Fútbol and the (tri-)Color of the Ecuadorian Nation: Ideological and Visual (Dis-) Continuities of Black Otherness from Monocultural Mestizaje to Multiculturalism

Abstract

After winning their selection for the second time² to compete in a FIFA Soccer World Cup (the Mundial), the Ecuadorian team prevailed 2–0 against Poland in their first match in the Gelsenkirchen stadium in Germany on June 9, 2006. Two Afro-Ecuadorian players, Carlos Tenorio and Agustín (Tín) Delgado,³ made the goals, giving national pride to fans of a variety of ethnic and racial backgrounds in Ecuador, and to Ecuadorian migrants in Europe, the United States, and other locations. I remember watching the game with some non-Ecuadorian friends in Miami, Florida, and feeling quite happy that the Ecuadorian team had won. I will never forget some of my friends’—mostly West Indians—joking exclamations at the sight of the Ecuadorian players’ faces (most of them were black) and at the virtuosity of their game, and the laughter that followed: “Jean, I didn’t know that Ecuador is in the Caribbean!” I read their rhetorical inclusion of Ecuador in the Caribbean as an expression of admiration for the players’ game, and as a diasporic/racial identification of sorts. We all felt positively connected to these black players from Ecuador.

Various sections of this chapter were previously published (Rahier 2008, 2008, 2008, and 2010).

I am grateful to Shane Greene, Felipe Smith, Jhon Antón Sánchez, and Laura Lewis for reading an earlier version of this essay and for offering critical feedback.

All Spanish to English translations are mine.