Anarchivist practices in the independent publishing field: a first approach to the Ecuadorian landscape

Abstract

This essay proposes a review of the Ecuadorian independent publishing landscape from the perspective of resistance to major publishing groups and the concept of "anarchive." Independent publishers like Recodo Press, Bocabierta Ediciones, and Kinti Rikra challenge dominant power structures by bringing peripheral voices into the spotlight, such as women, indigenous peoples, and sex-gender dissents. The anarchive, as an alternative archive, questions hegemonic memory by proposing a decentralized and constantly evolving form of memory. Through these publishers, the aim is to destabilize official narratives by building a collective (an)archive that includes voices that have been systematically marginalized. This approach highlights the crucial role of independent publishers as agents of change in the production and circulation of knowledge within contexts of cultural and political resistance.