The Ecuador Effect

by David E. Stuart

May 1970, freelance human rights investigator John Alexander rides on horseback, away from the scene of his latest mission. Flames engulf the second story of the Hacienda Atalaya in southern Ecuador's Santa Isabel district that Alexander and a local named Efra�n have just set ablaze. Their arson is not just a typical job in Alexander's "human rights" campaign. It is a symbolic burning of the powerful Veintimita clan's shady politics and exploitation of the local peasantry. A hired snitch who has investigated the international sex trade, agribusiness scandals, shady elections, and political murders for various foundations' boards, Alexander is a single guy with two American passports, a British residency card, a master's degree in folklore from Edinburgh, and an attitude.

Dark and fast-paced, The Ecuador Effect combines a liberal dose of Ecuadorian/Quechua Indian culture with the drama of a novel. David Stuart fictionalizes major events he witnessed while doing anthropological fieldwork in Ecuador and shares the real-life struggles of the cholos, the mestizos, and the indios in their attempts to maintain their working-class livelihoods in a strikingly stratified society that pushes them out of their traditional settlements.

Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

David E. Stuart is professor and associate provost at the University of New Mexico. He is broadly trained in both anthropology and archaeology. His previous books include Prehistoric New Mexico (with R.P. Gauthier), Glimpses of the Ancient Southwest, and The Magic of Bandelier National Monument. His passion is undergraduate teaching.

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Written by an anthropologist studying human rights in Ecuador during the 1970, Stuart fictionalized his findings into a story of how terrible the class system was during this time in South America. After trying to stop an Indian man from being beaten, and then pooped on outside the bus terminal on his way to Cuenca, Stuart was then targeted by the elite class as getting in their way. He lived with a family, feel in love with the woman of the house as well as her daughter who was very bright and he gave her English classes. However, after fighting back the elite family, he put himself and the mother and daughter in danger. In the end he burned down their house to get back at the elite family for all they had done. Then he wrote a report about his findings and presented it at a UN meeting.

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

fiction> ecuador

dedication: For Rory Gauthier. . . thanks for the ride

Opening:

Hacienda Atalaya,
Southern Ecuador
MAY 20, 1970
As flames rose into the night, an immense column
of smoke and hot air suddenly burst upward and
the Southern Cross rippled eerily in the crystalline
Andean sky. Until Hacienda Atalaya’s second storey—
packed with dried corn and firewood—caught fire and
transformed into a raging inferno, I thought the guttering
fire we’d surreptitiously started under one end
of its columned gallery was doomed to fail.

Anthropological expertise does not necessarily make for good writing.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this book on Amazon. It has some phenomenal reviews. It's supposedly based on the experiences of an anthropologist who worked in Ecuador during the 1970s. Wasn't prepared for and didn't enjoy the graphic brutality. Plus the characters weren't very dimensional.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, fast-paced, effective ending.