Madres que Marchan

This last week has been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions. Based on all the handy pamphlets I've been given about the different stages of culture shock, this seems to be par for the course and right on schedule to boot. Knowing this doesn't make it any less frustrating, though. I've basically been oscillating between really exhilarated and energized (usually when I'm in the midst of some cool new experience) and really antsy and bummed out (usually when I'm sitting alone at home with nothing but homework to do). The homesickness has started setting in a little bit too, which is also to be expected. Luckily the cool experiences this week have scored high on the exhilarating scale and I've been feeling less down in the last few days, so hopefully I'm moving out of the roller coaster stage of culture shock and into whichever stage comes next...I can't remember what it's supposed to be. I'll have to check my pamphlet.


The main exciting-experience-of-the-week was La marcha del 24 de marzo. It begins with a brief history lesson. From the mid-1970's to the early 80's Argentina was under the control of an extremely oppressive military dictatorship. Anyone who opposed the government (or seemed like they opposed the government, or appeared to be friends with someone who seemed like they opposed the government) ran the risk of silently disappearing off the streets. And it happened to a lot of people. It's estimated that approximately 30,000 Argentine civilians were "disappeared" during this period. Considering the circumstances, showing any signs of opposition ran a serious risk, but one group in particular took this risk and fought back hard. This group was made up of the mothers and grandmothers of the "desaparecidos" or "disappeared". They started occupying El Plaza de Mayo (the main square around the capital building) demanding to know where their children had gone. They became known as Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and they didn't end their efforts after democracy returned to the country in 1983. To this day the Madres gather at la Plaza de Mayo every Thursday afternoon. At this point, almost 30 years after the end of the dictatorship, their expectation isn't so much to find their lost children as it is to make sure people don't forget what happened. Their was a big push after the dictatorship ended to not talk about the previous 7 years and just move on with life, but the Madres have made sure that doesn't happen. Because of this, March 24 is the official day of remembrance of the dictatorship and tens of thousands of Argentines gather in the city center every year to march in honor of the desaparecidos and their families.


Which brings me to this Saturday and my "exciting experience" that brought me out of my slump. I know, this wasn't the most cheery prologue and you're probably wondering what happy direction I could possibly be going with this, but what I saw was pretty amazing. So one of the many reasons why I love the folks at FLACSO (my exchange program on the Argentine end) is that they do not subscribe to the general message I got from every piece of preparation material back home that I should in no way go anywhere near any kind of political demonstration in any foreign country. Instead, I got an email from the FLACSO staff inviting all of us CIEE students to join them in the march. So about 25 of us showed up to the designated street corner at 6 PM on Saturday afternoon. I was expecting a fair number of people to be milling around the area getting ready for the march. Instead I was met with deafening drums and people chanting and an ENORMOUS collection of people taking up blocks and blocks of several major avenues downtown. This was about an hour before the march actually started. These are a couple shots of how things looked when I first got there.

All of us CIEE students were pretty blown away by how many people were there. There were a lot of political and student groups, but also a lot of lay people who just  see it as their responsibility to keep history alive. It was all incredibly emotional and really amazing to be a part of, although I did feel a little strange being a foreigner at an event that was  about an experience that was so intimately argentine. Still, I feel very lucky to have been a part of it. We started marching around 7 PM and reached La Plaza de Mayo around 9 PM. One important aspect of the march is the banner that the Madres foundation created. It's a blue piece of fabric probably several hundred feet long with pictures of all of the reported desaparecidos. Volunteers carry the banner over their heads throughout the entire march and then lay it out at La Plaza de Mayo when they arrive. By pure happenstance, I was right next to the banner with a couple of my friends towards the end of the march when the crowd started getting swept in opposite direction and the suddenly the banner ripped right in half. Everyone in close proximity jumped in to pick up the loose ends that were now dragging on the ground and before I quite knew what had happened I found myself carrying the banner the rest of the way to La Plaza de Mayo. When we arrived we stretched the banner out on the street and everyone stopped and applauded. It was a really surreal experience but incredible experience.

I knew that there were going to be speakers and things once we got to La Plaza de Mayo and I anticipated it to be some kind of solemn candlelight vigil. Not even close. The plaza resembled a summer music festival more than a memorial service. A well-known percussion group was playing on a stage, there were food vendors everywhere, the city had somehow rigged up smoke machines and the entire place was lit with purplish stadium lighting. Leave it to the Argentines to turn a solemn remembrance march into a rockin' party. I spent the rest of the evening sitting with some friends on the grass, watching the percussion band, listening to the Madres speak, and drinking yerba mate. 

Better Late than Never!

Alright, so I've already been in Buenos Aires for an entire month and I've only now started my promised blog, but I'm considering it a good sign that I've been so occupied with my new life here that I haven't had time to document it. It's going to be impossible to write about everything that's happened so far, but I'll try to do a quick summary of the basics.

LIVING AND SLEEPING: I selected a homestay as opposed to living in a student residence hall, which has definitely been a good choice. My "host family" is actually a 25 year-old actress named Catalina (Cata for short) who runs her own theatre studio with two other people and is just generally extremely active in the arts community here in Buenos Aires, which is perfect for me. My first night here she took me over to a friend's apartment in Palermo (the hip, artsy neighborhood) to have sushi with a bunch of her friends. They're all actors or playwrights or photographers. It's pretty cool. A couple weeks later I started watching this Argentine sit-com called Ciega a citas and there was one actress in it who looked super familiar to me but I couldn't place what other movies or show I'd seen her in. I mentioned to Cata that I'd started watching the show and she goes "Oh! I love that show! Maria's in it. You know, my friend that you had sushi with your first night here." I've come to get used to little revelations like this around Cata.

She and I get along really well. She's extremely busy with her work so I have a lot of independence here, which suits me just fine. I get to do a lot of my own cooking and I can definitely make my own schedule, so that's been great. We live in a really cute apartment in Almagro, a neighborhood that's pretty chill and quiet, but centrally located so that it's only a short subway or bus ride to get to pretty much any important place in Buenos Aires. This is a picture from the balcony of our apartment.



SCHOOL: Haha oh yeah...that. I kind of forgot that I was going to have to go to school and...like...do homework and stuff here. Let's just say I'm still adjusting to that whole thing. The way it works with CIEE (my exchange program) is that we have the option of studying at 4 different universities/institutes in Buenos Aires. The least terrifying option is FLACSO, the home-base for our program where they offer classes in Spanish exclusively for American CIEE students. I'm taking one class there on Bodies, Gender, and Sexuality in Argentina, which is super interesting. I'm also taking an advanced Spanish Grammar class there and a service-learning seminar through which I'm now volunteering twice a week at an Argentine NGO that promotes HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention through publications, conferences, political advocacy. It's really interesting and perfect for my Health and Society major. The next option is a private Catholic university but I couldn't find any courses there that interested me. Then there's IUNA (the art school). I'm taking an acting class there, which is utterly terrifying due to the whole Spanish thing but I think it'll be really good for me in the long run. I've only had one class so far (all of the universities start at different times) but everyone was really nice and supportive, so that was somewhat reassuring. Then there's UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires). It's the huge public university and also one of the most prestigious and rigorous universities in the country. It's terrifying. I'm currently trying to decide between a course on population and reproductive strategies in Argentina or one on the mental health system of Argentina. Both are extremely intimidating and require massive amounts of heavy readings and final exams and/or papers. We'll see how all that goes...

DAILY LIFE: After a month I'm now finally starting to get the hang of life in Buenos Aires. Everything is very fast paced. The porteños (the term of people from Buenos Aires) all live a very busy, non-stop lifestyle. And this doesn't stop when the sun goes down. It's pretty normal to eat dinner at 10 or 11 PM (I've sat down to dinner as late as 12:30) and then hit the town until the sun comes up. I was kind of tired last night so I turned in at a modest 3:30 AM. At the moment I still have more American friends than porteño friends. I've become really close with a group of CIEE students. We've had fun in the last month exploring the city and figuring our way around the public transportation system. To the right are some of the prime players in this group. I'm also excited to meet more porteños. I feel like that's really going to be the key to feeling more integrated into life here and really becoming fluent in Spanish. The thing is, it's a lot harder than you'd think to make legitimate friends with people who speak a different language. My Spanish is definitely pretty good, but being able to keep up with an established group of friends when they're chattering away in Argentine slang is definitely not easy. I've made some headway, though. Cata is definitely a useful in, and I love hanging out with her and talking with her about life when she's around, but she's often at work. One of Cata's friends, Caro, was living with us for the first two weeks that I was here and she and I get along really well too. Caro's also great at recommending fun things to do in Buenos Aires. I also have a couple "pen pals"from the Spanish class that I took at Beloit last semester and I've met up with one of them here and should be meeting the other one on Sunday, so that's a good connection to have too. I'm also going to start taking tango lessons this Tuesday, so that should also provide some social connections.

TRAVEL: Oh man. There are so many cool places to travel to around here. I have to budget my time and...you know...my budget so it's not going to be possible to trek around South America the whole time I'm here, but I've definitely got some exciting prospects. I went to Uruguay this past weekend with Emily and Natalee, two of my CIEE friends. We went to Colonia, a small historic town right across the bay from Buenos Aires (about an hour long boat ride). It was so peaceful and beautiful. Exactly what I needed after three weeks of non-stop urban bustle in Buenos Aires. Below are some highlight shots from the trip.

One of the most incredible sunsets I've ever seen.

We just stumbled across this beautiful old car with flowers growing out of it

One of the guys who ran the hostel we stayed in recommended this hidden lake to us. So beautiful.

Next week is La Semana Santa, which means we have several days off so a group of us from CIEE are planning a trip to Mendoza in western Argentina. It's the province where all of the famous Argentine wine is made and it's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous. We're taking a 14 hour bus to get there and then staying in hostels. I'm incredibly excited. Now I just have to take care of all of my homework before then...

I think that suffices as a pretty sufficient summary of my last month in Argentina. I'm going to try to keep up with this blog more regularly so that my posts aren't 20 pages long each.

¡Hasta luego!