Christien Klaufus - Urban Residence: Housing and Social Transformations in Globalizing Ecuador

CEDLA Latin America Studies (CLAS)

General Editor

Michiel Baud, CEDLA

Series Editorial Board

Anthony Bebbington, Clark University

Edward F. Fischer, Vanderbilt University

Anthony L. Hall, London School of Economics and Political Science

Barbara Hogenboom, CEDLA

Barbara Potthast, University of Cologne

Rachel Sieder, University of London

Eduardo Silva, Tulane University

Patricio Silva, Leiden University

CEDLA

Centro de Estudios y Documentacin Latinoamericanos

Centro de Estudos e Documentao Latino-Americanos

Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation

CEDLA conducts social science and history research, offers university courses, and has a specialized library for the study of the region. The Centre also publishes monographs and a journal on Latin America.

Keizersgracht 395-397

1016 EK Amsterdam

The Netherlands / Pases Bajos

www.cedla.uva.nl

For information on previous volumes published in this series, please contact Cedla at the above address.

Volume 98

Latin America Facing China: South-South Relations beyond the Washington Consensus

Edited by Alex E. Fernndez Jilberto and Barbara Hogenboom

Volume 99

Foodscapes, Foodfields and Identities in Yucatn

Steffan Igor Ayora-Diaz

Volume 100

Urban Residence: Housing and Social Transformations in Globalizing Ecuador

Christien Klaufus

Volume 101

Environment and Citizenship in Latin America: Natures, Subjects and Struggles

Edited by Alex Latta and Hannah Wittman

Housing and Social Transformations in
Globalizing Ecuador

Christien Klaufus

Translated by
Lee Mitzman

Published in 2012 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com

2012 Christien Klaufus

All rights reserved.
Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission of the publisher.

Published in Association with the Centre for Latin American Research and Documentation (CEDLA), Amsterdam.

The translation from Dutch by Lee Mitzman was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Klaufus, Christien.
[Steden en de bouwers. English]
/Christien Klaufus ; translated by Lee Mitzman.
p. cm.
Author 's thesis (doctoral--Utrecht University, 2006) originally published under the title: De steden en de bouwers.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-85745-371-6 (hbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-0-85745-372-3 (ebook)
1. City planning--Ecuador--Citizen participation. 2. Dwellings--Ecuador--Design and construction--Citizen participation. 3. Housing development--Ecuador--Citizen participation. 4. Urban anthropology--Ecuador. I. Mitzman, Lee K. II. Title.
HT169.E24K5313 2012
307.1'21609866--dc23

2011040757

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-85745-371-6 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0-85745-372-3 (ebook)

Maps

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On Sunday 27 December 1998 I began this study with my very first day of fieldwork as an anthropologist in training. I had arrived that day in Riobamba, a provincial city in the highlands of central Ecuador, and expected to find it bustling with Christmas activities. Nothing was further from the truth. Riobamba appeared desolate; I was the only guest at the hotel where I had booked a room, and all restaurants and places to eat in the center were closed. I knew nobody in the city yet and was hungry and felt out of place. Hoping to cheer myself up, I signed up for the tour of Chimborazo Volcano that a nearby hotel advertised. As I was registering, I struck up a conversation with Jos Ignacio, the desk clerk, who later turned out to be one of the owners of the hotel. He asked about the purpose of my trip, and I eagerly told him about my research plans. The exact study, on living in working-class neighborhoods in provincial towns, had yet to be elaborated, but I had plenty of ideas, including some about the type of neighborhood where I hoped to conduct my research.

A few hours later we climbed into a taxi together. Instead of heading for the volcano, we drove to one of the city's suburbs at the foot of that volcano. Jos Ignacio had promised to introduce me to one of the hotel's cleaning ladies, who lived in a neighborhood called Cooperativa Santa Anita. We arrived at a dusty hill, where ten small brick homes stood in the late afternoon sun. The neighborhood appeared serene and tranquil and reflected none of the chaos that I had imagined a Latin American working-class neighborhood would exude. We approached one of the houses and knocked on the door. The cleaning lady was not home, but we did find her niece, who lived in the house behind it. A woman in her early thirties, who had clearly been in the middle of an afternoon nap, sleepily opened a small curtain and asked what we wanted. I explained that I was a researcher, and during the hours that followed Avelina (as I will call her) showed me around the neighborhood. She talked about life there and told me about the houses and their occupants, about conflicts and friendships, about lack of water and excessive dust, about wonderful rural tranquility and about the nosiness of the municipal authorities. On this first day of fieldwork, I quickly filled my notebook. Cooperativa Santa Anita had become my neighborhood.