Aldana and Dino, after presenting in St. Elena and her Magic on the Road project headed towards the southern mountains of Ecuador. After spending a few days in Cuenca, they arrived at Vilcabamba. Here is her experience:
“Don't eat with salt, stop smoking, cut back on coffee and alcohol and relax, you're not 20 anymore, grandpa, did you hear me?”
“Yes, doctor,” the grandfather answered.
Of course, if I had been born in Vilcabamba, a small town in southern Ecuador, this conversation would not have happened.
The doctor's phrase, if they visited him, would be something like this: "Be careful when you come down the mountain, don't trip... look, you're not 100 years old anymore, eh!"
It's not that the grandparents of Vilcabamba take great care to reach that age, but quite the opposite. They smoke, drink liquor, eat with salt and work on the farms until very old. They read without glasses and sometimes don't even have grey hair.
Although there are many people in Vilcabamba who are over 100 years old, some have reached 130, today there are not as many people who reach that age as in the past. Things have changed for everyone, even for them. Could it be globalization?
We just arrived at the Sacred Valley and we asked ourselves What to do in VilcabambaRegarding the presentation of our project, the town is known for the longevity of its inhabitants. What if we also do it for the elderly? It was a new challenge for Magia en el Camino…
Early on Monday we went to the local government (the parish council) to find out what possibilities there were to carry out our idea. The reception of the proposal could not have been better. Although we knew that we were against the clock because the next morning we were leaving for Peru, Maria made a couple of calls and we decided that that same Monday, at 4 pm, in a school in the town, we would present our Proyecto Sur. We did not know how many would come because not all of them live in the main part of the town, many had to come down from their houses in the mountains and not all of them could be notified.
In addition to the short time for the meeting, we had certain fears about the acceptance that they would have of magic. We had already had some experiences where people believe that magic is witchcraft or sorcery, and no matter how much we explain it to them, they do not want to know anything about it. In one of our presentations on the coast, the employee of the inn where we were asked Aldana if the magician did “draws,” something like being able to cure illnesses or detect if there are any. Aldana answered very clearly that our magic is pure fun, but apparently she was not convinced, because after a while when she saw me, she began to cross herself. We do not blame her, but we would have liked her to be encouraged to see the show. Her fear prevented her from being able to change her mind about it. These types of comments had already landed on our ears more than once and therefore, dealing with older adults and a small town, a reaction of this style was to be expected.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we were wrong… About 15 grandparents attended (and later children joined with some adults). A sparse audience, if you will. The chat, the anecdotes and the photos drew expressions of astonishment on the grandparents’ faces. Meanwhile, the magic tricks: laughter and glances between them. Always with mutual respect, the minutes passed and the presentation came to an end. There was much applause and then each of them got up from their chairs and approached us to shake our hands, kiss us and thank us. Not one was missing. What a pleasure we felt seeing the astonishment and smiles in their gestures! What pride we felt knowing that they waited more than eighty years to see a small magic show and that we had the honor of being the ones to give it to them! Although we are sure that we were the ones who received the gift.
Keep reading more Magic in Vilcabamba, FROM HERE
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