Cesar Lopez felt whisked back to his childhood in Guayaquil, Ecuador as he watched the traditional Andean music and Chimborazo region folk dance performed at the Ecuadorian Independence Day celebration on Sunday at the State Capitol.
“These songs, these dances, they bring back some really nice memories,” Lopez said in Spanish. “I was containing my tears from coming out of my eyes,” he then said in English.
Lopez is a committee member of Ecuatorianos Unidos en Connecticut, or Ecuadorians United in Connecticut. He helped organize the event, which marked 216 years since Ecuador began its fight against Spanish control.
Known as el Día del Primer Grito de Independencia, or the Day of the First Cry of Independence, August 10 is the day citizens of Ecuador’s current-day capital city Quito began their rebellion for independence.
‘Your own cry for independence’
At the event in Hartford, Ecuadorians heard about this history and how it parallels the journey of Ecuadorians who have migrated to the United States.
“That process, which took 12 years to achieve independence, is much like the journey with migrants living in another country,” Master of Ceremonies Verónica Barragán said. “You are also writing your own cry for independence when you speak English with an accent, when you work two jobs to send your child to college, when you open a business in a land you don’t understand, [and] when you keep on going even when you miss pan de yuca and your mom.”
Barragán told the audience that August 10 didn’t belong just to Quito, but to all Latinos who wanted to seek out a better life even if it hurts to leave home.
Lopez later asked attendees to raise their voice for the immigrant community in their own local communities.
“We are a big voice out there,” Lopez said of the Ecuadorian community, “but we need other voices to amplify our [pro-immigrant] message.”
The ongoing deportation raids in Connecticut and across the country saddens Lopez.
“It’s not the America that I knew,” he said. “I have to carry my passport, my kids have to carry their passports just to go out in case we get asked for any identification. It’s a sad sentiment that I have, but I am very optimistic that things are not going to be like that all the time.”
Since the start of President Trump’s second term, Ecuadorians have been the top migrant group arrested by federal immigration agents in Connecticut, according to an analysis by Connecticut Public’s Accountability Project.
“It's not fair what's happening right now, because we [immigrants] are making this country flourish,” Lopez said,” but we have that optimism that things are going to change.”
Lopez said he was encouraged to have Congressman John Larson and State Senator Saud Anwar vocalize their support for the immigrant community at the event.
Tradition lives on
The room was silent as a woman wearing vibrant colors and intricate patterns sobbed while clutching a baby doll to her chest. Behind her, a man also sobbed as he said his goodbyes before leaving Ecuador to migrate to another country.
The Danbury-based dance group Wayra Sisa put on the skit as part of their performance at the event. It depicted the story of a family saying their goodbyes to the father who was leaving to find work elsewhere and provide for his family back home.
A woman’s voice was speaking over slow strumming as they performed the skit. She was heard saying in Spanish, “The only thing he brings is a heart full of illusions and a bunch of tears in his eyes, because for as much as he wants to bring, he can't bring it all, and a whole life doesn't fit in a suitcase."
After the skit, the dancers shouted with a burst of energy as they performed a traditional Chimborazo region folk dance.
It was a special moment for National Guard Private First Class Jeremy Pinto, who comes from an Ecuadorian household in Windsor.
“I've actually never seen it in person before, so this is my first time. I always see it in the news. I always see it on YouTube. So to actually be able to see it up close is incredible,” Pinto said. “I couldn't be any happier to see them.”
Pinto received an award of recognition at the event, which he said was a humbling moment of honor for him. Being surrounded by so much of his Ecuadorian culture left him with an incredible feeling.
“I serve my country very proudly, but to know that people aren't forgetting their roots,” Pinto said, “that people are keeping their heritage very, very much alive in a country that celebrates immigrants so much, it means the world to me.”
For Lopez, that’s what makes events like these so important.
“Having these events, it's helped us move our traditions forward,” Lopez said. “Make sure that our traditions are kept and remembered.”
