Quito

Quito sits at 2,850 meters on a narrow Andean plateau so seismically active that earthquakes have destroyed the city's churches repeatedly—and residents rebuild them every time, in the same locations, in the same Baroque style. The result is the best-preserved colonial center in South America and the first city (with Kraków) designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978.

The Inca general Rumiñahui burned Quito rather than surrender it to the Spanish in 1534. Sebastián de Benalcázar rebuilt it as a Spanish colonial capital, and the city's altitude determined its character: too high for tropical agriculture, too remote for major trade, Quito became an administrative and religious center rather than a commercial one. The School of Quito (Escuela Quiteña) produced some of colonial America's finest religious art, blending European Baroque with indigenous Andean imagery.

Ecuador's oil economy, centered in the Oriente (Amazon basin), generates revenue that flows through Quito as the capital. The city's GDP depends heavily on government spending and services rather than industry. When oil prices collapse—as they did in 2014-2016 and 2020—Quito's economy contracts with them.

The equator runs through Quito's metropolitan area (the "Middle of the World" monument marks the approximate line). This geographic curiosity generates tourism revenue but also captures Quito's identity: a city that exists at the intersection of hemispheres, climates, and cultures.

The 2019 protests that paralyzed Quito for weeks—triggered by fuel subsidy cuts demanded by the IMF—revealed the structural fragility of an oil-dependent capital in the Andes. Indigenous movements from the highlands marched into the city, a political pattern repeating since colonial times.

Quito rebuilds after every earthquake, every political crisis, every economic bust—always in the same location, always in recognizable form. The persistence is either resilience or path dependence. Probably both.