COMMUNITY RECONFIGURATIONS AND RELIGIOUS REDEFINITIONS OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNES IN QUITO DURING URBAN EXPANSION: THE CASE OF SANTA CLARA DE SAN MILLÁN (1900–1970)
RECONFIGURACIONES COMUNITARIAS Y RESIGNIFICACIONES RELIGIOSAS DE LAS COMUNAS INDÍGENAS EN QUITO DURANTE LA EXPANSIÓN URBAN
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/s0717-73562026000100506
Key words: Indigenous communes, urban Indigenous people, cultural redefinition, urban expansion, 20th century.
Abstract
This article examines how the religious practices and community organization of Indigenous communes in Quito were reshaped and redefined during the process of urban expansion between 1900 and 1970. To this end, it details the experience of the Indigenous commune of Santa Clara de San Millán, the first to be absorbed into the expanding urban area. The study shows that during these processes, tensions arose between the communal population and the white-mestizo hierarchy, both ecclesiastical and state, particularly in relation to the exclusion from symbolic spaces such as the cemetery and the communal church, the prohibition of patron saint festivals, and the urbanization of communal lands. It concludes that religious and communal practices functioned as spaces of cohesion, memory, and political affirmation within a hostile urban context. The changes experienced were not necessarily external impositions but rather active processes of struggle, negotiation, and adaptation through which the community sought to sustain its identity, combining social reconfiguration with symbolic redefinition. The study draws on research in public and communal archives, oral history interviews, and specialized bibliographic analysis.
