South America had never been on my bucket list. I knew very little about it other than the movie 'Evita', that they had terrible problems with inflation and a comment made by an uncle many decades ago that Argentina was a lot like Australia in many ways. This had not been enough for me to add it to my 'list'. However, a few years ago, my daughter, Robyn, had mentioned a desire to visit Patagonia - which is a region in the lower part of South America that includes both Chile and Argentina.
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| Image of Eva Peron |
(Duarte) on Headquarters of the Ministry of Public Health Building, Buenos Aries.
This piqued my interest and when I returned from my long trip last year, I realized that the expiry date on my right knee was approaching. I decided that if I wanted to visit a mountainous and glacial area such as Patagonia, I'd best do it sooner rather than later! So instead of waiting for Robyn to be able to get away from work, I found an Overseas Adventure Travel tour that ticked all the boxes, and booked it for April in hope of seeing Fall colors here in the Southern Hemisphere. So, Tuesday night I left Jacksonville and arrived here the following morning (without any jet lag, Yay!) to meet my guide, Marta, and the other 10 folks in my group.
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| National Flag of Argentina |
As luck would have it, I arrived on a day know here as 'Day of the Veterans and Fallen of the Malvinas War', (which we know as the Falkland Island War) from 1982. It confirmed my ignorance when I realized that Argentina had been part of that - it had not registered such at the time. This day was to honor the veterans and fallen soldiers from that event in 1982 - a brief war between the British and the Argentinians.
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| Monument to the Fallen |
It was a public holiday and many stores were closed. We walked by the Monument to the Fallen, and saw a crowd of people gathered for the commemoration - it was hard to see the memorial itself because of the gathering. Later I returned to see the crowds had dispersed and approached it to see military personnel representing all divisions guarding the wall of names - the section above had two soldiers. I liked seeing the man on the left going up to photograph a name, in memorium of one of the 649 Argentinians who died there. A military junta had overthrown the democratic government of Isabel Peron in 1976 and its leader at the time, Galtieri, ordered the invasion of the Falklands as he faced declining popularity (more on that later). The loss of the war (possibly linked to the loss of life incurred) led to public protests which resulted in the downfall of the dictatorship and democracy was restored in 1983.
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| Monument to the Liberator Don Jose de San Martin |
Not far from the Monument to the Fallen was a grand statue that celebrated a more successful time in Argentina's history - its independence from Spain. Unlike the American War of Independence, this one was a secessionist civil war between factions here in Argentina. One group was loyal to the Spanish crown and the other were Argentine patriotic forces. The war started in May 1810 and it's most consequential leader was Don Jose de San Martin, who is known as "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru". Independence in Argentina was finally declared on July 9th, 1818. As you can tell by his 'tag line' he also went on to fight the same fight in Chile and Peru. It definitely was a magnificent statue!
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| View From the Bus - Avenida 9 de Julio - 9th of July Ave |
As a way of demonstrating patriotic pride, the city decided in the 1930's to build an avenue to commemorate the July 9th anniversary of Argentine's independence. It was finished in the 1960's and let me tell you - it is WIIIDE! It was the widest avenue in the world the Brazilians beat them with one in their capital, Brasilia. The Avenida 9 de Julio, requires four stop lights to get pedestrians across its 16 lanes. I was never able to get over it in one shot. It always seemed to take about 5 minutes at least to get over - you can't be in a hurry here! In addition to the 16 lanes, it has lovely grassy medians to give refuge to pedestrians and has bus transit lanes down the center. It is not a place to argue with cars about who has the right of way!
In the photo above, you can see the road leads to the Obelisk of Buenos Aries - it is the very distant white needle you might see if you peer at the otherwise pretty poor quality photo above! It was built in 1936 to commemorate the quadricentennial of the city, which was founded in 1536.
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| The Instagram Capital of Buenos Aries |
Like any self-respecting city of the modern age, there has to be a place where people can go to get their selfies and photos to prove that they were really there. At the base of the obelisk they have created a green wall of vegetation which spells out 'B A'. I had to erase a couple of people from this photo to show it to you in its unadulterated glory. Every time we drove past here, there were busloads of people (much like ours), or individuals waiting their turn to get their photo taken here.
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| The Eva Peron Building - Ministry of Public Health |
The building with Eva Peron's face so largely displayed is slightly beyond the obelisk. Maria Eva Duarte was a young woman who married Juan Peron when she was 23. His first wife had dies of cervical cancer and he was in his late 40's .When he became President in 1946 she was not well received by the established 'society' women'. Not to be deterred, she used her position as the 'first lady' to pry money from the rich members of society who would have preferred to scorn her socially because she was illegitimate, had come from a low class background, and had been a soap opera star on the radio. (When I say 'pry', we were told that she was transactional with businesses - implying that bad things would happen if they didn't give money, and with the women of society, she might admire a ring with the expectation that they should donate it to her charity.) Her foundation did a great deal to bring social services and opportunity to the many poor of the city. She also advocated for women's rights with her husband, before her death from cervical cancer in 1952, at the age of 33.
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| Evita's Balcony at Casa Rosada, Plaza de Mayo |
Buenos Aries is a city with a much more open feel to it than many others I've visited. One is not hovering at the base of skyscrapers here - the layout has many grand avenues, parks, statues, chocolate shops and patisseries. Another grand avenue that commemorates the country's independence is the Avenida the Mayo, which is named after the uprising in May that led to the civil war in 1810. A large square at the end of May Avenue is the Plaza de Mayo, which is the site of many of the country's celebrations and protests. The Casa Rosada (Rose Palace) is the President's administrative headquarters and it was the site of the speeches that both Juan and Eva Peron gave to people who gathered here.
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| Palace of Government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aries |
The city has the 'feel' of a European city, with Italianate, French and other architectural styles that reflect the heritage of the many Europeans that came here over the years. There are many magnificent buildings such as this one at the Plaza de Mayo, which is now the municipal headquarters of the city.
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| Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aries |
Nearby, and also on the same Plaza de Mayo is this neoclassical building, the Metropolitan Cathedral, which is the seat of archbishop who became Pope Francis. This seems less important to the Argentinians than it being the burial site of Don Jose de San Martin, the country's liberator.
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| Changing of the Guards for Don Jose de San Martin's Tomb |
We caught a changing o the guard for Don Jose de San Martin's tomb, which is guarded 24/7 by two soldiers.
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| Plaque in Plaza de Mayo with Names of Those Who 'disappeared' From This Site |
Following Eva Peron's death, Juan Peron finished his first Presidential term, but there were economic problems and political repressions and Peron was ousted by the military and left the country for Europe where he met his third wife, Isabel. When open elections were held again in 1973, they returned to the country. Peron won that election and this time his wife, Isabel was Vice President. As a result, she became President in 1974 and served until 1976, when once again, the military took over the country, leading to some of the darkest years in Argentine history. Known as the 'Dirty War', it was a period of state terrorism that lasted from 1976 to 1983.
Most notable of its actions was the means used to put down protests. 30,000 people, sometimes entire families and very often young people were taken off the streets if they were suspected of any activism against the government and were never heard from again. Among them were 500 babies - either kidnapped or born after their mothers were kidnapped and before they were killed. These babies were adopted/given to families of the military. To date, 139 of these children have been identified.
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| The Symbol of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo |
When this many people disappear, the families are left behind wondering what happened. Mothers would go to he police station, to hospitals, to churches and ran into others mothers who were making the same trek. Together they recognized by 1977, that something was up, and began to meet in the Plaza de Mayo, wearing white head scarfs that were originally diapers to represent their children. demanding to know what has happened to their children. They would meet every Thursday, and walk silently around the circle of the Plaza, holding photos of their children asking the government to tell them where their children were. They became symbols of resistance and were regarded as model advocates for human rights. Their actions are now represented with the symbol above, which are painted in the circle that they trekked around the plaza. One couldn't say they were successful in their quest for answers. There was a trial in 1985 where five of the leaders were sentenced, but to this date most of the mothers do not have answers.
For me, their courage in standing up against a dictatorship is very appealing because it happened within my living memory and also because their consistent actions, which contributed to the downfall of the regime, were borne out of authenticity, rather than being an 'organized' political opposition. Many of the mothers are still alive and they say they still come out on Thursdays. These scarf symbols are seen in other places around the country, and signify the desire for 'never again'!
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| London City Cafe |
Following our visit to Plaza de Mayo, we met with film-maker Mariano Corbacho, who has explored this period in history from the opposite side - that of the collaborators. Mariano's grandfather, Pico, had been a Dean of the Faculty of Architecture during those years and had also worked with a nearby Naval facility. As a child Mariano knew that his grandfather's life was being threatened by guerillas and that there had been several bombs that had been used, unsuccessfully to kill him. As Mariano became an adult, he wondered why people might have wanted to kill his relative and he began to explore whether Pico had been a collaborator. He interviewed 50 people to try to answer the question. No doubt it was a painful exploration - he discovered that although Pico probably knew that something was up, he was not an active persecutor. In the event you want to watch the film, it is called '70 y Pico'. It is in Spanish with English subtitles at this link https://vimeo.com/1053583199. It is password protected - the password is 70yPico. Since the film has aired, many people of his generation have approached Mariano to share that they also have family that may have been collaborators and welcome an opening from silence they had caried and shame that they have felt burdened by.
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| Russian Orthodox Church |
'Good Lord!', you must be saying. What is this terrible place Alwynne is visiting now! I want to reassure you that we're done with the tough stuff now, and what follows will be lightness and fun. But not now - you've worked hard enough ploughing through this already. I'm going to leave you with a few more pics of some of the delights I saw, before we move on to much more colorful and bright places.
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| Torre Monumental, 1910 Clock Tower |
The British gifted this clock to Argentina in 1910, to commemorate the 100 years anniversary of Independence. It is in an area where there were trains, trams and buses converged, and filled a gap of punctuality issues for the British businessmen who owned the railways. Standing 250 feet tall, it has the same mechanism as Big Ben, and similar chimes. Before the Falkland War, it was called Torre de los Ingleses (English Tower). I thought it was quite lovely.
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| Palacio Anchorena - Ministry of Foreign Affairs And International Trade |
I don't have much to say about this lovely building, other than I kept walking by and was drawn by its lovely architecture. It seems it was someone's palace and was bought by the state in 1936. How I wished I could go inside and look at it in detail, but it was rather foreboding and with a heavy canopy of beautiful trees opposite, was impossible to photograph with a good perspective.
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| Detail of Palacio Anchorena - Ministry of Foreign Affairs And International Trade |
I did manage to sneak an angle that shows some of the lovely turrets and details of the building and with that I will send you off. Please don't let this rather sad introduction deter you from sticking with my journey, Sometimes when I sit down to write this blog it goes in directions that I haven't necessarily chosen - it just seems to be what needs to come out!
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| Back of the Opera Colon - |
Next we will move on to a visit to the magnificent opera house - Opera Colon, lots of color at La Boca, a cruise on the Rio Tigre at the Paraná Delta, and finally a most beautiful cemetery.
Please return!
