Argentina Tour, "Fulbright" style: Stop I La Plata

After getting my parents to the airport and on their way home, I spent an additonal day and a half more in Buenos Aires. I spent most of Sunday in the San Telmo neighborhood with a new friend from my hostel, Vicky, who is from England and had been traveling around South America the last 6 weeks with two other friends. We went first to the infamous weekly market in Plaza Dorrego and a tango show at a small restaurant called El Balcón. The singing was actually quite good; I don't think the tango dancing was quite as impressive but the show also included some folklore dancing and singing with which I was already familiar and definitely enjoyed. Vicky and I took a walk after the show in Buenos Aires' costanera and nature reserve just outside of Puerto Madero. There we were accompanied by a group of 4 Argentine gentlemen who were, to put it lightly, super eager to talk to us. They could be described as... very typical, rather aggressive, blatantly frank Argentine young men. For example, at the end of our walk before parting ways, one of the guys requested with sincerity that I give him a quick kiss; I'm not talking about the standard kiss on the cheek either that we obvious exchange ... you get the picture. Anyways, it was nice to have company during our walk through the park. Sunday evening's dinner was some excellent Peruvian food and Monday morning I successfully collected my monthly check from the ministry of education.

Vicky and I with one of our new crazy acquaintances from Buenos Aires.

Which brings me to what I've titled thus far: my Argentina Tour, "Fulbright" style. With a couple more weeks of vacation left on my calendar, I have ambitions of visiting many of the Fulbright teaching assistants in their individual cities and towns. I hope to see a bit more of Argentina as well as understand my own placement better as I can compare and contrast my experiences with those of my colleagues around the country. Thus, I boarded the General Roca train line at the Constitución station on Monday and was officially on my way to my first stop, La Plata, where ETA Samantha Kalish lives. Sam was busy moving into a new housing arrangement on Monday so I perused the city with another British acquaintance, Miranda, from my hostel who spent just the afternoon there in La Plata. We visited the monstrous neo-Gothic cathedral on the central plaza and a small house museum honoring the city's designer, Dr. Dardo Rocha. We also made a short visit inside the province's Senate house, a stop at cafe Bolivar (with clear activist overtones in the photos and other propaganda lining the walls that aligned with the life and work of Simon Bolivar) for lunch, and a short walk through part of the city's most popular park, Paseo del Bosque before Miranda boarded a bus back to Buenos Aires.

Photos from inside and outside La Plata's cathedral

Time capsule unearthed at the city's 100 year anniversary, replaced by another time capsule to be unearthed at the city's 200 year anniversary in 2083. The painting is a recreation of an actual photo of the ceremony of the original time capsule's burial.

Monday I met up with Sam and we started off with a scenic, more extended walk through the city's Bosque, skipping the city's most famous museum (as Sam advised that I would probably be bored within 10 minutes of entering). In lieu of the paleontological/zoological/general science museum, we hit up a food stand on the plaza in front of the cathedral where I ate this delicious choripan sandwich:

After lunch we made 3 primary stops. Our first visit was to the university where Sam works: University of La Plata, the largest in the country. This visit highlighted one of the primary personal reasons that I've decided to make visits to multiple Fulbrighters' cities across the country. I've recently wondered quite a bit about how a city's culture is reflected in the university/educational culture and vice versa here in Argentina. I hope that by spending some time in various cities, I might gain some insight as to where I might start answering these questions of cultural comparisons. Sam works specifically in the building that houses the humanities at UNLP and I could tell from my first steps into the institution that its culture is one rooted in a long tradition of education and political activism. There were posters draped from nearly every inch of the wall and ceiling and colorful murals of strong political opinions that adorned the walls. Although rather outdated in many ways (which can probably be said for any institution where Argentine Fulbrighters are working), it was clear from the information pinned everywhere, the students' activity in the facility, and what Sam had told me about the international students' presence that this educational institution is alive. Sam also mentioned to me that they're thinking about moving the humanities building very soon as it is so old and in some ways, to her, resembles the inside of a prison with its catwalk on each floor (see photos below).

 Our second stop was to the city cultural center which houses a few temporary art exhibits in its front galleries. The first contemporary art exhibition (I'm kicking myself right now for forgetting to photograph the name of the artist....can't remember her name.) was an interesting collection of shapes, free-standing objects and wooden frames of .... tiny plastic babies, trucks and cars, broken mirror pieces, and small metal tubes. Definitely open to some interpretation, I'll let you decide what you think of this very original artwork...

One of the artist's pieces

A close-up photo of a smaller section of this larger piece.

A very close-up shot of the plastic baby dolls on another piece of her artwork.

In the second and third galleries, we found art by Gerardo Fagot (paper maché pieces) and Carlos Tartarini (paintings)

Finally in the larger atrium area, we looked out over a temporary dinosaur exhibit that had been to the museum, mostly for youth education purposes. One of the rather life-like stations featured a tyrannosaurus-rex standing over its prey, a gash in the prey's side. Not only did the T-rex roar as if rejoicing over its recent catch, but the unfortunate prey also periodically emitted a sort of groan. The real topper here though was that the prey's injured side would rise and lower as if it were still breathing (you know, just like those fake dogs that you can buy in the US that look like they're sleeping and breathing). A bit graphic for a children's exhibit if you ask me. I guess life is harsh sometimes. ;)

Our final stop for the day was a small memory museum in honor of those who were victims of Argentina's military dictatorship in the late 70's and early 80's. There was obviously much to digest historically, culturally, intellectually in this place but I'm going to refrain from going into an extended commentary in this entry. Instead, I'd like to share the one image that I decided to photograph while in the museum. This penciled drawing made me think a lot about not only Argentina's history but also many other historic situations as well as many situations that we face in our daily lives.

Innocent goes through the funnel and emerges guilty.

I basically finished off the events of my visit to La Plata that evening at a dinner shared with Sam, Dan (a Fulbright research assistant), Maialen (a new acquaintance from Spain who was staying in the same hostel as I) and Laureano (an acquaintance who I had met some months ago while traveling in Salta). Yes, I realize I've already written a lot about La Plata but I have just a couple final thoughts. I really enjoy this city for a few reasons: first, the wider national and international presence of students with the city's huge university. This diversity identifiable in the university and city's culture is obviously something I treasure from my own undergraduate education and something I was reassured to see in my visit to this institution. Second, along with the university's strong presence, I seemed to observe a wider societal conscience that values ongoing education. Sam shared with me that although people she knows might not have a lot of extra money, they will still spend their hard-earned pesos on a class to learn something new simply because they have a strong personal interest in that language, subject, artistic ability, etc. 

Crazy traffic, a beautiful park, impossible-to-miss student presence, and a mini-Buenos Aires feel (at least to me in some ways) made La Plata a great first stop on my Fulbright tour. On to see Maja Petersen and Mar del Plata!