UNIVERSIDAD DE LAS FUERZAS ARMADAS – ESPE

NAME: ANDRÉS AMORES

DATE: 21/01/2016

TED TALK 5

I GOING TO TALK ABOUT THE DAY OF THE DEAD IN ECUADOR

Some of the rites that are followed on the Day of the Dead in Ecuador drink from old prehispanic
traditions in which death, either does not exist as a concept, is understood as transformation,
or serves as a bridge with the afterlife.

The Day of the Dead, a time of ceremonies that in Ecuador mix the Catholic and Christian faith
with the indigenous culture and in which many peasants go to the cemeteries with abundant
food to share with their dead to whom it is intended to remember and thank contribution in life.

Ecuadorians, We have very traditional meals that are

prepared especially for the Day of the Dead: the purple wash,
a drink made of black or purple corn flour, and guaguas bread
or figures of bread in the shape of a guagua or doll. The
guaguas of bread are prepared with a mass of sweet bread,
very similar to the mass of the French bread brioche, and
sometimes they come filled with sweet. The word guagua is a
Quichua word that means baby, like many other Quichua
words it is often used mixed with Spanish in the daily talk in
Ecuador, for example, many people say "my guaguas" when
they talk about their children. The most popular figures are
those that have the shape of a baby or a baby, but in some
parts of the country, especially in the South, it is also
customary to make bread figures in the form of animals, you
can find breads in the form of horses, pigs , birds and much
more.

Both purple laundry and bread babies can be prepared at home, the recipes are easy to prepare
and it is a good way to teach our traditions to children. In Ecuador, you can also buy them in
restaurants and street stalls that are in the parks and squares during this time. The tradition of
the guaguas of bread and the purple wash is usually more celebrated in the Sierra than in the
Coast, perhaps this is because most of the indigenous communities are in this region. On the
Coast if there is a tradition of going to mass and to cemeteries, but at least when I lived there, it
was less common to find the purple laundry and the guaguas de pan.