Thank you all for your wonderful comments! I´m overwhelmed by the support you´ve all shown me. Please know that I miss you all, and that I´m thinking of all of my wonderful friends and family who have shown me nothing but love and support over the years.
Much of this week has been spent getting myself situated, making contacts, and getting my project organized. There are several wonderful cultural and academic resources for Afro-Ecuadorians (or afrodescendientes) here in Ecuador, including the Afro-Ecuadorian Cultural Center (CCA), the Afro-Ecuadorian Foundation for Social and Cultural Development (otherwise known as Azucar), folkloric groups, research institutions like FLACSO, and, of course, academic institutions like the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar. As you can see, I´m tapping into an ongoing social/cultural movement that has already generated a lot of great material on Afro-Ecuadorian cultural traditions and lifeways; it´s really quite exciting. Over the next month, I hope to visit these institutions/organizations, review the relevant materials, talk with people there about the current social, economic, and political situation facing the black population here in
As for contacts, I´m meeting sometime next week with local ethnomusicologist and good family friend Juan Mullo, as well as with Edison Leon, an academic originally from the Chota-valley. I was encouraged by their enthusiasm and willingness to help. They are invaluable contacts who can provide me with necessary contacts and resources. They also expressed interest in collaborating on a few related projects, which would be an absolutely fantastic opportunity for me to help out with ongoing research here in
As you can tell, it´s been a productive week, and I feel good about it. It is very easy to get discouraged and feel unproductive when not actually physically doing what many consider the bread and butter of our discipline (ethnographic fieldwork). Realistically, however, I think true understanding really emerges from those moments outside of those clearly defined and more formal research experiences.
Ok, so enough about that. Thank you once again for your kind words and comments. Aside from dealing with some stomach problems (darn chaulafan!), I´m doing well. I´m attempting to upload pictures, but either my computer or the internet connection is not being very cooperative thus far. I´ll keep at it. If you have any suggestions, please let me know (maybe the images are too large?) Take care for now and we´ll be in touch!
Pacho
Websites
1 comment:
Hi,
I am a student at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. I am Spanish and Music double major with an area of concentration in international studies, and I am helping plan an immersion trip to Ecuador with our music and spanish departments. The intent is to immerse the music students in a folk musical culture from a different country. I stumbled upon your blog by accident while researching the Ethnomusicologist Juan Mullo. I, like you, want to be an ethnomusicologist and will be visiting ecuador with James Makubuya, ethnomusicologist and chair of our music department here at Wabash.
My question is, do you know of a good university or school of some sort relatively near Qiuto where we could do an interesting immersion trip with several musicians? My email is jamurrel12@wabash.edu I would love to hear back form you. Thanks,
- John Murrell
Post a Comment