Ecuador: Looking you in the eye

Abstract

Take some guinea‐pigs, add a back‐strap loom and some rag dolls, stir in one drunken shoemaker, a pinch of husbands' gossip and a hefty dose of selfesteem. What do you get? Just the beginnings of the recipe for a unique women's museum, the Casa Cumbe, located near Cuenca in Ecuador, whose story is told here by the chairperson of ICOM's regional Latin American and Caribbean Organization who, prior to volunteering at Casa Cumbe, was for ten years director of the Museum of Folk Arts at the Inter‐American Centre for Folk Arts and Crafts. She is now overseeing the creation of a museum of metallurgy in southern Ecuador.