Martes, 25/4/2017: Remigio Crespo Museum reopens, Underemployment, Tram critique

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming and ongoing agenda events –

Choral concerts – In honor of Cuenca’s Founding and Azogues’ cantonization, the Rondalla Cañari from Azogues and the Coro Unificado de Cuenca will sing on miércoles at 20:00 in the teatro Casa de la Cultura and on jueves at 19:30 in the teatro municipal de Azogues.

Book launch – two professors at the U. of Azuay published “Estudio de competencia mediática en los jóvenes de la ciudad de Cuenca” (Study of media competence in young people in the city of Cuenca).  You can get a digital version of the book at http://goo.gl/exA1KY.  <If being buried in your cell phone is media competence, I’d say Cuenca’s youth is doing just fine.>

Seminario – There will be an introductory seminar on organization and management of administrative and historical archives el sábado 6/5 from 9-17:30 in the Archivo of the CCE (Pres. Córdova 7-89 y Cordero).

Articles about –

Museo Remigio Crespo –  The museum will be reopened to the public this viernes. The Calle Larga entry level and the level above house exhibit halls, offices and the archives.  The 3 lower levels house temporary exhibits and on the bottom level there will be a cafeteria in which the equipment and hood are being installed.  <If I remember the codes correctly, the hood duct should go up and through the roof. Was it planned for?>  The museum’s reserve collections of historic and archeological pieces will also be open to the public.

Theater – According to Diego Carrasco of the U. of Azuay, theater and music are the two arts that have grown fastest in Cuenca.

Colegio BilingÜe Interamericano <I still haven’t found the lower case u with the umlaud.> – There will be a speech contest in English.  It is also preparing a Stage Arts Festival with the performance of “Fine Arts Human” el jueves at 11:00 and at 19:00 in the teatro Pumapungo.

Study – A forum/study on governing and management of the Centro Histórico and heritage was held.

Otras cosas – 

Titular – Estudiantes vuelven para un nuevo reto (Students return for a new challenge <surviving another school year>) – The 2017-2018 school year started on the coast except for some sectors of Manabí due to the winter.

TAME – TAME’s general manager, Christian González, says that TAME is not bankrupt.  <So did anyone say it was?>  In a visit to Cuenca, the GM said the airline suspended routes with no demand or that weren’t profitable.  He also said no one was dismissed in Cuenca and TAME wants to build up the Cuenca-Quito route, but he held out the possibility of resuming service to Guayaquil once the 60 day suspension was over.  <I hope it’s with another, more reliable airline.)

Underemployment – This is defined as working less than 40 hrs/wk, not being affiliated with Social Security, and a salary less that the salario básico unificado, and it has increased to 21% nationally.  <That’s sad – 1 in 5 people probably not making enough to live on.>  Unemployment, which hit 5.7% in 2016 is currently at 4.4%.

Vitrales (stained glass – your word for the day) – The project to restore 98 stained glass pieces at the San Alfonso Church is underway.  It will be a two year project with a budget of over $300,000.

Student orchestras – “Orquestas Escolares” played a concert today at 19:30 in the Teatro Sucre.´

Tranvía – Ecuardo Cardoso Martínez, a civil engineer, has written “Ilusiones, Una ciudad para el Tranvía” (Illusions, A city for the Tram) which is a critique of the project.  He noted that service was supposed to start in 2014 and thinks that it won’t be ready until 2019.  Another issue is the tram cost which has not been made public. The original cost was $180 million with a fare of 25¢.  The current contracts have raised the cost by $52 million. He pointed out that there is no intermodality between the tram and public transport systems.  <I challenge you to find me one gringo who doesn’t think that the project is lacking a master transportation plan.>

Historic houses – Restoration of two historic houses should be finished this month. The Centro Múltiple Municipal on Bolívar y Tarqui and the Casa Jesús Arriaga (aka: Casa del Arco) on Loja and Canton Gualaceo are 86% and 90% complete.  The Casa De La Lira next to the plazoleta de El Vado is 40% complete.

Azogues – The canton is celebrating 192 years of cantonization until 7/5 with the usual suspects – parades, music, food and stuff to buy.

Amenidades –

Martes de cine francés – “Fidelio, l’Odyssée d’Alice” was shown at 19:00.

Ilusiones, Una ciudad para el Tranvía – The book is available at Siglo XX, Librería Sodilibro, and Libería Mundilibro.

Deportes –

Paintball – The Liga Profesional de Paintball Ecuatoriano (EPPL) and Skull Paintball Club (“Xball”) games will start in 4 days at the Campus Yanuncay U. of Cuenca.  <Translating both Spanish and sports talk here, so don’t expect a whole lot of accuracy.> There will be 2 – 5 person teams running/sneaking/crawling around in a 36m. x 45m court full of obstacles for 15 minutes with a winner at the end.

Zumbatón – The 2nd “Zumbatón, muévete al ritmo del corazón” event will be on 27/4 from 19-22:00 in the auditorium of Rafael Borja School.  The auditorium has a capacity of 400 and the proceeds of the event will got to a social program for about 100 vulnerable people in Baños.  Get your tickets for this fund raiser at Casa Gil, Renova, KossMorán, Academia Top Cheer and Dance y Revive Juice & Detox. Cost: $10.00.  <And if you can only zumba for 10 minutes it’s still $10.00.>

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne