Cuidad del Este

Arial View

         Over the past few months I have found myself more frequently visiting Paraguay's second largest city appropriately called Cuidad del Este (City of the East). Now I'm sure most of you are thinking, why is called Cuidad del Este (CDE)? The answer is as obvious as the name of the city itself. It used to be called Cuidad del Stroessner during the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), but after he was thrown out the new regime renamed the city Cuidad del Este simply because it is located on the easternmost border with Brazil separating the two countries by the Paraná river. The fact the city is named after a simple observation says a lot about the culture and the influence it has in the region. It is a city, and it is in eastern Paraguay. It is the capital of Alto Paraná, probably the wealthiest department (state) of Paraguay, and perhaps is also the economic backbone of the country. It is also incontestably the black market capital of South America conveniently located at the heart of what known as the dangerous TBA (tri-border area) shared between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

Street View

            Cuidad del Este is 79 KM from Juan E. O'Leary, where I live, and is the economic hub of the region. With a population of roughly 321,000 it is really the only major urban center outside the capital region surrounding Asunción. The city was founded principally as a regional economic hub for trade with Brazil that was true until the 1970s when Itaipú dam, the worlds largest producer of hydroelectric power, started construction only a few kilometers north of the city. The dam meets most Paraguay's energy demand with enough left over to sell the excess to Brazil for about $300,000,000 annually. It is by far the most diverse city in Paraguay as well. When walking the streets in the center of the city it is common to see hoards of Brazilians, Argentines, Taiwanese, Koreans, Lebanese, and various Europeans wondering the vast shopping areas that encompass almost the entirety of the city center. The city has a mosque, various pagodas, and hand carved murals depicting images of the indigenous people who now make a living selling handcrafted goods on colorful blankets on the sidewalks. The dichotomies of the indigenous people’s lives are very conspicuous, but that is all a part of the culture of the city.

Shopping Monalisa one of the biggest and fanciest malls in CDE

            If I had to best describe what Cuidad del Este is actually like I would start by saying that it is unlike any place I have ever been. The knock off clothing, electronics, and souvenirs, to me, made me think of the giant open-air markets in China, but with a distinct Paraguayan feel. The entire city is like a giant Bazaar. The streets are filled with vendors in their booths. The sidewalks are narrow, and the  juxtaposition between the street vendors and enormous shopping malls that sell the exact same stuff is unlike anything I have ever seen. The only difference between the street vendors and the malls are that the malls sell the same stuff for more money, but also for "guarantee" of authenticity. The streets are crowded with people on motorcycles ducking in and out of traffic. Many of the shopping malls have been around for decades and now look more like fronts for smuggling than a legitimate businesses. The infrastructure of the city is an urban planning nightmare overcrowded with buses, cars, and trucks. I think the word chaos is an understatement in describing the appearance of the city.

Bridge connecting the Brazilian City Foz do Iguaçu

            The amazing thing about the city is how little is written about it despite its regional importance. This is the entire wikipedia article about Cuidad del Este: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_del_Este. 

From a tourist perspective, it is unlikely that you will be able to find anything that describes the city and what there is to do in any kind of detail. Most of the things that I have read are pretty much descriptions of how to get out of the city on your way to see Iguazú Falls that lie in between Brazil and Argentina. If you find yourself in Cuidad del Este, and you're looking to buy cheap electronics you're in luck, but other than that I can't think of any other incentive to go there. Here is a recent travel article from the New York Times about the passage to Iguazú Falls in case you haven't gotten a good impression of the city already: 

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/taking-the-paraguayan-route-to-iguaz-falls/?_r=0. 

            Cuidad del Este is not exactly on its way to becoming a major tourist destination anytime soon if that wasn't obvious enough already. The fact that the biggest tourist draw doesn't even lie within the city itself should be enough of an indication of the lack of things to see. Despite it being deficient in common tourist attractions, I have to say that Cuidad del Este is one of, if not the, most interesting places I have been for reasons that I still cannot explain sensibly.

            I think best article I have read that sums up Cuidad del Este is this old piece written 15 years ago in the New York Times: 

http://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/15/world/in-paraguay-border-town-almost-anything-goes.html

Statue of Former Taiwanese/Nationalist Chinese Leader Chiang Kai Shek

Like the article says, the entire culture of the city is dependent on counterfeit goods and technology. The Asian population has thrived in the city as a result of the small personal electronics that they can get relatively cheaply and turn around for big profits in the larger Brazilian and Argentine markets. A lot of the time, the counterfeit goods work just as well as the real deal, but cost significantly less. I have personally been skeptical of buying stuff in Cuidad del Este, but I have yet to meet someone who bought a camera, computer, or external hard drive there that said it was fake or didn't work. Selling these goods is really the only major industry the city has. If it weren’t for the bootlegging of technology starting with assembly of the parts the city would have no real industry. Paraguayan's have to pay a 10% tax mark-up on all goods they buy from the shopping malls while foreigners receive discounts of up to 20%. Things are almost always priced in American Dollars (USD) or Brazilian Reals (Rs.). If you ask for prices in Guaranís (Gs.), the Paraguayan currency, people have to bust out a calculator and often times screw you over on the exchange rate. To reiterate the businesses are primarily employ Paraguayans. The law forces these malls to charge Paraguayans more money to buy things there, and prefers not to operate in their currency. The place is absolutely fascinating.

            As mentioned in the article above, thousands of people decided to settle in Cuidad del Este once Itaipú Dam was finished. The completion greatly increased the population of the city as thousands of families moved to the region as the dam was being constructed. What came as a result, however, was not a formal economy based on something like manufacturing or banking, but rather as a black market hub for all things illegal. Measuring the economic importance of the city to Paraguay is all but impossible given the illegal nature of what goes on there. When calculating GDP or any other measure of economic progress the formulas used do not normally account for things like drugs, counterfeiting, or arms dealing. That pretty much makes up the entire city's economy, so nobody really has exact figures about how much money is flowing through the city. Paraguay is also one of the most corrupt counties in South America, so it makes sense why these types of business practices exist and thrive. With essentially no intervention from the government it is easy to grease enough palms to maintain the status quo.

             Despite all the hype regarding the illegal nature of the city itself however, I have to say that I personally don't feel that I am in any kind of danger when I go there. For most part, the city is a bunch of people who work at legitimate looking businesses just trying to make a living. People casually walk the streets, buy their goods, and take public transportation. The city doesn't have any museums, nice parks, or noticeable cultural hubs, but I say thats all a part of the charm. Now would I ever advocate going there just to see it? I'd have to honestly say no, but if you happen to be in the region it definitely worth a look. I think the city epitomizes the definition of free market capitalism. There is nowhere else on earth have I ever been to or ever heard of that was a city built around shopping malls surrounded by open air booths selling the same stuff they have in the malls right across the street. It may not be the prettiest city, heck it might even be the ugliest city I've ever been to, but there is something about being there that stands out, and cannot help but think when I am there that I am in this incredibly unique place that is unlike anything else in the world.

            

Community Meetings

A couple weeks ago I was sitting in my house riddled with an illness brought on by the plethora of rain we experienced seemingly out of no where, when the sun decided to finally come out. My reaction to this miracle was not unlike a man coming out of 2-weeks of solitary confinement stint in prison. The best news about the sun coming out was that school was going to happen that day for the first time in days. That bad news was that the afternoon classes were cut short to finally have the long awaited parents commission meeting.

            In previous ramblings I have discussed the features of the parent commission meetings, but for some reason this one stood out in a way that left me with a sense of awe. It wasn't that this meeting was really any different than all the other ones I had been too, but more because of how incredibly important the meetings seem to me now after having been to over 6. While meetings are usually different in one way or another they all seem to share several traits. For starters, they never start on time. If the meeting is suppose to begin at 3 you can bet that will be the time when people will start to arrive or prepare to leave their homes. They never, ever, take less than an hour and a half,. They are always overly dramatic for reasons that I hardly grasp. I am never told about them in advance, and often time find out about them when I am on my way to the school to teach or talk to the teachers. It is common for someone to break down emotionally, and I catch about half is what is said not because of language, but rather because of how boring the topics of conversation are. I hate going to these meetings, but as I start to wrap up my service I have sort of developed a soft spot in what they are and what allegedly accomplish especially after the most recent one.

            It would be iniquitous to classify all meeting that take place in Paraguay as poorly run, but in the limited experience I have, that is always how they seem to go down. I think the reason for that has a lot do with meetings at community institutions are one of the only ways neighbors get together in groups to discuss things. People here have opinions and rarely express them in a public format. Most of the time news travels through word of mouth of gossip. A perfect example of this is when my water pump got stolen. It seemed as though everybody knew about before I did, and brought it up before I could when I went to talk to someone. At one of these meetings, the tone of the room was eerily similar to the plot of some children’s mystery novel like the Hardy Boys. I think I would titled it The Sagrada Familia Parents Commission in: Thomas Schultz and the Plight of the Pilfered Pump. The climax took form in a gradually increasing and progressively intensifying 20-minute discussion about community responsibility to protect me and make sure I looked after. Everyone had to have their say except for the people who actually perpetrated the crime who were either silent, not at the meeting, or didn't really care. Basically it is opportunity to talk about anything, but usually we stay on task with topics related to the school.

            About a month ago I found myself walking to the school with the hopes of opening up the library for the kids. As I was rummaging through the principal's desk searching for the key that wasn't in its usual place, I poked my head out the office to inquire where it was? The teachers told me to sit down for a minute. As I slowly sat down trying to avoid defecating in pants out of fear that I had done wrong, they informed me that someone had stolen all of the school's money when one of the students asked to use the key to open the library. The library key was on the same chain as the key for the school's lock box About $125 was stolen, and the trust to give the students control of the library had been broken. This was pretty frustrating for me to hear because of how much I have encouraged the students to use library independent of my presence. It was big step back in making the library a self-sustaining institution managed by the students. I have to say that my reaction to the whole situation wasn't anger or frustration, but rather sadness. I was told that one of the students, I still don't know whom, was in such a dire situation that he or she needed to steal the money or they would of probably gone hungry. To make the story even gloomier, the child's father isn't in the picture, and the mom doesn't work. I was told that the student was greatly pressured into taking the money so his or her mom could pay of her debt from a store and make trip to buy things in Cuidad del Este. It was not a good situation, but I sort of felt honored in weird way because the teachers sat me down and said "Tomás you are a part of our community, and it is important for us to tell you what happened to our school." That incredible gesture, however sweet it was, didn't resolve the fact that the money was gone.

            A few weeks later I went to the school to find out that a good chunk of the money had been recovered. I have no idea what happened whatsoever, and to be honest I don't think I want to know, but about 75% of what stolen was returned. It felt good that the money was back, but something didn't feel quite right. I felt pity for that family even though I didn't who it was. I found myself looking at the students and their families over the next few days, and during the meeting that took place the week after, a bit more distrustfully. This was especially true considering this was the second incident of theft, including my water pump, that had taken place in the last month. My feelings towards the whole situation were stronger than I imagined, and even though the money was returned I felt a lot melancholy about the family and the child that was put in that position to steal. It seemed to me that I was the only person that felt that way, and I think that was were the skepticism came from. My tone, however, was completely changed the second the meeting began. Being jaded from having become used to the overly dramatic nature of the meetings themselves, I went in with a bit of a bias in how the issue concerning the stolen money would be addressed. Given that it was returned, I believed that it would be more of a dodged a bullet type reaction rather than what actually happened.

            Iris, my host mother in O'Leary and principal of the school, stood up and began to address the stolen money issue. I have never in my time here seen Iris cry. I have seen angry, I have happy, and I seen almost every other emotion in between, but I had never seen sadness that brought her to tears. From the time she opened her month to the time she left the room unable to continue talking about it because of how distraught she was, I sat there stunned by her sympathy for child who was unfairly put that position. She wasn't angry even though she had every right to be. She wasn't blaming anyone because enough blame had already been thrown around. She simply commenting on how sometimes people are put in impossible circumstances that force them to contradict their sense of right and wrong. I am sure that the child in question and his mother got a lot of flack for the situation, and rather then add onto that mountain of guilt, Iris decided to make this incredibly emotional appeal to the parents sitting in the room that while this child made a mistake, the incident says a lot more about the challenges Paraguayans face in a rapidly developing country that they have only just begun to grasp. I'll concede that this my own personal interpretation of what she wanted to express. It entirely possible that her display of emotion was in her mind less profound than I interpreted it, but something tells me that isn't true. I think beyond doubt that she stepped out of the meeting, that meeting that happens every month, for the first time genuinely saddened by this family's act of desperation that she had never quite seen in her over 20 years of teaching.
            What made this moment so poignant for me was that less than 5-minutes passed before the meeting continued and people were arguing about why they didn't make money at a fundraising event that was entirely a result of a lack planning. Iris seemed totally fine, and an hour and a half later everyone was heading home. For pretty much my entire service I have unenthusiastically gone to these meetings, but after seeing what Iris did at the last meeting something finally clicked in my mind about why they do those meetings they way they do. It is chance for people to show how they feel in front of their community, and while more than often than not I feel like I would rather be getting a tooth pulled than sitting through one of them, I now feel like I understand there importance of them as a symbol of community strength rather than something I have the unfortunate responsibility to sit through.