Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean

Portal of Culture of Latin America and the Caribbean

Ecuador - Hacienda de Santa Ana (Santa Ana estate)

The hacienda of Santa Ana has a working treadmill. However, people from the community do not work at the mill. Some women from Santa Ana and from La Concepción work in the kitchen to feed the workers of the treadmill. There are also people from both communities who work in the fields, most of all during the harvest. This estate is a private property, and therefore, access is not always allowed.

The structure of the treadmill has changed in time. There are testimonials about the materials that have been replaced. For example, the canals through which the molasses flowed would have been made of wood, and now they are plastic tubes. The boilers would have been made of copper. This treadmill continues to work with the same hydraulic system, although the wheel was also replaced. The cut stones in the walls and the bigger stones found around the treadmill could be evidences of its age.

See more

At present the hacienda is managed by an administrator who is not only in charge of the treadmill but also of the sugar cane plantations. The hacienda also has a foreman (who is the son of the former foreman in the times of the huasipungo), and it has labourers for the work of the treadmill, who live in the hacienda from Monday to Fridays and they are people from the Imantag community. The gang receives salary, food and transportation to go to work each week and return to their community on the weekends.  

Accessibility: Restricted because it is private property. Access by car to the hacienda itself.
See less

Other data of interest

Ecuador

Historical name

Hacienda de Santa Ana (Santa Ana estate)

Founding Date

End of the 18th century

Address

Comunidad de Santa Ana

Phone numbers

0988387380, encargado Luis Espinoza Lara

Classification

Agro-industrial complex

Function-Testimony

Workplace

Access level

Restricted

Current Use

Treadmill used in the production of coarse rum

Original use

Treadmill for the production of sugar loaves and coarse rum

Property kind

Private

Heritage documents under its protection

      The estate’s accounts books