The Nationalization of the Ecuadorian Amazon Region in the Early Twentieth Century: The Salesian Outpost

Abstract

Until the end of the nineteenth century the Amazon area of Ecuador was largely unknown to the majority of the population. It was separated from the rest of the national territory, and it was the object of claims of sovereignty by several countries. The instrument chosen to exercise state power in that part of Ecuador was the installation of the Catholic missions, and it was within this framework that the Salesian Congregation arrived in the Ecuadorian south-east in 1893. This chapter analyzes the nationalization of the Ecuadorian Amazon and its inhabitants, in the area where the Salesian missionaries were settled (Vicariate of Méndez y Gualaquiza), in the first half of the twentieth century. The Salesians, in synergy with the civil power, developed an effective control of the territory and its inhabitants, and thus created an effective defender of national sovereignty against neighboring countries. The hypothesis is that the photographic images of the period, produced by and for the Salesian missionaries, became a tool for missionary propaganda and a visual proof of the "civilizing" process the Salesians were realizing. This chapter analyzes the role of the Salesians in the Ecuadorian Amazon, and the significance of the photographic representations of their work that circulated in Europe and the Americas. It examines how the Shuar were represented in photographs by Salesian missionaries at the beginning of the twentieth century, starting with a discussion of the situation in which the Salesian missionaries found themselves in the Ecuadorian Amazon territories. The chapter analysis of the photographs that aim to show the struggle to civilize the region. It considers the aspects of the photographs that represent the tamed strength of the Shuar, now put to use in the service of the nation-state. The chapter presents some general observations that emerge from the analysis. It argues elsewhere, the Salesians considered the Shuar to have been ignorant of the word of God rather than sinners who had rejected it.