Canar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador

by Judy Blankenship

Once isolated from the modern world in the heights of the Andean mountains, the indigenous communities of Ecuador now send migrants to New York City as readily as they celebrate festivals whose roots reach back to the pre-Columbian past. Fascinated by this blending of old and new and eager to make a record of traditional customs and rituals before they disappear entirely, photographer-journalist Judy Blankenship spent several years in Cañar, Ecuador, photographing the local people in their daily lives and conducting photography workshops to enable them to preserve their own visions of their culture. In this engaging book, Blankenship combines her sensitively observed photographs with an inviting text to tell the story of the most recent year she and her husband Michael spent living and working among the people of Cañar. Very much a personal account of a community undergoing change, Cañar documents such activities as plantings and harvests, religious processions, a traditional wedding, healing ceremonies, a death and funeral, and a home birth with a native midwife. Along the way, Blankenship describes how she and Michael went from being outsiders only warily accepted in the community to becoming neighbors and even godparents to some of the local children. She also explains how outside forces, from Ecuador's failing economy to globalization, are disrupting the traditional lifeways of the Cañari as economic migration virtually empties highland communities of young people. Blankenship's words and photographs create a moving, intimate portrait of a people trying to balance the demands of the twenty-first century with the traditions that have formed their identity for centuries.

Genres: Anthropology, Travel, Nonfiction

223 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

The most interesting thing about me at the moment is that I live in an indigenous community in Ecuador, Cañar, six months of ever year, and six months in Portland, Oregon. My partner in this adventure is my husband, Michael Jenkins, and this is our eighth year of our bifurcated life and the subject of my recent book: "Our House in the Clouds: Building a Second Life in the Andes of Ecuador."

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect much of this book, but was surprised and delighted on two counts: the writing is remarkably professional for a non-ethnologist, and the black and white photos of the Cañar Indians among whom the author lived are superb. In less than a month, I will be flying to Ecuador myself, and now I feel I have a taste of life in the Andes in a rural village.

Judy Blankenship is a Canadian photographer married to an American. Altogether, they took a number of trips to Cañar over a five or six year period and developed some touching friendships with her neighbors. Canar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador, in the course of some two hundred pages, describes a number of milestones in the lives of the local Cañar, including birth, death, marriage, fiestas, healing and cleaning rituals, and ending up with a multi-day hike along the Ecuadorian Inca Trail to the ruins of Ingapirca.

Judy Blankenship is a Goodreads author whose work is definitely worth while getting to know.

[Michael Dutchak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book to get insights into the Andean and Canari culture in the Ecuadorian Andes, since we were traveling there this summer. I found the story of Judy and Michael’s experiences in the Cuenca and Canar areas to be eye opening into the lifestyles of the peoples which gave me a much clearer perspective when traveling there. Ranging from the warmth and generosity of the indigenous population to the economic hardships they face, and much more, I could picture many of their descriptions. I look forward to reading Judy’s next book. My wife and I had a fabulous trip to this area and would highly recommend a trip there.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

0-292-70928-5 Cañar: A Year in the Highlands of Ecuador

pub 2005
truly excellent photography (as only to be expected!)
nonfic> autobio
skim

dedication For Michael, always at my side,
for Cosmo and Paiwa,
the next generation
and in memory of
Mama Vicenta Quishpilema Pichisaca

Opening:
We wake very early at the Hostal Irene, the bare-bones hotel where
we’ve paid four dollars to spend our first night in Cañar. Our bordello-style
bed with its heart-shaped, red-flocked, chrome-scrolled headboard is hard
as a rock, with one flimsy blanket and a long, thin, tightly rolled pillow that
Michael and I shared. Amazingly, we slept well, but now it’s too chilly to
stay in our room.We dress quickly, let ourselves out of the main gate of the
hostel (really just a house with a few extra bedrooms upstairs and a com-
munal bathroom), and walk through the quiet streets of the town, looking
for breakfast.

Some may think it portentous to move on the Day of the Dead, yet all seems to be good; so good in fact, that later this couple were to build their own house on the side of a mountain as detailed in the next memoir Our House in the Clouds
3*

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this fascinating book, a down-to-earth couple, Judy Blankenship and her husband Michael Jenkins, document their year (2000-2001) in the indigenous community of Cañar in the Andes of Ecuador. Judy's job was to study and photograph the traditional customs of the Cañari people before they disappeared altogether. The story tells of religious processions, weddings, funerals, healing ceremonies and of all the characters who become their neighbors in these highlands. As we are preparing to travel to the Highlands of Ecuador this summer, I found this book very enlightening.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book by a fellow Portlander! Blankenship and her husband spent a year in Canar, Ecuador thanks to a Fulbright fellowship. She writes well and at an easy pace that reads more like an ethnography than a memoir (which is what she's going for). All the characters (and there are a lot) are colorful and real, from their expat friends to their mestizo neighbors to the families of Canari people, the subjects of Blankenship's research. Very readable and enjoyable!

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author (a photographer) and her husband moved to an Indian village in the highlands of Ecuador to teach classes and learn about village life, resulting in an absorbing story of life in the Andes as modernity reaches in to even the most remote outpost.

[Robert Garibay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and accurate description of life in Canar. Was confirmed by a trip there shortly after finishing this memoir.