The Cholo Costeño Beyond Literature

Abstract

Presently, within national and state discourses, the Ecuadorian coast is first and foremost viewed as mestiza. This has led to the invisibilization of the Coast’s “indianidad”. Although the cholo people of the coast do not speak an ancestral language, they draw strength from their ancestral origins to demand their recognition as an ethnic group by the Ecuadorian state. In the following piece, the author aims to highlight the discursive crossroad in which this group built their identity through the appropriation of the term cholo, despite its negative connotation. Thus, we will see how the cholo identity emerges from a literary discourse.