The Otavalo weave a niche: the age-old textile tradition of these Ecuadoran Indians has bonded families and community while attracting an international tourist market.

• Author: Englebert, Victor
• Position: Cover Story

I used to visit a Saturday town market sixty miles north of Quito, Ecuador's capital, which started before dawn, and was over by 9 a.m. It left me little time to take pictures, for the surrounding Andes mountains did not let the sun in early. The market took place in Otavalo, a town of some ten thousand feet elevation and about fifty thousand people, named after the Indians who inhabit the surrounding green, lake-studded valley. The merchandise include woolen weavings of all kinds (the main offering), dyed wool, women's blouses, men's shirts, felt hats, beads, necklaces, clay jars, gourds, ropes, reed mats, and of course agricultural products. On their way to the market place, Indians scurried under heavy rolls of reed mats, sacks of potatoes, firewood, or squealing black pigs, when they were not pulling herds of piglets at the ends of tangling ropes. The streets converging at the market filled with animal cries and with the smell of country soil. The year was 1971. Foreign visitors could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and few Otavalo Indians knew that better days awaited them.

But foreigners started coming in ever-growing numbers. The more they came, the less wool there was for them, and the less time there was to devote to its very elaborate preparation, from shearing, to carding, to spinning, to dyeing. The Indians switched to orlon and other synthetic fibers. They saved time without hurting their sales. Little by little, the market stayed open later in the morning, and the more prosperous Indians became friendlier, no longer resenting outsiders' curiosity and photography. Often, they were now the ones to engage you in conversation.

"Hola, Mister!" they called. "Looking for something special? If you don't find it here I may have it at home. Let's go--anytime you want." Some vendors would even hand out business cards.

After a long absence, I returned to the Saturday market in Otavalo and found that the Indians had sustained their progress. Many were now using their own vehicles to transport merchandise and families, exuding more than ever the air of people comfortable with themselves and their lives. The most successful owned small restaurants or hotels, modest textile factories, or tourist shops--some of the latter in Quito and cities farther flung.

The market place, called the Plaza de los Ponchos, has grown with their self-confidence and prosperity. While the animal market elsewhere in town has remained a local affair that is...