When Mae Montaño ran for mayor of Esmeraldas, a remote provincial capital in northwest Ecuador, the country’s political parties refused to support her candidacy for three reasons: she was black, she was a woman and she was poor.

Ten years later in 2005, Ecuador’s acting president nominated Montaño for vice president, the first time that an Afro-descendant woman was considered for the post. During her candidacy, people on the street told her that she had everything she needed to win: she was black, she was a woman and she was poor.

“It’s very interesting because 10 years ago these were negative factors in my candidacy and now they are strengths,” said Montaño.

Montaño eventually lost both political races, but she now works to increase the national profile of Afro-descendants and remove the governmental and societal constraints that perpetuate their economic and political isolation. As executive director of Alianza Equidad, she leads a coalition of community leaders who lobby Ecuador’s government to address inefficiency and corruption. Montaño believes those problems directly affect the Afro-Ecuadorian community by wasting up to $2.5 billion annually that could go toward improving education, combating unemployment and strengthening social services in Afro-descendant areas.

Barriers to Political Participation
The Inter-Agency Consultation on Race in Latin America (IAC), a program of the Inter-American Dialogue, estimates that Afro-descendants represent 10 percent of Ecuador’s population. Government statistics put the number somewhat lower, but IAC Executive Director Judith Morrison said that is because Afro-Ecuadorians are concentrated in the remote Costa region where they are unlikely to obtain national identity papers—documents that are required to vote or run for office. Another factor is that Ecuador’s census classified people by language up until 2001, when the government added a question that allowed people to self-identify by ethnicity. Afro-Ecuadorians often speak Spanish, masking their true heritage.

Morrison said Afro-descendants have had some national influence. The Ecuadorian constitution specifically recognizes Afro-descendants and guarantees their civil rights and entitlement to ancestral lands. There is also a national Afro-Ecuadorian Day and Council for Afro-Ecuadorian Development. However, despite these achievements, Afro-descendants remain vastly underrepresented in the country’s power circles.

Their economic situation plays a key role in this marginalization. According to a 2004 World Bank report, Ecuador’s consumption-based poverty rate was 45 percent in 2001, a 5 percent increase over a 1990 study (World Bank 2004). In contrast, poverty rates in urban areas of the Costa region rose more than 80 percent in the same period.

The study also found that Afro-Ecuadorians make about 20 percent less than other workers in terms of real income, even after controlling for demographic differences and employment type. Afro-Ecuadorians also tend to be employed in the lower-paying informal sector, mostly because of their low education levels. On average, the 2001 census found that Afro-Ecuadorians complete 5.6 years of education, two years more than members of the indigenous community, but a year less than whites.

Active discrimination also blocks Afro-Ecuadorians from obtaining higher-paying jobs and political office. Afro-Ecuadorians say newspaper advertisements that call for buena apparencia (or “good appearance”) are veiled calls for white-only candidates. The country’s mainstream media rarely show Afro-descendants and when they do, they often perpetuate tired stereotypes of blacks as less intelligent than other ethnic groups.

Rare Rise to Prominence
The multiple barriers Afro-descendants face make Montaño’s rise to national prominence all the more exceptional. She was raised by a single mother and aunt who supported five children by washing clothes in Esmeraldas. Montaño said her mother’s highest aspiration was that her children would receive an education.

“From my childhood, I worked hard to study more and more because my only desire was to work to make the money necessary for my mother and aunt to not have to work so hard.”

Montaño originally wanted to study medicine, but that avenue was too expensive. She eventually worked her way through college, earning degrees in education and commercial engineering. After graduating, she worked in the public sector on youth and women’s issues, which inspired her to enter politics to address the problems faced by poor women in her community.

“As a student, I had opportunities to get involved with different political causes, but I never wanted to because politics seemed so dirty,” she said. “But through my involvement in women’s organizations, I became a feminist and realized that without getting involved in politics, I could never bring about real change.”

Her failed bid for mayor earned her new respect in her community, and she was appointed manager of Esmeraldas’ port, the first time a woman has ever managed a port in Ecuador. Her success in improving the port’s efficiency led to her appointment as counselor for Afro-descendant affairs in the Ecuador Embassy in Washington. Political upheaval in Ecuador cut short her stint in the United States, but months later she was nominated for vice president.

“The [Afro-Ecuadorian] people felt that yes, it is possible that we were just about to reach the vice-presidency and that we’re now more visible in the country’s history,” she said.

Montaño said Afro-Ecuadorians should build upon that momentum to create their own “political spaces” and increase their leverage with the country’s political parties. Such goals require preparing leaders for the rigors of electoral politics and developing mechanisms for financing political campaigns.

“Political campaigns are like electoral businesses, and we need to learn how to raise funds to participate in a political campaign,” she said.

Building Tomorrow’s Leaders
IFES, an international democracy-building organization, is partnering with three Afro-Ecuadorianorganizations—AfroAmérica XXI, CONAMUNECE and FECONIC—to remove some of the barriers to Afro-Ecuadorian political participation. A year ago, they launched a project in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayas, Imbabura and Carchi to increase political participation, strengthen Afro-descendant community groups and increase their visibility.

The project established a political leadership school, which provides training in project management, ethno-education and political participation. It also works with Ecuador’s political parties to encourage them to run Afro-descendant candidates and to participate in debates that examine Afro-descendant issues. A third component showcases Afro-Ecuadorian history, culture and national contributions on a weekly radio program, in publications and in special events.

Ibsen Someford Hernandez Valencia, AfroAmérica XXI’s program director, said the project addresses the “organizational weakness” of the Afro-Ecuadorian community, which prevents them from taking an active national role. One way the project does this is by training civil society organizations to meet international monitoring and evaluation standards, thus preparing them to receive program funds directly rather than as sub-grantees to international organizations. Hernandez said he hopes funding for his project continues past the current 18-month term.

“We believe that although the time for the project is short, results are being seen in the communities and that, in a more general sense, the project is helping to make our community more visible,” he said.

Morrison said her organization finds it challenging to convince donors to support democratic participation programs such as the Black Legislator’s Network, a coalition of Afro-descendant lawmakers in Latin America. Rafael Erazo, a prominent Afro-Ecuadorian congressman, is part of the organization that grew out of the IAC but has since become an independent network promoting black development and human rights by increasing Afro-descendant representation in legislative and governmental positions.
“I think there’s a concern that as blacks in places like Ecuador [gain] a greater political consciousness about their identity and about their political strength that if you gear them toward processes that may increase their representation, you may end up mixing that in with what may become partisan politics,” said Morrison, adding that she believes such fears are unfounded.

Despite the challenges, Montaño said she is inspired by recent political gains that the indigenous community has made in Ecuador and in the region. She hopes that the Afro-descendant community can make similar progress by participating as a community in the major political debates and building the capacity of its future leaders.

“There is no strong, continued Afro-Ecuadorian presence as actors in national politics,” she said. “There is so much to do.”

Laura Ingalls is a contributing editor for democracy at large.