Van Gogh ‘immersion’ exhibit in Parque de la Madre; Ecuador ranks low in English proficiency; Int’l puppet festival at Pumapungo; New cedulas for the disabled

Miércoles, 16/11/2022

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –

De El Mercurio del martes, 15/11:
Titiricuenca trae historias de 4 países (Titiricuenca brings stories from 4 countries) – The 12th edition of the Festival Internacional de Teatro y Títeres “Titiricuenca” (International Festival of Theater and Puppets “Titiricuenca”) will have artists from Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador y Perú. Performances will be from 22-26/11 in the Teatro Pumapungo with morning and afternoon performances for schools, and paid performances in the evening for the general public. There will be free performances in 3 parishes, all on 22/11:
9:30 – El lolo Pereyra (Argentina) at the Centro cultural Los Eucliptos.
10:00 – El lolo Pereyra (Argentina) at the Bibioteca de Baños.
10:00 – Chiri, hijo del río at the Salón parroquial de Cumbe.
Performances for the general public at the Teatro Pumapungo are as follows:
22/11 a las19:00 – La leyenda del caipora (Ecuador).
24/11 a las 19:00 – Los pececitos y el río revuelvo (Colombia).
25/11 a las 19:00 – Churi, hijo del río (Perú).
26/11 a las 18:00 – Los tres cerditos.
For the Pumapungo performances, individual tickets to each show are $3.00 for children and $5.00 for adults. Packages for all 4 shows are $10 for children and $17 for adults. Tickets will be sold at the librería Palier (calles Luis Cordero y Pres. Córdova).

Titular –

The Van Gogh Immersive Experience exhibition is in Cuenca’s Parque del la Madre through the end of November.

El arte inmersivo de Van Gogh, en Cuenca (Immersive art of Van Gogh, in Cuenca) – A travelling exhibit of Van Gogh is at the Parque de la Madre until 30/11. Hours are M-F from 15-21:00 and on weekends from 10-21:00. Admission is $10 with tickets available at https://www.meet2go.com/vg/vangogh or at the box office outside the museum. (In the U.S., ticket prices for the exhibit range from $50 to $100.) This week, the museum is open to students from the primary and high schools in Cuenca. The hardest part of the interactive museum is the mounting of the show. Cuenca has been the most challenging city to stage due to its climate and winds requiring daily adjustments to the screens. The exhibit has visited 6 cities so far.

There are 4 rooms in the exhibit. In the first, a hologram of Van Gogh talks about his life, help he received <like periodic admissions to various mental institutions?>, his voyages, and his paintings. The second room is the first immersive experience with a multisensorial space decorated with girasoles (sunflowers – your word for the day). The 3d has what are considered his most important paintings including his self portrait and Starry Night. The last room is the immersive show with 14 chapters where viewers can enter the paintings. <Bring your own razor and be a considerate viewer and don’t leave your ear lying on the floor. Don’t glue it to the painting projections either.>

Cuenca –

Ecuador: baja nota en inglés (Ecuador: low grade in English) – Ecuador is 82nd of 111 countries in an international ranking of English proficiency of its population. The study was conducted with 2.1 million respondents by EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) and puts Ecuador as “very low” in English. <I wonder how the US would score in proficiency in any language besides English.> Azuay scored 4th highest out of the 24 provinces with 477 out of a possible 700. Guayas was first with 502, Tungurahua was 2nd with 492, and Pichincha 3d with 482.

For cities, Cuenca was also 4th with 477 points, Guayaquil 1st w/518, Ambato 2nd w/497 & Quito 3d w/495. Men had a higher level at 511 than women at 495 and the population between 26 & 30 knew the most English. Ecuador rose 26 points with respect to 2020. The population has an average of 8.09 years of schooling, an 11.51% investment in education, and 64.6% with access to the Internet.

The ranking for the highest levels of English in Latin American countries is Argentina – 662, Costa Rica – 636, Cuba – 636, Paraguay & Bolivia – 626, Chile – 624, Honduras 622 – Uruguay – 621 & El Salvador – 619. Perú scored 51st in the ranking. The average score in Europe was 558 and in Asia it was 500.

Recaudación de impuestos crece en el Municipio (Tax collections increase in the City) – Taxes collected by the City as of 31/10 have increased by 17.11% compared to the same period of 2021. So far, $1,443,439 has been collected in rural property taxes, $7,010,070 in urban property taxes, and $62,259,531 in total taxes as of 31/10/22. This is expected to rise to $65 million by the end of the year. If you owe taxes, you can pay them in person with cash, credit or debit cards at the cashier windows in the Tesorería Municipal, Parque la Libertad, Alcaldía de Cuenca, Control Municipal at the airport, and the Tesorería Municipal in Capulispamba and Mayancela. You can also pay through the Transferencias app on line and at various banks and cooperativas.

Nacional – 

De El Mercurio del martes, 15/11:
Eliminado carné de discapacidad; ahora datos irán en cédula (Disability card eliminated; now data will go on cédula) – When the Ley Orgánica de Discapacidades was passed in 2012, it said that the card for people with disabilities would be eliminated and the data would be included on cédulas. 10 years later <an extreme example of mañana>, the Ministerio de Salud Públic and the Registro Civil have complied with the law. The changeover finally started this year after problems at the Registro Civil so that people registering for the 1st time or reregistering are getting cedulas with the disability data on them. From last enero to now, about 100,000 have been issued with another 500,000 to go. The changeover will run through 2023 so that after enero, 2024, the old carné de discapacidad will be invalid. <So if you’re operating with an old, counterfeit disabled card, you better order your new car from the US now.>-

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.