Cultural Archive of Cañar/Archivo Cultural de Cañar
The Cañar digital archive project includes several collections besides my own: – Historic images of town photographer Rigoberto Navas (1911-2001), printed and scanned from hundreds of glass-plate and early celluloid negatives. – Early Peace Corps volunteers in Cañar (1968-74) donated photographs, documents and recordings. – Danish anthropologists Niels Fock and Eva Krener contributed hundreds of photos from their time in the village of Juncal (1973-77). – Videos and recordings made by ethnomusicologist Allison Adrian during her six months in Cañar in 2016.
The archive will eventually include my own extensive collection of documentary photographs (1992-2022), along with videos, oral histories, and music recordings. These collections are housed in a database in Cañar at the Quilloac school library, and have been acquired by AILLA (Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America) at the LILLAS Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Niels Fock & Eva Krener, Juncal 1974
Rigoberto Navas, Cañari hacienda workers with fiesta queens from town, date unknown
Entrance to Cañar, 1968, Peace Corps volunteer
Fiesta de Carnaval, various years, Judy Blankenship
I’m immediately reminded of Martin Chambi’s work in the early 20th century in Cuzco and vicinity.How many times in my own community have I wished I’d taken photos of older building that get torn down and the environment changes, an older era vanishes and a new reality emerges. Hope to see you later this month. We fly out of Seattle for Quito tomorrow. Abrazos, Eduardo
Get in contact in the next week or so and we’ll make a time to meet in Cañar.