For all those that wanted some backround history on how we came here.. here it is WARRRRRNING!!!!!!!! its a little long..but lets take the time off from goofing around for a few seconds..and learn a new thing or two;p

MIGRATION

In the late 1960s to mid-1970s thousands of Ecuadorean immigrants came to Canada in search of a better life. Although there is little information available about the class and regional origins of those emigrating to Canada, most appear to have been from the Andean highlands, with a sizeable number from the coastal region, particularly its largest city, Guayaquil. Ecuadoreans came to Canada primarily for financial, rather than political, reasons, a fact that distinguishes them from many other recent Latin American arrivals.

During the earliest phase of migration, in the 1950s and 1960s, Ecuadorean immigrants had been from Azuay, a highland province that had experienced an economic crisis with the collapse of the straw (“Panama”) hat industry. These individuals were apparently drawn to Toronto by Italian contractors in the construction business who were looking for cheap labour. By contrast, although most of the Ecuadoreans who arrived in Canada in the 1970s were not from wealthy backgrounds, they did have sufficient means to be able to come voluntarily. Few economic opportunities were available to them if they stayed in Ecuador even if they had a fairly good education. Without contacts, it was difficult to obtain employment that would permit a family to do more than survive.

During what Fernando Mata has called the Andean wave of Latin American immigration to Canada between 1970 and 1975, some 20,000 Ecuadoreans were able to take advantage of a fairly open immigration policy. The highest volume (16.9 percent of all Hispanic newcomers to Canada) arrived in 1975; since then the number has tapered off considerably. In the 1970s Canada needed workers to boost its industrial development, particularly in Ontario and Quebec, and government policy allowed visitors to apply for landed status after their arrival in Canada. This wave followed a tightening of laws in the United States restricting Ecuadorean access to that country, where thousands had immigrated in the 1950s. Some Ecuadoreans came to Canada with the intention of joining family members in the United States, though many ultimately remained in this country. In contrast to the United States, where the rate of return to Ecuador has been high, there is no evidence of such a pattern among Ecuadoreans in Canada.

Estimates of the size of the Canadian community today vary greatly. The 1991 census on ethnic origins indicates the very low number of 3,360 (2,700 single and 660 multiple responses). This figure raises the question of whether Ecuadoreans still define themselves as such, given that most arrived in Canada more than twenty years ago and the community has dispersed somewhat, though the majority have remained in the province of Ontario. Official immigration estimates of around 10,000 of course exclude those Ecuadoreans who may be in the country illegally. Unofficial calculations have ranged from 20,000 to 30,000. A reasonable estimate would place the number of Ecuadoreans in Canada today at 18,000.

SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMIC LIFE 

Over 80 percent of Ecuadoreans live in Ontario, with a much smaller number in Quebec and just a fraction of the population in Alberta and British Columbia. Many who originally arrived in Quebec soon moved to Toronto. They usually did so because they knew someone in that city who might help them to find employment, though the fact that many Latin Americans who lived in Quebec felt that they are discriminated against might also have contributed to the decision to move.

Canada’s largest Latin American community, located in Toronto, grew enormously during the 1970s and 1980s. It is far from homogeneous, however, and there is some ambivalence among its members about the meaning of a Latin American – as opposed to a Chilean, Argentinian, Ecuadorean, or other – identity. The internal divisions within the community can be at least partly explained by class and political differences. Many of those from Chile and Argentina are exiled professionals, while immigrants from Central America came primarily as political refugees. By contrast, the majority of Ecuadoreans who arrived in Canada were not professionals, and they came of their own accord.

Ecuadoreans have tended to settle around urban industrial areas for reasons of employment, since most have found jobs working in light manufacturing, the garment industry, or services. During the height of Ecuadorean immigration in the 1970s, many experienced employment discrimination. Regardless of their previous occupations, they took unskilled work at a higher rate than any other Spanish-speaking group in Toronto. A study based on data from the Toronto suburb of North York found that none of the males who had been professionals, self-employed or white-collar workers, or students in Ecuador obtained a job of higher or even similar status in Canada.

Although employment discontinuities occur for most Spanish-speaking immigrants when they come to Canada, it seems that women are more likely to have difficulty obtaining appropriate work than men. Ecuadorean women generally report that they have come to this country for family-related reasons and that they are more deficient in English than their male counterparts. Also, women in Canada tend to work outside the home to a greater extent than they would have done in Ecuador. According to one study of Latin Americans, the majority of whom were Ecuadoreans, almost 100 percent of the women employed outside the home had earnings below the poverty line determined by Statistics Canada.

In many cases, Ecuadorean women work to pay off debt their families accumulated acquiring the material goods considered an essential part of life in Canada. They may put in longer hours to compensate for the particularly low wages that women often receive. Furthermore, although many Ecuadorean women work outside the home, a division of labour in which women are responsible for cooking, childcare, and housework persists. It is not insignificant that most families continue to follow an Ecuadorean diet, even though the preparation of such food is labour-intensive. This double load for women sometimes results in health problems, such as fatigue and anxiety, increased family tensions, and less time to learn English in order to improve their employment possibilities.

COMMUNITY AND FAMILY LIFE

The Ecuadorean community in Toronto and Montreal has been maintained primarily through soccer clubs. Informal groups were started in Toronto in 1970, and the Liga Ecuatoriana de Fútbol Aficionada (Ecuadorean League of Amateur Soccer, or LEFA) was officially registered four years later. Women participate in the sports clubs in a limited way, primarily through beauty pageants. For men, on the other hand, they provide an important social, as well as athletic, function. In his history of LEFA, Jorge Romero has commented, “Playing on the team soon came to serve as an escape valve for tensions and worries.” In some cases, membership in soccer teams reflects regional origins in Ecuador, and the groups are named after highland or coastal provinces, such as Pichincha, Tungurahua, or Manta. Others are based on residential neighbourhoods in Canada, such as the Jane-Finch or Christie areas of Toronto.

Like other new Canadians, many Ecuadoreans feel that a major advantage of living in this country is the material improvement to be made, but they recognize that such gain comes at a cost. Women’s marginalization from community ties, combined with their responsibility for maintaining the family, means that they are aware of the significant psychological adjustments that Ecuadorean families in Canada must make, but they do not have the advantage of social support. There is some indication that Ecuadoreans have not been as likely to use social services as other Latin Americans in this country. Thus increased family problems and loneliness are often experienced most acutely by Ecuadorean women.

A study of one family in 1993 demonstrates the difficulties that Ecuadoreans have typically faced. Rigoberto and Clara arrived in Toronto in 1970. He had been a mechanic in Ecuador’s capital, Quito, and now worked in a factory assembling air-conditioners; Clara was employed as a supervisor for a janitorial company. She suffered anxiety about changes taking place in the family and her husband’s lack of support. He expected her to do all the housework and raise their four children, as well as be employed outside the home, and refused to allow their sons to help with chores around the house. Clara’s English remained poor, and she lost a promotion at work because of her lack of facility in the language. She worried about Rigoberto’s drinking and his spending money on sexual services. At the same time, their growing children were experiencing doubts about their identity and demanding more independence.

In Ecuador such a household might receive help from other family members or the community priest, but in Canada such sources of support were either unavailable or not pursued. The family was not accustomed to using community services and did not trust those that it heard about because of uncertainty about what might be expected in return. For some time Clara absorbed this high level of domestic stress, resigning herself “to lead a life of suffering, just as my mother did.” But her attitude was eventually challenged by the children, who demanded a more active approach from her. Steps were eventually taken to draw up a “family accord.” Rigoberto agreed to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and join a soccer club with his two sons. Clara would be able to take some English-language courses. Their eldest daughter was allowed to major in political science at university (she did not want to become a nurse or a computer technician as her parents had hoped), and the two older children would assume responsibility for improving the Spanish spoken by the younger ones. Clara eventually considered herself a “transformed woman,” and although their problems did not end, family members found a way to adapt to the new environment in which they lived.

CULTURE AND GROUP MAINTENANCE

Ecuadoreans celebrate their own cultural traditions in public. A festival is held each year in Toronto. Also commemorated, with speeches and a cultural program on 24 May, is the Batalla de Pichincha, which marked Ecuador’s liberation from Spain. The anniversary of the Spanish founding of Quito as the administrative centre of Ecuador is remembered in a similar way on 6 December. Perhaps not surprisingly, being Ecuadorean in Canada has its own contradictions. Many members of the community feel an ever-present ambivalence about not wanting to lose their Ecuadorean identity and yet believing that they must reject it in order to survive in Canada.

Ecuadoreans have sometimes experienced discrimination from other Latin Americans in this country. Tensions have existed between immigrants from those countries that emphasize their European background, such as Chile and Argentina, and newcomers from Ecuador and Colombia, who have been stereotyped as poor, illiterate, backward Indians. On the other hand, efforts have been made by some to encourage an inclusive Latin American community in Toronto. The Encuentro de Organizaciones Latinoamericanas was formed to coordinate all the various associations in the city, including the Ecuadorean and Colombian ones. Today the Chileans and the Ecuadoreans – the two largest Hispanic groups in Toronto – are the main contributors to the annual International Hispanic Fiesta at the Canadian National Exhibition.