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Dimensions of Book: 230mm x 230mm x 14mm (9 x 9 x 0.55 Inches)
Number of pages: 100 pages
Binding/Printing: Hard Cover printed Offset
Language: English and Spanish
ISBN: 979-8-218-34356-9

Based on a shared documentary project that began in 2011, this book presents the work of photographer Tristan Partridge in collaboration with the Ancestral Community of San Isidro, a Kichwa-Panzaleo Indigenous community in highland Ecuador.

At the heart of this project are mingas – days of voluntary, cooperative work dedicated to community projects. The book documents – and celebrates – how people in San Isidro combine work, resistance, and overlapping forms of togetherness within struggles for social and environmental justice.

Mingas are collective work-parties, a form of cooperative labor with a very long history in the region. Lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days, regular mingas in San Isidro focus on maintaining the community’s irrigation water pipeline. On these occasions, at least one member from each household is required to participate.

While this work is vital for supporting agriculture in San Isidro and for defending communal territory, the significance of mingas extends far beyond what they accomplish in a material sense. Mingas are deeply social events. Alongside the work, people share food, jokes, and conversation. Participation in mingas strengthens forms of cooperation that are then used in other projects for mutual aid and conservation, as well as in mobilizations that connect with neighboring communities and the national Indigenous Movement.

Accompanied by parallel texts in English/Spanish written by community members and activists, Mingas+Solidarity underlines the importance of solidarity for community resilience. By highlighting efforts in a particular context of struggle, this work also draws attention to why such collective acts are necessary – as resistance against the persistent forms of violence, inequality, and discrimination faced by Indigenous people across Ecuador and around the world.

Text: Myriam Allauca, Porfirio Allauca.
Afterword: Alberto Acosta.