ecuatoriana Aurelio Espinosa Pólit (BEAEP). By this time, Alejandro Narváez had left the paper and Manuel Albornoz and Aníbal Díaz took over administration. Whereas previously the paper had been advertised as an "Organo de los Sindicatos, Comunidades e indios, en general" now it was the "Organo de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios." The paper is numbered as "Epoca IV," but this is probably an error and the issue can reasonably be seen as a continuation of the second series began in 1940. Perhaps reflecting an inflationary context, the paper had shrunk from six to four pages and the cost had risen from ten to thirty centavos. For the first time, none of the articles had been translated into Kichwa.

A front-page editorial noted that the newspaper was planned to be published for the second FEI congress in February 1946, but had been delayed for half a year due to the "situación anormal creada por la dictadura del Dr. Velasco impidió su salida, privando a los indios de su defensor, noticero y guía." (34) Even the congress had been delayed, given that the FEI's statutes stipulated annual meetings. This was in large part due to the difficulties in bringing people together, given the lack of resources and Ecuador's weak communications infrastructure. Given that it took thirteen years to found the FEI, it was perhaps unrealistic to expect to hold subsequent congresses on an annual basis. Part of the work at the congress had been to discuss publication of Ñucanchic Allpa. (35) The newspaper continued to request that affiliated organizations send information to the newspaper on local activities. Finally, they requested that "el periódico debe leerse en las sesiones para indígenas que no saben leer." (36)

In keeping with the theme of the second FEI congress, the newspaper featured a lengthy article signed by Jesús Gualavisí and Luis Alvaro "por el Consejo Central de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios" summarizing the FEI's activities. "Con la ayuda de la FEI y del Diputado Funcional de los Indios," the authors noted, "se pudieron solucionar muchos pleitos de comunidades indígenas que duraban desde hacía muchos años, causando intranquilidad y tremendos perjuicios a los indios." They would continue in the face of the dictatorship of José María Velasco Ibarra who "encontró más conveniente apoyar a los hacendados y capitalistas, que apoyar a los tabajadores y dar amparo a los indios." As a result his policies, "muchos hacendados han roto sus compromisos adquiridos legilmente con los trabajadores; se niegan a pagar los salarios, pretenden volver a los antiguos sistemas de esclavitud del trabajo, despiden de los huasipungos y encarcelan a los cabecillas de los indios." The FEI feared that it would lose all of the gains that it had fought so hard for over the last two years, "gracias al concurso de hombres de izquierda, en especial del Partido Comunista." The essay concluded with the statement "Luchad valientemente, pues solo así venceréis." (37)

The paper summarized the work of the FEI as organizing Indigenous masses, assisting with an ideological orientation of affiliated organizations, protection of cultural values, technical training, improving standards of living, and denouncing abuses against Indigenous peoples. Ñucanchic Allpa declared that it was "uno de los medios más importantes y eficaces" to realize these goals. (38) As an official organ of the FEI, much of this issue was dedicated toward building up the organizational structures of the federation. Beyond that, an editorial defended the Tigua Cooperative in Cotopaxi as "un modelo para los indios," and advocated correcting defects in it. (39) The paper also denounced abuses in Otavalo, urged Indigenous workers to form sindicatos, and reporting on the ongoing and ever-present organizational efforts in Cayambe. They extended their

más efusiva felicitación para los Sindicatos Indígenas de Cayambe, organizadores de esta magna empresa. Por eso, hacemos un llamado a todos los indios ecuatorianos, para que sigan este noble y bello ejemplo. (40)

Ñucanchic Allpa
Organo de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios
Año V, No. 20, Quito, Marzo de 1948
Precio: $0,30, 4 pp.
Source: Archivo de la Casa del Obrero.

In 1948, the Ñucanchic Allpa newspaper continued to appear rather irregularly, but seemed to average about once a year. As with the 1946 issue, the newspaper's appearance seemed to be linked to a FEI congress. A front page editorial announced that in April "se reunirá el cuarto congreso de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios, entidad máxima de la masa indígena, organizada del país, que ha venido luchando desde su fundación, tesoneramente, por los intereses de este inmenso sector de nuestro pueblo." (41) The newsletter also published a "convocatoria" for the congress "a todos los sindicatos, y comunas de indios, a la Cooperative Tigua" signed by FEI's Secretary General Modesto Rivera, President Jesús Gualavisí, and Vice-president Dolores Cacuango. (42) For the first time, the newspaper did not list any editors, but Rivera signed several of the articles and the publication appears to carry his ideological imprint. As with the 1946 issue (and for the only two times of the six issues examined here), none of the articles appeared in Kichwa.

The "convocatoria" called on "sindicatos, comunas y cooperativas afiliados a la FEI" to send one delegate for each fifty members, and that local organizations would be responsible for the expenses of their delegates as well as be expected to contribute to the general expense of the congress. (43) The congress would begin on April 19 with an exposition of Indigenous art, intended to represent the value and capabilities of the Indigenous masses. The FEI requested that "se movilicen todos los grupos indígenas del país, y vengan hasta la capital, trayendo todo aquello que permita mostrar al resto del país de los que es capaz de crear en materia de arte el esfuerzo de la raza menospreciada y vejada." Through art, Indigenous peoples would demonstrate "que somos capaces de todo." (44)

Among the primary issues at the congress were an urgent need to form more syndicates among Indigenous workers in order to advance the FEI's class struggle against the Indians' primary enemies, the large landholders. The FEI argued that this was the best way to struggle for land and an end to exploitation. "Compañeros indígenas de las haciendas, compañeros de las comunas, compañeros todos hermanos en la raza y en la miseria," Ñucanchic Allpa proclaimed, "que no estéis aún bajo la gran organización de la Federación de Indios, formad vuestros Sindicatos y afiliadlos a la Federación." The FEI was "el organismo máximo, el lazo de unión de todos los indios del Ecuador." Together the struggle for liberation would gain force and achieve "its sacred mission." (45) In addition, the congress was to take up the issue of building Indigenous schools and expanding social legislation in order to end feudal exploitation. The socialist Minister of Social Welfare, Alfred Pérez Guerrero, addressed the inaugural session of the congress. Pérez Guerrero indicated his willingness to collaborate with the FEI in their work, and championed his efforts to create a "Junta de Cuestiones Indígenas" to address the "problema indígena." (46)

The front page editorial laid out six points that the congress needed to address: First, the organization of the federation in order to achieve "una mayor efectividad de la lucha clasista ... contra los explotadores del indio: gamonales y terratenientes." Second, education, especially the Indigenous schools and how to create new schools and extend this work into other realms such as adult education and "una vigorosa defensa del arte autócto." Third, "estabilizar y fortalecer las finanzas de la Federación." A separate article urged local organizations to pay their dues to the Federation so that it could continue its important work. "Compañeros indígenas de todo el país," the article stated in flowery language, "contribuid con vuestro pequeño aporte a la gran lucha por la liberación de nuestra raza." (47) Fourth, the press, in particular working so that Ñucanchic Allpa would appear on a regular basis. Fifth, taking the steps necessary to build a "Casa del Indio." Finally, "defensa y ampliación de la legislación social," including advocating for legislation "que favorezcan al campesino indígena, víctima de la más feroz explotación por parte de la clase feudal dominante." Most of these points concerned consolidating the Federation's structures, with only the second and sixth points addressing broader social issues. (48)

For several years, the Federation had sought to build a house in Quito where Indigenous peoples who came to the city to present their demands to the government could stay. The house could also provide a meeting room, lunch room, educational center, library, museum, cultural center, "y con otros servicios fundamentales para el bienestar, progreso y educación del indio ecuatoriano." The project received a boost when Coronel Juan Manuel Lasso donated 10,000 sucres for the project, and the municipal government donated a plot of land for the project. Affiliated organizations were to contribute to the project with donated labor for the construction of the house. White communist leaders Modesto Rivera and Luisa Gómez were coordinating the construction in Quito, but it would be years before the house was built. (49) In a letter thanking Lasso for the donation, FEI's Secretary General Modesto Rivera noted that the proposed Casa del Indio "sirva para los fines sociales normales, para sus congresos, para la realización de concursos de arte y literatura indígena e indigenista, para el funcionamiento de escuelas, cursos de alfabetización, de preparación técnica, para alojamiento higiénico, que permita la asimilación objetiva de los progresos de la civilización." (50)

Complementing the editorial that focused on organizational issues, a front page open letter from the Federation's Secretary General Modesto Rivera to the Junta de Asistencia Pública attacked the government office for failing to "atender en forma humanitaria al elemento esencial de la producción de sus haciendas: los indios." On Asistencia Pública haciendas, Indians were exploited and oppressed with the only thought of using them to extract wealth. Positioning the Federation on the side of liberal government officials who ran the Junta Central de Asistencia Pública, the Federation instead blamed the hacienda's renters and administrators who had grown wealthy through the abuse of the Indians while not taking proper care of the hacienda's resources. "La explotación a los indios es terrible, inhumana," the Federation declared, pointing to the case of the Zumbahua hacienda where "las jornadas de trabajo, las tareas y las faenas son excesivas en muchos casos." (51)

In addition to this exploitation and abuse of Indians, "un grave descuido de la Asistencia Pública es no haber puesto escuelas en todas sus haciendas." The Federation, together with local syndicates, had created several schools with Indigenous teachers, and these efforts had been well received by the Educación Pública de Pichincha, the Unión Nacional de Periodistas, and the Ministerio de Previsión Social. It was important, however, to expand these schools to all Asistencia Pública haciendas. (52) Emphasizing this point, an accompanying article argued for the importance of Indigenous education and pointed to serious problems that it faced. The government tried to impose a western education in a language they did not know well and with themes that did not interest them. These materials "no se les dice nada de la tierra que tanto aman, nada de su historia ni de los valores de su nacionalidad." In order to address these problems there was a need for materials that approached the subject with a deep appreciation for Indigenous cuture." (53) Another article championed four schools that had been functioning on the Pesillo hacienda in Cayambe for three years despite the opposition of the hacienda's renters, administrators, and mayordomos. The Federation applauded the assistance of the socialist Alfredo Pérez Guerrero, Ministro de Previsión Social y Trabajo for materials for the school, and the Unión Nacional de Periodistas for their "verdadero sentido de patriotismo para conseguir que todos los ecuatorianos sepan leer y escribir." The article called on other Indigenous syndicates to follow Pesillo's example "para conseguir la apertura de nuevas escuelas." (54)

In 1912, the government had passed legislation to create schools for the "raza indígena." The legislation creating these schools noted that "por el estado actual de atraso y de ignoramcia en que se halla, necesita una instrucción especial, de acuerdo con sus peculiares condiciones y situación." (55) These liberal reforms seldom extended beyond paper documents, and despite government insistence haciendas rarely provided schools as they were required to do. Landowners, for their part, refused to provide the schools because they saw the requirement to pay a teacher and provide educational materials as an unfunded mandate and believed that providing workers with an education would ruin the agricultural system. (56) Indigenous organizations began to make reference to this law in an attempt to leverage education for their children from the landholders. (57) Nevertheless, in the 1920s only a few schools operated, most of these in the province of Pichincha, and by the middle 1930s they had all closed. For example, it took fifteen years after the passage of the law for the hacienda El Dean outside of Quito to launch a school, only to shut it down five years later due to a lack of resources and the horrible performance of its students. (58) It would not be until the 1940s that rural schools began to appear with much regularity, and then they emerged through the initiative of Indigenous activists rather than government proclamations.

The Federation's letter to Asistencia Pública also complained about a lack of technical education and medical services for the agricultural workers. In order to address all of these problems, the Federation proposed a sixteen-point agenda. Leading the list was better salaries, and "a trabajo igual, salario igual, para hombres, mujeres y niños." The second point demanded an eight-hour work day, and other points demanded the "supresión de compras forzosas de productos de los indios," "suministro de herramientas para el trabajo," and in general "establecimiento de un reglamento de trabajo de acuerdo con los sindicatos indígenas." This would be achieved and guaranteed through a "contrato colectivo entre la Asistencia Pública y los sindicatos." Other points advocated the creation of schools on Asistencia Pública haciendas, "establecimiento del Seguro Campesino," and medical assistance for the Indians. (59) Overall, the letter focused primarily on economic issues related to a class struggle, but underlying the entire document was the sense that Indigenous peoples faced unique needs and concerns.

It is unclear how many issues of this newspaper, if any, were published after March 1948. By the early 1960s, communist leader Pedro Saad complained that the FEI had ceased to be an effective organization and needed to be rebuilt. This could be accomplished by resurrecting the newspaper Ñucanchic Allpa and developing a network of peasant cells. Echoing Mariátegui's strategies from the 1920s, Saad advocated engaging rural communities "with their own language, Quichua for the Indians, in order to arrive to an understanding with them in order to bring a message of faith, freedom, and independence which is the program of the party." (60) The newspaper, however, would not re-appear until the late 1960s, leaving possibly a gap of twenty years.

Ñucanchic Allpa
Organo de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios
Epoca III, No. 1, Quito, 18 de Abril de 1968
Precio: $1,00, 12 pp.
Source: Janine Morvan (Nela Martínez?).

In April of 1968, Ñucanchic Allpa was resurrected for its third and final time. It was now a twelve-page newspaper, and dedicated extensive coverage to problems with the 1964 agrarian reform law. An editorial note stated that "después de una larga interrupción," Ñucanchic Allpa had reappeared as "la voz de las masas indias del Ecuador." As before, the newspaper would include articles in both Spanish and Kichwa. In attempting to spread its influence, it was welcoming to its pages its fraternal organization Federación de Trabajadores Agrícolas del Litoral that grouped coastal peasant organizations. The newspaper faced many problems if it were to continue to publish, and requested the support and assistance of its readers. "En Ñucanchic Allpa," the editors wrote, "los compañeros del campo encontrarán no sólo la denuncia valiente de los atropellos que se cometen contra ellos, sino la información de la lucha de las masas del campo, la orientación para su organización y para que obtengan lo que ellos piden." (61)

Given the pressing issues of the time, a front-page picture and story celebrated a march and denunciation of the agrarian reform institute IERAC for its failures to carry out an effective agrarian reform program. The importance of urban marxists in pressing these demands continued to be apparent. A delegation of three members of the FEI's executive committee, honorary president Ricardo Paredes, Colón Narváez, and Luisa Gómez, met with president Otto Arosemena Gómez to present a statement denouncing problems with the Tigua cooperative and the suppression of schools in Chimborazo and to request a plot of land to construct a building for the FEI. (62) A second similar delegation subsequently met with Jurado Gonzales, the Ministro de Previsión Social, about issues at San Vicente de Pusir, Tigua, and Cayambe. (63) Although most of the issue was dedicated to land issues, one story also condemned replacing the teaching of Kichwa for English in the Normal Rural de Uyumbicho school. (64) A second story championed the FEI's role in founding rural schools, including five schools in 1946 in Cayambe. "Los maestros," the story noted, "fueron campesinos del lugar que acogieron con gran entusiasmo esta noble tarea de la enseñanza." The FEI, the article concluded, "no puede por menos que sentirse satifecha de la obra realizada." (65) In an interesting departure from previous practices in which the content focused exclusively on Ecuadorian issues, two articles reported on the extermination of Indians in Brazil and the recent assassination of Martin Luther King in the United States. (66)

Despite the efforts to publish this issue of Ñucanchic Allpa, it is unclear for how long this series of the publication lasted. Printed for immediate political purposes and often under extremely repressive conditions, apparently no library or archive considered collecting and saving the publication. Scattered issues continue to emerge from diverse sources. Hopefully more copies will come to light, as it is a publication that provides a fascinating window on the dynamics and evolution of Indigenous movements in Ecuador.

Notes

This essay was published in Spanish as “La historia del movimiento indígena escrita a través de las páginas de Ñucanchic Allpa,” in Estudios ecuatorianos: un aporte a la discusión, ed. Ximena Sosa-Buchholz and William F. Waters (Quito: FLACSO, Abya Yala, 2006), 133-53.

1. Presídium de la Conferencia de Cabecillas Indígenas, "Hoy se Clasura la Conferencia de Cabecillas Indígenas" (Quito: Editorial de El Correo, November 7, 1935), Hojas Volantes, 1933-1938, p. 298, BAEAP. Other than this document, apparently virtually no information other than that preserved in the oral tradition remains of this meeting. Interview with Nela Martínez, Quito, April 27, 1996. Mercedes Prieto searched without success for information on this meeting. See Prieto, Mercedes Prieto, "Haciendas estatales: un caso de ofensiva campesina: 1926-1948," in Ecuador: cambios en el agro serraño, ed. Miguel Murmis and others (Quito: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) - Centro de Planificación y Estudios Sociales (CEPLAES), 1980), 119.

2. "De Cayambe," El Comercio, April 6, 1936, 7. A topic of discussion at the 1935 meeting of Indigenous leaders was how to sustain the publication of Ñucanchic Allpa. See Presídium de la Conferencia de Cabecillas Indígenas, "Hoy se Clasura la Conferencia de Cabecillas Indígenas."

3. "Organización y Peticiones de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 1.

4. "¿Imanamana indio cuna causan?" Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 1.

5. "En latifundios y comunidades," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 3.

6. "El pueblo Cayambeño contra los gamonales," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 1, 4.

7. Telegrams from Minister in Ecuador to Secretary of State, no. 45, September 28, 1935, NARA RG 59, 822.00 Revolutions/70:Telegram and no. 50, October 8, 1935, NARA RG 59, 822.00 Revolutions/74:Telegram.

8. Cayambeño, "Parcelación de 'la remonta,'" Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 1.

9. Francisco J. Gangotena G., "Peasant Social Articulation And Surplus Transference: An Ecuadorean Case" (Ph.D. diss., University of Florida, 1981), 113.

10. Joaquín Gallegos Lara, Biografía del pueblo indio (Quito: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1952), 62-67.

11. Joaquín Gallegos Lara, "La libertad de Ambrosio Lasso," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 1.

12. "Memorandum," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 2.

13. Conferencia de Cabecillas Indios, "Indicaciones," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 2-3.

14. "En latifundios y comunidades," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 3.

15. "Dos indígenas en garras de las autoridades de Cayambe," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 4.

16. "Correspondencias para 'Ñucanchic Allpa,'" Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 4.

17. "Los obreros textiles de la República constituyen la Federación Nacional del Trabajo," Ñucanchic Allpa 1:8 (March 17, 1936): 4.

18. "De Cayambe," El Comercio, April 6, 1936, 7.

19. Letter from Heriberto Maldonado to Junta Central de Asistencia Pública Director, April 24, 1936, Comunicaciones Recibidas, Julio-Diciembre 1936, JCAP, 763-68.

20. Alexei Páez Cordero, Los orígenes de la izquierda ecuatoriana (Quito: Fundación de Investigaciones Andino Amazónica (FIAAM); Ediciones Abya-Yala, 2001), 110.

21. "¿Es de 'raza inferior' el 'indio'?" Ñucanchic Allpa, Epoca II, No. 15 (May 28, 1940), 1, 4.

22. Linda Alexander Rodríguez notes that the price index in Ecuador fell from 100 in 1932 to 262 in 1940, and continued to fall to 427 in 1943. Linda Alexander Rodríguez, The Search for Public Policy: Regional Politics and Government Finances in Ecuador, 1830-1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 171.

23. "Quejas de los indígenas de diferentes provincias," Ñucanchic Allpa, Epoca II, No. 15 (May 28, 1940), 4.

24. "La elección de representantes al Congreso Indigenista de Méjico y las calumnias de 'El Comercio,'" Ñucanchic Allpa, Epoca II, No. 15 (May 28, 1940), 3.

25. Letter from César Wandemberg, Governor, Chimborazo, to Ministro de Gobierno, November 15, 1944, Oficio no. 182, Oficios Recibidos del Sr. Ministerio de Gobierno, Julio a Diciembre 1944, Archivo General del Ministerio de Gobierno.

26. "Doctor Ricardo Paredes," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 1.

27. "La Federación Indígena del Ecuador," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 4.

28. "Siete de Noviembre," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 6.

29. José del Campo, "La movilización indígena y campesina," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 1.

30. "El problema del indio, problema nacional," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 2.

31. "El primer congreso indígena del Ecuador," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 2; "Ponencias aprobadas por el Congreso Indígena reunido en esta Capital, del 6 al 9 de Agosto retropróximo," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 5.

32. "Manifiesto que los indígenas de la hacienda 'Rumiquinche' presentan al Sr. Presidente de la República y a la Honorable Asamblea Nacional," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 4.

33. "El señor Ministro de Gobierno y el problema indígena," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca II:16 (November 5, 1944): 5.

34. "Ñucanchic Allpa organizador y guía de los indios ecuatorianos," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca IV:18 (October 5, 1946): 1.

35. "El II congreso de indios ecuatorianos," Surcos III:33 (March 2, 1946), 8; "Second Congress of Ecuadorian Indians," Boletin Indigenista 6:1 (March 1946): 32-35.

36. "Ñucanchic Allpa organizador y guía de los indios ecuatorianos," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca IV:18 (October 5, 1946): 1.

37. Jesús Gualavisí and Luis Alvaro, "A los indios ecuatorianos," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca IV:18 (October 5, 1946): 1, 4.

38. "Misión de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca IV:18 (October 5, 1946): 4.

39. "La cooperative Tigua," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca IV:18 (October 5, 1946): 2.

40. "El indio frente a la cultura," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca IV:18 (October 5, 1946): 2.

41. "Importancia del próximo Congreso de la Federación de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 1.

42. Modesto Rivera, Jesús Gualavisí, and Dolores Cacuango, "Convocatoria al Congreso de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 4.

43. Modesto Rivera, Jesús Gualavisí, and Dolores Cacuango, "Convocatoria al Congreso de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 4.

44. "Exposición de arte indígena," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 4.

45. "Las cotizaciones a la F.E.I.," Ñucanchic Allpa V:20 (March 1948): 3.

46. "Importancia del próximo Congreso de la Federación de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa V:20 (March 1948): 1; Modesto Rivera, Jesús Gualavisí, and Dolores Cacuango, "Convocatoria al Congreso de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa V:20 (March 1948): 4; "Ayer se inauguró el III Congreso de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios; Tomó la palabra el Ministro de Previsión," El Comercio (Quito), April 20, 1948, 12; "Sobre arte indígena," Surcos 4:39 (April 27, 1948): 5, 8.

47. Secretario General, "Reclamos que hace la Federación de Indios a la Asistencia Pública," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 1-2.

48. "Importancia del próximo Congreso de la Federación de Indios," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 1.

49. "La Casa del Indio Ecuatoriano," Ñucanchic Allpa V:20 (March 1948): 4; "La Casa del Indio se construirá en esta ciudad; El Municipio cedió en solar para este objeto," El Comercio (Quito), July 11, 1952, 7.

50. "Una aspiración cumplida," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 3.

51. Secretario General, "Reclamos que hace la Federación de Indios a la Asistencia Pública," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 1-2.

52. Secretario General, "Reclamos que hace la Federación de Indios a la Asistencia Pública," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 1-2.

53. "Estado actual de la educación indígena," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 2.

54. "Los sindicatos indígenas realizan obra de cultura," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 3.

55. "Creación de Escuelas para la raza indígena," Alfredo Rubio Orbe, ed., Legislación indígenista del Ecuador, Ediciones especiales del Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, no. 17 (México: Instituto Indigenista Interamericano, 1954), 68-69.

56. "Por la raza indígena," La Prensa (Quito), November 20, 1912, 2; Reinaldo Murgueytio, Educación de espiritu indígena, Publicaciones del Ministerio de Previsión Social (Quito: Imprenta del Ministerio de Gobierno, 1944), 21;

57. See, for example, "La Asamblea General de Campesinos de los Canones Yaguachi y Milagro, a los Obreros y Campesinos en general," Imp. del C.C. del P.S., Muñoz Collection.

58. Patricia de la Torre, Patrones y conciertos: una hacienda serrana, 1905-1929, Biblioteca de Ciencias Sociales, Volumen 25 (Quito: Corporación Editora Nacional, Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1989), 20-21.

59. Secretario General, "Reclamos que hace la Federación de Indios a la Asistencia Pública," Ñucanchic Allpa V, no. 20 (March 1948): 1-2.

60. Pedro Saad, "Sobre la alianza obrero campesina," Bandera Roja 1:3 (May-December 1961): 52-56.

61. "Vuelve Ñucanchic Allpa para defender a las masas campesinas del Ecuador," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 6.

62. "Delegación de la FEI denuncia al presidente de la república graves incorrecciones del IERAC otros problemas indígenas," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 3.

63. "La FEI interviene ante el Ministro de Previsión Social," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 9.

64. "En la enseñanza del Normal Rural de Uyumbicho se reemplaza el quechua por ingles," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 10.

65. "Los campesinos demandan escuelas," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 12.

66. "Monstruosa exterminación de indios en Brasil," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 11; "La muerte de Luther King," Ñucanchic Allpa Epoca III:1 (April 18, 1968): 12.

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