By Sergio Cedeno Amador*

The amorphino is the verse and song of the montuvio of the Ecuadorian coast, but there are few “amorphineros” like Alfredo Goya, from Palestine, for whom the amorphinos “sprout” like a waterfall and at 10 a minute without repeating anything , that is, “speaks in amorphino”, that’s what a “sudden amorphinero” does and that’s why years ago he earned the title of el King of amorphino.

“If I sing an amorphino

I don’t do it for the hobby

I sing it because I’m a montuvio

and I carry it in my heart.

Years ago when I was looking for him in the city of Palestine to meet him and “win his friendship”, I asked about him in the city park, where everything is known and an old man told me: “Don Alfredo is on the cemetery” and with great sadness I said to him: “And when did he die?” , and the old man tells me: “He is not dead, he is the keeper of the cemetery !!!”. What a relief I felt!!

I looked for him there and there the “friendship” began when he began to see each other at that moment and a worker who was digging a grave asked him: Don Alfredo, what size should I give to the “hole”? and he tells him: “2 by 1 by 1″ and to my surprised face he says: 2 meters long, 1 wide and only 1 meter deep, because here the earth is very hard and it is better for the dead to stay top of it.”

I hadn’t seen him since the pandemic and his phone didn’t answer so I thought again he had died but a friend told me “Don Goya is alive” and the day before yesterday I was lucky enough to see him again and enjoy him hear “speak in amorphous”.

He told me that he will be 76 in October, so will soon retire from the “Palestinian cemetery” and that he will invite me to the big farewell party at the same cemetery with “town band and amorphinos for the dead”.

Don Goya is a proud montuvio and he tells me that he inherited this art of amorphino from his mother, who was a legitimate montuvio of the “laos de Guare de Baba” and who “sees” all day; who has had 23 children by 5 wives but believes the current one is the last since she was young and there is no time for more.

When I tell him that it is dangerous to have such a young wife, he responds lovingly:

“I don’t even care about that anymore

Yes, the “seco e pato” I’m eating

He doesn’t even have a bone anymore.”

And though the area’s mountains and meadows are flooded, snakes are rampant, and danger lurks everywhere, there’s no way to improve your sanity by listening to Alfredo Goya Guerrero, the king of the amorphino.

* Member of the Academy of History of Ecuador