I have an aunt from Ecuador, but she doesn’t talk much about her country, but I’m so glad Estela could come on the blog and share more about her country!
So Your Character is … series is where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last time’s So Your Character is from Saudi Arabia … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!
Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally or politically shocking to some. Each of these posts is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.
(None of the Images are Mine)
Hi! My name is Estela Lucero, but I prefer to be called Estelita. I was born on January 1st in 1995, in Quito-Ecuador. I graduated as an architect last year, during the pandemic. I started reading, thanks to my mom when I was 8 years old. My first book was The Little Prince and since then, I haven’t stopped. I have an Instagram account where I talk about books and I love being able to share this passion with people around the world! This year I decided to take another step in this world and I am starting on Youtube.
Instagram//YouTube//Goodreads//Twitter
What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?
We are located in the Equator line, and the country’s name comes from it. Our country is divided into four regions: Coastal, Highlands, the Amazon region, and Galapagos Islands. I believe that the most outstanding thing about Ecuador is its geography. You can go to the beautiful beaches in the morning and travel back through the Andes Mountains in the afternoon to get to the rainforests in the Amazon region by the night and take an airplane to the Galapagos the next day! It’s a small country full of unaccountable landscapes.
Another thing that makes our country special is its people. We are mestizos, the mixture between native indigenous and Spaniards has given us a rich culture that combines the catholic religion with the ancestral beliefs. In each area, you can find different kinds of food, celebrations, and dialects which are proof of this and makes me so proud of being Ecuadorian.
In the words of Alexander Von Humboldt: “Ecuadorians are strange and unique beings: they sleep peacefully surrounded by roaring volcanoes, they live poor among incomparable richness and they become happy listening to sad music.”
Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?
I am a cold weather lover so my favorite places are in the Highlands. When I was in high school we used to go on trips to some spots that were as close as possible but they gave us the opportunity to see another flora and fauna different from the city. So we visited a lot of waterfalls and rivers that are in the Andes area. I have to say that I love swimming against the river flow, so having the opportunity to do that there was a nice experience.
There is a city named Baños that is at the base of an active volcano called Tungurahua and it’s a four hours trip from Quito, and here you can have an unforgettable experience with its nature, landscape, and adventure sports!
Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?
It is important to me to explain to you how our food is made depending on the area where people are. In the Coastal region and Galapagos Islands, the seafood is prepared with plantain and coconut. In the highlands, we use diverse kinds of corn and potatoes, and by the Amazon area you can find very exotic animals served with yucca and plantain. It is important to point out that here people used to eat worms, fish, and insects.
Having said that, I have a lot of favorite dishes! I love Ecuadorian ceviche that is prepared with fish, shrimps, or shells and served with patacones (fried plantain pieces), rice, popcorn and fried maize. My favorite is the one with shrimps and this one was made by my mom on my birthday 4 years ago.
I also love “hornado”, which is a pork slow-baked in a masonry oven with eucalyptus leaves and it is served with mote (a kind of corn that is white), “llapingachos” (mashed potatoes with cheese), and a kind of sauce called “agrio”, that is made with vinegar, beer, onions and tomatoes with a little bit of sugar. It’s amazing!
Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as “biscuits” instead of “cookies”?
It’s funny because I consider that in every province, twenty-four in total, Spanish is so diverse that for describing one thing there are a lot of words. Let’s take the word friend, if you want to say it in any country where Spanish is spoken, you can call someone your AMIGO for male, and AMIGA for female. But if you want to use Ecuadorian words it is possible to say PANA, maybe as mate or dude. And the tricky part is here, in the Coastal region you can also hear LLAVE, BROTHER. In the Andes, we use a lot of Quichua words so we use ÑAÑO/ÑAÑA, YUNTA and it is a close form to treat a friend.
Some of the Quichua words are generally used in the highlands:
Achachai- cold
Arrarrai- hot
Atatai- awful
Shunsho- dumb
Guagua- child
Taita- dad
Mama- mom
Shungo- heart
Describe briefly a regular day in your country.
I think that due to COVID what was regular a year ago, it is not anymore. I used to go to university with my dad and mom, I spent my day there with my friends and go back home to do homework. In February 2020, we had to change roles, and I had to do everything that they used to do for me.
And that moment I realized that my daily routine was crazier than what I remember. My day started at 5:30 in the morning, rushing to be on time in classes at 7:00 after dropping off my mom at work, fighting against the chaotic traffic that made everyone lose their minds. By 13:00 I was having lunch in restaurants around the university, watching students and teachers coming and going. Around 16:00 I was going back home watching the buses passing by with lots of people trying to catch an empty place so they can sit for at least 5 minutes. In addition, if you were lucky enough, you could have a show by some Venezuelan migrants or buy cookies, candies o water from peddlers on the bus.
When arriving at our neighborhood, we used to buy bread in the closest bakery, and maybe some groceries before getting home and locking down until the next day.
How does your country compare to others, especially the States since my audience is primarily American? Environmentally? Politically? Culturally?
There are a lot of similarities among Latin-American countries that were conquered by Spaniards, from the architecture to the people’s costumes. You can compare the architecture in Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, especially in the design of the buildings in the main cities, and see how they kept materials and typologies as standard as they could and that kept as a tradition.
Also in food, we kept some resemblances in the use of some proteins, vegetables, and carbohydrates; although the recipes may change, you can see how that unifies as Latin countries.
Sadly, not everything is good and the political environment is one that I wish things were different, the socialism is invading us and it has been the cause of lots of disasters that had held us from progressing. The corruption and the insecurity are the daily nightmares to citizens and the politicians are part of the problem.
Briefly describe three of your country’s historical events that you feel are important.
When I was born, back in 1995, Ecuador was at war against Peru because of borderline problems and by that time it was a pretty hard time for people. It left thousands of deaths and poverty for both sides, also a hard resentment in Ecuadorians because Peru took a lot of our territory.
Since the first year of the 2000s, we changed our currency, the Sucre into the Dollar because of a big economical problem and that allowed us to have a more balanced situation. I was 5 years old when that happened and I could not understand what was going on, but now I know it was a shocking time. Lots of people left our country and traveled to Venezuela, Colombia, the USA, Spain, Italy and some other countries looking for better days.
In 2016, we had an earthquake that took place in Manabí, a Coastal province, and it was felt in almost all the country. I was with my mother and we did not know what was going on or what to do, so we stayed at home, praying until it was over. After an hour we knew what happened and the next day people started looking for donations and volunteers to go there and help. But no one knew what they were getting into. This event caused lots of deaths, material damages and showed us all the problems around illegal constructions of buildings and corruption in our government. This has not been solved until now.
What are some stereotypes about your country that irk you? What media portrays your country badly be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?
Actually, there is not much about Ecuador out there. Our country is not shown through media portrays and maybe that is a big problem. Honestly, I am not a fan of our inner production in TV shows because they are not good, they try to make fun of the differences between people from the Coastal and Highlands and their traditions, customs and it really bothers me! Instead of making that a good thing by presenting diversity, they make people have conflicts against each other.
What media portrays your country well be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?
Right now what I can think of are National Geographic’s documentaries. The Galapagos Island and the Amazon region have been in the spotlight for many reasons that maybe these are the most known from our country.
There was a show called “Ecuatorianos en el mundo” and it showed how people from here lived in other places and it was pretty interesting.
Who are your top three favorite fictional characters native to your country in books, movies, or shows?
I wish I could have read more Ecuadorian authors but I have not. So this year I have the purpose of doing that. In TV shows I have a character that is called Mosquito Mosquera, he is a policeman and he uses to get into trouble a lot. It was pretty hilarious, this program is no longer on TV but I have good memories with my mom. On Youtube there is a channel called Enchufe TV, they do comedy sketches and I think it is a nice way for you to see our sense of humor.
I hope you could know a little bit more about Ecuador and me! Hoping this hard time passes and you could visit our country! Greetings from Quito!
Are you interested in participating in this project? Check out the tips archive to see which countries have been filled and if you’re from a different country, shoot me an email at howellvictoriagrace(a)gmail(dot)com. I’m especially looking for Cuba, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Croatia.
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