2012 Cuenca Perspectives Collage

2012 Cuenca Perspectives Collage
VIVA CUENCA

VIVA CUENCA!

My mission in publishing this blog is first to provide a living history of my settlement and life in Cuenca, and to provide myself and the reader with a journal account delineating my reasons for why I have chosen to settle in Cuenca. Second, the posts are my way of staying in contact with family and friends back in the states, and to provide them with an understanding of a country and culture that most North Americans have little knowledge and awareness. Third, the blog is open to one and all who wish to compare and contrast the experiences of expat bloggers living in Cuenca, so that you can determine whether or not from your perspective Cuenca is an appropriate move for you. Fourth, my blog provides another example of how expats view and interpret life in Cuenca. Ecuadorians and Cuencanos who may read this blog are especially invited to post comments that may enhance all expats understanding and appreciation of Cuneca and its people, or to correct any misinterpretations in my assumptions and perceptions of Cuencano culture. Finally, I hope I can convey the feeling of love and appreciation that grows within me each passing day for this heavenly city nestled in the Andes and its very special people.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Cultural Diversity in Ecuador


Cultural Diversity in Ecuador


In my last post, I wrote about the great bio-diversity of Ecuador. In this post, I would like to share with you another great diversity in this small country, which is that of its people.

Ecuador has a population of approximately 15,100,000 people. Ecuador is about the size of Colorado with a population of 5,300,000.  As you can see, the population of Ecuador is about three times the population of Colorado.  Like many other countries the bulk of the population lives in the urban areas in about six to eight of the largest cities. The remainder of the population basically populates smaller cities and towns in rural areas.

About ten percent of the Ecuadorian population lives outside of Ecuador. Due to a couple of past economic repercussions and political instability during the 80’s and 90’s, large numbers of Ecuadorians left the country to find jobs in Spain and the United States. As both of these country’s economies have suffered in recent years, and as the U.S. continues to implement a schizophrenic immigration policy toward illegal immigrants in the country; increasing numbers of Ecuadorians return to their homeland, and fewer of them are emigrating from the country. President Correa is encouraging Ecuadorians abroad to return home, especially the 20,000 professionals, whom the President would like to see contribute to the Ecuadorian economy. However, many Ecuadorian families continue to prosper from the money sent back from the states and from Spain, as most Ecuadorian émigrés continue to live abroad.

Amer-Indians of Ecuador

       



Approximately seven percent of the Ecuadorian population is indigenous, and most of these Amer-Indians live in the rural areas of the country. Increasingly over the last forty years, more indigenous have relocated to the larger cities. Cuenca, for example, has been impacted by large numbers of indigenous in recent decades, when forty years ago their numbers were negligible. The indigenous groups are divided into many various ethnic or tribal groupings. Some of these people, particularly in the urban areas have modified their dress and other habits and customs; while other native-Americans continue to maintain much of their dress and other ethnic markings.



                     


One of the largest indigenous groups is the Quichua, who continue to maintain their language; and while fewer men who reside in the cities maintain their style of dress today, many of the women still do. The men, however,  oftentimes can be identified by the cords they wear around their wrist, which reminds them as well as others of their identity. The Quichua men and women who wear traditional garb can be identified by their tall top hats.  Some women also are identified by their bouncy, pleated skirts which widen at the hips. Some Quichua as well as other indigenous women who live in the cities will find young women abandoning their traditional dress and only the older women may be found to wear such outfits in some families. Other young women sometime revert back to their traditional garb when they become middle-age or older. Therefore, it is difficult to predict with certainty, if many of the traditional clothing will be totally abandoned or not among the city-dwelling indigenous in another ten or twenty years. A fascinating tidbit of history is the fact that the traditional garb of the indigenous was actually imposed upon them by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, as a way for the Spaniards to be able to tell the various indigenous groups apart, and also to put some clothes on many indigenous groups.

Interestingly, in a Spanish-speaking culture, Spanish is often a second language for many of the indigenous members, while their ethnic tongue is their primary language. What can be entertaining is when an expat with broken Spanish attempts to speak with indigenous vendors in the mercados with their “Spanish as a second language” skills; it can be like the blind leading the blind. “Why do these vendors have so much trouble understanding my Spanish?” an expat might say, without understanding that Spanish may not be the vendors primary language.  There are many Amer-Indians groups with their own language, but the Quichua language in various dialects is spoken by 2,500,000 people in Ecuador.

Five years ago, I was visiting in Hawaii. The Mormons have a large tourist compound where one can visit a site devoted to the traditional Samoan culture, another devoted to the people of Fiji, another to the Hawaiian Native Americans, etc. However, the sites and the programs were presenting cultures that no longer existed. The entire venue had a Disneyesque quality of virtual-reality and entertainment. In Ecuador, the exciting thing about the indigenous cultures is that they exist in the here-and-now as living, breathing cultures. This is not to say that these groups have not been affected by the cultures and modern conveniences around them, but they most certainly, in general, continue to identify with their ethnic heritage and many of their customs and dress. This tendency is even stronger in the rural areas, and the beauty of the various groups’ clothing can be seen in many of the parades and festivals across Ecuador.


As mentioned in my last post, in El Oriente (Amazonas), where only three per-cent of the population of Ecuador resides, the densely tropical rain forests provide shelter and isolation to some small tribes that live much as people did in the Neolithic age. These cultures which hearkened back in most people’s minds to a by-gone age are quickly being destroyed by the encroachment of modern civilization. Yet these people do live in the 21st century, and by virtual of that fact alone have every claim to being identified as people of the 21st century as well. Well most “moderns” would view such people as “primitive” because they do not live in complex cultures, there are many beautiful qualities in these cultures of simplicity for people who have been raised in such cultures, that can be superior to the down-side of the rabid pace of material accumulation, obsessiveness, and the hectic stress-inducing pace of modern day civilizations. If progress is defined only by complexity, GNP, and technological advances; as it obviously is, then the remnants of such simple societies that still exist in the world will not survive.

Afro Ecuadorians


The Afro-Ecuadorian population is also about the same size as the indigenous population, which comprises seven per-cent of the population. Almost all of the Black population of Ecuador is located in the province of Esmeraldas, which is located in northwestern Ecuador along the Colombian border and directly east of the Galapagos. Blacks make up about seventy percent of the population of Esmeraldas, and ninety percent of Ecuador’s Black population lives in the province. Blacks are almost non-existent in the river valleys of the Andes Mountains.

A seventeenth century shipwreck brought the first Blacks to Ecuador. The survivors infiltrated the jungles off the coast which offered them protection, and as indigenous populations began to realize that they had little to fear from the survivors, the groups began to mix. Eventually “zambos” was the term used to describe the offspring of the indigenous and Black populations. Mullatoe is the term used as it was in North America to describe the offspring of Black and White parentage. Runaway slaves also arrived from Columbia, and joined the Blacks in Esmeraldas. The Jesuits also had slaves brought from Columbia to work their sugar cane fields. Otherwise, Black slavery was almost non-existent in Ecuador, as the indigenous populations were used to cultivate the fields in a less binding form of semi-slavery or a kind of feudal serfdom.

Terms like Afro-Ecuadorians are used primarily in scholarly circles. The Ecuadorian people never use African-Americans and neither does the Black population. Black is the term normally used by the Ecuadorians in identifying Black-Ecuadorians, both by Blacks and non-Blacks alike. Some ethnicists and linguists believe the term “zambo” was the Spanish derivate for the Anglo term, sambo, which later became a pejorative term. However, other ethnicists and linguists claim that there are other explanations for the source of the North American term, sambo.

White Ecuadorians

             

White European stock in Ecuador comprises slightly above six percent of the population. Most of the White progeny in Ecuador are of Spanish descent. The Spaniards were the conquistadors of Ecuador and all of South America, except for the Portuguese colony of Brazil, in the early fifteenth century shortly after Columbus had made his voyages to the West Indies, which today is known as the Caribbean Islands. Over the years other White ethnic groups also came to settle in Ecuador. Germans, French, and Italians were among the larger groups. There are also smatterings of Jews who have settled mainly in Quito, Palestinians, and in Cuenca there are some Pakistanis and Chinese. Only recently have a small number of East Indians made their way to Cuenca to test the viability of relocation to Cuenca as well.

Cuenca also has the largest group of expats from the United States and from Canada of approximately 4,000 people. Almost all of these expats are White. Ninety percent of the expats living in Ecuador are from the United States, while ten percent are from Canada. A minute number of Europeans and Australians are also found living in Ecuador.

I once did a post in 2012 of a Jewish Seder I attended. Every year about the time of Seder, I continue to get emails from Jewish-Americans asking if I can put them in contact with the Jewish worship community in Cuenca, as they consider a move to Cuenca. However, my Jewish contacts tell me that there is no synagogue or worship community here in Cuenca. Most Jews in Cuenca tend to be ethnic Jews, rather than religiously practicing Jews.

Metizos



The largest ethnic group in Ecuador are the mestizos at 71% of the population. The mestizos are a mixture of Indian and Spanish ancestry. Cholas is a term sometimes used to describe Indians who have abandoned their ethnicity to assimilate with the ways of the cultural dominant Spaniard White class. Tribal language may be abandoned, and Spanish may become the primary language. Efforts are made to increase schooling, and to seek jobs that have been traditionally reserved for Whites, concomitantly abandoning traditional dress and hair styles to qualify for such jobs in retail, the bureaucracy, small businesses, etc. is undertaken. Total abandonment from their indigenous communities into an assimilated world is rare, however.  Most Cholas will make the move in incremental steps, as they move further away from their indigenous values and beliefs taking possibly a generation or two to accomplish.  Although Cholas have little if any White ancestry, because of the assimilation process, they are to varying degrees or not considered Metizos. Many Metizos also self-identify as Whites.

Many Mestizos work in blue-collar jobs that are the backbone of the economy, whether in mining, oil-rigging, construction, manufacturing, and skilled labor type of jobs. Artisans are still an important part of Ecuadorian economy and culture. Sixty percent of the furniture made in Ecuador is made in Cuenca, generally by hand. The arts of gold and silver smiting, and of jewelry-making are examples of crafts that continue to thrive. Bead-work, embroidery, and weaving, on the other, are examples of crafts under stress, as the amount of compensation many crafts persons can earn can be very low for the amount of hours required to meticulously complete an item. Fewer in the younger generation, therefore, are less inclined to want to learn the intricacies of bead-work, embroidery, and weaving. Efforts are being taken to maintain vibrant artisan communities in Ecuador before they become a lost heritage as has been the case in so many cultures around the world. Only time will tell if such efforts are successful.



Religion in Ecuador


Celebrations and processions for Holy Week in Quito Ecuador       Procession during Holy Week (Semana Santa) on the Tuesday before Easter called Entrada de los Jocheros, Quito, Pinchincha Province, Ecuador : Stock Photo

Ecuadorians continue to be overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, at the rate of slightly over eighty percent of the population. Especially among the rural indigenous, there often will  be a mixture of Catholic and indigenous religious practices. Protestantism has grown in Ecuador, primarily of the evangelical variety, and over eleven percent of the population is now Protestant. While other groups are represented, their numbers are miniscule to the over-all population. Two of the larger, smaller groups are members of the Latter Day Saints or Mormons with numbers of 185,000. Young Mormon missionaries can easily be spotted here in Cuenca, and they obviously are succeeding in making inroads with conversions among Ecuadorians. The other larger religious group is the Jehovah Witnesses who are about 85,000 in numbers in Ecuador. I have met more Jehovah Witnesses here in Cuenca than I have ever known when I lived in the Chicago area. Ninety-one percent of the Ecuadorian population identifies with some form of religion.


A Nation of Great Diversity, and Yet Greater Homogenization

While the White patrician class continues to dominate the leading positions of power, professions, and business; greater fluidity in class mobility is taking place as new avenues of advancement open to classes and ethnic groups of Ecuadorian people that had once be reserved only for the upper classes. There was a time in the U.S. when one ethnic group thought it was superior to another and vice-verse. Much the same attitude exists in Ecuador today, so class lines and group distinctions of superiority do have more fluidity than the rigid rankings that once existed in Ecuador. Yet it is the traditional White standards of middle class respectability, a strong work ethic, articulate speaking of Spanish and increasingly English, the value for schooling, the desire for material possessions, and the striving for white-collar jobs that motivate the upward mobility of the people.
 

 
 

 
 
 



Wednesday, January 14, 2015


All You Need Is Ecuador

Written for http://expatisland.net/all-you-need-is-ecuador/

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Ecuador has been highlighted by “International Living” and other world-wide publications as one of the ten best countries in the world for retirement. The Ecuadorian government recently launched a marketing campaign focused on attracting tourists to Ecuador called, “All You Need is Ecuador”. I think as you read today’s post, you will agree that at least when it comes to the natural beauty and nature’s incredible variation in Ecuador, much substantiation is given to the claim that “All You Need is Ecuador”.
What is it that makes Ecuador an attractive destination for many tourists and for expats looking for a new home away from home? Today’s post will focus on one such feature of allurement; the astounding physical features and bio-diversity of this small South American country, which is only the size of states like New Jersey or Nevada in the United States. Expats and tourists alike are mesmerized by much of the utter beauty of what for many folks seems like the closest thing to a Garden of Eden.

Coastal Region:

Ecuador Coastal Region
Ecuador Coastal Region

The coastal areas of Ecuador are the country’s most fertile areas for cultivation. These lowlands along the Pacific coast are extensively dotted with plantation farms of bananas, papayas, mangoes, pineapples, and chocolates—all of which Ecuador along with being the world’s largest producer and exporter of bananas is also the seventh largest producer of chocolate. A French exhibition in 2013 ranked Ecuadorian chocolate as the world’s best. Rice and cotton production and exports are very high as well. Lumber is another industry where mangroves growing along the coastal banks of the Pacific; and Eucalyptus trees, which are plentiful along the coast and the mountain valleys; are found throughout the country, and provide major sources of timber for exportation.

The Pacific coast of South America is teaming with fresh fish and shellfish. It has been the least exploited coastal area in the world, with some of the least contaminated fish in the world. Fresh seafood in the coastal areas of Ecuador is among the world’s best. Shrimp farms are bountiful, and often compete for coastal space with the mangroves. The area has been relatively free of commercial fishing trawlers, and many of the Ecuadorian fishermen continue to fish with nets the way fishermen did back in the days of Jesus. Ecuadorian fishermen troll the seas in small boats with nets. Once the nets are full, the fishermen pull the nets aboard and dump the contents of the nets into the boats. Other fishermen wade in the Pacific along the shore, and stretch out their nets, as they accumulate their catch, and bring them to shore to be sorted.

Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city with a population of approximately 2,387,000 (2015 estimate). Guayaquil is also Ecuador’s largest manufacturing center as well as Ecuador’s largest port city. The city is located on the Guayas River about 30 to 40 miles from the Gulf of Guayas. Interestingly, New Orleans and Guayaquil are both located on rivers located from about the same distance to their respective gulfs. The South American Pacific coast, however, does not endure the hurricane seasons that plague the areas bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Guayaquil is very hot and humid—think Houston, New Orleans, or Miami. The coastal area, however, is the most vulnerable area in Ecuador for earthquakes.

The beaches of the coastal region are munificent, and for the most part undeveloped by man.  About ninety minutes north of Guayaquil is the town of Montanita, where the best surfing can be found in Ecuador. Surfers come to Montanita from all over the world. However, while Ecuador’s coastal area is blessed with warm ocean water and warm air, there are copious amounts of time during the year when the beaches are covered in clouds with minimal sunshine.  Ecuadorians and tourists who want more sunshine head for the beaches south of Guayaquil, like Playas. The coast south of Guayaquil becomes increasingly desertous, and therefore, increasingly drier and sunnier, as one travels southward into Peru.

Galapagos:

Galapagos
Galapagos

The Galapagos are islands off the coast of Ecuador across from the northwest corner of Ecuador about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from the mainland part of the country. The islands are a UNESCO world heritage site. Needless, to say, the islands are a major tourist draw, which along with other man-made factors, are threats to the preservation of the islands despite their protective status with UNESCO. The islands are famous for their huge land tortoises and the blue-footed boobies, and for the birthplace of Darwin’s theory of evolution, as a result of their tremendous variations in fauna and animal life,

LaSierra, “The Highlands” Region:

The Andes Mountains run north and south through the central part of Ecuador, as the flat lands of the coast give way to the increasing elevations of the mountainous region of the country. Snow-capped mountain peaks and volcanoes in the Andes of the northern region of Ecuador include Mount Chimaborazo, which is 6,268 meters high (20,560 feet above sea level). Mount Chimaborazo is the most distant point of the earth surface. The Avenue of the Volcanoes in northern Ecuador is one of Ecuador’s most popular tourist destinations. The northern part of the Andes in Ecuador is also densely covered in cloud forests.

Quito, the nation’s capital and second largest city, is located in the Andes of northern Ecuador, and has a population of 1,271,000 (2014). The city is the officially highest capital city in the world, and sits at an elevation of 2,800 meters or 9,350 feet above sea level. Quito is located in the river basin of Guayllabamba on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano. The Andes in northern Ecuador are the second most prone-area for earthquakes in Ecuador. Quito is also the closest capital city to the Equator, where many tourists are attracted to the spot where they can literally stand with one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere. Needless to say, Ecuador derives its name from the fact that the Equator passes through the country.

Ecuador Highlands
Ecuador Highlands

The Andes in Southern Ecuador are free of volcanoes, and are also dotted with river valleys of people who live in the basin areas of the mountains. Cuenca, meaning basin in English, is Ecuador’s third largest city with a population of approximately 332,000 city population and 603,000 canton (county) (2014). Cuenca sits at approximately 2,560 meters (8,400 feet) above sea level. Four rivers flow through Cuenca, and the official name of Cuenca is “Santa Anna de Los Cuatro Rios”. The majestic Cajas National Park is the entrance way to the city of Cuenca, and people traveling from Guayaquil to Cuenca will pass through the awesome beauty of the Cajas in their three-and-a-half hour trip. The seven hour motor adventure from Cuenca to Quito is even more breath-taking, as one views the magnificence of the mountains from below, and the panoramic vistas from above at even higher elevations. As one travels further south near the border of Peru, the Andes becomes less green and increasingly marked by jagged cliffs. Of the four zones of which Ecuador is divided for purposes of earthquake vulnerability, Cuenca and the southern Andes in Ecuador rank third.

The valley people of the Andes, farm an incredible number of varieties of potatoes, the most varieties found anywhere in the world; the high quality avocados; the delicious yucca, known as cassavas in other parts of the world; maize grown primarily for human and cattle subsistence; and the nutrient-rich quinoa, as well as other root and garden plants are all grown in the mountain valleys. Coffee is also grown in the Loja valley of the Southern Andes. Most of the coffee is exported. Brazilians and Colombians are the major coffee producers, exporters, and java drinkers in South America. Ecuadorians are generally not coffee drinkers. Tea is the national hot drink beverage of choice.


Snow does not visit the valley people of the Ecuadorian Andes, which may seem surprising to people living in the northern latitudes of the Rockies, Smoky Mountains, or Swiss Alps. However, because of Ecuador’s proximity to the Equator, the Andes valleys have a relatively consistent spring-like climate the year-round, if the definition of “spring-like” is defined with the spring weather associated with the northern United States. The Andes are also the home of the photographic llamas and alpacas, which are primarily found in Ecuador and northern Peru.

The rivers of the Andes are generally narrow and treacherous due to the many rapids and to the steep declination in the eastward flow to the Amazon River on the east side of the Andes. While the rivers on the west side of the Andes flow westerly to the Pacific Ocean. The Andes, therefore, serve as the continental divide for South America.

La Oriente (The East), La Amazonia

La Amazonia
La Amazonia

When I first came to Ecuador, I wondered why a part of Ecuador was called, The Orient. I wondered what this region had in common with the Far East. Well, actually not a thing, other than direction. It simply means, “The East”, in other words, the area of Ecuador which lies east of the Andes. This area is part of the mammoth tropical rainforests of the Amazon, which extends into Ecuador. Like all tropical rainforests, the climate is very hot and humid, with dense vegetation. Only three percent of the population lives in El Oriente. Most of the area has been set aside for massive national parks, as well as lands for the indigenous, some of whom still live in remote isolation, and live as their ancestors did in Neolithic times. 

Recently, the Ecuadorian government’s approval to increase mining activities and oil drilling in El Oriente has environmental activists claiming that such government actions are a threat both to the eco-system of the Amazons and to the indigenous ways of life as well. The government retorts that both the environment and the indigenous cultures are being protected. Of the four zones in which Ecuador is divided, the Amazonas are the least vulnerable to earthquakes.

Ecuador: A Virtual Garden of Eden:

As you can see, the incredible number of bio-spheres in one small country is astounding in itself, making Ecuador the 17th mega-diverse country in the world. When one considers that many of the higher-ranked countries like the United States are immensely larger than Ecuador, Ecuador’s bio-diversity is truly amazing. Such ecological variations result in major diversity in animal and in fauna groups as well. Ecuador has 1,600 bird species, of which thirty-eight species are endemic to the Galapagos alone. All together, fifteen percent of the world’s bird population lives in Ecuador. The country also contains over 6,000 species of butterflies. Ecuador is very popular among bird and butterfly fanciers. There are 106 species of reptiles that are native to Ecuador, and 138 species of amphibians. Over 16,000 species of plants are found in Ecuador as well. New species of animals and fauna continue to be discovered on an almost annual basis in Ecuador. The beauty of this small South American country certainly is not the main reason why many expats may settle in Ecuador, although it often-times is the primary reason why many tourists visit the country. Nevertheless, the awe-inspiring landscape of Ecuador certainly figures as one of the reasons why a number of expats are motivated to make Ecuador their home.


ToDo

Friday, January 9, 2015

EXPLORING THE WORLD THROUGH THE EYES OF EXPATS


Exploring the World Through the Eyes of Expats


Well, welcome aboard, as I begin an expanded venture on Expat Island of sharing with you expats and expat wannabees what life is like for a retired expat like myself living in Ecuador and particularly in the city of Cuenca.
                                                                                                                                                 As a way of introduction, I am a retired college professor, elementary and high school administrator, and a teacher of history and the social sciences. I grew up in the Chicago area, and lived most of my life in various communities in the metro area. While a graduate student at New York University in the late 70’s, I studied and traveled the summer of 1976 in India. Imagine, a young man from the mid-west on his first trek outside the United States, venturing off to India. Talk about cultural shock. I loved it! It was and still is the most exciting experience of my life. Exotic can’t begin to describe India of the 1970’s. Nothing about India looked, smelled, sounded, or tasted anything like America. It was as if I had traveled to another planet. I had already fallen in love with India from my required readings, paper writings, and class attendance at N.Y.U., which prepared my fellow classmates and I for a venture into the country of the oldest living civilization known to mankind. The experience was absolutely exhausting and exhilarating at the same time, but never disappointing. When I arrived home, it took two months of rest before I began to feel normal again, and a year to feel like I wasn’t still somewhere in India. The sights, the sounds, the smells of the cities, of the villages, and of the farmlands; not to mention the endless  faces of the masses of people–all of which were so indelibly etched in my very being. For a year after returning from India, I felt like I was a stranger in my own country. For the first time in my life, I viewed all the cultural stimuli of my life in the United States through a prism as if I myself was a foreigner.

Jim is living in Ecuador

The following summer our group traveled to the Far East.  We spent two weeks in the People’s Republic of China, one year after a great earthquake had devastated parts of Beijing, and Chairman Mao had died.  It was a period when it was still difficult for foreigners, especially from the West, to enter the country.  A total of three weeks on three different occasions were spent during the summer in and out of Hong Kong, when it was still a British colony.  I loved the excitement of Hong Kong, truly an entrepreneur society of capitalists, and at that time there were thousands of U.S. sailors making the most of their leaves in this city that never sleeps.  Three magnificent weeks were spent in Kyoto, the cultural capital of Japan, as well the country’s former capital until the mid-1800’s.  My travels would end with a fascinating week in Bangkok, Thailand.  When I completed my studies at N.Y.U., I had earned a masters degree in Asian Studies.  Later, I worked on my doctorate in an unrelated field, married, had a family, dealt with career responsibilities; and as a result, my travel days were on hiatus until I retired.  At which time in 2011, I retired and had my first and to date only expat experience with my move to Cuenca, Ecuador.

I share all this with you, so that you can have some idea of what educational and travel experiences I bring to Expat Island.  In the months ahead, the writers and myself here on the island will explore many themes with you.  Such themes include culture shock; relocation issues;  daily living in a different culture; whether you may or may not be a good candidate for becoming an expat; tradition and change in third world countries; political, economic, social, and cultural issues that can impinge upon the lives of expats; as well as why I settled in Cuenca and what Cuenca and Ecuador have to offer.  My blog link, “Cuenca Perspectives by Jim", already provides you with five years of information and history from my initial visit to Cuenca through the current time period.  However, keep in mind, whatever you read is my perspective, and little of what I share should be taken as the definitive word on anything.  Read and research with discernment; and do so within the context of your own personality, experiences, and aspirations.  Do so, as you explore the life of travel, or of the possibility of becoming an expat, or of relocating to a new experience if you are already an expat.

I hope our readers at Expat Island will enjoy the journey with us writers, and much as we enjoy sharing our experiences with you.

http://expatisland.net/  

Saturday, December 27, 2014

CUENCA'S PASA DEL NINO PARADA, DECEMBER 2014

Enclosed is a potpourri of photos from this year's Pase del Nino Parada. The annual parade begins at Feria-Libre Mercado, makes it way north on Avenida Americas to the circle at Gran Columbia, from there it heads down the main parade route of Gran Columbia and continues all the way to San Blas Church and Square on the north side of town.  The parade route is approximately four to five miles long, and meanders its way through the heart of El Centro, the historic district of Cuenca.

Participants generally are actively involved in the parade for approximately two hours, although the parade begins about 9:00 a.m. and continues until 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. before all the floats, dancers, and horse riders have participated.  Participants come from all over Ecuador.  Almost every cultural group in the country is represented.  Many of the costumes are hand-made, and the exotic decorations on the floats and cars, with their vivid colors and that of the costumes are a glory in themselves.

The parade officially began at 10:00 a.m. at the Corazón de Jesús church (Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) on Gran Colombia. Cuenca’s Archbishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera carried the Traveling Child statue of the infant Jesus to an altar erected at the main entrance of the church. The entire Christmas Eve parade is in honor of the infant Jesus.  Once the image of the infant was placed, the commanding general of the Ecuadorian army commended the commitment and dedication of the nuns of the Carmen de la Asunción convent, who care for the original Traveling Child statue and oversee its ornamentation in the weeks prior to the parade.  I was told that the soldiers who make up the procession and dedication of the Christ child must be in the military for at least ten years to serve as the honor guard, in which they wear 19th century uniforms for this and other celebrations.  (You will see a photo of the honor guard.)

The Pase del Nino Parada is my favorite event of the year in Cuenca, with approximately 50,000 participants in the parades; and folks from many parts of Ecuador and the world, who take in the sites and watch the parade, it definitely provides an opportune time to visit Cuenca.  I especially enjoy the parade because it is by no stretch of the imagination a big corporate affair like Macy's.  This parade is a different kind of extravaganza, which primarily features the children and families, and is quite fitting in light of the fact that it is held to honor the Infant Jesus.  It is very easy to move about the floats to take photos, and to interact with the float participants who are more than happy to pose for pictures.  Drinks of traditional juices are handed out to the people, flower petals and candy are thrown, and food vendors are to be found everywhere.  Enjoy, if only vicariously, until you can come and visit Cuenca.

                            Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You All!