J. A. Gómez Rendón. \"Miradas desde la Orilla\". En: Ecuador en las páginas de “Le Tour du Monde”. Consejo Nacional de Cultura. Quito: Imprenta Mariscal, pp. 15-58

 

 

      

       



  



        



                     

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                   

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                    

                                      

         

                                                  

                           

                

  

                

    

                      

                

                 



                        

              

           

 

                        

  

           1 Magasine Pittoresque ha sido caracterizada en varias ocasiones como una suerte de “enciclopedia en desorden”, de lo cual da fe, sin ir tan lejos, el índice de contenidos del primer volumen, que incluyen temas sobre arquitectura, escultura, pintura, diseño, música, literatura, historia, administración, costumbres, estadística, historia natural, comercio, astronomía, geografía, y por supuesto, viajes y viajeros.

                     

                      

         

       

                     

       

      

                

  2 Tomo aquí el concepto de ‘inculcación’ de Bourdieu, en cuanto duración duradera, o sea, un habitus, como producto de la interiorización de los principios de una arbitrariedad cultural capaz de perpetuarse una vez terminada la acción pedagógica y, de este modo, perpetuar en las prácticas los principios de la arbitrariedad interiorizada” (Bourdieu y Passeron 1979: 72).

         



Viajero en poncho (Joseph Kolberg, Hacia Ecuador, 1881)

                

3 La estrecha relación entre caminar y pensar fue subrayada norteamericano Georges Santayana en su ensayo Filosofía del Viaje (1912) y ha reaparecido en un ensayo reciente que asocia el caminar – léase, el viajar – con el escribir: “Caminar escribiendo: expansión europea y literatura de viajes” (Lucena Giraldo y Puig Samper 2003).

                     

                              

          4 Darío Lara (1996). Gabriel Lafond de Lurcy. Viajero y testigo de la historia Ecuatoriana. Colección Histórica XVI. Quito: Centro de Investigación y Cultura del Banco Central del Ecuador.

                                          

5 Jean Pierre Bacot (2005) menciona, por ejemplo, la versión italiana Il Giro del mondo, giornale di viaggi e costumi, publicada en Milán por el mismo Charton y un editor italiano, o la versión española que apareció entre 1861 y 1866 con el título La Vuelta del Mundo, y que más tarde se recogería en el enjundioso volumen de América Pintoresca (1884). Añádase a esto el hecho de que Le Tour du Monde, dada la enorme acogida que tuvo, era editada paralelamente en París, Londres y Leipzig, con un tiraje de 33 mil ejemplares.

                 

  

      

     

      

Preparativos para el viaje (Joseph Kolberg, Hacia Ecuador, 1881)

                  

         

            

             

      

   

        6 Un tratamiento compendioso de estos viajeros aparece en la ya mencionada publicación de Gabriel Judde, El Ecuador en el siglo XIX. Historia y Naturaleza desde la visión de los diplomáticos y viajeros franceses (2011).

           

             

     

         

                 

 

    





         

Panorama de la ciudad y puerto de Guayaquil junto al montículo de la Polverera. (Gaetano Osculati, Esplorazione delle Regioni Equatoriali lungo il Napo ed il Fiume delle Amazzoni, 1854)

              

      

                     

                                       

   

                        

         

    

          



              

    

      

  

            

                          

    

                                            7 Según Bourdieu, la hexis que no es otra cosa que las estructuras de la conducta social.

      

      

 

          

           

               

 

                       





  

                      

                

  

                    

            8 Estas cifras provienen de la información que proporciona en su sitio web François Collin, dedicado coleccionista de Le Tour du Monde, que ha tomado a cargo la difícil tarea de realizar un registro de todos los artículos e ilustraciones aparecidos de la primera a la última entrega de la revista, según autores, países visitados y diseñadores. De acuerdo con Collin, el número total de artículos aparecidos durante los 54 años de la revista es de 951, que incluyen 34.710 ilustraciones entre grabados, fotografías, aparte de mapas y croquis, que llegan a 990. Por su enorme utilidad remitimos a dicho sitio al lector que desee tener datos más exactos y una breve reseña de la revista (en francés e inglés). URL: http:// collin.francois.free.fr/. Consultado en marzo 2011.

               

  

                           

         

         

 

        

                         

         

                              

La Marimba. (fotografía)

La Marimba. (Grabado de Devos según la fotografía)

           

           

          

        

       

                



                 

                     

Balsa en el río Guayas. (Alexander von Humboldt, Vistas de las cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas, 1824)

                 9 Las láminas de este último libro que corresponden a Ecuador han sido recientemente objeto de un bien documentado análisis por parte de Segundo Moreno Yánez y Christiana Borschart de Moreno (2010: 42-70). 10 Al respecto véase, por ejemplo, algunas de las descripciones que sobre los habitantes de la real audiencia ofrece Charles Marie de La Condamine en su Journal du voyage fait par ordre du roi (1751) o en las Noticias secretas de América (1826) de Antonio de Ulloa y Jorge Juan. Un valioso compendio de las imágenes sociales de Quito retratadas por los viajeros en el siglo de la Ilustración es el de Romero (2003), al que remitimos al lector para comparar algunas de sus descripciones con las que ofrecen los relatos de viajes recogidos aquí.

 

                     

                

                     11 Otra veta riquísima de estudio podría ser la comparación de las representaciones literarias y pictóricas que recogen los relatos de Le Tour du Monde con los del arte y la literatura ecuatoriana del diecinueve, donde los estudiosos han encontrado preciInvestigaciones en esta dirección son las de Blanca Muratorio, del Siglo XIX” (1994: 109-96), y más recientemente los artículos de Alexandra Kennedy Troya, “Formas de construir la nación ecuatoriana. Acuarelas de tipos, costumbres y paisajes 18401870” (2005: 25-62), y de Rosemarie Terán Najas, “Facetas de la historia del siglo XIX. A propósito de las estampas y Relaciones de viajeros” (2005: 63-82). 12 Estos son, de norte a sur: Chiles, Imbabura, Cotacachi, Cerro Encantado, Yana-Urcu, Cayambe, Corazón, Cotopaxi y Chimborazo.

                                                 

                                     13 El primer ascenso a un monte nevado, la montaña Titus, en el noreste de los Estados Unidos, se realizó apenas en 1744. La cima del Mont Blanc en Europa fue conquistada al año siguiente. El alpinismo en Europa nace con Horace-Bénédict de Saussure en la década de 1760. Aunque se ha encontrado que los nativos americanos fueron grandes andinistas – actividad que la practicaban asociada siempre con prácticas propiciatorias a sus dioses, pues en las cordilleras peruanas – los Andes debieron esperar al siglo siguiente para que los europeos conquistaran sus cumbres. De hecho, sólo a partir de Humboldt se difunde el ascensionismo andino en Europa y tienen lugar varios intentos, fallidos todos, de ascender a su cima más emblemática, el Chimborazo, que fue doce cumbres de los Andes septentrionales.

                                                

  

                                            

                                     14 Basta leer la “Excursión de Quito a Cayambe” del botánico los, pero también de cosmovisión, con respecto a André, más castellana de este relato apareció en una compilación de relatos de viajeros en la región de Otavalo que el autor preparó hace una década. Véase, Jorge Gómez Rendón, Viajeros en la Región de Otavalo. Colección Otavalo en la Historia, Serie VIII Clásicos de la Bibliografía Otavaleña, Vol. 20, 2002, Otavalo: IOA. 15 Al respecto, el lector puede consultar el estudio de Pere Sunyer Martin, “Humboldt en los Andes de Ecuador. Ciencia ña”, Scripta Nova, Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Barcelona, Nª 58, 15 de febrero de 2000.

Carlos y Cumandá. “La Reina de los bosques” (Rafael Troya, 1907)

    

   

             

       16 Lo que no se debe sino al haber permanecido más tiempo en la sierra del Ecuador del que permaneció en los bosques lluviosos de las estribaciones occidentales. Por el contrario, en su viaje por Colombia, André recorre las selvas de la región suroccidental, en los actuales departamentos del Cauca y Nariño, donde ofrece descripciones que en términos retóricos se acercan mucho a las El Amazonas y las Cordilleras. Véase, por ejemplo,

antes de entrar en nuestro país (Édouard André, Amérique Equinoxiale, 1883: 337-352). 17 Riou fue el ilustrador principal de los siguientes relatos de viajes en América del Sur: Paul Marcoy, Viaje a través de América , 1862-1867 (695 págs., 488 grabados); Jules Crevaux, Viaje a través de Nueva Granada y Venezuela: río Magdalena, Lesseps o Guaviare, Orinoco, Viaje a través de los llanos de Caura 1885, y Viaje a las fuentes del Orinoco 1886-7 (90 págs., 54 grabados). Otras exploraciones francesas ilustradas por Riou incluyen el viaje de Biard a Brasil (1861-2), los viajes de Thouar en busca de los restos de la misión Crevaux (1884), al delta del Pilcomayo (1885), la travesía de Buenos Aires a Sucre en Bolivia (1886), la misión al Chaco (1886-86), de Coudreau a la Guayana francesa (1887-1891) y de Veschuur a las tres Guayanas (1892). Nótese además que el relato de Basurco (1894) abre con un diseño de Riou.

Puente natural sobre el río Osayacu. Diseño de Vignal según boceto del autor.

      

               

18 Excepción hecha quizá precisamente del ángulo de visión al que nos referimos anteriormente, que en el caso de Humboldt producía un efecto de alargamiento vertical de los conos nevados, tropo pictórico que en la narrativa humboldtiana sirve de ícono de axis mundi y conexión entre los espacios terrenal y celeste.

                           

                                                

        

               

                 

Ruinas de la iglesia y del cementerio de Huaca. Diseño de Slom según un boceto de E. André

                           

         

                

                                    19 La representación interna de la vivienda se constituye en el espacio privado que sirve como lugar de las escenas domésticas y en tal medida pertenece más a las escenas y los tipos sociales. Desde otro análisis, sin embargo, el espacio interno de la vivienda se genera como ‘rincón’, lugar de la intimidad en la poética espacial bachelardiana. Aun entonces, el ‘rincón’ no llega a ser objeto de la literatura de viajes, por ser ésta una mirada desde la orilla. 20 Estoy pensando en la Gedächtniskirche o Iglesia de la Memoria en Berlín, monumento formado por las ruinas de una iglesia destruida en la segunda guerra mundial, conservada en memoria de sus millones de víctimas; o en la teoría del “valor de las ruinas” de Albert Speer, arquitecto del Tercer Reich, según la cual las construcciones de la Alemania nazi debían realizarse de tal manera que transcurridos miles de años, quedaran de ellas ruinas estéticamente agradables que dieran fe de la grandeza del proyecto hitleriano, a la manera de las ruinas clásicas de Grecia y Roma.

                                       

       

                                               

                        

                      

Ruinas de la iglesia de La Compañía en Ibarra. Diseño de H. Clerget según una fotografía.

                             

                         21 Huaca es una población del Carchi ubicada aproximadamente a 100 kilómetros de Ibarra, lo que nos da una idea del alcance del terremoto.

Ruinas de la catedral de Ibarra. Diseño de Riou según un boceto de André

                   

                     

       

                                      

                                    

         

                



                                   

      22 Pratt analiza, por ejemplo, la retórica del sentimiento en el libro de Mungo Park sobre sus viajes africanos, donde “el insufrible – asigna valor a los acontecimientos. La información es textualmente relevante (tiene valor) en la medida que afecta al locutor-viajero y su búsqueda” (Pratt 1997: 142). 23 La obsesión de Charton por exaltar y retratar lo pintoresco tiene como resultado una dramatización no del viaje en estricto sentido, sino de la naturaleza y la sociedad.

   24 Véase, por ejemplo, el relato de Frederick Hassaurek, Cuatro Años entre los Ecuatorianos (1997 [1867]) o el de Joseph Kolberg, Hacia el Ecuador (1996 [1897]).

                    

                          

Sendero abierto por la expedición cerca de la sierra de Guacamayo. Diseño de Vignal según un boceto del autor.

                 

                                   

        

Escalera improvisada en una garganta cerca de Baeza. Diseño de Vignal según una fotografía.

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 

 

 





   

 

                   



                   

            25 Por nombrar unos pocos, los sunos y los cotos (pueblos tucanos) o los záparas. Sobre estos últimos, por ejemplo, Trujillo señala que “las redes del caucho operaban básicamente en las riberas del Putumayo, Napo y Curaray [JGR: territorio záparo traTigre, el Conambo y el Pastaza [JGR: también explorados por el

 ron como esclavos en las haciendas caucheras en las riberas del Napo y el Curaray” (Trujillo 1998: 460). La denuncia del genocidio de los pueblos amazónicos por la actividad cauchera se difundió tardíamente en los círculos europeos y norteamericanos con la Putumayo, The Devil’s Paradise (1913), y el informe del cónsul británico Roger Casement, The Putumayo Black Book (1910). 26 Entiendo aquí por doxa, siguiendo a Bourdieu, el conjunto de creencias y prácticas sociales consideradas normales en un contexto social, las cuales son aceptadas sin cuestionamientos, de manera que “el orden del mundo tal cual es sea respetado, y más aún, que el orden establecido, con sus relaciones de dominación, se perpetúe de manera tan fácil (aparte de ciertos accidentes históricos) y que las más intolerables condiciones de existencia aparezcan como aceptables e incluso naturales” (Bourdieu 1993, mi traducción). 27 Al respecto véase todo el debate en torno a la naturaleza del hombre americano en la obra de Antonello Gerbi intitulada La Disputa del Nuevo Mundo: historia de una polémica 1750-1900 (1993).

 

  

    

     

 

                                   

                                     

Chalupa bajando por el Samiria. Diseño de Vignal según boceto del autor.

                 

                  

         

                                28 No puedo dejar de pensar al escribir estas líneas cuán cerca estamos todavía de este pensamiento, hoy en pleno siglo veintiuno, cuando los últimos representantes de esa alteridad que creemos subhumana sólo tienen sentido en cuanto adornan el mosaico étnico de nuestro país, pero pierden cualquier valor de la Valette cuando escribía trece años después de visitar nuestro país que “en verdad no es en la selva ecuatoriana donde se ha de buscar a los salvajes” (1925: 58).

                                                 

                                              

                                      

   29 Recordemos que las relaciones interétnicas entre la población indígena de Esmeraldas y la población de origen africano se remontan al naufragio de un barco negrero en 1533 y a la creación del gobierno independiente de Esmeraldas a cargo de Alonso de Illescas y otros sobrevivientes del naufragio, que entablaron estrechos vínculos políticos y alianzas matrimoniales con los aborígenes. Al respecto véase las notas introductorias del autor a la versión castellana del relato de Basurco aparecida en la revista del Consejo Nacional de Cultura (No. 14, 2008). 30 “Yo soy los otros, cualquier hombre es todos los hombres”. Jorge Luis Borges, ‘La forma de la espada’ (Ficciones 1944).

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       

    

    





      

      

 

  

       

 

 

 

 

       

      

    

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  

                                

  

  

                  



                        

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     

  

 

 

 



 

  

      



 



 

  

  

 

  

  

         



  

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