Ecuadorean immigrants worry from afar

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Terry Wynn

Reporter

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Poverty at home
“I am disappointed because it’s just very bad there now,” says Carmita Gonzalez, a 42-year-old sales representative who works at Creditos Economicos.

Gonzalez said government corruptions was so rampant that her store in Queens was necessary for survival in Ecuador. “Everything over there costs too much. That is why people come here.”

While supporting her husband and 2-year-old son in New York, Gonzalez regularly buys items for her mother and two sons in Ecuador who could not normally afford such items, if they had to be purchased on Ecuadorian soil.

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Nearly misty eyed as she talks about her family back home, Gonzalez says she cannot return to Ecuador because it is too expensive. "It costs too much. Where would I live?"

And like Moran, Gonzalez is pessimistic about Palacio and what changes he may bring to Ecuador. “My country is very rich, but the people are very poor. Where do you think the money goes?”

Mixed views on new leader
Although Palacio has reportedly called Gutierrez “a disease” infecting the nation, local Ecuadoreans have not been able to ignore that Palacio was his vice-president and their suspicions that they are more alike than not.

“I don’t think this new president going to be around long…maybe two or three months,” Arboleda said.

“The people want a change and he was a populist, he was the vice president,” he said with a laugh.

Leticia Pino disagrees, giving Palacio the benefit of the doubt. She noted that although Palacio was the vice president, he did enter the race as an independent.

Pino said Palacio was the only politician who accepted Gutierrez offer as a running mate, and the two were never close during Gutierrez’s time as president.

“Impressed by Palacio’s congressional selections thus far, Pino says “He might do a good government. It’s different.”

But for a government that has seen three presidents in less than ten years, local Ecuadorean are not optimistic about the future of the country’s economics or its politics.

Arboleda, whose newspaper reach over 2,000 Ecuadorians, summed up the sense of disenchantment. “The new president is from the same party as the old court. It’s the same. Just change the person.”

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