to the highlands included cotton, coca, salt, and dried fish from the Pacific coast. Spanish rule The Spanish conquered the Inca Empire in the 1530s and Spanish settlement began. The Inca and Spanish conquests and the Spanish rule of the Otavalo and other nearby chiefdoms, plus recurrent epidemics of European diseases, had a profound impact on the population. By 1582, the population of the northern Ecuador Andean region was estimated to have declined by 80 percent to an estimated 30,000. The Spanish put heavy demands on the Otavalo people for labor. One-fifth of the Otavalo were required to work, essentially as slave labor, for the Spanish, often in hot tropical climates to which they were not accustomed. Vineyards owned by the Dominican Order of the Catholic church were characterized as "fields of blood" because of the Otavalo laborers who died working there. Present day Unlike many others the Otavalo survived as a distinct ethnic group, but sometime after the 16th century they lost their original language and henceforth spoke Kichwa, the Quechua dialect spoken in Ecuador, and Spanish. In 1990, the number of Otavalo people was estimated at 45,000 to 50,000 in the Otavalo area with another 5,000 to 8,000 living elsewhere in Ecuador or other countries. Economy Most Otavalo are subsistence farmers who cultivate crops like potatoes but also raise livestock. Some work in the textile industry where many traditional Otavalo-styled textiles (woven with alpaca or llama wool) are exported to North America. A few Otavalo are businessmen or women who run some of these textile operations. Tourism is another significant source of revenue as these outsiders are attracted to the area because of the culture and local dress of the people. References Further reading Collier, John, Jr., and Buitrón, Aníbal. The Awakening Valley. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1949 Meisch, Lynn. Otavalo: Weaving, Costume and the Market. Ediciones Libri Mundi, Quito, 1987. Indigenous peoples in Ecuador Pre-Columbian cultures