Diario las Américas Newspaper, June 23, 1957, Page 24

Reprinted from AMERICAS. monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union ia English, Spanish amd Portu- guese, rive with passengers and freight, whatever the hour of day or night, Some people claim that Guaya- quil’s phenomenal growth is due chielfy to the elimination of yel- low fever, to energetic campaigns against malaria and tuberculosis, and to the new drinking-water sy- stem dating from 1950; others maintain that the new highways and building projects have drawn workers from all over the coun. try; still others explain it in ona word: bananas. Better sanitary and health con. . ditions have certainly played a vit» al part. Yellow fever was eradic- ated early in the century, and dur- ing the last decade notable reduc- tions were registered in the death rates for malaria and tuberculosis. Though exact figures for compari- son are not available, it used to be common knowledge that these twa scourges carried off thousands of victims in Guayaquil each year. By contrast in 1954, with more precise registration methods, only 427 deaths were attributed to tuber- culosis and 303 to malaria for the entire Province of Guayas, with a population then of about seven hundred thousand. In Guayaquil alone the death rate fell from 20.- 16 per thousand in 1945 to 15.72 in 1955. These figures, though stilt high, reveal enormous improve- ment in a place that half a cen- tury ago had as vile a reputation Air view reveals how center of town is changing at it is invaded by tall new structures and skeletons of others. Whats Happening ¢2 <uvAYAQUIL? By LILO LINKE ONE OF THE FASTEST-GROW- ING CITIES iw Latin America is the once-disease-ridden Pacific port of Guayaquil, Ecuador, forty miles inland on the Guayas River. As it surges ahead, it is under- going a cemplete metamorphosis: New residential sections are chang- ing the skyline. The population is bursting the city seams and spill- ing into the surrounding man- grove swamps, hoping the muni- cipality will install roads, sewers, drinking water. What is happening creates tremendous problems for the tewn council, but it is also a sign of vitality. New asphalt highways are knitt- ing the entire ceast together, with Guayaquil the center of the ever- widening net. Foreign capital will help build a new port, required be- eause the Guayas River is silting up with fertile soil eroded from the Andes. Guayaquil dominates one of the world’s richest agricult- ural regions, and Point Four peo- ple are helping to promote agri- cultural and sanitary progress. Two years ago there was a cement scarcity; now a new factory sup- plies all that is needed. New flour and riee mills, extensions to the model brewery, fantastic consump- tion of soft drinks, early-morning distribution of newspapers by mo- roplane all along the coast — these ave the signs of the times. Although its explosive growth has been comparatively recent, by now Guayaquil has outstripped its longtime rival Quite, the capital on top of the Andes. In 1920 the population of the pert stood at Riverside Barrio. de las Pefias, oldest residential district, remains almost unchanged. PAG. 10 ninety-twe thousand: during the next thirty years it tripled to 266, 637, according to the 1950 ceasus; the mumber is now estimated at four hundred thousand. The step upward turn is particularly. im- pressive because ever since its founding in 1534 tropical Guaya- quil has been engaged in what ap- peared to be a losing battle for existence. Its most implacable foe has been its climate, so inviting to the mosquitoes that spread malaria and yellow fever. Attacks by In- dians, and later by pirates, also caused havoc. Frequent fires have eagerly fed upon its wooden and split-eane houses. When I first knew Guayaquil in 1940, its self bestowed appella- tion of “Pearl of the Pacifie” seem- ed just another hyperbole. Even on the main street, Boulevard Nue- ve de Octubre, most houses and ehurches were two-story frame structures. The pillars of the shady arcades, painted to resemble mar- ble, were hollow wooden casings, often half eaten away by termites. Big fires like the one of 1896 periodically destroyed entire dis- triets and the local firebrigade vol- unteers were popular heroes. The port could be reached di- rectly only by water or by air. The railroad up to Quito stopped on the opposite bank of the Guayas, and travelers and freight were meved to and fro by ferryboat. During the dry season, between June and December, people might venture by road out of Guayaquil, but because of the dust and the danger of breakdown en route, mo- iu beoming Guayaquil. torists were equipped as if for a safari. Life was bound to the river. The Guayas is formed at the northern edge of the town by the confluence of the meandering Daule and Baba- hoye, navigable far inland almost tothe foot of the Andes. No other country along the west coast of South America is favored by such a river system, draining an area of approximately 13,500 square miles of exceptional fertility All the main Guayaquil streets converge on the waterfront. Peo- ple used to lean for hours on the balustrades there watching the rafts or smatl launches float by laden with tropical produce, the town’s milk supply, chickens and pigs, sacks of rice and sugar. The rafts themselves, of wild cane, hal- sawood, cedar, laurei, or cinnamon, were sold to the sawmills down- viver. Up from the Pacific would come the boats bringing heme the travelers — owners of cacao plant- ations who lived more in Paris than in Ecuador or foreigners cur- ious to explore this strange tittle country so rich in contrasts. Guayaquil in those days was the picture of somnolence. Now, even during the brief lunch hours, the city searcely relaxes its pace. The half-finished concrete buildings cannot wiat, the reads have to be paved before the rainy season starts, the banana boats are always. im a hurry, trucks continually ar- HEMISPHERS One more concrete building under construction—a common sight as any tropical port anywhere. The transportation problem is al- so dissolving. In 1946, the newly formed Executive Committee of the Public Roads System of Gua- yas Province began to invest sne- cial taxes on gasoline, soft drinks, and so on in building “better roads for better living.” When the com- mittee took over, there were in the entire province only twenty five miles of second-class highways, all usable in the dry season. only. These have now been extended to nearly fifteen hundred miles, ma- ny have been paved with asphalt, and most of the rest are properly ballasted all-weather roads. To these must be added nine hundred miles of dry-season roads, now greatly improved and kept in re- Pair at least six months of the year. Still, those who insist that ba- nanas have been the real moving power probably come closest to finding a single explanation for the impressive change in Guaya- quil at least for the period follow- ing World War II. For the income from bananas financed much of the general development. The growth of Ecuador’sexports of “green gold” has been as spee- Fifteen hundred miles of paved or all-weather road have been beite® in last tem years te tie Guayas Province together. SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 1957