Diaspora 12:1 2003 Andean Transnational Merchants: An Indigenous Community in Globalization José Itzigsohn Brown University Andean Entrepreneurs: Otavalo Merchants and Musicians in the Global Arena. Lynn A. Meisch. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks, and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador. David Kyle. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Introduction These two books describe and analyze the ways in which the people of Otavalo, an indigenous community in Northern Ecuador, adapt to and integrate into the contemporary global economy. Otavalo , a small town in the Ecuadorian Andes north of Quito, is the administrative, commercial, and cultural center for the Otavalo people. The Otavalos live in seventy-five small communities dispersed throughout the valley where the city is located. They also constitute, however, a diaspora that “is now worldwide, with permanent expatriate communities in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas and temporary or permanent transmigrants on six continents ” (Meisch 11). Otavalo can be considered a successful case of adaptation to globalization. This is an indigenous group that has acquired unprecedented economic wealth and political power through participation in global trade circuits. Its members have used the commodification of ethnic identities, characteristic of the contemporary moment of globalization, to their economic advantage. Success, however, comes at a price, which has become evident in the form of internal stratification, in the resulting social tension, and in heated discussions about the defining elements of Otavalo identity. Yet Otavalos have managed to recreate and renovate their identity while participating actively in global networks of trade. Lynn Meisch’s Andean Entrepreneurs is a detailed ethnography based on long periods of living in Otavalo, and it describes the economic and cultural changes in the region. Her narrative portrays in rich detail the social practices and cultural dilemmas of the xxxxxxxxxxxx 131 Diaspora 12:1 2003 people of Otavalo. Meisch also addresses several theoretical discussions about the place of community and identity under the present conditions of globalization. David Kyle’s Transnational Peasants is based on a combination of qualitative and survey research and focuses mainly on the forms and effects of migration in two Otavalo communities. Kyle compares migration in these communities with others located in the southern Ecuadorean province of Azuay. His book is part of the growing contemporary scholarly debate on transnational migration. These two books complement each other in many ways. Meisch provides an in-depth view of life in Otavalo, while Kyle establishes a comparative analytical framework that helps us to understand the general and the particular in the Otavalo case. Also, the authors know each other and shared time in Otavalo, and they appear in each other’s narratives. Through the analysis of a very peculiar and particular case (or two cases, in Kyle’s book), the two authors tackle important questions on the intersection of the global and the local in contemporary processes of social, economic, and cultural change. This review cannot do justice to the richness of the texts. I will therefore focus my discussion of them on two points: first, the possibilities and paths open to community economic prosperity under contemporary forms of globalization; and, second, the question of identity and community solidarity in conditions of population dispersion. Communities as Actors in Globalization Otavalos have learned to “market ethnicity” to Western tourists and consumers. These days, in Otavalo, merchants sell crafts from the entire Andean region. Moreover, Otavalo merchants are found in most cities in the developed world. Some are settled there, creating a new “merchant diaspora,” and some are itinerant merchants who travel for shorter periods, carrying crafted goods to sell in the streets of New York, Madrid, or Paris. In a fascinating chapter tracing the changes in local economic organization, Meisch traces the “migratory patterns” of yarns, showing how Otavalos have moved up the textile commodity chains from spinning and weaving to becoming middlemen and independent merchants. Otavalo’s particular insertion in the world economy is partly rooted in its unique history. The presence of commercialized textile production goes far back in the region. During colonial times, the economy of Otavalo was based on textile production in obrajes (textile sweatshops based on forced labor) rather than on agriculture or mining. The latter were the...
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Feb 19, 2008
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