Winning Nothing

             Almost every country in Latin America has its own currency, but Ecuador is one of the exceptions. Twenty-two years ago, Ecuador changed its currency from sucres to dollars. In 1999, Ecuador was going through an economic and political crisis. The economy was deteriorating, and inflation was causing the country sink. As a result, the president arbitrarily changed currency, provoking a catastrophe. The dollarization started after the banks declared themselves bankrupt, and they started stealing Ecuadorian money. This event has been one of the most important historical events that Ecuador has gone through. Most of the population lost something with monetary value, savings, business, and houses, not even to mention people who lost their families. My family wasn’t exempt from losing something. The devaluation of the currency and the crisis economic caused two of my aunts had to immigrate to Italy. My mother was in the process of starting a small business and she lost everything she invested, and my grandparents lost money too. 

           Dollarization affected my family in many ways. Two of my aunts immigrated to Italy because of our family’s economic situation. They decided to help our family economically. In the beginning, it was hard for us to see them suffering the sorrow of being alone in another country. Moreover, they experienced racism and discrimination because of their race and language. They didn’t speak Italian. They had to do manual labor jobs that they would never imagine. However, my aunts helped my great-grandmother to build her house. They sent money to her every month to help with the expenses. They also help their sibling keep going after the economic crisis, sending money to them too. One of my aunts returned a few years later, but the other one still lives there. She always says that she is grateful to be in Italy despite all the circumstances she has experienced. 

           In addition, my mother’s new business was affected by the economic crisis. A year before my mother decided to set up a small business. She used to sell luxury brand perfumes. She traveled to Colombia to buy all the perfumes and do business with the providers who would sell her the perfumes that she would distribute. Everything was going well until the crisis and the dollarization occurred. My mother lost everything she invested and more. Despite Ecuador’s problem, my mom’s method to charge money for perfumes was unfavorable. She let the customers make monthly payments after they bought the product, so they would get the perfume first and pay later. As a result, they never fulfilled the payment commitment they had with my mother. They said as an excuse that they lost everything during the bankruptcy crisis and the dollarization. My mom had a lot of debts with her providers that took her years to figure out. Nevertheless, something good happened to my mother. She gave birth to me. She was pregnant while all this situation happened and at some point, I witnessed the crisis too.

        As I mentioned, this crisis involved my whole family. My grandparents faced difficult economic situations too. They were part of those people who had some savings at the bank, and they had lost it. It wasn’t a lot, but it represented their efforts over many years. They lost it with the crisis and the dollarization. Besides, they had a small business at their house. In Ecuador, it is common to see small grocery shops in houses where people can buy basic items like food or school supplies. They had this type of store. They didn’t close their small shop, but the business went through tough financial times. Customers weren’t frequent as before. As a result, they lost money and gained debts with banks. They asked for loans to keep going their business. Furthermore, it was hard for them to adapt to the new currency. They never had used dollars, so it was like learning again. 

           To sum up, dollarization changed the economic system in Ecuador. The country was affected by the consequences. My family faced the catastrophe of seeing our family getting separated, losing money, and hope. It took many years to adapt the country to a new era in the economy. What happened after dollarization and bankruptcy was horrifying, but also left a new hope that everything would be better at some point. Ecuador has preserved dollar currency for all these years. I consider it has helped the country not to be a complete mess. Even though the dollarization brought difficult times, the economy in Ecuador improved in a few aspects over the years. The situation would be worse if the country kept the old currency. Ironically, we got over what happened twenty-two years ago. It was hard at the beginning, but it has been better through the years. I don’t mean that Ecuador's economy is great now, but it is better than before the crisis.