The Ecuadorian constitution recognizes the
pluri-nationality of those who want to exercise their affiliation with their native ethnic groups. There are five major ethnic groups in Ecuador:
Mestizo,
European,
Afroecuadorian,
Amerindian, and Montubio. Mestizos constitute more than 85% of the population. Some believe the name originates from their horsemanship, positioning them as the archetypal cowboys of Ecuador's Pacific coast—similar to the
chagra who is the cowboy of the Ecuadorian Andes, or the
llaneros of Colombia and Venezuela. Their attire typically includes a wide-brimmed hat, a light shirt, cloth trousers, boots, a machete, a hook, and a horse for transportation. According to the 2022 Ecuadorian census, Montuvios constitute 7.7% of Ecuador's population, meaning over 1,304,994 Ecuadorians identified as Montuvios in that year. The census also revealed that the majority of Montuvios reside in the provinces of Guayas, Manabí, and Los Ríos.
Cholos Cholo fishermen are a Mestizo group inhabiting the coasts of
Guayas,
Santa Elena, and
Manabí. They represent a blend of indigenous-Mestizo and indigenous-Afro heritage, with a greater indigenous contribution than the Montuvios. The distinction between Cholos, Mestizos, and Montuvios is often blurred, and economic activity is frequently used as a differentiator. Thus, coastal Cholos are primarily associated with fishing, generally artisanal. With the economic development of this region, fishing industrialized around the city of Manta, leading many Cholos to migrate there to continue their economic activity. They are also involved in shrimp farming, another industrialization of this profession, which is currently one of Ecuador's main export products. Despite their significant presence in the coastal population of these three provinces, there are no exact statistics on their numbers. Conversely, in southern Ecuador, the word "Cholo" refers to the farmers of
Azuay, specifically the
chola cuencana. This figure is characterized by a traditional costume that evolved in the 18th century and has adapted to the present day. This term is analogous to the
chazos of Loja and the
chagras of Quito, both referring to the farmers of the Ecuadorian highlands. Beyond her traditional attire, the
chola cuencana is known for her dedication to agriculture and participation in the "Pase del Niño," a traditional parade in the city of Loja.
Chazos Chazos are the traditional farmers of southern Ecuador, concentrated in the province of
Loja. They are an integral part of the country's folklore and have a traditional costume similar to the farmers of Colombia's coffee region. This similarity stems from their shared economic activity, as agriculture, particularly coffee cultivation, has flourished in this region. Consequently, the Chazo is often depicted with a
coffee harvesting bag. Like the Cholos, there are no exact statistics on their numbers, yet they represent a significant portion of southern Ecuador's population. Currently, Chazos, along with Cholos and Chagras, are not formally represented in the census. The only traditional peasant group in Ecuador that has achieved this recognition are the Montuvios of the coast, who, due to their substantial numbers concentrated around the Gulf of Guayaquil and the Guayas River basin, have gained official visibility.
Chagras In Ecuador, Chagras are the farmers of the Ecuadorian Andes known for their cattle ranching activities, considered muleteers or drovers. They are the primary cowboys of the Ecuadorian highlands and should not be confused with the Montuvios, who are the main group of coastal farmers whose economic activity also involves cattle ranching. Their current attire includes a shirt, poncho, felt hat, sheep's wool scarf, and
zamarro (leather chaps). Their history revolves around
haciendas, as both religious orders and landowners owned large productive properties where this tradition developed from the 17th century. This fostered the culture surrounding the Chagra, who is responsible for caring for the livestock. They are typically Mestizos, either hired by landowners or themselves small to medium-sized proprietors of land and cattle. Currently, events like the "Paseo del Chagra de
Machachi" in July, the "Fiestas Parroquiales de Conocoto" in June, and the "Fiestas del Maíz y del Turismo de Sangolquí" in September celebrate this culture.
Pupos Pupo is the name given to the farmers of northern Ecuador, especially in the province of
Carchi. The word "Pupo" is etymologically derived from the Chaima language, meaning "head." Its use began as a metaphor, implying that the people of Carchi are the "heads" of these regions or even the "head" of the national territory. It is closely linked to Colombian history following the conservative revolution, when some Colombian generals invaded Ecuador. However, an Ecuadorian leader named Rafael Arellano organized liberal troops and thwarted the invasion, defeating the Colombian conservatives. In retaliation, Mercedes Landázuri, a conservative leader, insulted the Ecuadorian troops by calling them "pupos" because the soldiers' uniforms were too small, exposing their navels. This word was reappropriated and is now used to commemorate this triumph and defense of Ecuadorian sovereignty.
Other ethnicities Afro-Ecuadorian Afro-Ecuadorians are an
ethnic group in Ecuador who are descendants of black African slaves brought by the Spanish during their conquest of Ecuador. They make up from 3% to 5% of Ecuador's population. A large part of their population has historically been distributed in the province of Esmeraldas and the Chota Valley; more recently, there is a significant population across all provinces of the country. They originally settled in
Esmeraldas,
Imbabura,
Carchi; subsequently, in the 1960s, due to immigration, their population inhabits the provinces of
Guayas,
Pichincha,
El Oro,
Los Ríos,
Manabí, and the Ecuadorian East. Afro-Ecuadorians settled in the
Chota Valley and the basin of the Mira River, geographically in the provinces of Imbabura and Carchi, whose settlement is linked to colonial haciendas that concentrated enslaved population. A large part of Ecuadorian Black people descend from survivors of slave ships that ran aground on the northern coast of Ecuador and the southern coast of Colombia between the 17th and 18th centuries. These individuals organized their own communities outside the influence of indigenous peoples and Spanish colonizers, being self-liberated. They settled in the Esmeraldas area and its surroundings and have subsequently experienced a process of migration to other areas. Another percentage comes from slaves who arrived in the 18th century from haciendas in Colombia, the coast, and the highlands, who gained their freedom after the 1860s. Both groups, the freed people of Esmeraldas and the slaves in the rest of the country, typically came from the peoples of
West Africa, and have Spanish surnames derived from their former masters or genuinely African but Hispanized surnames. Later arrivals of Black people to Ecuador occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the construction of the Durán-Quito railway under the government of
Eloy Alfaro, who massively contracted them as construction workers from
Jamaica, causing a small immigration. Many of them stayed in the country and formed families. Chronologically, they were the first people organized under the ideologies of the working-class labor movement in Ecuador, especially anarchism. However, they did not engage in proselytizing work outside of the Jamaican migrant workers due to language, cultural, and racial differences with Ecuadorians. They are characterized by their Anglo-Saxon surnames and are currently completely assimilated into the cities. Ecuador has a population of about 1,120,000 descendants from African people. The Afro-Ecuadorian culture is found primarily in the country's northwest coastal region. Africans form a majority (70%) in the province of
Esmeraldas and also have an important concentration in the
Valle del Chota in the
Imbabura Province. They can be also found in important numbers in
Quito and
Guayaquil.
White , hero of Ecuadorian independence According to the 2022 national census 2.21% of the population or 374.925 people self-identified as
white, a 3.9% decrease over the 2010 census. According to data from the Francisco Lizcano, the white population in the 1990s was between 10% and 15%, while at the beginning of the 2000s it was around 10%, and in the 2010s it dropped to 6.1%. This change in recent years is due to the reduction of racism in Ecuador and the population's acceptance of their mixed-race origins, with more
light-skinned hispanics identifying as
mestizo rather than white. Another cause was the migratory exodus that the country experienced between 1999 and 2004 during
the banking crisis, which led to many white Ecuadorians leaving the country.
Indigenous The Sierra Indigenous had an estimated population of 1.5 to 2 million in the early 1980s and live in the intermontane valleys of the Andes. Prolonged contact with Hispanic culture, which dates back to the conquest, has had a homogenizing effect, reducing the variation among the indigenous Sierra tribes. The Indigenous people of the Sierra are separated from whites and Mestizos by a caste-like gulf. They are marked as a disadvantaged group; to be an Indigenous person in Ecuador is to be stigmatized. Poverty rates are higher and literacy rates are lower among Indigenous than the general population. They enjoy limited participation in national institutions and are often excluded from social and economic opportunities available to more privileged groups. However, some groups of Indigenous, such as the
Otavalo people, have increased their socioeconomic status to extent that they enjoy a higher standard of living than many other Indigenous groups in Ecuador and many
Mestizos of their area. Visible markers of ethnic affiliation, especially hairstyle, dress, and language, separate Indigenous from the rest of the populace. Indigenous wore more manufactured items by the late 1970s than previously; their clothing, nonetheless, was distinct from that of other rural inhabitants. Indigenous in communities relying extensively on wage labor sometimes assumed Western-style dress while still maintaining their Indigenous identity. Indigenous speak Spanish and, Quichua—a Quechua dialect—although most are bilingual, speaking Spanish as a second language with varying degrees of facility. By the late 1980s, some younger Indigenous no longer learned Quichua. In the late 1970s, roughly 30,000 Quichua speakers and 15,000 Jívaros lived in Oriente Indigenous communities. Quichua speakers (sometimes referred to as the Yumbos) grew out of the
detribalization of members of many different groups after the Spanish conquest. Subject to the influence of Quichua-speaking missionaries and traders, various elements of the Yumbos adopted the tongue as a lingua franca and gradually lost their previous languages and tribal origins. Yumbos were scattered throughout the Oriente, whereas the Jívaros—subdivided into the Shuar and the Achuar—were concentrated in southeastern Ecuador. Some also lived in northeastern Peru. Traditionally, both groups relied on migration to resolve intracommunity conflict and to limit the ecological damage to the tropical forest caused by
slash-and-burn agriculture. Both the Yumbos and the Jívaros depended on agriculture as their primary means of subsistence.
Manioc, the main staple, was grown in conjunction with a wide variety of other fruits and vegetables. Yumbo men also resorted to wage labor to obtain cash for the few purchases deemed necessary. By the mid-1970s, increasing numbers of Quichua speakers settled around some of the towns and missions of the Oriente. Indians themselves had begun to make a distinction between Christian and jungle Indians. The former engaged in trade with townspeople. The Jívaros, in contrast to the Christian Quichua speakers, lived in more remote areas. Their mode of horticulture was similar to that of the non-Christian Yumbos, although they supplemented crop production with hunting and some livestock raising. Shamans (
curanderos) played a pivotal role in social relations in both groups. As the main leaders and the focus of local conflicts, shamans were believed to both cure and kill through magical means. In the 1980s group conflicts between rival shamans still erupted into full-scale feuds with loss of life. The Oriente Indigenous population dropped precipitously during the initial period of intensive contact with outsiders. The destruction of their crops by Mestizos laying claim to indigenous lands, the rapid exposure to diseases to which Indians lacked immunity, and the extreme social disorganization all contributed to increased mortality and decreased birth rates. One study of the Shuar in the 1950s found that the group between ten and nineteen years of age was smaller than expected. This was the group that had been youngest and most vulnerable during the initial contact with national society. Normal population growth rates began to reestablish themselves after approximately the first decade of such contact. == Ancestry ==