The Past Week

I decided to stay in tonight, even though it's Saturday.  This past week was pretty exhausting, and I am happy to have the opportunity to relax a bit, finally.  The final homework assignments for this program are starting to weigh heavy on me, and I need to rest up for the big academic week ahead.  Also, I had quite a late night last night from which I need to recover.

I went to two museums this week: 1.) Eva Peron 2.) MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires).  The Peron museum was interesting, but a bit strange.  The Argentine population has a sort of obsession with this woman which I find  extreme.  Among those who view her fondly, she seems to enjoy godly adoration, a fact which is highlighted by the size of this museum devoted to her. Some of my classmates found it odd that the working class loved her so much despite the fact that she seemed fairly ostentatious about her wealth.  She dressed in fine European clothing and traveled luxuriously.  I suppose her political work with women's suffrage and charity, not her own financial decisions, caused the masses to support her so vehemently.

The Latin American art museum had a lot of good work in it (as well as those frustratingly simple modern art pieces that I still can't figure out).  Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Frida Kahlo were the biggest names I recognized, and there were many paintings by artists I did not know which I appreciated nonetheless.

The most striking work, however, that I found in the museum, was by an experimental artist named Luis Benedit.  In the 1970s, he used his knowledge of botany and architecture to design an artificial world for plants with hydroponics.  Through his work he commented on the tie between nature and man's ability to cope with an increasingly artificial environment in the 20th century. Although I found his message intriguing, I was struck more by the practicality and relevance of his project in today's society. In Milwaukee, for instance, Will Allen is leading the way in urban agriculture using extremely similar strategies to revolutionize the way we grow food in the city.  (see more about that here)  Every time I think about this sort of thing I get excited about learning more biology and botany.

 Despite my best efforts, I also learned quite a bit in school this week.  We discussed Argentina's "Dirty War" which took place in the late 1970s.  Now, I'm not planning on giving a history lesson, but I just want to mention something.  About 30 years ago the military dictatorship that governed Argentina began abducting people who they suspected to be opposed to their regime.  Over a 5 year period, approximately 30,000 left wing citizens of Argentina disappeared at the hands of this government.  In other words, they were killed.  These were people who never committed any crime, other than holding beliefs contrary to the government's, and who did not receive any kind of trial.  Thus, their name, "desaparecios", or 'the disappeared'.

This government-led terrorism shocked me, mostly because it was so recent.  How could such widespread violent repression occur in such a modern age?  It reminded me of the atrocities that take place in other parts of the world even more recently.  I guess I found myself unprepared to confront this reality face to face.  It's so easy to read about it in the paper and be appalled from the kitchen table with a cup of coffee.  It's another story when you see your history teacher tear up about the issue because she knew people who were killed, and children who now have no biological parents. (These posters of the faces of the "desaparecidos" (disappeared) still decorate certain public areas in Buenos Aires.)

I'm glad I have been granted the chance to see a truer view of Argentina.  I would never have genuinely known this emotion without being here and witnessing it first hand.  I was also disappointed, although not exactly surprised, that the US government supported this military junta with lots of money.  Nice life, US.  Not that I'm eager to go out seeking trouble, but I think it's important for people to step outside the US bubble, to see the brutal reality of the world, and to live among the results of our own foreign policy.  When I go to Nicaragua next month, I'll be sure to return to this issue.

I'm extremely attracted to women with mustaches
and unibrows.

All right.  It's time for bed, methinks.  I hope you are all doing well!


 "We can be fairly confident that either there will be a world without war or there won't be a world - at least, a world inhabited by creatures other than bacteria and beetles, with some scattering of others."
                                    -Noam Chomsky