GETTING USED TO QUITO; CHOIR PROJECTS
Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, June 08, 2006

This will be our third night in Quito. The little Hostal Belmonte, named after the most famous of all bullfighters, is in fact directly next to the bullfighting ring. The hotel turns out to be quiet, cheap and clean. But it is a little too primitive for us, and we are worried as well about our safety on the streets here in the Old Town. For some reason the Belmonte is largely empty; this seems a little weird. Maybe the more recent guidebooks have left it off their lists. We are just a few streets away from the historical centre of the city so it does seem a pity to move.

Nevertheless, with Antonia and William arriving Friday from the U.S.A., we decide we ought to move up to New Town. That area too has its problems, but it is generally safer and offers more of the services we need. We travel up-town yesterday to the South American Explorers Club on Jorge Washington Street. They have a listing of private apartments. Within a couple of hours we have looked at two nearby, and Kathleen has booked us into a backpackers’ hotel at a reasonable price (We were paying $3 per person at Belmonte, and will now pay $4 for each of four of us.) The whole quarter – Mariscal, I think it is called - is thick with such hotels, most of them converted villas and you see lots of backpacking young people. Many seem to be from Europe. There are dozens of restaurants and pubs and tens of internet cafes and tour operators.

Both Kathleen and I have been suffering from mild altitude sickness. This includes shortness of breath and ongoing dull headache as if one had been shut up inside a stuffy room with a lot of singers. In fact, it’s the same phenomenon, I suppose: a shortage of oxygen. Climbing Quito’s steep streets turns our legs to jelly and leaves us puffing and winded. We wake up in the morning totally dried out and with a headache. This evening (Thursday) is the first time that we both feel as if we are coping a bit.

Kathleen has been busy doing proofreading for her court reporters and, having sent out a notice that she is available, is suddenly swamped with work. This is good for our bank account, but she is tied to the laptop or to an internet café. Of course, the pressure is building on her to get things out on time. At just this moment the flash memory on which we both rely for our virtual business activities decides to malfunction so we shall probably have to get a new one. This will be the third one that we have burned out. (We finally find somebody who “repairs” it by simply reformatting it.)

So, I am free to look at the city’s definite attractions though it is less fun doing so alone. This morning, before sightseeing, we head off together towards Independence Square to find breakfast coffee before Kathleen heads back to the grindstone. We have our first look at this historical centre after yesterday morning looking inside the Basilica Voto Nacional (National Devotion), a strikingly large and strategically placed gothic church on the edge of Old Town Quito. After coffee this morning (which included real fresh coffee instead of the usual coffee essence dripped into warm milk/water that you usually get at cafeterias here) we spend twenty minutes inside San Augustin convent church, one of the heavy gilt church with lots of trompe d’l’oeil painting.

Independence Square has been the centre of Ecuador for thousands of years. Each succeeding conqueror has built on it. At present it is colonial Spanish. With the strong American influence in the country maybe it will one day soon become a covered mall. It is very elegant and charming with the Government Palace on one side, a long two-story white colonial building on another, the Bishop’s Palace and the cathedral opposite. Opposite the Government Palace is another two-story building, City Hall, that has been designed at least to fit in. A tall monument to the heroes of the revolution in 1809 graces the centre of the square and a very large magnolia grandeflora, one of my favourite trees, spreads shade from its glossy, green leaves and lemony scent from its blossoms.

In addition to lots of street vendors (they apparently are not allowed to set up on the pavement, but they can stroll around calling out their wares, mainly souvenirs, shoelaces, snack foods, ice cream, etc.) and singers, like the vendors, (mostly indigenous people but many of the musicians blind folk), here in the centro, there are lots of policemen around, most of them walking (strutting) in pairs. They wear shiny riding boots with spurs and riding breeches and carry silver swords with ornate filigree baskets. They also sport bullet-proof vests, which is a little incongruous.

I walk around the plaza to soak up the atmosphere. As I am getting ready to enter the Cathedral, on one side of Independence Square, I get into conversation with Mario K. He speaks fluent English and, although from Quito, lived for years in Manhattan. I am of course sceptical at first and wonder if there is some sort of angle. But there is no “pitch” and he helps me find a monthly cultural programme at the main Tourist Office, introduces me to coca tea as a means of combating altitude sickness, provides me with lots of information and lore about Quito and shows me through two gold-encrusted baroque churches (Iglesia de la Merced and San Francisco, the Franciscan church). He also offers to help us find a cheaper or more convenient apartment and to get much cheaper-than-normal spectacles, which I need desperately. There is no pressure and he leaves me his number and email address.

The central role in the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America’s development since the Conquistadores is made plain by the concentration of elaborate churches at Quito’s historical centre. The Augustinians, the Franciscans, the Jesuits, etc. etc. have all had monasteries within a few streets of each other and each of the orders have built large and gold-encrusted baroque edifices. Besides the usual statues of Jesus or Mary, the former rather gruesomely bloody, the latter with faces meant to be beatific, perhaps, but for our modern taste simply stunned-looking or even mentally deficient, there are frequently large oil paintings in highly ornate carved frames telling the story of Ecuador (from the conquerors’ point-of-view, naturally) and its relationship to God, Jesus and Mary and to various madonnas and martyrs.

The liberal and national political groundswell that swept the Europeanised world at the time of the American and French Revolutions in the VIIIth Century reached even Ecuador. Under Venezuelen leadership (Simon Bolivar, Martes and Sucre, for example), a Greater Columbia was the goal made up of the Spanish territories in Ecuador, Columbia, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Sucre led the fight in this region and his name is on everything including, until “dollarisation” a few years ago, the money. Spain was at the time severely weakened because she had been occupied by Napolean. The machinations of all this are too complex for this piece. But suffice it to say that Greater Columbia failed to materialise but independence from Spain did.

The struggle between “liberals” and “conservatives”, however, brings us back to the influence of the church. As in nearly every modern country, the Jesuits had been expelled and their wealth confiscated. Unlike most European countries, however the Jesuits were welcomed back into Ecuador at an early stage by the conservative politicians, rich landowners all and descendants of the Spanish grandees, who retained power after the independence from Spain. Nothing changed for the indigenous or the mestizos. One ruling class was simply replaced by a local ruling class.

Coming back to the position of the Church, one of the major issues between conservatives and liberals was the attitude to the church and to religion. Liberals were tolerant of religious practice but did not want to force people into the church. They were early proponents to the separation of church and state. Moreno, the first Ecuadorian president, introduced laws giving the Roman Catholic Church exclusivity in religious matters even to the point of saying that all Ecuadorians must be Roman Catholics and anyone who was not was not Ecuadorians. Less to do with Protestantism, this edict, of course, immediately excluded all the native peoples. A frustrated extremist from the liberal side assassinated Moreno with a machete, allowing him to become a martyr to the conservative cause. Before one shakes one’s head at all this, it would be wise to remember the struggles even in countries like Canada (RC dominance in Quebec; Orange prominence in Ontario; the Manitoba School Act, etc.). Moreno even invited the Jesuits back in, which did not happen in other countries until decades later. In Germany, for example, it did not occur until the 1950’s.

The wealth of the churches also reflects how much wealth was available in this part of South America. Most of the silver and gold, however, came from Peru and Bolivia: there were towns in Bolivia where the paving stones and the horses’ hooves were made out of silver. Ecuador concentrated on agriculture. The wealth was concentrated in the hands of the owners of estancias and haciendas. It was they who donated a lot of money to the churches and monasteries. The Church, if not the clergy, accepted the money from the rich on one hand, converted the poor and native peoples and provided a balm for their misery. While some priests and sisters tried to convince the rulers to alleviate the peonage (in Mexico, for example, many leaders of the revolution were priests who had become angered by the dictatorship of the wealthy and the misery of the people), the Church has certainly been highly compromised in the political life of Latin America.

[As an aside, I noted elsewhere that evangelical sects are finding a foothold in Ecuador. I was surprised by how many missionaries there are in the country. Of course, they are nearly all Americans. When we went to pick up the kids from the airport, they were coming in by the plane-load. They focus on the Amer-Indo population, and the rising bourgeoisie (artisans, small businessmen, etc.)]

Given all this history and the architecture associated with it, the city centre is definitely a lot more interesting that New Town where we are moving on Friday. But, we can always get into Old Town fairly quickly on the EcoVia or the Trole (trolley-bus lines). Anyone who has been to Amsterdam or almost any other European city will recognize these: they have dedicated lanes in the middle of the street for the trolley-busses (also used by emergency vehicles); the stops are spaced farther apart to speed up the movement of people. These two lines are a much more economical alternative to subways. Subways are perhaps too expensive to build in such a mountainous location, not to mention earthquakes. Most of the electrified busses are from Volvo or Mercedes Benz.

Choir projects

In late afternoon it clouds up to rain. Mario tells me this daily rain is a little out of place now that we are in the dry season. It should be sunnier. Kathleen and I wait at Hostal Belmonte for the arrival of Cesar Santos, the director of the Association of Ecuadorian Choirs. Cesar’s English, he says, is not good, so he is also bringing Consuelo Cevallo, a singer in one of the choirs and a fluent English – and, as it turns out, German - speaker. (She attended high school at the German School in Quito, not because she has German ancestry but because her parents considered that it would provide an excellent education). With rain pouring down in the street outside, we sit in the dark common room at the hotel for an hour or so to get acquainted and discuss the projects they have in mind. When the rain slackens we adjourn to a cafeteria (café) in the nearby Guayaquil Street. They are both delightful people, and we have a great discussion and not a few laughs.

Basically they have four projects that they would like Kathleen to work on. One is with about 15 or 20 student conductors in Quito at the university where Cesar teaches (I forget now which one it is). Many of them already conduct choirs, but they have never received formal training. The conservatory does not offer conducting as a skill. It is thought that it would be worth doing a two-week workshop of two or three hours daily now, during the Spring Semester, and a second workshop when the Fall Semester begins in September. The conductors themselves would make up a training choir in front of which each student would get to practise. All of this would be in addition to their normal workload but Cesar believes that it will be well attended. It would likely be held between 1800-2000 on weeknights or in the afternoon.

A second project is in Riobambo, a large town (pop. 140,000) at the foot of the famous Chamborazo (6,000 metres and South America’s highest mountain). It is also the capital of Chimborazo Province. There Cesar has started a choir made up at present of about twenty young people and young adults. They need coaching in vocal technique, repertoire, etc. and, after a two or three-week intensive daily training, would perform a concert. In Cotacachi, north of Quito, there is a Normal School. The students, basically themselves of high-school age, are training to become teachers and will eventually be teaching music and leading school choirs. Conducting is not included in their normal syllabus so this would be an added skill. In between Quito and Riobambo is Latacunga where a young vocal group singing mainly popular music needs vocal training. Kathleen is excited about the projects though there is still a lot to get organised. The Association will handle organisational aspects, and she just needs to show up and teach.

Of course, there are visa questions for us to be looked into and we need to consider how we want to handle our future sailing plans. If we wanted to sail to Panama and Central America for the winter sailing season, we should have to leave Bahia de Caráquez by end-September. If we wait longer, we shall be facing strong headwinds the whole way. West to the Marquesas and French Polynesia is also an option but only in April or May next year after the SE Trade Winds have set in. We can stay in Ecuador only for six months on our tourist visa, although we could perhaps get a special voluntario visa if we wanted to stay until the spring. Otherwise we shall have to leave the country for six months by November. But all this can be worked out as we go along. The project timing will be firmed up in the next few days.