Father Martin Kelly has served as a priest for 15 years in Puerto Quito, a town in Ecuador. On Monday, he found Puerto Quito here in New Haven.
Kelly (pictured) was the guest of honor at a backyard party on Foxon Road on Monday. His visit was organized by the Federacion de Puerto Quito de USA, a New-Haven-based organization of approximately 100 Ecuadorian immigrants from Puerto Quito, a town in Ecuador. Kelly, a native of Ireland, is currently on a fundraising trip to the U.S.
During his stop in New Haven, he shared the latest news from Puerto Quito with the dozens of Ecuadorians gathered, many of whom have not been back to their hometown for years. The crowd included at least two couples whom Kelly had married in Ecuador.
The party included traditional Ecuadorian food, “techno cumbia” music, and Ecuavolley, the Ecuadorian version of volleyball.
Very, very, very, very happy
“It’s very emotional for me to encounter Puerto Quito so far from Puerto Quito,” Kelly (pictured) said in Irish-accented Spanish, using a cordless mic to address the backyard from the porch. He told the crowd about the latest news in Puerto Quito, including the construction of new roads and bridges and the completion of a new trade school through the efforts of Kelly’s parent organization, the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle. The society sends priests to serve in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru.
Kelly was sent to Puerto Quito 15 years ago by the society. He told that crowd that he still has no desire to leave. “It’s a lovely place,” he said. “But the most lovely is the people. They are very wholesome, very good.”
Later, sitting down to a bowl of clear soup with a chicken drumstick in it, Kelly talked about his work in Puerto Quito. He said that his primary mission is as a pastor, attending to the spiritual development of his parishioners. But he also engages in social work. His latest project is a Catholic technical school in Puerto Quito that includes courses of study in computer and business skills, dairy science, and preparation of jams and jellies.
“He does a lot of work for the community. Working with the children, with education,” Mariam Bustamente said. Originally from Puerto Quito, Bustamente has lived in New Haven for three years.
Rody Tandazo, who was Kelly’s neighbor 14 years ago in Puerto Quito, recalled how Kelly used to take sick people to the hospital in his pick-up truck in the days before the community had an ambulance. Tandazo said that he was “very, very, very, very happy” to see Kelly here.
Monsignor Finbar O’Leary, the director of the Missionary Society of St. James the Apostle, arrived with Kelly. The connection between missionary priests and community is very strong in Ecuador, he said. “We go down and we don’t have any family,” he explained. The parishioner’s become family.
“This is like something we’d have in Ecuador,” O’Leary said, looking around at the volleyball, the food and music. “All the time.”
O’Leary spent several years working in Puerto Quito and at the party he had a joyful reunion (pictured) with Jimmy Coello, who lived in Puerto Quito until five years ago.
Politics, Immigration, and Volleyball
Kelly took the opportunity of addressing the Ecuadorians to speak out on the upcoming referendum on Ecuador’s proposed new constitution. “There are some things we can’t accept as Christians, as Catholics,” he said. The new constitution would legalize both abortion and same-sex marriage.
The new constitution would also strip funding from the new technical school that Kelly helped to create. Government funds currently pay the salaries of four teachers at the school. But since the school is a Catholic school, the new constitution would eliminate the subsidy.
Kelly said that he cannot tell people how to vote but that he has a duty as a pastor to guide them to good choices.
Eating his lunch, Kelly said that during his time in Puerto Quito he has seen many people leave to go to the U.S. or Spain in search of work. “There is little employment there,” he said. “It’s in the foothills of the Andes. Most of the land can’t be cultivated by machines, only by machete. The work is hard, with small recompense.”
Dixon Jimenez, a native of Puerto Quito and secretary of the New Haven Ecuadorian community organization Virgen Del Cisne, said that the New Haven area has a community of almost 100 individuals who have immigrated from Puerto Quito. He characterized it as a “massive immigration,” given the relatively small population of Puerto Quito, and said that the immigrant community is very young. “They are all 38 years old and less,” he said.
The Federacion de Puerto Quito de U.S.A. was formed three years ago to raise money for the development of Puerto Quito. Jimenez said that the Federacion currently pays the monthly tuition of five school children in the town. In the future the organization would like to help create more industry and sources of employment in Puerto Quito, Jimenez said.
After a lunch of Ecuadorian food — rice, barbecued chicken, tripe, plaintains, lentils — two teams faced off in three-on-three Ecuavolley. “The game is very popular in Ecuador,” Jimenez explained. “You will find an Ecuavolley field everywhere you go.”
Past Independent coverage of New Haven’s Ecuadorian community:
• Ecuadorian Youth Soccer Steps Up
‚Ä¢ Feds Rescue “Bakery Slaves”
‚Ä¢ Teen ID’d as Immigrant’s Killer
• Ecuadorian Soccer Kicks Off
• Geovana Alexandra Tapia Gualán, 22
‚Ä¢ Father Jim Manship’s Ecuadorian diary: The Devout: An Intersection Between the Divine and Secular; Soaked; Change Springs From Bottom Up; A Visit With Elian; Ticket To Credibility; Live From Ecuador
• Relief Drummed Up
• Relief Sought For Flood Victims
‚Ä¢ Ecuador.Com, With A Shot Of “Viagra Natural”
• Freddy Goes Home
‚Ä¢ Slain Immigrant’s Family Wants Him Home
Thank you very much Thomas and Melissa Bailey, friends of the ecuadorian community and speciality of the people from Puerto Quito - Ecuador. Thank you for joint with us in this important event. We hope that you and Melissa enjoyed the time. It was a pleasure and we realy apreciate your job.
Sincerely,
Dixon Jimenez
Secretary of Puerto Quito Fundation in USA