Carnaval Fever

A young girl growing up in the Afro-descendant community of Ecuador in the 1990s confronts familial secrets, economic hardship, migration, and the specter of male violence set against the vibrant background of Carnaval

Ainhoa lives a protected life within the walls of her grandmother’s house in the neighborhood of Limones. Surrounded by a gaggle of aunts who love, correct, and teach her, Ainhoa narrates moments that evoke the powerful presence of music and dance in her daily life, while also touching on historical and current themes: the dollarisation of the Ecuadorian economy and the huge wave of emigration that it provoked, dividing families; environmental racism and the health effects on the Afro-Ecuadorian population of activities such as petroleum refining and African palm and banana growing; drug trafficking; AIDS; and gender-based violence.

Never didactic, this singular novel brims with poetry and exuberance, as well as the pain of forgotten corners. Seen through Ainhoa’s innocent eyes, these difficult topics are simply one side of the coin, of the culture she lives in—the other being the joy, language, music, dance, and vibrancy through which her community regularly “dances it out.”