3 posts from June 2008

Tuesday,June 24.
Leaving the colonial era churches, one teacher from El Centro who was referred to as “abuelita”, "dear grandmother", took us to three homes of families participating in El Centro.  

When I worked in Appalachia, I saw very small homes for entire families of 7 – 11 people and know that lots of kids -- 6 or so -- sleep in one or two be

ds. Appalachia's poverty is rural so there is at least the chance to be surrounded by trees and animals and get fresh air.  People in Appalachia are also less crowded together.   I'm not being a romantic about rural life here but only pointing out facts. It is also harder outside of the city to go to the "corner store" to get milk and aspirin or to get to a hospital for an emergency visit.

I have never seen an entire family of 8 - 11 people live, eat, sleep, and use a more or less working toilet in a dark and smelly room about 8' by 10'.  What got to me most was the smell that 11 people living together in very tight quarters make.  Honestly, the smell almost overpowered me.  Kids who come to El Centro have to shower daily but their clothes are a different matter. They sometimes wear the same clothes 24/7 for a week or two – multiply that by 11 or so people in close quarters and the stench is no surprise.  Nor are the flies and fleas in these cuartitos (small rooms).  We visited three such “homes” and I felt like I was in another world.  Life in homes like this is unhealthy and risky. To mention one risk, the rate of incest is very high. 

What is remarkable is how important are the very straightforward things that Ell Centro offers, like a daily shower.  That all by itself is a lot.  The families of El Centro have opportunities which fundamentally change their lives.  The not only learn job skills but emotional and interpersonal skills that change them from the inside out.  When I see kids at El Centro play and learn in peace, I sense the just what an extraordinary opportunity El Centro offers them and their families. Yesterday, for example, I substituted for a teacher in a first grade English class which began by singing the "auto-dominio" song, a song about self-mastery, which according to this lovely ditty, is the key to success (llave al exito). Students learn emotional skill that will fundamentally change their lives. 
  
There are thousands of families living in "cuartitos" just like these throughout Quito, the result of massive migration from the rural areas of Ecuador to the city. Most of these rural people need lots more skills and personal formation to make it in the city. 
Thus, the work of El Centro.

Tuesday June 24

Today we took a very well organized and informative tour of several of the main colonial era churches in Quito including the basilica with a statue of John Paul II who visited Quito some years ago and was much beloved, as well as the colonial era Jesuit and Franciscan churches.  The number of stunning statues, paintings, vestments and other art pieces in these churches is overwhelming. The Jesuit church with its Baroque style has intricate decorations where ever it was possible to decorate and fill in space. The walls and ceiling are covered in gold leaf, about 50 kilos of gold in the church.  The first two very large painting the visitor sees walking in are respectively, paintings of the Last Judgment with sinners in one painting on the left and saints on the right.  It is interesting that there is far more detail in the painting depicting the damned and their sins.  In case the viewer does not quite get why they are punished as horribly as they are, the artist wrote “gluttony”, “pride” “usury” “faithlessness” among other sins next to their respective (literally) hellish punishments. Our guides made clear to us that the only native faces depicted are devilish faces while everyone else is white and European, principally Spanish and French.  One guide whispered to us that this art encodes racism everywhere you look. I wonder why he felt he had to whisper.

Somehow though I was in awe at the enormity of the artistry in these churches, I also felt very sad and angry leaving these churches.  As understandable as all this art is given the theology of the times and the thrill Europeans felt at "discovering" a large conquerable world, clearly Spanish artists used native artists to make Spanish style art while either ignoring native artistic styles or using native faces to represent devils or the damned. I felt the weight of the Spanish colonial legacy in ways I had not felt before. I can not imagine what it must be like for the Jesuits and Franciscans to live in a church like this.  For me, this heritage would be a burden to carry as well as an incentive to create a church that values indigeneous peoples, their ways of life and spirituality.

June 27, 2008  -- First Impressions

I arrived here last Friday the 20^th around 9 PM and Padre Juan (Father John Halligan, SJ) drove me to the Centro deftly driving through signs pointing tourists to the not-for-real- Middle of the world (Mitad del Mundo).  The real equator is not here in Quito but tourists get a kick out of learning things like how water spins in a drain differently in the southern hemisphere than in the north and some other pieces of interesting trivia. We also passed by the largest mall I have ever seen – four stories of one store after another including a supermarket, and the usual American fast food places like KFC, McDonalds, Domino’s pizza.

KFC in Quito? Why should I be surprised? I donot think that the families I have come to serve and learn from would frequent any of these stores but obviously there is an Americanized middle class here which  is quickly catching on to American values like eating quickly on the run while away from home.

Waking up on the morning of the 21^st, I did not feel affected by the altitude though I am glad I had no need to climb hills.  I joined a group of teenagers and their chaperone from Texas on a bus ride to Ottovalo, an amazing market town with stall after stall of excellent hand made cotton, silk, and wool clothing including shawls, ponchos, t-shirts, shirts and pants.  I bought a hand made poncho for about $28.  I found it funny that it was so easy to find pizza and lasagna (spelled lasaña), an obvious sign of a restaurant’s ingenuity to satisfy tourists.