Ecuador: More On Montubios' Day

Hereafter are a few additional photos to illustrate my last post yesterday about Montubios’ Day parade in Ecuador’s Salitre. To view it again click on yesterday’s date or go to

http://victorenglebertphotography.blogspot.com/2014/07/ecuador-montubio-day.html

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Ecuador: Montubio Day

    The Montubios, as the mestizos of Ecuador’s coastal lowlands call themselves, celebrate October 12 not as America’s Columbus Day, or Latin America’s Día de la Raza, but as Día de los Montubios. And not just on that day but over three. I watched all three days and found them all worth my photographer’s time. Still, the first day was the most exciting. I did not see any foreigners there, nor did I notice Andean Ecuadoreans, but the event, playing out most famously in Salitre, a small town at a 40-minute taxi ride from Guayaquil, is very local.

That first day featured a morning parade and an afternoon rodeo. Circling the small town, the parade was dedicated entirely to groups of folkloric dancers of all ages and backgrounds.

The day started quietly with elegant amazons riding through the streets of Salitre, waiting to join the parade and obviously proud of displaying their ample dresses, which covered their horses as in medieval times. Each of the numerous dance groups was headed by a motorized tricycle taxi broadcasting the lively music needed to support the colorful dancers. Though I was never a fan of parades, I enjoyed that one.

For pictures of the rodeo that day go to my April 18 post:

http://victorenglebertphotography.blogspot.com/search?q=ecuador+rodeo+

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Ecuador: Salasaka Boy Weaver

Salasaka boy weaving wool from his family’s sheep in Ecuador’s Andes Mountains near Baños.

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Chilean Rodeo: An Elegant Affair, Not A Very Exciting One:

Here’s a picture of what I described yesterday, in my last post. Taken during a national championship of Chilean rodeo in Rancagua, it shows two huasos, or cowboys, pinning a young bull against the wall of the arena after chasing it around it. It takes skill to do this following the tight regulations, but can be boring to watch if you don’t know their details. Just as it may be boring to watch other sports you don’t understand. North American rodeos are considerably more exciting. And everything in them is so obvious and spectacular.

What teased my attention much more was the general elegance of both huasos and spectators. Some huasos wore suits under their colorful ponchos. You might have thought they were not cowboys but wealthy aficionados of the sport.

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Chile: Rodeo Contestants

Gauchos, known in Rancagua, Chile, where this is happening, as huasos, are milling about, waiting for their turn to enter the arena to the right. A man is opening the arena’s gate to give way to the next two-man team to compete. These men’s task will be to chase a running young bull and use their horses to pin it against the arena’s circular wall. The colors and elegance are impressive. And every man wears the same pretty hats. But the stunts are not very exciting to watch if you have been at rodeos in America’s and Canada’s West. Or in Ecuador, for that matter. There I have seen cowboys, known there as vaqueros, lasso a galloping horse using a bare foot instead of a hand. And even teach young children to do it.

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Chile: Puerto Montt’s Boat Market

Buyers in Puerto Montt’s Angelmo harbor, Chile, crowd a boat filled with farm products just arrived from Chiloe Island.

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Chile: Old Blue-Eyed Shepherd

Away from countries that fear terrorism and believe everyone with a camera is a possible threat, to photograph people is a delight. And such a great excuse to make new friends, start a conversation, and learn something new. The better if you speak the local language.

I learned a lot from the people I photographed—from Africans; Latin Americans, Asians. And they always treated me as a friend. Why can’t so many of us not act similarly?

I photographed this gentle old blue-eyed man near Puerto Montt, in Chile. He was herding sheep but was happy to give me his time and chat with me for a while. We both ended up a little happier and wiser that day.

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Paraguay: Where Have Those Times Gone?

In 1971, picture-hunting one early morning in Ita, Paraguay, during a seven-month journey around Latin America, I came unnoticed upon this heartwarming street scene. Protected against the already fierce sun by an umbrella, this little girl was peddling her mother’s bread from house to house.  

I had one of her rolls for breakfast, and how I wish today I could find one as good in the Pennsylvanian town where I live these days. But there are things, like good bread, that American amazing technology can’t make.

Or should I say, can no longer make? When visiting my mother in Belgium, still alive 30 years ago, and asking her for some of the delights she had served me while I grew up there, she already had to warn me that, even in our own country, “food was no longer what it used to be.” Big industry had taken over.

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Paraguay: Slow Life, Happy Life

In this 1971 street scene of Encarnación, Paraguay, those young carefree people, sitting on part of a harvest to be sold at market, were patiently waiting for a fourth passenger.

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Once Upon A Time In Paraguay

In 1971, under the warm light of a setting sun in Yaguarón, Paraguay, the woman shown here was a street vendor entering the cavernous darkness of a café to try to sell some of the stuff she was carrying on her head. It was common in those days for people there to walk barefoot.

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