Introduction
When somebody asked for something and he was not granted, the craver insisted and argued: I am not asking you for Guachalá. Guachalá had the fame of being the most important hacienda in Ecuador, some of this fame was born from the series of happenings related later on in this book.
In order for a better comprehension of the historical and social significance of Guachalá, it is necessary to recall certain facts in the history of Ecuador, in a brief and summarized way. At the same time, the lector will access to the general plan of this work.
During the XV century, the Incas joined the Andean Ecuadorian territory to their Empire. In the North of Ecuador they remained 30 years before being colonized by the Spanish in 1534.
The Spanish at the beginning named feudal lords (Commanders where in charge of commending, in Spanish are called Encomenderos) to govern the towns being conquered. By the end of the XVI century, the Commanderies (Encomiendas) started to disappear and in its place land-donations were given to the ex-encomenderos and descendants of the conquerors. For economical reasons the properties were centered in few hands giving place to the formation of the great haciendas in the end of the XVII century.
During the XVIII the land lords consolidated their economical and political powers, at the point they had as much power as the authorities of the colony. The Wars of Independence started in 1809 and finished in 1830.
In the first republican years, the power is performed by the land holders allied with the church, but are taken off by the liberal in 1895, who implant a system that was more capitalistic than feudal.
The liberal maintain themselves in power by the use of fraud until 1944, when a revolution establishes the free elections and an incipient industrialization starts.
With the coming of the industry and the discovery of petroleum, came the Agrarian Reform and the disappearing of the haciendas.
We end this book with a description of how Hacienda Guachalá functioned and in attached frames its development trough the centuries is described.
Antonio de Ormaza in 1696, Emilio Bonifaz in 1970 and Galo Ramón in 1987 narrated the history of Guachalá and this one is based on those.
Guachalá, 1995
Diego Bonifaz Andrade | 
