Rosa's Story - Coady International Institute - St. Francis Xavier ...

• Figure 6
Cuatro Esquinas:
In the face of adversity, value what you have
Cuatro Esquinas is a small rural community of 60 households on the
side of Mount Chimborazo. The people of this area are known as the
Puruhuas. Survivors of conquests by the Incas and the Spanish, these
former warriors are described as “always having fire in their eyes.” The
people of Cuatro Esquinas also have recent history of fierce independence.
Until the 1960s, they were famous for running a contraband
trade in distilled sugarcane (a mountain firewater called bluebird)
from the coast. They continue to be known as the icemen of
Chimborazo; to this day they carve ice from the glaciers to be sold in
the markets of Riobamba.
The people of Cuatro Esquinas have always directed their own development.
In 2003, they took their children out of the Spanish school in
the area and created a bilingual school to promote their language.
They are seen by outsiders as entrepreneurial and independent.
Ironically, perhaps, they have been very successful at leveraging outside
resources for their community-driven projects. Recently they
received new bells from the Scarboro Missions for the church they are
building themselves. Luis Guamán, a villager from Cuatro Esquinas,
explains that even though they don’t have funds, they have started
such projects as a small tourist lodge and an interpretive centre. Now
they take tourists with them when they cut ice; they have a mountain
railway. “We have lots of things we think we can do together…We have
a new school with more than one building and a garden. We have all
invested in training ourselves, as carpenters, welders and weavers and
we want to revive the randeem [traditional barter system] which is
part of our culture” (personal communication, October 14, 2004).
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