The earth has faces, aspects, aspects. There are perspectives, each different and each more surprising. That is his true wealth.

Perhaps therein lie the secrets of societies that, despite everything, resist and believe in themselves. This variety is not a political theme that is repeated in speeches, nor is it a refrain that is harangued at pre-election barricades, appealing to confrontation, spite and frustration. On the contrary, these differences – human, landscape and cultural – have nothing to do with those of bitterness, with those that make us perceive the “other” as an enemy.

Virulent and negative speech is dangerous not only in the political sense, but mainly because it poisons social diversity, undermines unity and creates mistrust between neighbors and brothers, between “good guys and bad guys”. Because he throws stones and breaks that many-sided mirror which, however, is only one: the earth.

‘Ecuador will soon be among the three most violent countries in Latin America, so it’s not just a matter of perception’

Despite all the differences between coastal people and mountain people, between Quiteños and Cuenca, between urban beings and rural people, the land is still a place of meeting or perhaps arrival. It is like a family home, like an eaves that protects, like a poncho that hugs. It is the horizon that gives meaning to each of the individual destinations. This is what allows us to recognize ourselves in the familiarity of relatives and the companionship of countrymen, and it is what, until recently, instilled the confidence to walk without looking back.

I am afraid that these aspects are being lost.

I am afraid that, on the one hand, we unreservedly and critically submit to the simplifying guidelines of the market and that we are already prototypes of gray consumers and exasperated drivers; and that, at the same time, we dig trenches to isolate ourselves, artillery minds and homes, and inaugurate a mental civil war that makes coexistence impossible.

Who are part of the great generation and how much do they represent in Ecuador?

I am afraid that tolerance and trust are the ultimate victims of insecurity, because crime, fear and hatred can put an end to what is pompously called “civil society”.

I fear that in a short time we will only have a caricature of the country. Let the Colombians and Mexicans say it, then let them tell us what it’s like when peace is lacking. And let’s honestly say to ourselves what that fear is like without authority.

I think that it is still possible to talk about the state as everyone’s business and as an argument for the life of every person.

It is still time to realize that the state, the community, are more than words; that its aspects are part of our spiritual property; that trust is the secret that explains the coexistence of different but close people, that trust and security that disappear. Despite everything, it is still time to take up the defense of society’s values, and to put this country of ours in the foreground, which is the house we have, the space we have to take care of, the landscape we cannot lose in the name of any utopia or excuse of any progress.

I think that it is still possible to talk about the state as everyone’s business and as an argument for the life of every person. (OR)