The (re)construction of identity: Representation of migrant Ecuadorians in La utopía de Madrid (‘The utopia of Madrid’)

Abstract

This article analyses the representation of Ecuadorians in Spain during the first decade of the twenty-first century as reflected in the novel La utopía de Madrid (‘The utopia of Madrid’) by Carlos Carrión. Following the theories developed by Erik Erikson about identity and the psychosocial stages, and Stuart Hall and Paul Du Gay about the construction of identities, this work explores the representation of Ecuadorians using the voice of Lucy, the main character of the novel. Her experience, based on a true story, exposes a troubled reality that highlights the several cases of discrimination against this population in which they were (and still are) verbally and physically attacked1 based on their ethnicity. Additionally, it shows how the Ecuadorian identity changes and evolves, congruent with Erikson’s stages of development.