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DESTINASIAN.COM – AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019
Quito’s 2.6 million residents beckon visitors to understand why
they’re not only at la mitad del mundo—the center of the world—but
also an exciting convergence of ecology, ancient culture, innovative
cuisine, and art.
The latter brings me to Casa del Alabado, where I’m to meet the
museum’s curator, Maria Patricia Ordoñez, as part of a private tour
arranged by Casa Gangotena, just a short stroll away. Quietly sip-
ping a cup of guayusa-leaf tea in the courtyard café as the morning
light cascades across a peristyle of worn stone columns is the perfect
antidote to the previous day’s frenzy.
Inhabiting one of the oldest buildings in Quito, Casa del Alaba-
do houses an impressive collection of ancient Ecuadorian art that
represents almost two dozen coastal, highland, and Amazonian cul-
tures. Adobe walls painted red or yellow—or in one
case, covered by a lush green vertical garden—provide
a beautiful contrast to the decorative stone and clay
figures on display, some dating as far back as 6000 B.C.
“We organize our collection thematically, not
chronologically as other museums might,” Ordoñez
explains as I focus in on a particularly ornate piece
from the prehistoric Jama-Coaque culture. “The idea
is to approach these objects as works of art, rather
than as archaeological artifacts.” In the gallery with
the vertical garden, I’m transfixed by how a collection
of anthropomorphic figures appears against the back-
drop of living greenery. Quito is a city that marries its relationship
with humanity and the natural world as few others do—the vestiges
of an enduring Andean cosmovision.
From Casa del Alabado, I hop a cab for the 20-minute ride up
to Bellavista, a hillside neighborhood whose key attraction is La
Capilla del Hombre (“The Chapel of Man”). Designed as a modern
interpretation of a pre-Columbian temple, the stone-clad cultural
center was conceived by Ecuador’s most celebrated artist, Oswaldo
Guayasamín, as a tribute to the suffering and resilience of the Latin
American people. Completed in 2002, three years after Guayasa-
mín’s death, it is home to dozens of his large-scale paintings and
murals. One, painted on the inside surface of the upper level’s coni-
cal skylight, depicts the struggles of the workers in the silver mines
of Potosí, Bolivia, where countless indigenous miners
perished in the 17th century.
On the same grounds is the artist’s former resi-
dence, now a museum showcasing his private collec-
tion of pre-Hispanic artefacts and colonial art along-
side more of Guayasamín’s own work and memora-
bilia. One of its directors, a Russian émigré named
Tatiana Romanienko, shows me around, pointing out
a leather briefcase given to Guayasamín by his friend
Fidel Castro. A particularly colorful cubist cityscape
catches my attention. “Guayasamín always said the
color of Quito depended on his mood,” RomanienkoAbove: Pre-
Columbian art
backdropped by a
vertical garden at
Casa del Alabado.
Opposite, from left:
A Quito resident;
preparing a float for
the Jesús del Gran
Poder procession
in the chancel of
the Church of San
Francisco.