Explosive Landscapes: Volcanoes, Disaster, and Modernity in the Andes

This paper examines how disparate groups of people understood and responded to a massive volcanic eruption in the Ecuadorian Andes and how their experiences fed into and challenged broader mythologies of progress and modernity in Latin America.  The 1877 eruption of Cotopaxi–one of the highest active volcanoes in the world–crippled agricultural production, destroyed public infrastructure, and caused significant internal migration.  The eruption aggravated old debates about the cause of disasters and intensified ongoing political battles over the proper role of Catholicism in public life.  Emboldened by visits to the region by scientific and artists luminaries such as Charles Marie de la Condamine, Alexander von Humboldt, and Frederic Church, nation builders had long portrayed volcanoes as integral to the Ecuador’s unique landscape, resources, and history.  Volcanoes came to define Ecuador as a particular place both within and beyond Latin America.  But analysis of the 1877 eruption reveals an equally powerful sense of displacement, particularly among indigenous peasants and the urban poor, that frustrated efforts to conceive of, and build, a modern nation-state in the Andes.  The contested meaning of the eruption was on display during annual devotions to the protector saint against natural disasters, Mother of Mercy, a Catholic festival that continues to be celebrated in Ecuador today.