Dawn Ades , Art in Latin America: The Modern Era 1820-1980 (Yale University Press). An excellent and lavishly illustrated general history of Latin American art from Independence, with discussions of a number of Ecuadorian artists, including Guayasamín, Viteri, Troya, Galecio, and Antonio and Ramón Salas.

 

Christy Buchanan and Cesar Franco , The Ecuador Cookbook: Traditional Vegetarian and Seafood Recipes (Christy Buchanan). Paperback cookbook offering a series of delightfully illustrated and easy-to-follow vegetarian and seafood recipes from Ecuador in English and Spanish.

Pablo Cuvi , Crafts of Ecuador (o/p; available by mail order from SAE). Sumptuously illustrated coffee-table book taking in the whole gamut of Ecuador's traditional artesanías, from textiles to woodcarvings, accompanied by solid background information on the history and development of these crafts.

Lynn Meisch (ed), Traditional Textiles of the Andes (Thames and Hudson). Some beautiful colour illustrations accompany six interesting essays on aspects of weaving in the Andes. Meisch also wrote Otavalo: Weaving, Costume and the Market (Ediciones Libri Mundi, Ecuador), which covers the history, the methods and the modern-day situation of Otavalo's weavers, with plenty of black-and-white illustrations.

Gabrielle Palmer , Sculpture in the Kingdom of Quito (University of New Mexico Press). Meticulously and thoughtfully researched exposé of the development of colonial sculpture in Quito, illustrated by some gorgeous photographs.

Gustavo Ramírez , Football in Ecuador (Soccer Books, UK). A tiny history of the game in Ecuador, uninspiring photos of the country's mostly rather dishevelled stadiums, and lists of league clubs make up the bulk of this thin manual, but the international results table at the end makes for some interesting reading: Ecuador didn't win a game between August 1938 and May 1949, and once suffered the humiliation of a 12-0 defeat against Argentina.