The Professor of History and Geography of Health in Ecuador

NN was only 28 years old when he was hired by the School of Environmental Sanitation at the Central University School of Medicine in 1984. President Leopoldo Febres Cordero took office in Ecuador, and he immediately introduced the country to Plan Condor, a plan devised by Henry Kissinger to eliminate so-called communist subversives in South America.

NN was hired to teach the course thanks to a professor at the School of Medicine who recommended him. It was a one-year contract, and the basic textbook for students who would become health inspectors was Dr. Eduardo Estrella's book, Socioeconomic Aspects of Health in Ecuador.

This would be the first year of operation of the School of Environmental Sanitation, which would also teach students how to train health promoters in rural communities in Ecuador and how to organize civil defense for the population in the event of disasters.

After class, NN, with about 30 students in the classroom, would go to the Museum of the History of Medicine located in the Old San Juan de Dios Hospital, a hospital in the capital, established in 1569, one of the first hospitals in the Americas. The director of that hospital was none other than Dr. Eduardo Estrella, who kept all the information about Ecuadorian healthcare there, stored in medical records, published books, etc., along with instruments from the old hospital, Chinese porcelain pharmacy containers bearing the names of the medicinal plants, salts, and chemicals used.

NN helped Dr. Estrella make a display case with dried medicinal plants from Ecuador, and gave the museum cascarilla, which he had found on a property his father had bought in the cloud forest on the Quito-Guayaquil highway.

While he was a professor, he took the opportunity to study radio production at CIESPAL, the Latin American Communications Center, in an 800-hour course for university professors, taught by Radio Nederlands. During that course, he met Walter Alves, his radio drama professor. That professor was a 65-year-old Brazilian man who elegantly displayed his white beard and suit, smoking while he asked the 13 students to create stories for radio, which included everything from sound effects to the voices of their classmates.

His group, which included him, a Colombian, a Brazilian, a Nicaraguan, a Guayaquil native, and an Argentinian, came up with the idea of ​​creating a story called "El hormiguero" (The Anthill), which depicted the life of human beings underground, in a place where radiation from a nuclear power plant was present. That became a reality two years later when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. The course ended with a ferry ride to Salinas in August, and NN went with his wife, who was working as a secretary in Balao. They were the parents of a daughter. It was the first time the couple visited that beach town on the Pacific Ocean, but the Humboldt Current had arrived with winds and waters so cold that they were shivering and forced to wear coats. Only the good humor of his Colombian classmate cheered the travelers.

During that year of teaching, he had to live in his parents' house because the university didn't have the money to pay him, and what he earned was little. The Leor Febres Cordero government had blocked university funding. The professors, most of whom worked one or two hours at the university and the rest in the hospitals of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Security, claimed they taught for the love of teaching, not for the pay, since what they were paid wasn't even enough for cigarettes.

After his teaching contract ended and he hadn't received a single cent, his wife presented him with a dilemma: either come to Esmeraldas and live with me and your daughter, or we get divorced.

Without hesitation, he said goodbye to the university and his parents and went to Esmeraldas. In Esmeraldas, he went to Radio Antela Libre, a radio station part of the Ecuadorian Popular Radio Network, founded by CIESPAL with a professor and his students from an art school, and created a radio soap opera.

That year of teaching, he had to live in his parents' house because the university didn't have the money to pay him, and what he earned was little. The Leor Febres Cordero government had blocked university funding. The professors, most of whom worked one or two hours at the university and the rest in the hospitals of the Ministry of Public Health and Social Security, claimed they taught for the love of teaching, not for the pay, since what they were paid wasn't even enough for cigarettes.

When his teaching contract ended and he hadn't received a single cent, his wife presented him with a dilemma: either come to Esmeraldas or we'll get a divorce. Without hesitation, he returned to Esmeraldas.