By Rodolfo Pérez Pimentel *
I have been told that in 1975 an Ecuadorian ambassador was invited to an event related to The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (Great oil painting by El Greco that is preserved in the chapel of Santo Tomé, in Toledo, Spain) and upon receiving the obituary the unscrupulous diplomat replied in writing regretting not being able to attend due to commitments, but He took the opportunity to send his most heartfelt condolences – on his behalf and on behalf of the national government – for such a tragic event. Logically, it provoked the natural surprise and hilarity that this kind of “mistakes” always motivate.
During one of the military dictatorships that devastated our country, another ambassador, this time the one who represented us in Egypt, on the occasion of the national holiday of Ecuador, had no embarrassment in read on a radio station at ten o’clock in the morning and in the Spanish language, a patriotic speech that no one understood, because Arabic is spoken in that country. Upon his return, and as he felt very proud, he had it published on behalf of the National Commission for Commemorations and Celebrations in a little booklet of almost ten pages.
The mute minister
In 1987, the nation’s first lady, María Eugenia Cordovez de Febres-Cordero, I was visiting Havana, for expresses the invitation of Commander Fidel Castro. His entourage had passed on several occasions by the site where the bust of Eloy Alfaro, whose memory is venerated in Cuba for having requested in 1895 the queen of Spain the immediate freedom of the island.
Well, the one who presided over our delegation was none other than the Minister of Education of Ecuador who had inherited the position upon the death of his older brother, the previous minister, both members of the Supreme Board of the Ecuadorian Liberal Party.
The heir minister did not speak during the trip. At the end of the tour, his Cuban counterpart, in front of the Ecuadorian visitors, asked him in a loud voice: “Tell me, Minister, have you noticed our monument to General Eloy Alfaro? We have passed by several times and you have not said anything… ”. There was an instant of embarrassment, but with that intelligence that characterized the first lady, she subtly broke the silence and exclaimed: “So beautiful! Cuba and Ecuador twinned by a glorious memory ”. The Cuban minister only had to smile. And our minister-heir? He didn’t even flinch and remained speechless as always.
The misplaced journalist
A journalist from Quito was traveling on that tour, a more communist girl than had been sent to do. In its simplicity, when he saw the huge Fidelista propaganda signs, he was excited to shouts causing the hilarity of his companions. “With Fidel and the rifle we will reach two thousand.” Wonderful, wonderful. “Gringos, we are not afraid of them.” Sublime, sublime, and so on. Everything moved her and she lived in continuous states of exaltation and paroxysms of happiness, because at last one of her greatest wishes was fulfilled, to be in a communist paradise.
The last morning before taking the flight back she asked me to accompany her to a nearby bookstore because she wanted to buy a very special album. “Sir, you have for sale the album with that beautiful song that says: “When I left Cuba I left my life, I left my love …”. The bookseller, thinking that she was a government spy and that she was putting him to the test (in tyrannies you never know), quickly shouted: “Gusana, get out of Cuba so you can sing it to your mother in Miami.” And it left her perplexed, without imagining that this song is the anthem of the families who are victims of Castroism and cannot be sung on the island.
Pump exhaust
In 1976 and on the occasion of the Julian festivities, the councilors were invited to a meeting in the Government. The buffet had been arranged on tables with long tablecloths reaching to the floor. The triumvirs received with their wives and everything was going well, a glass of champagne was toasted, when at that we realized that heThe triumvirs and their spouses had stealthily slipped through a hidden little door and on the other hand, several Army officers entered, lifting the tablecloths and rummaging under the tables with a mysterious air.What had happened? Some white soul had given a telephone warning – false of course – indicating that a powerful bomb was going to explode in the room. The ugly thing about this farce is that the triumvirs did not mind leaving the guests seriously defenseless, especially the ladies.
Don Vicente Cabezas Pérez enjoyed in the Guayaquil of the 1940s a just fame as a humorous character. He was the author of the theory of the Bobos al Garete, which, as its name indicates, is self-explanatory, but which I am going to develop just in case I am reading one or the other: In every city in Ecuador there are a multitude of fools who are on the loose, although sometimes they gather on street corners. These fools are countless and very harmful because they commit great nonsense without realizing it. He also proposed founding a political party entitled the PUB (Bobos Union Party), that undoubtedly it would have multiple affiliates and adherents throughout the republic and would feed on the most prominent members of Velasquismo, which at that time ruled the Republic because it was the majority party. Now, eighty years later, they would no longer be the same, other fools take their places.
* Winner of the National Eugenio Espejo Prize in the Literary Activities category (2005).
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
