I've been collecting a few of my photos that represent Buenos Aires life pretty well. [At this point, I'm tempted to say something cheezy about how the pictures are necessary, since there really is no way to convey the city's spirit through words. But that's lame, and it actually isn't too hard to do: it's a dirty Paris.]
I've mentioned that Argentina had a big European immigration boom a couple hundred years ago, and then proceeded to become one of the world's 10 richest countries. A position that it held until about 50 years ago. (It's ok that you didn't know that, there's no movie about it, yet.) So, all that money and a heavy French accent contributed to the development of a full blooded Eurotown. The famous (to anyone outside the USA) Teatro Colón is a good testament to that; it was the biggest theater in the Southern Hemishphere until the Sydney opera house was built. However, after the boom, Argentina suffered through a series of seriously crappy governments. You might remember Madonna as Evita Peron, she was the wife of the last decent president. But after him, Argentina made the Middle East look stable. There was even a period where the country went through five presidents in two weeks. As a result of this grown up version of musical chairs (and a few decades of military dictatorships), many Argentine landmarks were left to crumble. This is shown very well by the National Congress building. At first glance, it looks pretty majestic, but click on the photo and look at the zoomed in version; it's covered with graffiti.
Modern Buenos Aires has picked and chosen which European roots that it wanted to revive, and one of them is it's fashion sensibility. Every top international designer has a store here, and the domestic duds can be even more expensive. Accessories are also important, and none of them are as crucial as the dog. It seems that everyone in the city has one. But of course, they put their own twist on it. The porteños (that's a less-clunky way of saying Buenos Airesans) buy the dogs at their cutest, brightest-eyed phase, and then seem shocked when they grow up and start taking grown up-sized dumps. This is when the pups get relegated to the back porch, but don't feel too bad for them just yet. The majority of them are given to professional dog walkers a few times a week to go on little tours of the city. With a little addition of Buenos Aires charm, these collective romps are turned into roving shit machines. Watch your step. Really.
The dog walkers are a good example of Argentina's under-employed. A lack of social security prevents anyone from being truly unemployed. So the people take up casual labor, such as the employees of this fruit stand outside a large grocery store. It gets the job done, but a stable government really would go quite a long way for these people.
This is Avenida 9 de Julio, the World's largest boulevard. All I have to say about this is that if you want to cross it on foot, you'd better have balls the size of watermelons, and about an hour and a half. Good luck.
Well, with my money going to good use, I feel like I can duly retire. It must have been the time of night that brought out this mildly-bitter, bitingly-sarcastic, hyphenation-employing tone, but the truth is that I really do love this place, and my next posting will show you why.
M
