build and destroy and build again

we are kind of getting more into the flow of things here in cuenca now that weve met some people, learned some (some) spanish, and figured out where the cheap, good food is (its in the market, and at the comedors). the other night we went to a free jazz concert at a local theater. here in cuenca they have free artistic things every day, more or less, but definitely every week. friday was a group called, mainstream jazz trio. they were pretty good. next week they are showing don juan, the opera. for free. now, i would be lying if i tried to present myself as a person who goes to operas on every available occasion. but, since its free and so accessable, i will do it. it something about living in a smaller place than new york. sure, there may not be as many things to 'do', but the things there are to do are no more than a few blocks away and you are sure to meet people there who you know or recognize. im kind of liking that. especially since i have no cell phone here and random chance is the only way to get in touch with people. but the thing is that it is, pre-centage wise, very possible.

then, the next night, which was last night, we went to go see this salsa band who i never got their name, but they were pretty good. we went to see them at cafe eucalyptus, which is the place here in cuenca to see everyone in town who is not indigenous. what i mean by that is it is the middle class hangout. it is a very nice bar/restaurant with a good happy hour and lots of interesting artwork on the walls. a lot of it isnt really artwork, per se, like, they have a map of ecuador from the 60s or 70s, whenever it was before ecuador had to give up a large portion of their land to peru, with a compuer print out with the words, 'ecuador mañana' pasted on. and then also they have flyers from each and every olympiad. see: not really art, but an artistic effect nonetheless. the waiters wear all black and they serve things like mojitos and piña coladas and wraps. this as opposed to the cheap good restaurants alluded to above where there are no waiters to speak of, only the owners young children who carry out all of the duties of managers, waiters, cooks, etc. and where they only serve pilsner, the local beer. the travelers instinct informs one to think that if all of a sudden you are paying $2 instead of $1 for a drink, and $3 instead of $1.50 for a meal that you are being ripped off and that the place that did you the disservice should not be allowed to exist or in the very least shouldnt be supported, but of course this is not true. of course cafe eucalyptus is a great bar and it has that same feel as did the free concert where you are guaranteed to see someone you recognize, and the people seem happy to be there. once i get a job here, i will probably go there more often. and thats just the truth.

oh, that reminds me...

we went to see ingapirca yesterday. ingapirca is the macchu picchu of ecuador. it was pretty cool to go visit it. it is always impressive and good to see old ruins. it is somehow comforting to know that societies have existed and fallen, and i find archeological and anthropological work very interesting - even if it is largely guesswork. when we first got there, we were kind of lost amongst a bunch of stones that we knew we were old, but not much more than that. then, a dark llama poked his head up over one of the old walls and we walked over to it. the llama had only poked its head up for a second and by the time we got over there, he had sat back down behind the wall, shielding himself from the wind. he was a pretty serene llama, and when we got over there we noticed three or four more grazing in the distance. however, this particular llama seemed not to have a care in the world and just stared straight ahead. i couldnt help but think how many sweaters had been killed to make that llama... we would have stayed all day petting the llama and been content to just have the ruins in the background, but then a guide came along to make our visit more interesting. for example, the cañaris used to build the roofs of their houses out of fibers separated from agave plants. so, they could drink tequila and build houses from that one plant. see: interesting. the tour was good, but it was brutally cold and rainy, although nobody else thought it was as cold as i did.

we went to see ingapirca yesterday. ingapirca is the macchu picchu of ecuador. that is, it is incan ruins, but mixed with cañari ruins. what had happened was this: the cañaris were living here for a while. im not sure who was here before them. then, the incas came and shoved them out. for example, the indigenous people of this area still consider themselves cañari (i mean, i cant yet tell the difference between a cañari and an inca since ive been so conditioned to notice race and not culture), and there is a city called cañar nearby, but the cañari language is defunct and when the indigenous people are speaking to each other in a language that is not spanish, they are speaking quechua, which is the incan language. anyway, about 25 or 30 years after the incans came and took over the cañaris, the spanish took over the incas and we all know that story. the resulting latin america is the place we all know and love. however, when one travels through latin america and sees the way the indigenous people have persevered and still wear their tradtional clothing (the women at least) and speak their non-spanish languages, its hard not to think that they have gotten a raw deal. so, when you see the euro-ecuadorians being rich, and you see the racial difference in clientele between a place like cafe eucalyptus and a place like any comedor, it is hard not to immidiately associate these differences with the ugly historical (and current) aspects of it. that is the luxury that comes with being an outsider. of course, the only difference between the u.s. and ecuador, peru, guatemala, etc. is that we have done a better job of totally genociding and completely marginalizing the native populations. and since they are populus, but marginalized here in ecuador, seeing the ruins at ingapirca allows you to have more of a context for what you are seeing. you see everyday the people who did it, and it makes the subsequent spanish conquest more poignant.
however, it is also worth noting that the incans are not saints in this whole situation. if i had been a visitor to ecuador in the early to mid 1500s, i would see the incans the same way i see the spaniards now and whereas it is very impressive what the incans did, ie. building huge temples with the fitted stone technique: using huge stones fit perfectly with one another and no cement or anything like that - it is also very impressive to look at the huge cathedral that sits in the center of cuenca as an architectural feat as opposed to just another example of conquest, violent and abhorrable. but of course it is another example of conquest, but then so are the incan ruins. the whole thing just makes me think about ways in which people could co-exist more peacefully so that everything impressive that humans do dont always have to be at the expense of everything else...