Buenos Aires, Argentina (1)

Hola Argentina! We are in Buenos Aires, or to give it its full name, Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Aire (Our Lady St Mary of the Good Air).

Buenos Aires was a boom city in the early 1900s, particularly after the First World War, when it was a major exporter of beef, hides and grain to Europe. It feels like it's slightly frozen in that time period. Not a bad thing --- the city is full of French and Italian architecture, big public plazas and statues, green parks and wide, wide avenues lined with trees. Buenos Aires was the first city in the southern hemisphere to have an underground railway, which opened in 1913.

Unlike in Brazil, there's little evidence of its colonial heritage. Almost all the colonial buildings were pulled down when Buenos Aires reinvented itself during the booming 1920s and 1930s, but there is one building remaining from the 1700s, the old town council building, in the first photo below.

In the upmarket parts of the city, Buenos Aires looks like it's still booming. Wrong! Argentina is struggling economically; it has the third highest rate of inflation in the world after Venezuela and Syria. Inflation is running at almost 100% annually. Our guide was frank about the country's issues and its difficulties, and noted (with a Latin shrug) that corruption is a South American trait.

As a tourist, though, Buenos Aires is a great city to visit. Foreign currency is welcomed, of course, and the blue market (not black market) rate for US$ is double the official bank rate. This doesn't involve a shady street transaction, either --- we got double the official rate at the port Cambio.

The population is quite different to Brazil; there is no legacy of African slaves in Argentina and most Buenos Aires residents are descended from Spanish and Italian immigrants who arrived in large numbers in the last 200 years. Immigrants from eastern Europe and Germany also arrived in the 20th century; in southern Brazil and in Argentina, the German influence is still noticeable. (Huge South American Oktoberfests are world famous!)

Like Brazil, Argentina is a very Catholic country. It's a great source of pride to the locals that the current pope, Pope Francis, is Argentinian, and was the Archbishop of the Buenos Aires cathedral. It is a beautiful church, Baroque in style inside and Neo-Classical outside, and famous for including a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The glass case displays sheets of books of prayers rescued from the ruins of the Treblinka and Auschwitz concentration camps and the Warsaw ghetto.

The cathedral also contains the mausoleum of the great Argentian hero, José de San Martín, who liberated Argentina, Chile and Peru from Spain. The three female statues flanking the tomb represent the three countries. The guard of honour at the memorial in the church changes every day, and I was just in time to snap a few pics of the young men marching in solemnly.

Let's talk about Evita --- Eva Perón, a very divisive character in Argentina. Saint or sinner? Social activist or social climber? In case you have been living in an Andrew Lloyd-Webber-proof bubble for the last 40 years, let me recap. Eva Duarte was a young actress who rose to fame in the 1940s when she married Juan Perón, the president of Argentina. She became the hero of the working class, trade unions and women generally; amongst other things, she led the charge for female suffrage in Argentina. Amidst charges of financial mismanagement of her foundation, she polarised the country (and much of the world) but many remain fiercely loyal to her and her memory, and see her as a woman ahead of her time, a social leader and an emblem of progress. She died of cancer at the age of 33. ('Don't cry for me, Argentina' ... remember?)

We visited the Evita museum, located in one of the houses used by her foundation as a shelter for women and children. Photos and videos of her speeches are displayed, as are some of her beautiful clothes. No photos permitted of these, sadly, because of the effect of flashlight on fabric.

Evita addressed the people from the balcony of Casa Rosada ('pink house'), the presidential palace. The balcony to the left of this picture, with the three windows with blinds drawn, was where she stood. Crowds would fill the Plaza de Mayo, the square in front of Casa Rosada, to hear her speak.

Plaza de Mayo ('May Square', to commemorate the May Revolution of 1810) is in the centre of Buenos Aires. It's the place of political protest and demonstrations, and there's been plenty to protest in the 20th century. After the military coup in 1976, the junta sought to crush any left-leaning, socialist or communist activists. Around 30,000 people 'disappeared' between 1976 and 1983, in the so-called Dirty War. Most of these people, the desaparecidos, have never been found. Women --- the desaparecidos' mothers, sisters, daughters, wives --- came to protest daily in this square, wearing white headscarves. In memory of this period, and the women who never gave up, images of white headscarves are painted on the square around the central statue.

Protests continue today. These signs, put up by the protesters, accuse the Ministry of Security of being complicit in and/or responsible for the death of an indigenous activist, and the Ministry of Women, Genders and Diversity of having 'no budget to eradicate gender violence'. The stones bear the names of people who have died of COVID-19.

On a happier note, we were reminded frequently by locals that Argentina won the FIFA World Cup. Plaza de Mayo may be the site for protests and demonstrations, but another square, Plaza de la Republica, is the site for celebrations. Apparently 5 million (yes, seriously) people flocked into this area to celebrate the World Cup win with a party that lasted more than 24 hours ... there was much swinging from lamp posts and dancing on the top of bus shelters, apparently.

I can't end this post without some reference to food, and more particularly, to beef. Barbecued flank short ribs and a glass of Argentinian wine ... Asado is the word for barbecue, but it's also the word for this cut of short ribs. So would this be asado asado?

Next: Buenos Aires, continued (yes! there's more!)