“We Were Like Slaves, All Women. But We Won’t Come Back.” On the Rebellions Sparked by the Disappearance of the Hacienda in an Afro-Ecuadorian Community

In Ecuador, there were rebellions of enslaved men and women who organized to free themselves and improve their living conditions from the beginning of slavery. In the memory of past Afro-descendant workers of cane-producing haciendas in the northern Ecuadorian highlands, the Agrarian Reform of 1964 is associated with “the end of slavery” even though slavery was abolished in 1851. Until the 1960s, working conditions on the hacienda were still regarded by the population as akin to slavery. This article discusses a revolt in the ’60s in the Santa Ana hacienda, now an Afro-Ecuadorian community of the same name. Here, the master’s sexual abuse led to a rebellion by a working adolescent. The rebellion led to an insurrection by the workers who, in addition to fighting for the end of the landlord system and the distribution of land, fought for the dismissal and disappearance of the master. Together, these events redefined ideas of development, of private property, and domestic labor especially by women.