QUITO IN SIGHT

MARIUXI (1) IN HER FIRST "STUDIO" FOTO


Life was a completely different game for us once we had a family, our world had a new axis, it was Mariuxi. Everything in our lives had to run around her and her well being. We lived in a small but very comfortable apartment, not very far from Fanny’s mother and my sister Lilita who, for all practical purposes continued to be my “adopting mom”.
Mariuxi was a very healthy baby and we did not have to worry very much about doctors except for the regular check ups, until one day when she was about nine months old.
I had gone to Cuenca for work and had been absent for a full week when Mariuxi had fallen very ill, she was urgently ordered to a hospital by her doctor and had been there for two days before I got back home on a Saturday at noon. I was anxious to see my baby when I arrived home only to be informed that Fanny and Mariuxi were in the hospital. I was about to faint, I was so scarred I could not drive and asked Carlos, my brother in law, to take me to the hospital. When I arrived, my baby was lying in bed with all kinds of serum going through her little veins, she was pale, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t open her eyes. She had been diagnosed gastroenteritis, the same disease that had killed three children in my family when they were just as young as my little Mariuxi.
I was devastated, I talked to the doctor in charge of her case, I told him how scared I was, but he calmed me down, he told me the worst was over, he expected my baby to be back at home in two days. I couldn’t sleep for those entire two days, but thank God Mariuxi was well by Monday morning and we took her back home. She had lost at least four pounds but she recovered them in no time. Two months later, when she was eleven months old, I made her walk for the first time; I’ll never forget how she did it. As I used to do every day after work, I took her to play with me, I made her lean her back on the main door of our apartment, and left her standing loose while calling her to come to me, I was about three feet away, she tried a couple of times to walk toward me but she pulled back. Finally, in her third intent, she gathered all the will she needed and walked toward me as I pulled myself back a bit to allow more space for her walk, she had walked about four steps by herself, I couldn’t believe she had done it!. I repeatedly hugged and kissed her and she laughed as out of satisfaction for a work well done. Then, I made her try it again and again and she was soon an expert in the art of walking! By the time she was one year old, she was running around our apartment at will. I loved it…




MARIUXI IN HER FIRST BD, WITH HER MOM AND GRANNY


Notwithstanding the great happiness she brought to our lives almost every day after she was born, it was not until after 25 years, in April of 2000, when Mariuxi, then 26, obtained her degree as a Master of International Business, from the University of Thunderbird, the number one in the world in this field, that I felt as happy for and as proud of her as the day she walked by herself for the first time.
Mariuxi is now a mother of two adorable little boys, Carlito and Matteo, she has made us the happiest grandparents anyone can think of, she lives in Dubai, one of the most dynamic and modern states in the world, she likes it there, she is an important officer of one of the most important companies in the world, she enjoys her work and she also enjoys her family. Fanny and I visit her at least once a year and we are now excitedly expecting her and her family to visit us for the year-end holidays of 2010. This will be the first time our grand children come to visit their maternal grandparent’s home in Ecuador.



MARIUXI WITH HER DAD AND MOM, POSING FOR
THE ARTHUR ANDERSEN BOOK IN 1975



Going back to my professional life, in the summer of 1975, I was promoted to the Manager level in our Firm,and, with the new level came new responsibilities and with them, more traveling and less time for the family. A combination of good and bad news came soon after: Pepe Garcia had been promoted to the level of Partner in the Firm, but he was going to be transferred to the Miami office. My friend, my mentor, my adviser, and my most respected supervisor was going to leave. In spite of the fact that I had developed a very successful career within the Firm over the previous six years, I felt that things were going to change and I was somehow concerned about the coming changes. Though Pepe’s replacement William (“Bill”) Lindbergh, an American partner coming from the headquarters in Chicago introduced himself as a man who would continue Pepe´s successful policies and procedures and practices, I still felt that there were going to be changes affecting me. In fact, only two months after Bill took over, he called me to his office and had a long chat with me. He told me I had been highly recommended by Pepe and that among his plans was the opening of an office in Quito, given the fact that our Firm’s business had developed faster than expected in that city, particularly in the tax area, which was under my responsibility. Then he mentioned that he would like me to be the head of the Quito office, which would require me to move to that city.
Instead of giving him a definite answer, I told Bill that I’d like to take a couple of days to respond, which was more than fine with him. I talked to Fanny about it and, though she was kind of mama’s girl and going to Quito would put a physical distance between her and her mom, she left the decision to me. There were a few things I needed to analyze before making a decision, not the last of them was a necessary hike in my compensation, a housing allowance, a compensation for the fact that Fanny was working and she would not do so in Quito, and a few other things associated to the move to a different city and to new and higher responsibilities. When I came back to talk to Bill, at the end of September 1975, he was willing to meet all my requests, so, for all practical purposes, I was going to be transferred to Quito, effective January 1, 1976. Little did I know that in the following three months, things were going to take a totally unexpected and positive turn in my life and the lives of the rest of the members of my close family!
One of our most important clients in the country was, in those days, Northwest Energy Co., the parent company of Northwest Pipeline Corp. (“Northwest”), a giant in the business of gas production and transmission, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and providing gas to large gas distribution companies in the states of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Northwest had just incorporated a subsidiary in Ecuador under the name of Northwest Ecuador Co., and was in the process of negotiating a contract with the Government of Ecuador for the exploration and exploitation of gas in the Gulf of Guayaquil, for which they needed local expert tax advice in relation to its future activities in the country. Northwest, an old client of Arthur Andersen’s in the US, requested our Firm in Ecuador for the help they needed in the tax area and I was assigned to the job.
In my next posting: OFF TO QUITO