Otavalo, Ecuador: Arts and Crafts from the center of the world

By Isabel Balderrama /KF-17/ Ecuador

It’s my second to last week as a fellow in Ibarra, Ecuador and although I’ve seen and done a lot during my time here I’m still in full Panic-Mode as I haven’t yet bought a thing for my friends and family back home and time is ticking away ever so persistently.

Thankfully I quickly remember that I’m only 30 minutes away from the city of Otavalo and its world renown “Plaza de Ponchos”, a national hub for local talent and for beautiful and colorful handmade Ecuadorian crafts. With this in mind, I head out the door of my small Ibarra apartment and walk towards the nearby bus station, making sure to first have a quarter in my pocket (the cost of a one-way ticket from Ibarra to Otavalo) and an umbrella on hand since rain is pretty frequent in this part of Ecuador during this time of year.

Otavalo is located in the Northern part of Ecuador and it is a city of about 90,000 inhabitants, 55% of which live in the rural areas of the Otavalo Canton. FODEMI’s Otavalo agency, which I’ve talked about during a previous post, is lucky to be able to work with many of the talented Otavaleños who work the stalls that crowd the Plaza de Ponchos every day of the week, as well as several streets on Saturday mornings. Many of these borrowers come from Ecuador’s indigenous population, the females members of which distinguish themselves by wearing beautifully woven white blouses and long black skirts and the men all white from head to toe with their hair in a long single braid down their back.

A lot of the merchandise for sale in the Plaza de Ponchos is made locally by people such as KIVA borrower Luis and his parents, who weave the traditional indigenous belts at home, or Maria Laura who embroiders the blouses by hand. When asked about the meaning of the many golden beady necklaces worn by the indigenous women of Otavalo, the vendors explain to me that the more necklaces a woman wears, the more important her status is within her community. I’ve also heard from others that it is significative of a woman’s age: the older she is, the larger and more numerous her beads.

During my trip to Otavalo I am confronted with a lot more than just golden necklaces and full length indigenous skirts. Wherever I look there are colorful sourveniers with the words “Ecuador” written on them and often also embossed with pictures of llamas, although I’ve only heard of them existing in the southern part of the country. I am tempted to buy an Aya Uma Mask, or the devil spirit of the mountain, as it is explained to me by the vendor, but I eventually settle for an impossibly soft and colorful “manta”, or blanket and a locally printed T-shirt.

Even though the fair generally wraps up around 2 or 3 on Saturdays, I find that I have everything I need by noon. As the skies above me begin to gray, I firmly grasp the black bag containing my T-shirts, some pencil holders, and a manta and I head home thinking “Mission accomplished.” But who knows, with one week left in Ecuador I may be back… Now that I think about it I might have a little room left in my suitcase for that Aya Uma mask.

Currently there are about 46 loans from Otavaleños that are paying Kiva members back. Most are thankful that a Kiva loan has kept their business going and their talents engaged. If you would like to make a difference in one of these artists’ lives you can do so by browsing Ecuador’s loans on Kiva. org or by joining Kiva’s lending team “Friends of FODEMI“.

Isabel is a Kiva Fellow working with FODEMI in Ibarra, Ecuador.