Culture

Ecuador's mainstream culture is defined by Ecuador's mestizo majority and, like their ancestry, is a mixture of European and Amerindian influences infused with African elements inherited from slave ancestors. Ecuador's indigenous communities are integrated into that mainstream culture to varying degrees, but some may also practice their own autochthonous cultures, particularly the more remote indigenous communities of the Amazon basin.

Family

Ecuadorians place great importance on the family, both nuclear and extended. Unlike in much of the West, where the elderly are often placed in care facilities geared towards people of advanced age, elderly Ecuadorians will often live with one of their children. However, in recent years the number of facilities to care for the elderly has grown significantly.

Godparents are also far more important in Ecuador than in the West, and they are expected to provide both financial and psychological support to their godchildren. For example, Ecuadorians with marital troubles will often ask their godparents for advice.

Families are formed in at least one of the following three ways: Civil Marriage (which is the legal form of formalising a bond between a man and a woman and which all married couples are required to undergo), the Religious Marriage (which, Ecuador being a predominantly Catholic country, usually means a marriage ceremony sanctified by the Catholic Church) and the Free Union (where a man and a woman decide to form a family without undergoing any official ceremony). The Ecuadorian Constitution accords the members of a Free Union family the same rights and duties as in any other legally constituted family.

It is important to note that there are many variations in family structure, as well as in the social and cultural structure in Ecuador depending on the socioeconomic position in which people live. Generally the upper classes adopt more of the American or European ways of life. This leads to great contrasts within the Ecuadorian people.

Women

Women are generally responsible for the upbringing and care of children in Ecuador, and traditionally, men have taken a less active role in this area, though recently this has begun to change, with many men doing housework and caring for children when women work away from home. Since 1906 with Eloy Alfaro's liberal revolution, Ecuadorian women gained the right to vote and work.

Girls tend to be more protected by their parents than boys, due to traditional social structures. At 15, girls often have large parties, with its most important aspects being food and dancing. This is a tradition present in most Latin American countries, and is similar to sweet sixteen parties in the US.

Cuisine

An Ecuadorian's day, at least as far as their diet is concerned, is centred around lunch, rather than dinner as in Western cultures. Sometimes it is the only main dish in their day.

There is no one food that is especially Ecuadorian, as cuisine varies from region to region of the country. For example, costeños (people from the coast) prefer fish, beans and plantains (un-ripened banana like fruits), while serranos from the mountainous regions prefer meat, rices and potatoes.

Some examples of Ecuadorian cuisine in general include:

• patacones, unripe plantains fried in oil, mashed up and then refried
• llapingachos, a sort of potato tortillas
• seco de chivo, a type of stew made from goat.

More regionalized examples include ceviches from the Coast, almidon breads, plantains served with crushed peanuts or salprieta, and encebollado, the most popular dish in the Coast, that contains a marinade with large chunks of fish, onions and various regional seasonings.

One food Ecuador has given the world is beef jerky, the name of which comes from a Quechua word, charqui.

Art

There are many outstanding contemporary Ecuadorian writers, including:

• the novelist Jorge Enrique Adoum
• the poet Jorge Carrera Andrade
• the essayist Benjamín Carrión
• the poet Fanny Carrión de Fierro
• the novelist Enrique Gil Gilbert
• the novelist Jorge Icaza (author of the novel "Huasipungo", translated to many languages)
• the short-story author Pablo Palacio
• the novelist Alicia Yanez Cossio

Some of the most renowned painters of the indigenist movement also are from Ecuador, including Oswaldo Guayasamín and Eduardo Kingman.

Music

In addition to the numerous native cultures, Ecuador is home to a Mestizo culture, and a sizable Afro-Ecuadorian culture (approximately a half-million), the descendants of African slaves who worked on coastal sugar plantations in the sixteenth century. Today's Afro-Ecuadorians are famous for their marimba music and dance festivals.

Long before the Spanish conquest, and even much before the Inca civilisation, the diverse native cultures of the region had rich musical traditions. Ancient flutes, trumpets, drums, and other musical artefacts have been found in tombs. Music was obviously important in the human and supernatural worlds of ancient Andean people.

With the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century, accompanied by Catholic missionaries and African slaves, additional musical languages were introduced. Today, three principal racial and cultural strains - Indigenous, Spanish, and African - have evolved into distinctive musical styles.

• El Pasillo is slow, sad music that is played mainly with the guitar and rondin, a flute-like instrument consisting of several pipes.
• The El Pasacalle type of music has an upbeat rhythym and is excellent for dancing.
• El Yarabi is the most popular of the music from the Andes. It is very sentimental and good for simply listening to.

Sports and Entertainment

As with almost all of Latin America, Ecuadorians are ardent fútbol fans, and the national team has shown some successes in international tournaments of the sport in the last few years - for the first time in history it won a place in the World Cup Tournament (the 2002 event hosted by Japan and South Korea). Ecuador achieved a historic feat in Germany 2006 by reaching the knock out stages for the very first time.

Alongside football, volleyball is also common, though it is played differently to Western volleyball. The ball is much heavier and there are only three players per team. Volleyball is mostly informally played by both young students and middle aged people alike. Their form of volleyball is called 'Ecuavoli' and tends to have more flexible rules.

Bullfighting, a legacy of Spanish colonisation, is held annually at a large festival in Quito, although it's not popular nation-wide. During December, the inhabitants of Quito celebrate its Foundation Day, which includes a grand celebration lasting for days, called Las fiestas de Quito. The high point of the fiestas is the Corrida de Toros, in which internationally renowned bull fighters are invited to show off their prowess in the arena.

Other forms of entertainment popular worldwide are found in Ecuador also, including darts and a variety of card games for adults; with marbles, hopscotch and skipping ropes popular pastimes for children. Carnivals and festivals are also varied through the country and highly expected by the population, usually featuring many traditional games and fun. Some parts celebrate mask carnivals, while others have no official customs, yet all of them are related to a mixture of Amerindian and Catholic beliefs.

The majority of the films shown in cinemas in Ecuador come from the United States. The films are often in English and have Spanish subtitles, but are sometimes translated for family movies.