Historical memory and Citizens’ Revolution in the Ecuadorian Bicentennial

Abstract

This paper analyzes the reconstruction of historical memory during Ecuador’s independence bicentennial. It examines the speeches delivered by president Rafael Correa Delgado between 2009 —the bicentennial of the First Government Assembly in Quito— and 2012 —the bicentennial of the Revolutionary Congress—, based on the hypothesis that the official uses of the past indicate a marriage between a liberal and a socialist political matrix which is simultaneously cut through by the Catholic Church’s social doctrine. This representation of the nation’s past and present —defined by the search for the golden mean— appears to constitute a key mechanism in portraying the State as guarantor and organizer of Ecuadorian society.