La sombra alargada del patrón: Gamonalismo y hábitos hacendatarios en Chimborazo tras la reforma agraria

Abstract

This paper explores selective aspects of the historical processes of organization of the kichwa peasantry in the Andes of Ecuador. Based on the analysis of two representative cases of confrontation between peasants and landowners over access to land in the province of Chimborazo, it discusses the relevance of the concept of “gamonalismo” as both a category with which to interpret the system of peasant subjugation until the 1960s, and as significant social system conceived by Mariátegui in 1927. The paper identifies perceptions of social space that suggest the symbolic presence of the gamonal order among the generations who inherited the processes of struggle. It has an exploratory nature as it probes the interconnections between topics such as the ecological characteristics of the territory, the historical construction of a long-standing system of domination and, after its dissolution, the persistence of its symbolic universe in Andean communities.