Things are going well here in Buenos Aires. I have been making good progress in the archives/library, finding lots of useful materials. Thankfully, the staff at both the National Library and the Archivo General de la Nación have not lived up to their reputation as slow and unhelpful. Starting work at the archives was as easy as walking in and telling them what kinds of materials I was looking for. I had to get credentials at the library, but I picked those up on Friday and now have access to most of their collections. The archives and library are not as well funded as in Chile, and the buildings (especially the archive) could use some repair, but it hasn't impacted my research (at least not yet).
I'm enjoying my stay in Buenos Aires, too. As was probably clear, I had a difficult time in Santiago, for a variety of reasons known and unknown. I was really homesick and lonely there. Buenos Aires agrees with me much more, and reminds me quite a bit of NYC, where I lived for six years. So it feels a bit more familiar to me. The food is better, the weather cooler, and the people (in my experience) welcoming and kind -- especially my host family.
I have also done a bit of sightseeing in the last week. I met up with friends of a friend on Thursday and went to the Plaza de Mayo to see a protest by the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo. The mothers have been protesting every Thursday since 1977, when their children were disappearing in Argentina's "Dirty War." It was interesting to see, and there was also a protest about the Falklands (or Malvinas, as the Argentines call them) happening simultaneously.
Yesterday I went to Tigre, a town up the river delta from Buenos Aires. It was a really lovely day. I went with a group of four people (and an Argentine guide). Since the other four people were all native Spanish speakers (two Peruvians and two Spaniards) the trip was conducted almost entirely in Spanish. I was really impressed with how much I understood -- I feel like I have made definite progress in understanding spoken Spanish over the last five weeks.
In Tigre, we explored the port and market, had lunch, and wandered around for a while. I had a delicious fresh-pressed juice too. In the late afternoon we got on a boat and rode back down the river to Buenos Aires. The boat ride was amazing. There are people who live on the banks of the river (essentially islands, since it is part of a delta), and their primary means of transportation are boats. The kids go to school by boat, people do their grocery shopping on boats, and there are even colectivo boats (essentially, public transportation on the water). The boat was a great way to see life on the Tigre up close.
Today my host family took me to Belgrano, where BA's Chinatown is located. We had some Chinese food for lunch -- the first time I have had tofu since I left the states -- and then they showed me shops where I could buy soymilk, tofu, and peanut butter. After, we went and sat in the park for a while, enjoying the nice weather (and a coffee from the cafe across the street). It was a really nice day.
Here are some pictures from this week. Warning: there are a lot!
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| In Retiro, the main train station in Buenos Aires |
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| Malvinas Protest in the Plaza de Mayo |
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| Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo |
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| This is the Cathedral in San Isidro, a town north of Buenos Aires. We stopped here on the way to Tigre. |
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| The port in Tigre |
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| Tigre |
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| Yep, definitely in Argentina! | | |
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| On the boat back to Buenos Aires |
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| I'm not sure what went wrong in translation here.... | |
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| The next few are of the banks of the Tigre river |
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| Arriving back in Buenos Aires |
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| This made me so happy -- Left to right: tofu, trail mix, soy milk, and peanut butter. Yum. |
