Stereotypes about blackness, black bodies, and black sexuality abound in Ecuador. They share similarities with comparable representations in other Latin American national contexts or on the global scene. They work to evoke black uncontrolled sexuality as the trope per excellence for ‘savagery’ at the same time that they suggest black female bodies’ availability for white-mestizo male consumption/penetration.
In August 1999 in a plane that was bringing me from Miami to Quito, I met an Ecuadorian white-mestizo man, an acquaintance of mine whom I had not seen for years. He is an architect who was working at the time in the office of Quito’s mayor. He explained that he had been traveling in the U.S. with some of his colleagues to look for funding for one of the Mayor’s construction projects. It was an evening flight, the plane was half empty, and we had been drinking wine with dinner. After requesting some more wine from the flight attendant, he asked me why I was going to Ecuador this t...

