Más allá del fútbol

Abstract

Password=bombasound

Made possible by a 2007-2008 Fulbright award, Más allá del fútbol is a feature length documentary film that introduces the highland Afro-Ecuadorian communities of the Chota-Mira valley and the genre of music and dance known as la bomba.  Afrochoteños, as many in the region today self-identify, are the descendants of enslaved Africans brought by Jesuits in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to labor the sugarcane fields situated along the rivers Chota and Mira in the provinces of Carchi and Imbabura.  For much of the twentieth century, Afro-Ecuadorians had been marginalized to the extent that their presence within the nation has now been reduced to their athletic contributions. This film goes beyond soccer to document the rich history and culture of the Afro-Ecuadorians through a discussion of la bomba.