My Uncle’s Grave
Cotacachi, Ecuador
Cementario de Cotachaci
I never knew my uncle. He lived in Ecuador my entire life and passed away in 2000, when I was almost 10. My dad only ever referred to him as “his brother,” so I didn’t even know his name. I had never seen any pictures of him. When I was in 5th grade, I wanted to write a story about him. When my teacher asked me his name I said I didn’t know. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I knew he was a horticulturalist, that he went into the Peace Corps and was placed in Ecuador, fell in love with it, and spent the next 40 years of his life living there (with some stints in the US and Mexico). I remember when my dad got the phone call about his brother’s death. A heart attack. He flew to Ecuador for the funeral, to Cotacachi, world-famous for its leather, and brought me and my mom back leather jackets and hair scrunchies. And that was that. I refrained from asking many other questions because it seemed my uncle lived his own life, and my dad did not volunteer information. Only now, when I had the opportunity to find his grave while in Ecuador, did I begin to ask questions again.
Guest room in Hacienda Pinsaqui.
My uncle Bill lives on through my cousins - all four of whom are scattered throughout the United States. Becky, the youngest cousin, lived with her dad in Cotacachi and married a local man, Fabricio Proaño. His family is still in Cotacachi, and my uncle was well known around town. Everyone knew the Whites, gringos in both in name and skin.
From left to right: Rosabelle, Becky, Thomas, Bill, and my dad, David.
I never knew my uncle, but being in Cotacachi helped me to understand who he was: a divine gardener and engineer. I walked the streets that he used to walk. I saw the apartment above the flower shop where he lived with two of my cousins, Becky and Bill Jr., and their dog, Ziko, after he and their mom split up. I walked the trails that he walked each weekend around the beautiful Laguna de Cuicocha. I saw the garden he created around the Indian sun sculpture near the gate to the city. I saw the grounds he landscaped outside of the famous Hacienda Pinsaqui.
The Calle 10 de Agosto thoroughfare downtown Cotacachi.
(August 10 is Ecuador’s Independence Day)
The top-floor apartment where my uncle and cousins lived over 30 years ago, when it was a brand new building.
Entrance to Cementario de Cotacachi
Hacienda Pinsaqui at night
Now, Hacienda Pinsaqui is a special place for many reasons. My uncle did the landscaping before the Hacienda opened to the public as an inn in 1995, but it also is steeped in history. The building has seen its share of historic events: it is where Simón Bolívar prepared for the battle of Ibarra in 1823 during the Ecuadorian War of Independence. He was apparently a frequent visitor. It is also where the “Treaty of Peace and Friendship” between Ecuador and Colombia was signed in 1836.
Hacienda Pinsaqui’s foyer
& breakfast nook with incredible old maps of the region
Local band of brothers and cousins playing traditional Andean music at the Hacienda.
Looking out into the courtyard from the guest room.
The hiking trail around Cuicocha.
Laguna de Cuicocha, a deep and cold glacial lake.
View of farmland and mountains from Cuicocha.
I could see why my uncle loved this place enough to call it home for so long. It is high in the mountains, crisp, and beautiful. The people are hospitable and the food is excellent. It is a town of artists and musicians, as evidenced by the statue of Charlie Chaplin, one of the greatest artists of all time in the minds of Ecuadorians. I was delighted to find a piece of family here, one that had been a mystery to me, and still is.
My cousins told me to ask the groundskeeper at the cemetery, “el ingeniero William White o el gringo.” But as soon as I mentioned his name, the groundskeeper said, “El gingro! Si!” Before I could say anything more, and led me right to his plot.
I still have so much more to learn.
