Surprisingly Amazing Academic and Professional Experiences

I'll be the first to admit that I did not come to Buenos Aires with the intention of spending all of my time doing homework and building up my resume. I was definitely anticipating most of my formative experiences here happening outside of the class room, and while that has definitely happened, I've been very surprised by some of the incredible experiences I've had through my classes. A huge reason for this is that university professors in Argentina are almost always professionals who teach on the side, so they always have a lot of really interesting current experiences to bring into the class. This was especially evident in my Gender Studies class. We had two professors for this course; one of them has written probably half of all the published works on gender studies in Argentina. The other one  is a senate advisor on all matters gender-related and is a really well-known figure within the gender-equality movements in Argentina. Needless to say they had some pretty interesting stuff to bring to the table.

Activists campaigning for the Law of Gender Identity

The first time I realized just how big of deal they were was when we got an email from them saying that our usual class had been cancelled and instead we were all going to meet outside Congress to sit in on a debate over the proposed Law of Gender Identity, which was under discussion. I figured that it was going to be some kind of open forum full of people but it turned out to be a pretty small room of people who were only allowed in with special permission. It turns out our prof had gotten us in through her connection as a senate advisor. So crazy. None of us had any idea of just how big of a deal it was that we were in that room. The proposed law under discussion dealt mainly with the rights of people who identify as transgender/transexual/transvestite. This population is hugely discriminated against in Argentina to the point that the majority can only find work as prostitutes because no one will hire them. A big reason for this (or excuse for this) is that if their ID cards don't match the identity that they present in person, they are basically denied all rights that every citizen should have. The main point of this law that was being proposed is to make it much easier for trans people to change their official documents to present the gender and name that they choose so that nobody can us the ID issue as an excuse for discrimination. At this debate we heard testimony from about 10 different people, the majority of whom were trans. They talked about the discrimination they've faced, the barriers that they are up against and also the symbolic importance of this law; it's not just a matter of practicality, but also of having their own identity recognized and respected by the government. A couple of weeks later the senate overwhelmingly passed the law by a vote of 55-1. Argentina is the first country in the world to pass a law like this, so it's kind of incredible that I was in the room where it was being debated. The following link has more information on the law. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/argentina-gender-identity-law-takes-effect_n_1570830.html

I was totally there!

About three weeks after going to that debate, we got another email from our professor saying that class was cancelled and we were, once again, meeting outside Congress, this time to sit in on a hearing over different proposed law. This law proposes defining femicide (the murder of a woman specifically because of her gender) as a separate offense from generic homicide. The sentencing wouldn't be much different, but the point is once again the symbolic acknowledgment  of issues of gender inequality. When we met up outside the Congress building I was expecting a similar debate as before; fairly casual with a lot of people giving their personal testimonies. Instead we found ourselves in an unbelievably ornate room full of video cameras, senators, three expert witnesses and no one else. It was extremely formal and I don't think I've ever felt so scared to sneeze in my life. However, it was once again really interesting. They ended up tabling the bill because they said that many pieces of the bill were very unclear to the point that it could actually end up harming women's rights. The bill is currently being reworked in both the Senate and Congress, so we'll see what comes of that. But again, I can say I was there!

The last crazy experience that I had through my gender class once again has to do with transexual rights. For our final project in the class, we had to do hands-on research on a topic related to what we had been studying in class. My group decided to look into this high school called Mocha Celis, which was created specifically for trans students. It was created because the majority of trans people in Argentina don't graduate from high school because they are extremely discriminated against by students and teachers and because they usually get kicked out of their homes at a really young age. We ended up getting in contact with one of the teachers at the school and went to visit it. It was incredibly interesting seeing the space and getting to talk with the people there. At the moment they don't receive any federal funding so they run completely off of donations and all of the teachers are volunteers. It's also a completely cooperatively run organization. There's no president or principle and the students are really involved with the running of the school. The other interesting thing is that a lot of the students are adults who never finished high school and are coming back after 15 years or more. Apparently one of the students commutes three hours there and three hours back every day because it's the only school where she feels safe and accepted. Again, it was a big wake-up call for me because the issue of transexual rights is hardly ever talked about in the US and I know for a fact that there isn't any sort of school like Mocha Celis in the states.

National Conference on Drug Policy

Besides my Gender Studies class, I've also had some really interesting experiences with the internship I got through my Service Seminar class. For the last three months I've been working twice a week at an NGO called Intercambios that deals with issues of drug policy and social assistance programs for drug abusers. The organization is based out of Buenos Aires but they have links with other NGO's around the world, so my main job has been to translate all of the documents that go onto their web page into English. It's been a much more challenging experience than I'd originally anticipated but I've learned so much. I've found that translating is a lot more than looking up the words you don't understand on google translate. There's so much cultural stuff that goes into translating that makes it really complicated but it also means that I've had to really study all of the information that I'm working with in order to be able to do accurate translations. The biggest event that I got to be a part of through Intercambios was definitely the National Conference on Drug Policy, which took place on June 7th (my birthday) in the National Senate. So once again I got a free pass into a big important government building. The conference was put together by Intercambios with the help of a bunch of other NGO's and government organizations. The main point of the conference was to discuss what's needed for a new Drug Law, which various politicians are currently working on. It was a full-day conference with various panel discussions by important people from all over the place. Another situation where I didn't realize just how big of a deal it was until I was there.

Ann Fordham (left) and the other speakers at the "International
panel"

The Intercambios team was busy the whole day making sure the conference ran smoothly, but I had a special job. I was assigned to accompany Ann Fordham, the executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, who was one of the international panelists and who didn't speak a word of Spanish. They hired a simultaneous interpreter for her official presentation, but for the rest of the day I was her personal translator. The conversational stuff was fine, but the real challenge came during the hours of panel discussions before hers that I had to whisper-translate for her in the audience. I think I can count that as one of the most challenging and stressful experiences of my life, especially because the panels were dealing with fairly complex legal jargon. Translating every word was absolutely impossible so I basically just tried to give her a rapid summary every minute or so, which was still difficult. As hard as it was, I don't think I've ever felt prouder of my Spanish abilities, and it's definitely something I'll be putting on my resume. I've also become really interested in the type of work that Intercambios does; they really focus on the human rights and public health side of drug policy as opposed to the punitive focus that we tend to have in the United States. It's something that I'm definitely planning on pursuing in my public health studies once I get home.

The Intercambios team

So there you have it. It hasn't been all traveling and relaxing. I've actually been learning stuff too! Really interesting stuff at that.