Dec 19 In Buenos Aires (BsAs)

The city of the living: I was told before I came that many people skip BsAs and go directly to Patagonia or the Antarctic.  I can understand this decision as I have not found much distinguishing about the city itself.  The architecture is not distinctive-looks like most European cities and is not particularly clean.  BsAs is at the mouth (LaBoca) of the La Plata river and made its name as a port, as has been true of most large cities in the world.   The area around the port has not been developed and carries a rather unpleasant smell of dumped chemicals and dead fish.  The cost of housing is very high, $2,000 per sq ft for a condo in the best part of town. 

The city of the dead: While the living city was not terribly interesting the city of the dead had much to recommend it (see pictures).  The Recoleta Cemetary is now home to some 65,000 former residents of BsAs since it opened in 1822.  Its mausoleums take up many city blocks and the architecture is much more interesting than that in the live city.  Among former Presidents of Argentina and people of wealth rests Evita Duarte Peron, with people still bringing fresh flowers every day to her grave (see picture and monument).   She is actually buried in a vault below ground rather than in the mausoleum for fear of her body being stolen again.  It disappeared for 18 years shortly after her death.  There is a rule that no one can be buried until at least 24 hrs after their “death” because of the rather unfortunate situation in 1902 when a recently buried woman awakened from a coma a day after being placed in her mausoleum and started screaming.  It is not cheap being buried in Recoleta and you buy the space for 100 years.  If your line dies out by then the mausoleum is resold and the former occupants are crem

ated and their ashes deposited in the lower areas of the structure.  However, you can also rent a mausoleum for a month so the body can “lie in state” to be buried somewhere else for eternity.

The people: There was significant diversity in the city 100 years ago with the migrations from Spain, Italy, Turkey and other countries.  Today, I saw no one of African descent and no indigenous people and our guide confirmed this observation.  There are many undocumented aliens, however, mostly from Peru and Bolivia, looking for work and a better life for their families.  They live in tenements and we were shown one with 10 rooms for the same number of families and 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom.   It reminded me of the New York Bowery of the 1850’s. The people of BsAs are known for their love of steak (see picture of a barbecue), futbol and the Tango.  The tango only dates to the early 1900’s when it was performed by men.  It became the rage in Paris and then migrated back to BsAs when it assumed its current form (more on this in a subsequent blog).

The work day: It starts around 9am and ends around 7pm with a 1-2 hour break at noon.  Dinner is the major meal and starts around 8:30pm and, on Fridays, when combined with a show continues to around 2am.  Most of the work in BsAs are office jobs although in the outlying district there is the major industry of growing soybeans and wheat and raising cows.  The workday, however, does not always go exactly as planned.  There are demonstrations by unions and other protesters almost daily, causing massive backups.  No permits or control is required-a backlash from the military rule in the 1970s.  We were stuck for 30 min behind such a demonstration today.

Education:  This is very important and public education is free through college and post-graduate school and is mandatory through high school.  There are, however, tough entrance exams which 40% of students fail, giving rise to a large number of private universities of varying quality.  Unlike in the US (except in California), it is the public universities which have the best reputations in Argentina.