At the beginning of the carnival season in Gualeguaychú, where the ritual is celebrated with a new competition of comparsas in its famous corsodromo – closed during 2020 due to the pandemic – a new hotel proposal raise expectations in the city. The enhancement of a historic hotel, renovated to new by the Single Union of Rent and Horizontal Building Workers (Suterh), baptized as: Hotel O2 Gualeguaychú, adds 167 beds to the accommodation offer in the “classic hotel” format, points out Javier Cubillas, its operational manager, to Page 12.
Gualeguaychú is a city with magical borders. There are more museums than churches. Many santerías. And many businesses refer to the carnival rite: the Goma King, for example, who repairs the tires of the various waves of tourists, or the Chicken King, where they prepare the best grilled chickens on the waterfront. Lying on the Gualeguaychú River, and under the dream of the permanent green that surrounds it, with hot springs and parks that preserve native trees, it grew when agribusiness was installed as a productive option: soybeans, wheat, corn, a little sunflower and sorghum, displaced livestock. In this plot, from the ’90s he stood on the podium of the cities where the carnival celebration it became a passionate rite. It displaced Corrientes, and generated an economic development more industrial than artisanal: each comparsa belongs to a social club and generates its own aesthetic and productive dynamics.
There, and in the historic and commercial center, six blocks from the waterfront and fifteen from the corsodromo – where this Saturday the comparsas of the “Country Carnival” shone once more -, the first union hotel in the city was inaugurated: the Hotel O2 Gualeguaychú. It was the Monday next to the 2022 carnival season that will run throughout January and until the last weekend of February. “The long weekend of carnival”, detail the hotel employees, who receive the first guests with “emotion and pride.” Several, among them, such as the concierge Emanuel Bur, already worked at the hotel, which had been in operation since the 1970s: the Embajador hotel. Emblematic in the city for being the first nine-story building in an urbanization of low houses, it combines old facades with other typical ones from the ’60s, when modernity arrived in the area. Today, no more than four floors can be built –explains Leonardo Posadas, from the Municipal Tourism Secretariat–, in a downtown area. This ensures long-range horizon views.
From some windows of the 75-room building, with six floors refurbished “a new”, in minimalist deco and wide spaces, you can see the coastal vegetation, the church bell tower, the tree-lined streets. “As open as possible to the multiplicity of options that the city offers,” explains Cubillas. “The Ambassador closed in a pandemic,” he explains. It was later acquired by Grupo Octubre and reconditioned. The infrastructure related to the service is ready. On the morning of this Monday he received his first guests: Juan Paulo Agüero and Liliana, Marcelo Vespa and Susana. The two couples arrived from Buenos Aires, by car. They are building workers. And they were received with honors: gifts, applause and photos. “They surprised me!”, Says Juan Paulo, laughing. In less than three hours they made the trip. “And they welcomed us like royalty, it was exciting, like when one arrives at a friend’s house,” added Liliana. “I am also proud to be accompanying this process – adds Juan Paulo – because it is an achievement of our guild”.
For Marcelo and Susana, who are from Fray Bentos, Uruguay, this is “almost a honeymoon.” They are married for 36 years in March. With “30 years in charge”, Marcelo is grateful that his daughter “studied hospitality at UMET”, and Susana says: “I had my three children in union sanatoriums.” “Always fighting – says Marcelo – taking things forward, always”, that’s how he defines his philosophy of life. They look at each other with Susana, smile, and plan the followingnoon at the spa. They are happy.
Shortly before noon, Andrea Flores arrives and is looking for recreational options: she likes hot springs and museums. “We are working people, it is something that I value, my mother taught me, she did not know how to read or write, but she planted vegetables and raised animals and bartered, went by donkey or horse to town, in Jujuy, near Uquía, and I raised seven children alone, I was the youngest – remembers Andrea – and I talked a lot with her. I always liked studying, that’s why I value the union’s university, the radios, they are things to grow, the same as leisure ”. Leonardo Maldonado arrived at noon and values the recreation: “I rescue him as a worker and as an affiliate, he is a pride,” he points out. Leonardo came with his children. And complete the picture of the family hotel.
“We are going to focus on internal training to achieve a unique profile in this type of hotels – Cubillas advances -, This week we begin training on Micaela Law, and we will do the same with disabilities and diversity”. This is the city where the “carnival of the country” is celebrated, says Cubillas. “Perhaps one of the events where it is most demonstrated what gender identity and sexual diversity means,” he says. The perspective sought from hotel management where economic development, is accompanied by a cultural, inclusive and supportive look.
