Afro-descendant folklore of the Chota Valley. Gastronomy in a socio-cultural context: Folklore Afrodescendiente del Valle del Chota. Gastronomía en un contexto socio cultural

Abstract

In the canton Ibarra is the Chota valley, a desert area, with a lot of Afro-descendant cultural identity, due to the haciendas of grape, cane, and cotton plantations that the colonizers fostered since the mid-XVIII century, that occupied the northern area of the Viceroyalty of Quito through slavery. This cultural syncretism originated new trends in food, music, medicine, poetry, agriculture, and clothing. However, over time these identity expressions passed from generation to generation orally, for the most part, have been lost by the inhabitants. The research is descriptive in nature, where it is going to identify some cultural manifestations of the Afro-descendant community of the Chota Valley of the canton of Ibarra, and in turn, contrast this element within a socio-cultural context. The methods used were the historical one to be able to antecedents of Ibarreña cuisine, it is also using the analytical and synthetic methods, in order to be able to contrast the bibliographic information, which was collected through interviews, these were carried out with adults over 65 years old, important actors and knowledgeable about identity knowledge. Likewise, the research proposes, to highlight certain types of cultural manifestations of the Chota Valley, which are linked to gastronomy, such as music and festivities typical of the area, on specific dates and others that occur throughout the year, pointing out the technical, conceptual and scientific bases to expose all that cultural identity.