When Manuel Barrera was a kid and went to school walking tomorrow amid those icy winds that usually wrap the city, there were two things he always did on the way: cross himself before the Cruz del Vado and put your hands awhile to any wood ovens with bread to diminish the cold.
Sometimes too pure will, then child Manuel hot mestizo or a thread enconfitada in one of the bakeries was in the neighborhood and walked eating what he considers one of the delicacies that has enjoyed in its 89 years bought of life.
It's ten o'clock and between an almost monastic silence, that blissful silence it feels to reach the small square of El Vado, Barrera has half excited, gloomy environment, some of the passages of his childhood and adolescence in the neighborhood where he grew up , a traditional area of Cuenca marked by history through faith in God, trades such as bakery and a community life still in force thanks to the solidarity and unity of the neighbors.
Faith
When you do the exercise to ask the residents of El Vado what it means for them the mythical green cross parked in a sector of the square, everyone responds things like "faith," "love," "God," "protection" "parties", "union".
Based on that cross and to that faith wove a lot of stories and traditions. It is the origin of a number of customs and celebrations and the root of a neighborhood life imperturbable despite one of the evils of modernity is the deterioration of community values is maintained.
Hernán Alvarado, a doctor who wants to El Vado much as the country, the story is known by heart, as was president of the neighborhood committee for 12 years and has always been deeply committed to the care and development of the place.
This, it has Alvarado was one of the six crosses the Spaniards installed at the entrances and around the city to protect and away evil spirits. Others were placed in Todos Santos, El Vergel, San Blas, El Vecino and San Sebastian.
This was not a cross over, but transpired in history and seeped into the hearts of the people of El Vado to the point of building around it the traditional celebration of the Cross, a feast celebrated on May 3 each year and live earnestly with mass, sweet, village band, popular games, castles, balloons and as good cuencanos with rockets.
Preparations begin a week earlier, says Alvarado, with meetings that shows the spirit of solidarity that survives in the neighborhood. Some prepare sweets, others make do with dedication the space around the cross, some residents are responsible for games and other leave everything ready for the revelation of the image, on May 2, and the open-air mass, the 3rd. "there is no person here to not be relevant cross ... it is the Christian symbol of faith, have lived protected by her and gave her name to the neighborhood," says Alvarado.
The name is derived from the Vado wading, moving from one river bank to the other foot. But to wade was necessary to find a haven, and that backwater, usually just in the area had to enter the neighborhood.
That's something that made visitors to the south from Peru, Girón, Ona, Nabón, Machala, Santa Isabel, who came to the city, forded the river Tomebamba, left their horses in what is now the square, before gardening tomatoes and sambo, and spent the night in the colonial and republican mansions, like today, adorn the place. Before leaving bought and brought bread and traditional sweets.
bakeries
El Vado is also known as the neighborhood of the bakery, since the dawn of the community and in the first decades several women were engaged to make bread in a wood oven, so that once came to have about 30 stores.
As a child, Manuel Barrera put his hands for a while in one of the wood stoves for heating, and large did the same, but in the furnace of his house, the oven in which his wife Rosa Alvarez preparing the bread for the neighborhood and to distribute it in other neighborhoods of the city center. That was an activity she served for 40 years.
When Dona Rosa died five years ago, it was one of the few bakeries that remained in place, a job that is in the memory and the neighborhood began to disappear when they arrived industrial furnaces and these women began to die.
In addition, they say the neighbors, daughters and granddaughters opted for study and received the legacy of their mothers and grandmothers. "At six o'clock had already warm bread and the two p.m. already finished selling," says Manuel.
The Solidarity
One of the games that are left in memory as famous and particularly traditional is the greasy pole, one of the activities that greater expectation generated in the neighborhood during the holidays and, according to Hernán Alvarado, it symbolizes the solidarity and unity of the people .
When the neighborhood was regenerated, all forms of crime was eradicated and the small square was remodeled, the neighborhood committee decided that the sculpture that adorn the platform would be the greasy pole, a work of René Pulla. "It represents the organization, human solidarity is in El Vado, the desire to attain glory," says Alvarado.
Jorge Gutierrez, 86, is another of the neighbors who has always lived in El Vado, He, like his neighbors, weighted with pride that theirs is one of the few places in Cuenca that preserve life neighborly spirit Community meetings allowing for different occasions and, above all, help each other with profound solidarity.
In El Vado all know each other and greet each other. Prima dialogue, encounter around the concern for the welfare of others and the community. There breathes peace. Is the right environment to pause the rhythm of the day and, from the viewpoint of the square, a few minutes to contemplate the city skyline. (ARO) (I)
Source: http://www.eltiempo.com.ec/noticias-cuenca/190525-el-vado-es-fe-pan-y-solidaridad/
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