The Esmeraldas Beach

In today’s Ecuador, the black population, the descendants of slaves, continue to experience strong social discrimination. Yet people in the community still strive to value their specific culture and transmit the rebellious memory of their ancestors who fought for freedom. On arriving in Esmeraldas in Ecuador, Patrice Raynal finds himself immersed in the tumult of a carnival. The music and dancing – part of this culture, but a more ambi­guous phenomena than first appears – provide the through-line for his first-person narrative.