ABSTRACT
This chapter examines musica nacional as a metaphor for varied perceptions of Ecuadorian national identity. It phrases musica nacional cannot be generically translated from Spanish as 'national music'; rather, it is a term widely used in Ecuador as a surrogate appellation for a specific anthology of songs composed between the 1920s and the 1950s that eventually came to be recognized by the elites as Ecuador's emblematic music. The chapter explores how the elite notion of musica nacional marginalizes the indigenous, Afro-Ecuadorian, and lower-class mestizo population from the imagined nation, and how the working-class musica nacional constitutes a more accurate portrayal of Ecuador's heterogeneous population. It focuses instead on the coexistence of multiple expressions of national identity that represent different interests, aesthetics, and social groups vying for national representation. A colonial history of oppression of the indigenous population survives through stigmatized images of 'Indianness' and also explains to a great extent Ecuadorian mestizos' disdain for their indigenous heritage.
