Mass exodus from Cuenca, Nuns of the Inmaculada Concepción, Jazz night, City museum access limited

Domingo, 11/2/2018

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Agenda items from el sábado –

Taller – There will be a drawing and painting class for children on 14/2 desde 16:00 a las 18:00 in the centro cultural Los Sauces (The Willows).

Noche de jazz – the Alianza Francesa will present the Lorenzo Naccarato Trío el próximo viernes, 16/2 a las 20:00 in the teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz. Free.

Museo de la Ciudad – Access into the Museo de la Ciudad may be restricted. An employee who is temporarily directing the museum started the restriction last week. Visitors will need to show their cédulas to enter. <I hope that foreign visitors can enter by showing their passports, but who knows. And why restrict access to a tourist attraction? And isn’t there an iTur office in there? Wonder how long this will last.>

Article about –

El Monasterio de la Inmaculada Concepción – The convent was founded on 13/6/1599, 42 years after Cuenca’s founding. The house was donated by doña Leonor Ordónez so daughters of “familias acomodadas” (well off families – your words for the day) <since most of us are probably relatively acomodados in Cuenca> could become nuns. Having a daughter in a religious order brought prestige to the family. The women had the opportunity to learn art, music and painting and also had the opportunity to learn to read and write which was rare for the society at that time. <So get thee to a nunnery might have been a blessing and not a curse.>

By the 17th & 18th Centuries, the convent grew in importance and became the richest institution in the region due to the dowries brought by the nuns and inheritances from their families. They kept the Spanish hierarchies – daughters of Spaniards, mestizos, and indigenous. The indigenous were not allowed to enter to become nuns, but to be servants and/or slaves. This ended in 1845 more or less when slaves were manumitted by Pres. Urbina. Currently there are 24 nuns, mostly adults, and only 1 novice who is 20. The minimum age to enter the convent is 16, and 18 to become a novice. <No maximum?>

Otras cosas –

Titular – En el Azuay se vive la fiesta carnavalera (The carnaval party is live in Cuenca) Carnaval de los barrios took to the streets of the Centro Histórico yesterday. Barrios, communities and organizations paraded, starting from the parque de San Sebastián. The winning groups won a complete noche cuencana with a stage, artist and everything needed for a party. <You notice that the music and entertainment got first billing, and not unlimited drinks?> Also organized by the municipality, there was a traditional sweets contest which was won by Libor Jiménez who brought a special liquor for the event.

Massive exodus – Cuencanos are heading to the beach and to vacation houses in the country. <Monos are probably heading up into the mountains, and are gringos heading to the bars to make up for last weekend?>

One of the best Carnavals – The Carnaval de Oruro in Bolivia is one of the biggest in South America. Its spectacular parade with thousands of dancers and musicians has been declared a World Heritage and more than 450,000 come to watch.

Bird recovery area – There is a new area of 6,000 sq. m. for rehabilitating wild birds at the Yurak Allpa zoo in Tarqui. The zoo has 150 wild animals of which 10 are birds which were rescued or came from illegal traffic. Many come in with bird shot in their wings and feet <probably the only survivable locations for a bird to get shot> and malnourished. They will be released after they recuperate.

Comptroller visits Loma Larga mine – Pablo Celi visited The Quimsacocha zone in Cuenca, Girón and San Fernanco where the Loma Larga mine is in the advanced stages of exploration. The visit was a fact finding trip for a special examination of this concession. It is estimated that there are 3 million ounces of gold, 10 million of silver, and 79 million pounds of copper. <So there should be turquoise in there, too?> The concession was granted to Gold Ecuador for exploration in 2001, and in 2012, the Loma Larga project was bought by INV Metals for $30 million. The government declared the area the Area Nacional de Recreación Quimsacocha and has budgeted $3 million to expropriate the land. <Now that would be a 10% down payment on what INV Metals paid.>
Community, environmental and indigenous groups also went on the tour. Yaku Pérez, Pres. of Ecuarunari, said that the site has a total of 11 micro watersheds which include Irquis, Portete, Tutupali and Zhucay which feed the río Tarqui; the Bermejos which feeds the río Yanuncay and others that flow into the río Rircay. These watersheds and rivers supply Cuenca. <Do you really want to drink the water after an industrial scale mine has finished with it? I’d pay more on my water bill for ETAPA to buy out the mine.>

Actualidades – As usual, go to www.elmercurio.com.ec if the short descriptions of the articles interests you.

Story – The story is about Ignacio Guallpa who was a prosperous and respected member of Azogues, but died in abject poverty after a run-in with El Taita Abuga.

Couscous – Morocco and Algeria are applying to make this dish from the Maghreb countries in North Africa an Immaterial UNESCO World Heritage.

Mayan Empire – A new laser is being used to see through the jungle canopy on the Reserva de la Biosfera Maya to map a large city with over 60,000 individual structures, roads that connected cities, irrigation systems and fortifications in Guatemala. National Graphic is premiering “Tesoros Perdidos de los Mayas” (Lost Treasures of the Mayans) today.

Imbabura – This province north of Pichincha was created on 25/6/1824. The capital is Ibarra, the white city, and also has Cotacachi <gringos in gated communities?> and Otavalo <biggest craft market in Ecuador, maybe in S. America>.

Sports and health – The article is about injuries in young athletes from overuse and over exertion.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne