Passport surge means more U.S. illegal entry tries; New El Centro housing project; Symphony orchestra back in action; Alianza Francesa presents live music

Jun 8, 2021 | 31 comments

Lunes, 6/7/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De la paginas culturales anteriores –
From viernes, 4/6/2021 –

Conciertos con público en la Fiesta de la Música (Concerts with an audience at the Music Festival) – The Alianza Francesa de Cuenca will hold the 25th edition of the Fiesta de Música with audiences. The decision was made at a time when musicians are suffering hardships because of the closure of venues due to the pandemic. The return to live performances will be with the help of the Dirección de Cultura del Municipio de Cuenca, 50 volunteers,and the Guardia Ciudadana who will control the attendees with strict biosecurity protocols. The presentations will not be at the usual venues but in private locations, museums and patrimonial houses.

The 2 day festival will be on el 18/6 in 8 private spaces including Wunderbar, la Belga, Selina, and others. On el 19/6, it will be in 4 public spaces – the Casa de las Posadas, la Casa de la Lira, el Museo de Arte Moderno, y la Antigua Escuela Central. The concerts will also be transmitted on social networks so people who do not want to enter the venues can enjoy the festival without leaving their homes. To attend in person, you only need to show up – no tickets or reservations <or proof of vaccinations?> needed. But once the capacity for the venue has been met, no more people will be allowed to enter. Following is the schedule for the concerts in municipal spaces:

Museo de Arte Moderno – 14:00 to 22:00 –
Jannine                La Lemut
Maga Monfort       Funky Junies
Impromptu           Dynamo
El Ingunuo           Aztra

Casa de la Lira – 16:00 a 21:00 –
Categal               Eliot the Frech Kid
Alien Matteo       Quezada
Crystal Habit

Antigua Escuela Central – 16:00 a 21:00
La Fosferera      Biblianrock Ensamble
Infiltro               Ritualism
Los Brigante

Casa de las Posadas – 16:00 a 21:00
Zulo MC y DJ Tetracanabisound     QSYDF
O.Q $abor                                    Pato Romo
Maleantes del Jazz y del Beat

The historic Colegio Benigno Malo on Av. Solano is in urgent need of $5 million in repairs. (El Mercurio)

La Ideal presenta su obra sobre La Madre Tirana (La Ideal presents its work on La Madre Tirana) – The cultural collective La Ideal premiered a new episode of “Salimos,” a documentary series about independent music in Ecuador. This episode is dedicated to the work of cuencano José Orellana in the Madre Tirana. You can see it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/SalimosEcuador/videos. To date, there have been episodes on Lolabúm, Paola Navarrete, El General Villamil, and others and all are available on YouTube.

La Sinfónica retoma sus conciertos con espectadores (The Symphony resumes its concerts with spectators) – The Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuenca took to the stage in front of a live audience el viernes, 4/6. The performance was at the Catedral Vieja with a limited capacity of 60 seats. The OSC also premiered a new concert on their digital stage, Quimea Sinfónico. You can see the concert on www.youtube.com/sinfonicacuenca.

From domingo, 6/6/2021 –

Una muestra que aborda la cultura Jama Coaque (An exhibition that addresses the Jama Coaque culture) – Curiosity brought designer Cecilia Chabla to look for designs in the ancestral cultures of Ecuador. In these searches, she found the Jama Cuaque culture whose stamps and figures attracted her attention. A show of clothing was opened el 4/6 at the Casa de Chaguarchimbana. The show will run until el 30/6 with hours from lunes a viernes from 10:00 to 16:30, and on sábados y domingos from 10-14:00. <I wonder if the show is also a sale; it’s stuff I’d love to wear, but have no occations to wear it to. It might also be stuff that looks good on someone who’s 5′-10″ and a size 4 which leaves me out on both counts. Imagine one of Snow White’s dwarves (one of the ones without a beard) stuffed into Cinderella’s ball gown.>

Nada por hoy.

Otras cosas –

Titular – La migración irregular trae grandes riesgos (Irregular migration brings great risks) – The increased demand for passports in Cuenca has raised alerts with the authorities since it is being taken as evidence of the intent of Ecuadorians to travel to Mexico and later to the US to cross the border in forma irregular (irregular form – ie: illegally). This exposes travellers to risks such as rape, kidnappings, aggression, robberies and bribes. <You’d have to be desperate, super-optimistic, and/or young to take those risks.> The Vice-Minister of Movilidad Humana, Carlos Alberto Velástegui, was interviewed.

El edificio del Benigno Malo está deteriorado (The Benigno Malo building is dilapidated) – José Rosales, a graduate of the Benigno Malo High School, often walks past the building, and with the passage of years, saw that the building is in need of urgent intervention. Since the pandemic started, the school has been closed and the infrastructure forgotten. Rosales got together with fellow graduates and a group of architects including his daughter to nominate the school for the World Monuments Watch 2022. The Watch is a program that selects 25 patrimonial sites for assistance for 2 years to design and implement conservation work. Rosales’ group submitted the application el 1/5 and stressed that there needs to be a management plan to keep the building from further deterioration. <Finally – someone who understands the importance of maintenance.>

From 2016 to 2019 the public business arm of the U. of Cuenca conducted a study for the repairs the school needs. The study, which indicates the project will cost $5 million, was included in the Watch application. The study was also approved by the Comisión de Áreas Históricas and assessed as an E building which is the highest rating. Architecturally, the school is as important as the Catedral de Cuenca.

Proyecto habitacional en el centro de Cuenca (Housing project in the center of Cuenca) – The Empresa Pública Municipal de Urbanización y Vivienda de Cuenca (EMUVI EP – Municipal Public Company of Cuenca for Urbanization and Housing) through an agreement with the Junta de Andalucía in Spain, is building a public interest housing project in the Centro Histórico. There will be 27 apartments for public or commercial use. The project consists of the rehabilitation of the Casa Cordero, a ladrillo y cal (brick and lime – your words for the day) historic building at Padre Aguirre y Pío Bravo and other new blocks, connected to the Casa Cordero with bridges. The $1,500,000 project started in julio, 2020 and should be completed at the end of this year. It is currently at 40% completion. The goal is to repopulate and revive the historic center so that it is not just commercial. Silvana Pacheco, manager of EMUVI, said that priority will be given to people currently renting in the María Auxiliadora area, although the project will be open to all.

Problema limítrofe entre Azuay y Guayas (Boundary problem between Azuay and Guayas) – With the goal of ending the boundary problem between Azuay and Guayas, the prefectura of Azuay organized a meeting with the residents in conflict. She convened the meeting so the asambleístas of Azuay and the Comisión de Límites del Concejo Cantonal de Cuenca could listen to the residents. <Whether the politicians actually hear the residents is another issue.> The boundary problem brings serious problems to the residents of the lower zones of Molleturo because they have been institutionally abandoned, a situation aggravated after the agreement between previous prefects of Azuay (Carrasco) and Guayas (Jairala) was signed. <Each prefect probably figured the expenses should be assumed by you and the taxes collected by me. A foto shows a body of water that’s too big to be called a puddle but not big enough to be called a lake across a road with no way to walk along the road and stay dry.> A technical report found flaws in the agreement with the boundary lines drawn with no respect for geographical elements such as rivers and creeks, and without taking into account any roads. It also aggravated rather than solved problems in 23 communities leaving them fragmented.

Central Hidroeléctrical Mazar Dudas otro proyecto con problemas (Mazar Hydroelectric Plant You doubt another project with problems – as translated by GoogleTranslate. <This is why you need to know at least a little Spanish before you can use that program.>) (Trying again – Mazar Dudas Hydroelectric plant, another project with problems.) – A audit by the Contraloría (Comptroller) showed that the construction and operation of the Mazar Dudas plant in Cañar put the natural areas at risk for lack of control and lack of mitigation plans for environmental damage. It found that the Corporación Eléctrica del Ecuador (CELEC) did not comply with environmental and waste management between 2016 and 2019, turning the surround natural areas into a botadero (dump). In addition, the lack of maintenance and restoring the vegetation has put the area around the project at risk of possible earth movement and slides, has destabilized the slopes, and contaminated the rivers. <It’s ironic that nature has rights in the Constitution, but the state electric company ignores them.> CELEC did not respond to El Mercurio’s request for a comment.

And that’s all for today so hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper (please don’t ask her for them). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.

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