Razones para preferir la semiesclavitud. Afrodescendientes que se quedaron en la Hacienda San José – Ecuador, después de la manumisión 1850–1970

Abstract

The article explores the history and dynamics of Hacienda San José in the canton of San Miguel de Urcuquí, Ecuador, until it became a prosperous production center under the direction of Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño since the beginning of the 20th century, housing an Afro-descendant community that He lived and worked closely with the local indigenous population.
Alfaro analyzes how the moral economy and Afro-descendant cultural practices were intertwined with the hacienda economic system, highlighting that the relationship with the Afro population was rooted in a complex network of reciprocity and domination. The term "moral economy", developed by Thompson, is used to understand how cultural values and social norms influence economic behaviors, revealing resistance and submission in contexts of traditional agrarian production.
The study focuses on the period from 1900 to 1977, a time when San José became an industrialized hacienda with a modern sugar mill. The sale of the hacienda in the 1970s meant the end of the productive system and the eventual departure of the Afro-descendant population, who had been deeply integrated into the operation of the hacienda. Testimonies from former hacienda workers were also used to reconstruct history and highlight how memory and oral narrative are crucial to understanding the experiences of Afro-descendants and their relationship with the hacienda. The narration of these testimonies helps to “redeem” the history of those who were dominated and to reveal invisible aspects of the past.