Ah, to reconnect with former colleagues! It is straightforward for some and difficult for others. Reconnecting may offer undiscovered opportunities in one’s career, but is it possible to link up with the past in a substantive way? This blog shares our experience reconnecting: it is the story of the collaboration between two former university students who reconnected after 30 years and agreed to rebuild their relationship and share their networks with each other and their students. Reunions are memories, as Michael D. Jackson, the founder of existential anthropology (a field of anthropology that incorporates existentialism and the open-endedness of life projects), writes; they are the narratives that give meaning to life. In meeting again a few months ago, we decided to give form to our anthropological experiences and the lasting memories that connect us.

We were university classmates at one of the few anthropology programs in Ecuador in the 90s, at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE). Our lives branched in different directions; Carla studied on an M.A. fellowship in applied anthropology, continuing PhD studies in cultural anthropology in Oregon. Carla often wondered why there was little to no discussion of epistemologies and ontologies of the Global South (a geopolitical term that recognizes that we live in a borderless geography of inequality) as part of her education. Patricio was invited first as an associate researcher and later as a doctoral anthropology student in Sweden. During those distant northern winters, he engaged with various schools of thought; some merely theorized about culture, while others advocated for applying anthropology to change the reality of different communities.

We reconnected in June 2024 when Patricio attended Carla’s book launch in Quito. We both agreed that, despite the years, there was a truthful commitment to collaborate and a shared desire to advance Global South anthropology, supporting our students in the process. At PUCE, we received solid foundational training as anthropologists; today, we agree that anthropological research and work should have a purpose and that the division between theoretical and applied anthropology that North American and European schools often make seems out of place to us. In Ecuador, a country situated in what can be called the “anthropological periphery” because of its assumed lack of intellectual, social, and economic relevance, it is imperative to connect theory with applied practice. We learned as undergraduate students that anthropology had meaning if it helped us understand the social world around us and transform it for the better.

With this conviction in mind, Carla invited Patricio to participate in the 12th edition of the “Why the World Needs Anthropologists 2024” Symposium. The two-day symposium focused on the experiences and practices of anthropologists in the margins of the discipline, as producers and not merely as recipients of anthropological theory and practice. On Day 1, Carla presented the talk “Centering the Periphery Through Ethnography.”

Day 2 tackled the question, “How can we center the periphery within and through applied anthropology?” through short videos submitted by world anthropologists. Patricio and his students’ video was entitled “Medicine and Anthropology: The Center and the Periphery in Health Research in Ecuador.” It summarized Patricio’s research with medical students to understand mental health and bridge the “biosocial gap” (the unequal presence of determinants such as poverty, access to health infrastructure, and social justice that cause ill health) in medical education. Carla and her students contributed “Extractivism in Anthropology and Beyond: How to Center the Periphery.” Extractivism is an economic model centered on extracting natural resources for profit, generally with minimal process and little benefit to local communities. They attended the exhibit “MINE: What is Ours in the Wake of Extraction” and related physical resource extraction worldwide with anthropology’s extracting knowledge and information from the Global South, often in unilateral ways. Another of Carla’s students prepared the video “How Our Labor System Isolates the Global South.”

Our collaboration was successful and served as the springboard for upcoming partnerships, including this blog, another article in the works, future joint efforts between our departments, and even institutional cooperation agreements. We are certain we can advance what we call antropología criolla (a Creole anthropology): an anthropology that stems from the rigorous and comprehensive education we received as students in Ecuador and that informs our scholarly and applied work to date. for today’s scholarly and applied. We have started our work to bring to life this Creole anthropology.

In the Andean world, where we come from, connections between people are interwoven with natural spaces that remind us of our birthplace. Connections are also forms of identity that make cultures tangible; when they are genuine, they can stand the test of time. Reconnecting is about relationship building, which is, at its core, an essential aspect of being human. The experience that we have shared in this blog taught us that when reconnecting stems from authentic and generous sharing and common origins; it has no expiration date.

About the Authors

Carla Guerron-Montero

Carla Guerrón Montero is an applied cultural anthropologist trained in Latin America and the United States. She is a Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Material Culture (CMCS) at the University of Delaware. She studies tourism and food and their intersections, particularly in the African Diaspora.

Patricio Trujillo Montalvo

Patricio Trujillo-Montalvo, professor and researcher at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE) in Quito. Patricio does research in social and cultural anthropological studies, medical anthropology, and neuroanthropology.

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