Amidst the beating of drums and the staging of “Sacachúm: The Return of Sam Biritute” by the Thamé Teatro de Artesanos collective, the “Valdivia 2011” Eco-Cultural Day kicked off, which took place in the Venus square in said commune last Sunday.
Several local and national artists in the areas of Dance, Performance, Live Painting and music showed their talent, who together with national and foreign exhibitors gave strength to the requests of the Valdivia Commune and delighted the hundreds of people, including locals and national and foreign tourists who enjoyed the day and signed the petition that will be addressed to the President of Ecuador and the ministers of the areas involved.
The delay in the delivery of the new Valdivia Aquarium (caused by severe construction deficiencies); the contamination and problems in community relations of the INDUVAL company, and the loss of Archaeological Heritage that continues despite recent promises from the highest authority in that branch were the triggering causes for this peaceful protest in which, through art and culture, they intend to make said authorities react and make the citizens aware of the problems that the commune wants to solve.
Lcda. Paola Gálvez (Regional Deputy Director of Tourism and in charge of monitoring the Aquarium issue) contacted us minutes before the start of the event and informed us that within a period of no more than 10 days she would be visiting the commune to socialize the current status of this issue, that in approximately 3 months the work would begin so that before Carnival 2012, the work could be delivered and all this would be history for one of the tourist attractions of the Valdivia commune. This was corroborated by Eng. José Andres Coello (Deputy Director of Tourism of Santa Elena) who was present at the event. There was also representation from the Ministry of the Environment (although there was no official statement on the INDUVAL issue). We hope to have information from INPC in the coming days regarding the issue of the loss of archaeological heritage in Valdivia.
The Spondylus International Ballet (participant in the recent tour to Peru organized by COMTECTURSE), the San Rafael Ballet, Xavier Blum, Marcelo Abril, Heber de Santis, Lourdes Pineda, Sin Fronteras, DjCheoRivera and Siervos Music, Grupo Sin Fronteras, LUXXO and Rey Camarón completed the scenic part of the day. Meanwhile, Camille Gamarra, Marcelo Abril and Luiggiman Farfrompuken (Luiggi Paolo Raffo) were doing live painting and gave the first lessons for the children who decided to try and develop their talent.
The groups Red de Arte Planetario (Colombia), Alipen (an organization of women from Atahualpa who make sweets and jellies from pumpkin), Cabaña de Yoli (with some delicious snacks from Venus de Valdivia), the Amigos del Estero Salado (who hand-painted caps and donated them to the Aquarium), Ogar Ambiental, among others, were also an important part of the event.
In this way, according to Pedro Borbor (president of the Commune), "it has been demonstrated that by working as a team it is possible to effectively bring various types of cultural expression to our communes and at the same time make their needs known so that they are not forgotten."
We at BallenitaSí Online are very happy to have been part of this new community activity and we invite you to stay tuned to participate in the following activities that we will be carrying out throughout the month of August for our 2nd birthday.
If you want to see more images of the day, follow this link
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