Twelfth night impression

[Art in the Subte]

I arrived on January 5th, so that makes today my thirteenth in Argentina.... not a lifetime but enough time for me to start to get a sense of this place.  It also helps that my brother is here-- we can see things through each others' eyes.

[More Subte art]

We spent the last two days almost exclusively in the center of the city.  Today we've primarily been hanging out in my neighborhood.  The contrast is clear-- downtown Buenos Aires has the hustle and bustle of any major city.  And perhaps, given some minor safety concerns, the hustle and bustle is a little more exhausting for a novice.

            [An impossibly tall high rise apartment building]

Part of the reason I chose to start in Argentina and travel mostly in this country is because it has a reputation for being more gender egalitarian than most in South America.  I did not particularly want to get a lot of attention for traveling alone everywhere I went.  In this country, it is common for women to work outside the home.  There are stay-at-home dads pushing strollers through my neighborhood and men doing the family food shopping at my local big box store.  The president of Argentina, Christina Kirchner, is a woman-- although many will argue that she is largely a figurehead as her husband and his political allies are/were unnaturally influential in her regime.

While Argentina bills itself as a country loyal to Catholicism, I have not seen nearly the level of fervor as in places like Mexico and Ireland.  There aren't very many churches and they are not particularly well attended.  No one seems to end a conversation with "Si Dios quiere (God willing)"  There is an orthodox jewish community in Buenos Aires and I have seen quite a few orthodox families out and about.  Many European jews escaped persecution by coming to Argentina.  (There were also Nazis who escaped... er.... slithered to Argentina after WW II, but that's a whole other story.)  Right around the corner from my apartment is a sizeable Islamic religious center built by the King of Saudi Arabia as a gift to the muslims of Argentina.  It is not uncommon to see muslims rushing towards its doors at prayer time.

Quad and I saw this grafiti walking home last night.  It made me so sad to see it-- the first real sign of malice and bigotry since arriving.  Same sex civil unions have been permitted in Buenos Aires province since 2002, and in July of 2010, same sex marriage was legalized in the entire country.  This is the first country in South America to allow same sex marriage.  I have seen same sex couples walking together and freely expressing their affections.  The most fascinating aspect of gay culture in Argentina is that there is a gay tango movement.  So, as you may know, the tango is the national dance of Argentina.  It is also suggested to represent the culture of Argentina itself-- passionate but formal, a combination of European and African culture.  The whole idea of gay tango seems to both solidify and also reconfigure Argentine culture at its heart.... sort of a microcosm for the change that is happening here.

So, all of these similarities and differences has me thinking:  I travel to see and experience all of the novel things the world has to offer, but sometimes what I love most about a new place is that ways that it conforms to what I value in my own culture....

The great scientific count: 27 mas or menos