November 30: Politics with Mama Isa

Abuelita

Mama Isa <3


November 30, 2009
Location: Cuenca
Time: 8:25 PM Weather: Cool because we are finally getting much-needed rain! Hopefully the hydroelectric plants will work full-time again.

My host mom and I ate dinner together and talked a lot about our day. She had a terrible day because her mother, who has Alzheimer's and is living with us for two weeks, kept her awake all night. Her hands hurt, her feet hurt, her head hurt. Poor Mama Isa only slept for a half-hour at a time. Abuelita was lucid for the last few days, but I guess she has been a wreck today.

When I returned from lunch to do homework, she was sitting in the kitchen crying. Two of my aunts, my uncle, and my mom were trying to calm her down, but she kept insisting that thieves had stolen her money. Mama said that she had dementia for quite a few years, but it's only been in the last three months that she has gone down hill. She thinks that perhaps it is the result of a long, difficult vacation to the United States. At any rate, Abuelita is only 80, blind, and declining mentally. I can only imagine what Mama Isa has gone through in the last six months with her husband (el hijo de puta), her mom's health in serious decline, and me, on top of it all.

I've decided to write my last American Literature paper on gender roles in The House of Spirits and compare those represented with my family's and my experiences here in Ecuador. I know that gender is such a cliché and unoriginal thing to write about, but both in the novel and in life here, it is undeniably evident that, even in a patriarchal society, the woman has a lot of power.

My mother and two of my aunts are incredibly strong, self-sufficient women. They take care of their ailing mother, their children, their other family, their household chores, they hold good jobs, and they're getting or have their masters degree, all at the same time. It amazes me frequently. They aren't sitting dejectedly on a corner with their hands out simply because their husbands aren't around, or depending on their brothers to provide for them, even though they could. They're making something out of their lives and succeeding in it, despite the machismo running rampant in the culture. After our conversation about Abuelita, we drifted on to politics.

I asked whether or not Mama Isa liked Correa.

“No! Nunca!” She replied emphatically. No, never.

She talked about how he was such close friends with Morales and Chavez, and how he is not doing anything good for the country. My cousin, Wellington (Willie), said that he liked Correa a lot because he gave free books to the schools. He defended him highly because of this. I asked my mom if it was true or not. It's true, she said, but the books the government provides are small, incomplete, and very few. They are inefficient and are resulting in students being unprepared, with a lesser capacity to learn than before. He is controlling what the schools teach by giving them free books. Also, she said that he is controlling the media. Nothing on television or in newspapers is unbiased.

Profesora Tossi said that on December 10, Correa would have a great power over the media. Worse, in my opinion, is the lack of government-funded libraries in the country. Mama said that a previous president opened many libraries with free internet and free rentals. Now, there are very few, and nothing is free. If you can't take it away completely, the next best thing is to make it impossible to afford and obtain. It's a very smart move on Correa's part if he's attempting to dumb down the people of Ecuador. Mama thinks he is following Chavez's and Morales' leads and is heading down the same path. Profesora Tossi thinks that he took away the monetary support, is forcing the libraries into bankruptcy, then will provide funding later on to make it appear as though it was all his doing to supply the people with them. His family comes from a low background, so he automatically has most of their support.

I know from my Orientation class that the Indigenous want nothing to do with him because of his pro-mining stance (especially after his platform against mining), but a lot of the poor and lower-class populations love him. Single women with children get a significant monetary benefit, but she, who works her fingers to the bone at school, gets 20% of her paycheck taken away for taxes. That would be Correa's socialist policies at work. I'm not sure if this is happening already or if he only wants it to happen right now, but Mama said that she and her husband own 60 hectares of land and, since they have no children, Correa wants to take away 40 hectares to give to the poor people. This is land that Mama Isa and her husband worked hard to pay for. Of course she doesn't want it taken away simply because the government deems it unnecessary for two people to own so much.

My teacher filled in the blanks for me about the land situation, today. Profesora Isabel Tossi said that Correa wants proof that every hectare of land is being farmed. If it isn't, he will take it away. “Capitalism isn't very good,” she told me, “but socialism is worse. It only helps the poor.”

We talked a little bit about the U.S.'s political situation and she told me that she thought Obama and Correa were similar: both from humble backgrounds, both a bit socialist, both aiming to increase taxes substantially for social aid, and both have enormous support from the lower classes because of their policies. I found that to be very interesting.

Not a country to support racial equality, I wasn't surprised to hear her add at the end, “Y el es negro!”

I laughed at this. It isn't an insult but a reflection of Ecuador's culture. Blacks are few and far between. Even though our cousin Leti is black and there is a large population in Esmeraldas, they aren't see as being very high on the cultural food chain because there just aren't many of them.

I'm amazed that Mama Isa and I could have this conversation. My limited Spanish slowed us down and I had to look up political words in my dictionary (mi companero) but I could understand it! It shows just how fare I've come in the last 8 weeks.