Jose Elias Monge Merino (Ecuador)
Jose Monge grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador. He only finished
eighth grade before he had to go out on his own and find work.
His physical strength and mental acuity made him a valuable
worker wherever he went. Eventually, he ended up in Riobamba,
a city in the Andes Mountains, where he worked for many years
at a cement factory. He was a single man through his 20s, and
instead of partying with coworkers at night he would spend
the time reading Ecuadorian history at home. He is a self-made
man who always can be counted on to handle any difficult
situation with grace and style.
Jose Monge Merino was in his early 30s when he married
Ana Lucia Sancho Gallegos. Both the Merino and the
Gallegos families were well-known and respected families
in the Riobamba region. Anywhere a person goes in that
city those names as well as the Monge and Sancho names
are immediately recognized and are accorded special
consideration. Anita Sancho was barely 20 years old when
she decided to marry Pepe Monge, and it was a union that
met with much resistance in the Sancho Gallegos family,
most of whom did not engage in hard physical labor like
Pepe Monge did. Anita's brother Hugo (now deceased)
offered to send her to college in Spain if she would change
her mind. But they went through with the marriage. As a
concession to the Sancho Gallegos family, headed by
Luis Humberto Sancho Romero, Pepe agreed to move into
their home rather than set up a separate household. He
once said, many years later, that it would have been
"egocentric" of him to refuse their offer.
For the next ten years, they lived there--Anita helping
her mother with a rapidly expanding flower-arranging
business and Pepe continuing to labor at the Chimborazo
cement factory outside of town. They were blessed with
four children--Laly (later the mother of Robert Bryan Scott,
Stephanie Faith Scott and Heather Giselle Scott), Pepe,
Amparo and, after a gap of a few years, Pablo. And the
children benefited from growing up around their grandparents.
Their grandmother died from cancer a short time after
Pablo was born, but their grandfather--Papacito--lived
well into his 90s, a retired professor and active journalist
well-known in Ecuador as well as internationally.
At about age 40, Jose Monge Merino determined that
he would change the course of his life and start his
own business. He was always good at fixing machines
and building things, so he opened a workshop and
began producing furniture. His workshop was next
door to the home where his family lived with Papacito.
Meanwhile, Anita continued her mother's flower
business and, for the first time in her life, actually
benefited directly from her work, building up enough
savings that the family was able to build a new home
on a parcel of land inherited from her mother. Jose
directed the construction and filled their new home
with furniture from his workshop. And a room was
included to accomodate Papacito, now a permanent
fixture in the Monge Sancho household.
A number of special events were celebrated in
that home, from "Fiestas Rosadas" for their daughters'
15th birthdays to civil wedding ceremonies and
many New Year's Eve parties. Eventually, their
children started lives of their own and Pepe and
Anita found themselves alone--except for long
visits from children and grandchildren--in the
home that represented their combined efforts
and their lives together. Anita's hands and wrists
suffered from her long years of flower-arranging
and she tried to delegate the work as much as
possible. Pepe's long years of cigarette-smoking
made every morning and evening an ordeal of
fitful coughing. And the many years of rejection
from the Sancho Gallegos family also had taken
their toll on Pepe, and on the marriage. Anita
moved to Quito, the capital, where most of
her brothers and her sister now lived, and
for a time Pepe stayed on in the Riobamba home,
accompanied by Papacito, his father-in-law.
In 1991, Jose Monge Merino and Ana Lucia
Sancho Gallegos divorced, and Anita traveled
to Japan to stay with her daughter Laly and
her Scott grandchildren for a five-month transition
period. The Riobamba home was sold and
Jose Monge set up a small apartment for himself
while Papacito moved to Quito to live with his
daughter Laura and her family. Today, Anita
lives in Quito and sees good friends and her
brothers and sister nearly every day. Pepe lives
in Riobamba and sees old family friends as well
as their son Pablo, now married and a father,
who works as an engineer in Riobamba. Anita
and Pepe have seven grandchildren so far
and both of them have given much of themselves
and their love to those young people.