Buenos Aires

What a crazy city. I think I´ll be back later in my trip, so I´m not sure I´m done with it, but I had a kaleidoscope of experiences and viewpoints of this city. It had so many sides to it, and personalities. The Centro area a bustling mass of businesspeople and antique banks; Recoleta a slice out of ¨Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous¨complete with mansions and lavish malls hawking sleek modernist designs; San Telmo a hodgepodge of old colonial buildings rising up to the sky and an assortment of corner graffitti artwork and thumping nightclubs down at ground level; La Boca a rough-and-tumble working-class neighborhood with crumbling sidewalks and a futbol stadium that´s bright yellow and filled to the brim with passionate fans. And I only really experienced those parts of the city . . . there are dozens of other barrios in the area. I find myself on my way because a) I want the time to see other places and b) It is utterly exhausting to be here. I´ve discovered that, for me, having too much I could potentially do can be just as tiring as actually doing one of those things.

The owner of the Hare Krishna farm I stayed at - Mark - gave me a frank and bleak analysis of Argentinean culture: he said that there are two strong currents within the culture, one of entitlement and one of shame. He says there is entitlement because Argentina used to be one of the richest countries in the world at the first part of the 20th century (there was actually a saying at the time that an immensely wealthy person is ´´rich as an Argentine´´), which was mostly due to its serving as a breadbasket for much of Europe before and during the World Wars. Look at Argentina´s flag and you see two strips of sky blue (celeste) and a sun in the middle . . . the farms and pastures in this country are its main resource. According to Mark, Argentineans today are the heir to this land of plenty . . . it´s just that it has been squandered away over the years, and Argentina is now in a period where some goods have increased in price threefold since 2004. Their economic instability is the cause of their shame. Again, this is all according to him, but he says that these two things explain why Argentineans have the reputation of being haughty and stubborn and all about appearances (I admit that the vast majority of people here wear designer clothing and generally look immaculate) - they want to retain the illusion that they still have a way of life that´s just not there. Like I said, a very bleak analysis.

I like the version that was presented to me by a man named Federico, a 30-year-old college professor I stayed with over this past weekend. It goes something like this: there is no stereotype for Argentinean behavior because they´re all people, and people are different, and it´s best to think of each person you meet in terms of who they are individually instead of connecting them to certain stereotypes. Federico was the one porteño (citizen of BA) that I really got to know well: he is soft-spoken and brilliant in his knowledge of the area´s history, he made maps for me every day so I knew where to go and how to get back, we discussed the differences between our languages amusingly over a couple of Quilmes, and ate empanadas while watching a movie from New Zealand about evil sheep. He let me stay in his house for free for four nights, and was endlessly generous . . . I´m siding with his take of the Argentinean people right now, and I´ll go ahead and say that - in a specific non-specific kind of way - they are wonderful people. And I will miss them, indeed.