Modernity as mestizaje. life and death of the ecuadorian guerrilla «Alfaro Vive Carajo»

Abstract

The life stories of the guerrilla leaders Juan Cuvi and Edgar Frias (Colorado) illustrate the recent history of Ecuador. From being activist during the eighties in the guerrilla ‘Alfaro Vive Carajo’, they became civil servants working for Correa´s «revolución ciudadana» (RC) at the beginning of the new century. The life stories of Colorado and Cuvi are framed within the second half of the twentieth century, when, in most of Latin America, the armed insurgency turned, some decades later, into the rule of left-wing constitutional governments. AVC in Ecuador mirrored mestizo identity as an expression of the impoverished urban middle class. The end of the RC coincided with the end of left-wing governments in Latin America and underlines the fact that the mestizo identity failed to connect with the lifestyles and traditions of the indigenous communities.