Cultural pluralism and recovery of ancestral memory in the story of El Dorado as a productive alternative through ethno-tourism in Muisca communities in Sequilé (Colombia)

Abstract

t is an article product of an investigation based on secondary and primary sources (field visit, interviews), which starts from the theoretical and critical review on multiculturalism, its relationship with the transformations of the State in Latin America, the emergence of legal, political and cultural structures, all of these toward the idea of pluralism. It takes into consideration the origin of a normative corpus so that groups and ethnic collectives and peasants who claim direct indigenous ancestry, are allowed to recognized and self-recognized by themselves. It also reviews how the formalization of this pluralism has been difficult and has required social and political action from the communities. Resignification, revaluation and recovery of historical memory and ancestry has been decisive element to discover and appropriation of new narratives and stories that are today the basis of social agency and entrepreneurship. Tourism appears as a productive alternative through ethno-tourism in Muisca communities in the municipality of Sequilé (Colombia), where the iconic Laguna de Guatavita is located. This laggon is linked to the legend of El Dorado. The Muisca community “Los Hijos del Maíz” are settle in the area; their struggles and demands for political, legal, ethnic and cultural rights arise from the political framework of the 1991 constitution. The process for self-recognition have lasted for more than two decades, but at the same time, it become evident in the production of new tourist imaginaries and narratives around the myth of El Dorado, breaking paradigms and hegemonic discourses.