Once again, it is John Lennon’s birthday.
I always remember it, and not the other Beatles’ birthdays, not merely because it comes six days after my own. It’s because of Nueve de Octubre, and that looms large because when I was a schoolboy in Ecuador, we always got a whole week off for it — while only getting a day and a half for Christmas.
At the time, I thought that it was Ecuadorean Independence Day. I mean, it would have to be at least that, right — who would take off a whole week for anything less?
But it turns out that it’s only when the province of Guayas, which contained the city of Guayaquil — where I lived — declared its independence from Spain. Not the whole country.
Bonus fact ripped from today’s headlines: Guayaquil is now effectively the capital of Ecuador, since unrest in Quito caused el presidente to have to relocate the seat of government.
Now you know.
Let’s close with one of John’s better songs…
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By the way, The Washington Post gets it wrong, repeatedly:
There’s no such word as “Ecuadoran.” It’s “Ecuadorean,” or sometimes “Ecuadorian.”…
Last time I left Quito it was to a general strike and burning piles of tires, and crushing crowds at the airport wanting to just go anywhere else – that was in 1999 or 2000. The people in Quito seemed used to the idea that chaos was always just around the corner.
It was striking to me at the time. Now I get their outlook.
So any idea where you’re moving to? Maybe Canada like all those in Hollywood?
Why celebrate the birthday of the guy who gave us Yoko Ono?
For once “It’s” is used correctly — as a contraction of “it is” rather than incorrectly as a third-person singular possessive pronoun (as seen in the more recent post above).