New Supermaxi looks for workers; As delta cases spread, gov’t considers extending restrictions; New World Heritage Sites named; Orchestra to perform

Miércoles, 28/7/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

En deciembre será la inauguración de Bienal de Cuenca (Inauguration of the Cuenca Biennial in deciembre) – The 15th Edition of the Bienal is titled “Bioceno. Cambiar el verde por el azul” (Biocene. To change green for blue), and will open el 10/12/2021 with 34 artists from 14 countries. Their projects will be focused on the problems of the “ecosocial crisis.” For the first time in the 34 years of the Bienal, most of the artists are women.

OSC con director y solista invitados (OSC with guest conductor and soloist) – The Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuenca will perform in the iglesia de Santo Domingo el viernes a las 19:00. The orchestra has invited conductor Luis Torres Gómez who will premier his own work, the “Concieto para violín y orquesta” with guest violinist, Marco Saula. Also on the program will be the Obertura Coriolano op. 62 and the Sinfonía No. 4 by Beethoven. Attendees must wear masks, arrive a few minutes early, and observe social distancing. <Nothing about presenting vaccine certificates; not yet, anyway.>

The Cuenca Symphony Orchestra will perform Friday at Iglesia Santo Domingo in the historic district.

Casas acogen taller y exposición (Houses host workshop and exhibition) – The Dirección de Cultura del Municipio de Cuenca is presenting a workshop and an exhibit. There was a workshop today on resilience and culture. On el viernes a las 17:00, the Contando Historias (Telling stories) exhibit will open at the Casa Tienda, located next to the Casa Patrimonial de la Lira (calle La Condamine y Juan Montalvo). The capacity will be limited.

Documental “Paciente Cero” (Documentary “Patient Zero”) – This 60 minute documentary film on the Covid crisis in Ecuador has been screened in Guayaquil and Quito and will show in Cuenca el 31/7 a las 18:00 in the Sala 1 de Multicines Mall del Río. <I’m 99.99% sure it’s going to be in Spanish so bring your facilitator.> The film will be available to the public on a digital platform in agosto.

Patient Zero was a woman of tercera edad who arrived from Spain on 29/2/2020. She was first treated at the Hospital Alcívar in Guayaquil. 17 months later, the hospital premiered the documentary “Paciente cero, crónicas de un hospital en tiempos de COVID-19” (“Patient zero, chronicles of a hospital in times of COVID-19), which tells of the experiences of the doctors, nurses, and administrative and support staff who were in the front line to treat Patient Zero.

The idea for the film came from Raúl Alcívar, director of the hospital <You noticed the hospital bears his name?> who involved his brother, Eduardo Alcívar, a film director. For them, it was an opportunity to tell about the difficulties they lived through since their hospital had the first official case in Ecuador. The film was produced in the hospital with real actors and health professionals who gave their testimonies. At that time, Ecuador did not have any means of diagnosis at the laboratory level. There were no PCR tests, and samples had to be sent outside of Ecuador. The first case was diagnosed in their Imaging Department with a chest X-ray. <I was told that the distinctive changes to the lungs are visible on X-rays.> The film is dedicated to those who have lost their lives to Covid.

Titular – Contagios preocupan (Contagions worry) – The ministra de Salud, Ximena Garzón, confirmed that cases of the Delta variant are advancing in the country with 45 new cases in the last 48 hours, bringing the total to 85 patients in 10 provinces. Of the new cases, there are 2 in Azuay, 3 in Cañar, 25 in El Oro, 10 in Manabí, 1 in Pichincha, and 3 in Guayas. Garzón said that there is community transmission in El Oro where 63 people with Delta and 1 with Delta Plus were found. She met with Juan Zapata, president of the national COE to define what new restrictive measures will be established in El Oro since the state of emergency declared by Pres. Lasso expires at midnight. She said, looking at national data, there is not in increase in mortality, but because this variant is more contagious, there will be more cases if we are not careful. Zapata did not discount an extention of the state of emergency for El Oro Province, including actions on the themes of in-person work and education, and interprovincial transport.

On Wednesday night, Lasso agreed to extend the emergency restrictions in El Oro Province and Guayaquil for 30 days.

Cuenca –

Parqueaderos para solucionar movilidad en Parque Industrial (Parking spaces to solve mobility in the Industrial Park) – One of the highest numbers of vehicles is at the Parque Industrial where there are 120 businesses and over 8.000 workers who get to work in their cars. The businesses don’t have enough parking for all of their employees who wind up parking on the street. Added to that is heavy vehicle traffic. 75,000 cars circulate along Av. de Las Américas, adjacent to the Parque Industrial each day. Currently, the city is looking at two solutions: building 2 public parking lots, and a new underpass interchange near the Sindicado de Choferes gas station. The city has started the process of hiring a consultant to analyze the viability of putting a parking lot next to the río Machangara. The request for proposals is on the SERCOP site <Just in case there are any gringos with a background in site selection and analysis, feasiblity studies and preliminary designs who also are fluent in Spanish and want to make $28,000. I don’t know if citizenship is a requirement.>

Jóvenes buscan trabajos temporales (Young people looking for temporary jobs) – Demand for young workers increases during vacations. A medical student at the U. of Cuenca works at the Papelería Pauta during the summer. The owner said that during agosto and septiembre, he usually needs more workers since since kids are getting ready to back to school, and he has employed up to 10 university students to help in years before the pandemic. The Corporación Favorita is a company generating job opportunities all year. Álvaro Rothembach, the regional manager, said they are the first option for employment in the country for high school grads from 18-25. Even if they don’t have experience, the company can train them, and many continue with the company after they finish university. Rothembach said a new Supermaxi will open in Chaullabamba next month and will create 54 jobs for which they have already interviewed 150 bachilleres (high school grads) for jobs such as baggers and cashiers. He added they are always looking for young people with certain psychological profiles and values. <Think they need grey haired greeters looking to supplement their social security checks?>

Region –

Plantean nulidad de acuerdo limítrofe (Proposal to nullify border agreement) – The Gobierno Provincial del Azuay thinks it should nullify the 2015 border agreement between Guayas and Azuay and hold a referendum so that the residents, mostly in the contested zones of the Molleturo Parish in Cuenca Canton can define where they belong. <How about the folks in Guayas who are also part of this dispute? Will they get a say, too?> Prefecta Cecilia Méndez said that documents were found that did not support the legality of the agreement. Documentation of these irregularities will be sent to the President, Asamblea Nacional, Corte Constitucional, and the GAD Provincial del Guayas (President, National Assembly, Constitutional Court, and the Provincial GAD of Guayas).

Mundo –

Más tesoros son partimonio mundial (More world heritage treasures) – UNESCO has approved 5 new World Heritage sites in Latin America. The sites are a solar observatory site in Chankillo, Perú, dating back to between 500-200 BC. It is on the coast some 365 km. north of Lima and covers 4 sq. km and has 13 towers, a circular temple, and a plaza and encompassed the entire annual solar cycle. The oldest site is from the Chinchorro culture in Chile which developed mummification 3,000 years before the Egyptians. It is located on the coastal edges of the Arica and Parinacota regions in the north of the country. The 3d site is the Franciscan Monastery and Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Tlaxcala in México which was built from 1537 to 1540. The 4th and 5th sites are modern dating from the 20th century The Iglesia de Atlántida is 40 km from Montevideo, Uruguay, and was built by Eladio Dieste between 1958 & 1960 using a system of “ceramica armada” (armed ceramic). The last site is the Sitio Roberto Burle Marx west of Río de Janeiro in Brasil, and covers 407,000 sq. meters in a forest with 3,500 plant species including mangroves, Atlantic forests, and broad leaf rainforests. Marx created the concept of the modern tropical garden and the site was developed from 1909 to 1994. <Time to start rewriting your bucket lists.>

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.