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Maintaining traditions in Salasaca of Ecuador’s Andes

Here, men and women wear traditional clothes, hold festive rituals, and make handicrafts.

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Sisters Martina Masaquiza Sailema and Luz Maria Masaquiza Sailema en route to the river where they cut and gather grass for the animals in Salasaca, Ecuador. The community mostly live off agriculture, animal husbandry and handicrafts. Traditionally, women take care of the household chores and the children and men work the fields. Over time, women’s responsibilities have come to include gathering kikuyo and agriculture. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]

By Berta Tilmantaite

Published On 18 Feb 2017

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Salasaca, Ecuador – Sisters Martina Masaquiza Sailema and Luz Maria Masaquiza Sailema trot towards the outskirts of Mangiua village in Salasaca district, in the Ecuadorian Andes, exchanging a word in Quichua here and there, thick ropes and sickles dangling from their shoulders.

Strings of fluffy wool slide between their fingers and obediently lie down on swiftly turned spools. Two donkeys follow the women unwillingly. They jib every once in a while, but are scolded back to obedience.

Salasaca district in Tungurahua province, Ecuador, takes up only 12 square kilometres, but has preserved the strong identity of its inhabitants, as well as their culture and customs. The Salasacas speak Spanish and their native Quechua language, indigenous to the people of Inca ancestry living in the Andes.

Here, men and women wear traditional clothing, hold festive rituals and make handicrafts. They spin yarn and weave festive clothes as well as tapestries on archaic looms.

Martina, aged 50, and Luz Maria, 38, are gathering weeds called kikuyo.

Every two or three days they travel to the river, leave their donkeys and wool spools, and climb down the steep 200-metre embankment. They stop somewhere at its middle, take their sickles, put on gloves, fall into the tall grass, cut it in swift moves, and heap it in a pile.

The grass is for the animals that the women raise. It is a woman’s task to feed and take care of the animals in Salasaca.

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Here, it is a woman’s task to feed and care for the animals. The women's work gathering feed on the slope can be dangerous. If they lose their balance or stumble under heavy weights, they can fall down the bank and injure themselves. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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'My mother used to do it, and grandmother, and great-grandmother; this task is passed from generation to generation,' explains Martina. She does not remember when exactly she started working the slope with her mother. 'I was very little,' she laughs. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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The embankment is too steep to be worked with mowers and even the donkeys wait for their burden at the top of the slope. Women cut the grass by hand and carry it up to them. Some, who do not own donkeys, carry their burden home on their back. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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Steep slopes on the riverside are the private property of families, but are not marked in any way. The two women work together, first in Martina's husband's plot, then they move to Luz Maria's patch. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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After the kikuyo is cut, it takes only two months to grow back to the height suitable for feed. The women work a different plot of land each week, letting the rest grow back. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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With 30-45 kilo bundles of grass on their back, women look like enormous walking bushes. The sisters move slowly, swaying from side to side, stopping to rest their backs and knees. They tread carefully and grab on to trees that sometimes serve as support, and at other times become obstacles. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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The Sailema sisters cut at least four big bundles of grass each and carry them up the slope to load them on to the donkeys. Once huge bushes of grass are firmly pressed to each side of the donkeys, the sisters grab their spindles and, half-running, spinning, and pulling the donkeys, head home. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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While women work in the fields, barns, and houses, men often sit at the loom and weave the yarn spun by women into fabric for traditional clothes. Women help by cleaning and combing wool and constantly spinning the yarn. Whether they sit down for a chat, trot to mow the grass, or travel to see their animals, wool and distaffs are always in their hands. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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The women raise cows, pigs, poultry and guinea pigs. The latter are a delicacy in Ecuador and neighboring countries. Every once in a while, the women sell some of the guinea pigs, milk, and eggs, to boost their household budgets. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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Women use the animal manure as fertiliser in the vegetable fields. Both sisters grow corn, potatoes, onions, beans, peas, and bur clovers. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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Plots of land are separated by lines of agave plants rather than fences. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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Martina is gathering corn from the field next to the animals in Salasacar. Boiled corn is going to be tonight's dinner. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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Luz Maria spins yarn as she walks home after feeding the animals. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]
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Martina heads home after a long day of work. [Berta Tilmantaite/Al Jazeera]