SYLVAN HARDYIs Cuenca experiencing an invasion of Ugly Americans?

The buzz among a certain segment of Cuenca's English-speaking expat community is that the latest of arrivals of gringos are an impoverished, rude, and boorish lot, insulting our Cuencano hosts and ignoring the collective wisdom of the expat establishment. The operative term for the newcomers, which seems to cover the majority of those arriving Cuenca within the last two years or so, is “economic refugees.”

It reminds of the story I heard when I first arrived in Cuenca 11 years ago. The problem with new North American expats in 2002, according to old-timers, was that they were all old men looking for love. They were giving other gringos a bad rep, as the story went, and something needed to be done about it. 

Based on what I see today, the horny old gringo men are still with us and, in fact, their numbers have grown consierably, even if the outcry has died down. As for today's marauding hordes …