There are several examples of good living practices implemented for decades in Ecuador, like in Salinas, a town in the desert of Bolivar province, in Ecuador’s central highlands.
In the 1970s, it was only one of hundreds of indigenous communities buried in extreme poverty. Four decades later, Salinas is full of community businesses run under a common brand: “El Salinerito.”
It started with small-scale dairy production in the rectory and a booth at the market in the country’s capital of Quito. The idea was to produce communally, linking the factory with small indigenous and campesino milk producers. While early on there was support from international cooperation organizations, today there are 22 partners in a cheese production cooperative.
“El Salinerito” is not only a true business consortium that produces milk, pizza, wild mushrooms, chocolates, candies, textiles and handicrafts. It also has a small sugar mill as well as fish farming activities. It also markets other agricultural products and has established a network of solidarity economy encouraging new projects, training other communities and participating in financial consortiums and marketing networks.
Revenues are reinvested in new social projects that benefit the entire community.
“The whole town of El Salinerito, we are all part of the production, marketing, and benefits. We started this before the concept of good living was out there and we can say that we are practicing good living,” said one of the founders and current administrator, Alonso Vargas.
In the central province of Cotopaxi sits another village, Tigua, that like Salinas encourages community production, but based on indigenous art and culture.
“My father, my grandfather, and my great-grandparents painted on sheepskin, as our ancestors did. They painted the history and traditions of the communities of Tigua, and when it began to sell, all of the communities began to sell as well, and now our art is known worldwide,” says Siza Toaquiza, a young painter and popular singer who belongs to the third generation of so-called “Tigua painters”.
Tigua is another example of communal production and closeness to mother earth. And the international success of the art has not changed its traditions. On the contrary, it has made new generations of indigenous people no longer think of migrating, and highlights the opportunities community living provides.
“My father, Alfredo Toaquiza, is known internationally as an indigenous painter and is president of the Society of Artists of Tigua, but he still lives in the town because he also works in agriculture, since we ourselves produce our food, both for the family and the community, because that´s good living: taking advantage of everything the land gives us, but not letting that change who we are,” said Siza Toaquiza, who at age 19 is a leader in indigenous popular music.
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