Dave Nelson

Editor’s note: Long-time expat Dave Nelson died early Friday morning in Cuenca. He was 93. Born in a small town on the Oregon coast, Dave spent most of his professional career as a workers’ comp attorney in Oakland, California representing injured workers. Besides his legal advocacy, he described his job as being a social worker...
Surprise!!  Perhaps it is a stretch to say, after a five month hiatus, that I am still writing my Cuenca Notes but here I am and that is what it feels like to me. For those who are interested, here are some notes about my life in the interim. In December my doctor added Somazina...
For many years I have believed there is systemic racism in the U.S. regarding our Black population. The needless deaths of Blacks at the hands of the police, the many detailed stories over the years about the day-after-day demeaning treatment that Blacks have always been subjected to and now, reading a new book, the reality...
I look at Facebook daily and it is distressing to continually see the labels socialist, radical and now “Marxist” used as epithets, thrown at any idea or activity that does not have its imprimatur from the right. Not a word of discussion about the idea itself. I am referring specifically to the ideas of full...
I have always been a reader, taught to read by my mother before I started school in 1935, and have continued to read, although not as ardently as some. So, in these times of  quarantine at home, I offer some of the books I have read over the past couple of years, that I rate...
March 25. Silence. The lockdown on March 17 with the standard restrictions, also limited automobile traffic, and it got pretty quiet on the very busy street that my apartment overlooks. Today the curfew was moved from 9 p.m. to 2 p.m. and now at 5 p.m. the street is devoid of vehicles. As I type...
I woke up on November 13 and, as I lay in bed before getting up, I realized that  something was different. I felt alert and very alive but I had had the feeling many times before over the past three years and those feelings quickly reverted to the plodding normality of my morning routine. But...
I grew up in a small town, Tillamook, on the Oregon coast in the 1930’s and 40’s in an intact family of mother, father and three evenly spaced boys. Aside from the normal disagreements within a growing family there were no major disruptions. We were friendly and polite but kept an emotional distance in most...
I am very encouraged by the number and intensity of the various uprisings and demonstrations going on around the world. The poor, the dispossessed, the mistreated, the left out, are finding themselves able to have an impact on government policies (here in Ecuador, forcing the retraction of a presidential decree) and forcing those in power...
It feels so good to be not only sitting here typing but also wanting to. It has been a while since my last column so perhaps an explanation is in order. Three days before my 90th birthday in May I passed out, striking my head on the toilet paper holder as I went down, severely...
It was a great day in Cuenca. As usual, I woke up alert, the sun was shining and continued until mid-afternoon (although there would be rain later from the clouds that formed to the east). I met with my tour guide friend, Juan, to arrange the details of a trip to the Galapagos in June...
It has been three months since my last column and I have been sitting here in front of my computer screen for two hours trying to decide how to begin this one. Even if I don’t write regularly, my life does go on so here are some things about that life that have transpired since...

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The Cuenca Dispatch

Week of March 17

Banks and Cooperatives will pay almost $200 million in taxes to fund the internal armed conflict.

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Illegal mining advances uncontrolled in the Ecuadorian Amazon and threatens protected areas and indigenous communities.

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Foreign Minister Sommerfeld refutes the notion of ‘bukelization’ in Ecuador’s fight against organized crime.

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