Peterson Toscano
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I confess I regularly dream of time travel, and even though my ancestors are from Italy, I cannot remember once imagining a trip to Ancient Rome. After visiting La Casa del Alabado, I have added a new destination to my time travel bucket list: Valdivia culture 3800-1500 BCE.
This oldest art in the museum is from this time period from a people who were comfortably settled on the Southern coast of Ecuador. The art from this period is striking because of the many figures of women and the geometric designs in the minimalist designs.
They carved stone with a confident restraint, shaping faces with just a few lines—two eyes, a nose, and the hint of a mouth—yet somehow managing to convey emotion, presence, even humor. The ceramic figures, many of them women, stand or sit with poise, their bodies rounded, stylized, and unmistakably human. Some have ornate hairstyles or headdresses, others cradle their bellies or press their hands to their chests, as if frozen mid-thought or mid-prayer.
As I wandered through the galleries, I felt less like I was looking at artifacts and more like I was being watched by ancestors—playful, proud, unbothered by the millennia that separate us. The lighting, the quiet, and the careful curation of the space all work together to make La Casa del Alabado feel more like a sacred site than a museum. You don’t walk through it—you pass through it, like a portal.
By the time I reached the stone sculptures from later cultures—tall, monolithic, faces reduced to bold curves—I was convinced. Time travel isn’t just fantasy. It’s what happens when the past is given room to speak. And here, in this restored colonial house in the heart of Quito, the ancient voices are loud, clear, and full of life.
La Casa del Alabado is not just a museum; it’s a doorway. I walked out curious to know more and changed.
