Rafael Correa's Multicolored Dream Shirt: Commerce, Creativity, and National Identity in Post-Neoliberal Ecuador

Abstract

During the transmission ceremonies in 2007, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa wore a specially tailored, elaborately embroidered shirt. Since then he has used such shirts on official state visits, given them to heads of state, and worn them during national events – elevating them as a symbol of his presidency. In this paper, we report on the apparel producer, fashion designer, and embroiderer who created the shirt, showing how their creativity, understandings of intellectual property, and economic plans for the shirt illustrate important currents of Ecuador's post-neoliberal economy. Drawing on interviews with the three protagonists as well as a multi-year study of apparel production in Ecuador's northern Andes, we trace the connections among the women's views and the legacy of neoliberal development for small producers. Our analysis uses the idea of a cultural commons to show how small-scale clothing manufacture relies on shared design and marketing resources and, consequently, how producers develop practices of stewardship as part of their working lives. Concerns for the longevity of a trade foster a political consciousness that in turn shapes citizen evaluations of the economic sovereignty that Correa's presidency has promised.

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