Diario las Américas Newspaper, September 30, 1956, Page 22

xiao eee How an Ecuadorean co-op got rid of Straw-mat Town By LILO LINKE RECONSTRUCTION in disaster ridden Ambato was proceeding a- pace. Gradually, thanks to help from the rest of . Ecuador and abroad, this once-thriving “garden city” in an eight-thousand-foot- high Andean valley was springing up again from the ruins of the tragic 1949 earthquake. Now that the emergency period was past, it tooked as though things might soon return to normal — everything, that is, but “Ciudad Esteras” (Straw-mat Town). Those shacks { sticks, straw mats, and old — many without male support — worked as occasional dressmakers, cooks, or washerwomen, or sold things in the market. Nearly’ all had large families. Rents down in Ambato has soared since the earth- quake, which had damaged 90 per cent of the four thousand houses. A single room in an adobe house cost sixty sucres a month, and the landlords, who could now pick and choose, refused to. admit a poor man with half a dozen children. As new homes, modern schools, a huge cathedral, a model stadium, Family poses before new house five minutes after curtains are up, boards up on the hill, and the dis- .mal people in them, seemed a per- manent blotch on the landscape, a social affront to all decent citizens. More than one advocated burning the huts. “Otherwise we shall ne- ver be rid of that eyesore”. The critics were wrong in as- suming that the five hundred pen- ple up on the hill liked living in Straw-mat Town. But where else could they go? The men at best earned fifteen sucres (about a dol- lar) a day as the humblest textile workers, small artisans, chauffeurs, ambulant food-vendors; the women dispensaries, and marketplaces rose in Ambato, people in Straw-mat Town grew bitter and restless. Lending an ear to extremists, they began to pass slurring _ remarks about the Tungurahua Provincial Reconstruction Board, composed of well-known upper-class citizens. What claim to compensation or ma- terial assistance had those who had lost nothing in the earthquake but earthenware pots buried beneath the walls of a rented room? The sober question found no hearing in Straw-mat Town. Little by little the whole of Am- bato became aware that trouble was brewing on the hill. Then a young Colombian who was working for the Board made a suggestion: “Maybe we can find a remedy if you will let me work for a while among the people of Straw-mat Town. I’ve an idea that if, we pro- ceed slowly amd tactfully, a hous- ing cooperative is the amswer.” The Board approved immediate- ly. If Manuel Cardenas could by any peaceful means make that lot of prospective rebels see reason, everyone would be grateful. Dr. Cardenas was counting on two assets: his previous experience and Gloria, his wife. The marriage of this young couple, whose lives ran parallel for more than twenty years before they met, seemed pre- arranged. Both were born im Bo- gota, Manuel in 1918, Gloria in 1920, of Liberal families, were educated at U. S-run schools — Manuel in Barranquilla, Gloria in Bogota — and later studied law. Gloria was the first woman in Co- lombia to be appointed a judge in a labor court and subsequently set up her own office in the capital. She became active in the Liberal Party amd combined journalism with organizing women’s groups. Manuei aiso entered politics and helped launch a Liberal journal, but eventually turned to social work. For a year during his student days he had been a teacher and librarian in the correctional sec- tion of the men’s prison in Bogo- ta: In 1948 he settled down in Via- ni, a typical town of coffee plant- ers, to cooperate in a rural develop- ment experiment — a project so successful that it became a UNES CO pilot project for all Latin Ame- rica (see “Model Town,” August 1949 AMERICAS). On returning to Bogota, Cardenas worked on a voluntary basis with a dynamic young Colombian priest who. had founded a workers’ housing co- operative. Another of his co-work- ers was Gloria. The overly ambi- tious scheme ran into resistance from real-estate promoters and col- lapsed, but it produced one positive result: the two young lawyers were married shortly before Manuel left for Ecuador to cooperate with an OAS mission (see “Ecuador Builds Its Way Back,” July 1952 AMERI- CAS). After closing her law office, Gloria followed him to Ambato. In December 1952, they set to § work among the people of Straw- mat Town. Originally there had been 147 emergency dwellings up on the hill, but fifty had been abandoned as people found better accommodation or work elsewhere. The average family comprised five Early stages of construction in 1954. people; weekly incomes _ ranged HEMISPHERE: Reprinted from AMERICAS, monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and -Portu- guese. from seventy to a hundred sucres. ‘T‘he destitution reminded me of the Paseo Bolivar in Bogota,” Gloria remarked. “Its slums were so bad that the municipality final- ly had to resettle the people in a suburb.” “Exactly,” Manuel agreed. “Sub- standard housing for people of low incomes exists throughout Latin America. That’s what gave the Am- bato experiment its special signi- ficance.” The two moved cautiously. “You can repel people whose confidence you want to win even by a flashy tie,’ Manuel explained. During their work in Ambato Gloria never wore stockings or a silk dress. Most denizens of Straw-mat Town were surprised . at the Reconstruction Board’s sudden interest in them, though the Cardenases were care- ful not to raise false hopes. Oc- casionally they dropped a hint that if the people combined. . .Oh, yes, they would combine — to sign pro- tests and march through the streets of Ambato shouting “Down with the Board.” Well, no, not in that way. Perhaps something more posi- tive. Thus day after day Manuel and Gloria made: the rounds, generally after sundown at six o'clock when people returned from work and crowded into their huts. As. recent- ly as December 1955, the Ecuador- ean monthly Andes declared that until a short time ago the coopera- tive movement was “looked down upon in Ecuador and even fought as something inspired by alien doc- trines. Our exaggerated individual- ism,” it went on, “our deepseated selfishness further prevented a consideration of the benefits which cooperatives might produce.” But the CAdrdenases tentatively men- tioned the idea to a few with ex- perience as members of a trade union or artisans’ guild. Unexpect- edly, it was the women who, after voicing the usual objections, show- ed the liveliest interest. The first informal meeting was held some five weeks after the Re- construction Board gave Manuel the green light. People squeezed into the biggest shack to hear him explain briefly the history of the cooperative movement, what a housing cooperative could do for them, and how it might be organiz- ed. He and Gloria continued an- swering questions right through the next month, until on February SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 195¢ 9, 1953, the cooperative. was drawn up. The articles of incorporation were signed by 150 men and wo- men, some from outside Straw-mat Town. A friendly doctor, who had offered his services free of charge in the past was also admitted. Se- venteen illiterate founders signed with fingerprints. The board of directors was composed of a house painter, a textile worker, two shoe- makers, a hawker, and a white-col- lar worker. Of the two women on the board, one was a textilw work- er, the other a carpenter’s wife who: took in washing. All sorts of fancy names were suggested for the cooperative, but one day Manuel said quietly: “Why not call it “Esteras, Gloria de Am- bato’”” They were aghast. “Straw- mat Town” had been an insult for so long. Stil, why not? A thing of glory could come from those mis- erable huts. This was the first real housing cooperative in the country. If they, the poorest people, sve- ceeded, others could follow, learn- ing from their experience and m ‘s- takes. “Cooperativa de Habitacion Esteras, Gloria de Ambato” was unanimously accepted. At the first meeting, 124.50 sucres were hand- ed over to Manuel — who was elected manager — to deposit to the cooperative’s account in a local bank. (By the end of 1955, the latest bank statement showed aba- lance of twenty - eight thousand sucres.) In the days that followed, people continued to bring him small coins or an occasional five-sucre bill. One of the most active members, of housewife, reduced the family breakfast ration from two small rolls to one apiece to save the ten sucres fixed by the cooperative as the initial quota. A member of the municipal band, seeing Manuel pass in the street, pulled himself to- gether in the midst of a little spree and dug three sucres out of his pocket before he could squander them. A girl of fourteen hired out for dishwashing to earn the family quota. In the meantime, members of the cooperative overflowed with satisfaction, especially when out- siders began to take note. Through the Reconstruction Board, Manuel knew when anyone of distinction was in town, and he would steer the visitors -over to Straw-mat Town to meet the co-op president, Hipolito Gudino, or a board meme ber. Ecuadorean government res presentatives, United Nations exe perts, visiting teachers and social workers, coul sense the feeling of optimism that permeated the tumbledown village. The Recon struction Board was duly impres- sed that the residents were capable of sustained saving and planning and for once were contributing their’ share. As a token of recognition, the Board presented. the Cooperative with a used prefabricated woode' building. Even the women an children pitched in to re-erect i¢ as a community hall in the center of town. More important, the cooperative invested 1,200 sucres of oa TOS la