ecuador
It is literally translated from the Quechua language as “small portion of land”, in other words, it designates a small plot destined for agricultural exploitation.
It refers to a peasant who works the land that he does not own or that has been assigned to him to produce it. Normally, it was a figure of labor exploitation in times past.
Belonging to Huasipungo, that is, it is the name of the inhabitants of this place located in Ecuador.
ORIGIN OF HUASIPUNGUERO
The use of huasipunguero is almost exclusive to the Ecuadorian region because its origin is Quechua . In this dialect, huasipungo comes from two words huasi which means “house” and pungo which is “patio”. For this reason it is interpreted as a house with a large patio or a “small piece of land”.
None of the meanings of this word has widespread use outside of Ecuador, therefore, it has not been accepted as an official word of the Spanish language.
CURIOSITIES OF HUASIPUNGUERO
The work of each huasipunguero had very little reward , because, in addition to the possibility of living in the place, they were awarded a paltry salary. This labor exploitation mainly victimized the indigenous people.
Huasipungo is a novel by the Ecuadorian writer Jorge Icaza Coronel . This work crudely portrays the exploitation that the huasipungueros lived and is set in Ecuador in the first decades of the 20th century.