Last week I had to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Poor me. In my defense, it was for work (the eighth meeting of the Reunión Antropológico del Mercosur, RAM VIII) and I was giving a paper at the conference. BUT, a bit of time in the big city sure does a girl some good. Not that Ciudad del Este isn't it's own sort of urban jungle, but definitely not the sort of city that has 12 million people (ok, 3 million in Buenos Aires proper, but another 9 million in the metropolitan area), a strong commitment to café culture (ergo, some excellent espresso), wonderful art/music/dance scene, and I could go on...
The short re-cap of the trip was (1) anthropologists, no matter where they are from, tend to be both disorganized and the antithesis of concise...both of which rendered 4 full days of conference proceedings pretty painful. Luckily, my panel (on economic anthropology of money and financial strategies) was at 8:30 on Thursday morning, which meant that the accreted lateness of consecutive panels hadn't had a chance to add up yet (i.e. we only started 45 minutes late...the afternoon panels were orders of magnitude worse). (2) Nobody knows anything about Paraguay, which made my work enough of a novelty that nobody could really pick a fight with me about my field data (yes!). It was almost embarrassing how little people knew about the country (a member of Mercosur, by the way,...the common economic market that was the conference's raison d'etre!). So bad, in fact, that a woman characterized Guarani as a "language on the brink of extinction" in the opening remarks of the conference--which is ludicrous if she knew even a modicum about Paraguay (which has 6 million native speakers, it is the only amerindian language officially recognized as a national language, it is taught in both primary and secondary schools, appears widely in print media...&c &c &c). Not to mention the fact that Paraguay considers Guarani to be a matter of national security, since it was the "secret code language" in both the devastating War of the Triple Alliance in the 1860s (known as the Great War in Paraguay because 3 of every 5 inhabitants were killed) as well as the war of the Chaco in the 1930s. Everybody in Paraguay speaks Guarani (which causes me all sorts of woes, because my Guarani is not even at the level of a talkative toddler...something I'm reminded of daily!). Anyhow, the fact that somebody could make an offhand remark like that is indicative of the general state of 'paraguay studies' in the southern cone of Latin America. So...presenting an academic paper in Spanish is a bit tricky, as is fielding questions in both Spanish and Portuguese (yikes!); but, mitigated by the fact that other people knew not a whit about Paraguay.
OK~enough academic rantings and ravings. The conference was really productive. And Buenos Aires was *beautiful*!! Went to a contemporary tango music show that was absolutely stunning! On thursday nights, some of the most interesting tango musicians get together at a wine bar in Palermo Viejo (one of the historic neighborhoods in Buenos Aires) for a jam session. Tango has become sure a tourist craze in Buenos Aires (bit broadway-esque music/dance extravaganzas...scantily clad women, rose-between-the-teeth theatrics, &c) that it was really refreshing to listen to excellent music. Plus, Astor Piazzolla's grandson was on the drum kit for the first session...very cool!
And that's about it for the trip. I stayed at a guest house recommended by Christine (also presenting at the conference...although she has moved back to Asunción and isn't my nextdoor neighbor anymore, the world of Latin American anthropology is small indeed!). If anybody is looking for a place to stay in Buenos Aires--YiraYira Guesthouse is wonderful! It is three blocks from the enormous "Ave. 9 de Julio"--the main artery of Buenos Aires.
Plus, it's on the corner of Ave. Uruguay and Ave. Paraguay...which warms my heart.
The building is ancient--with this great old iron elevator that looks like it should be in a film noir movie. And the guest house has only four rooms, and is run by the owner/manager--Paz--who lives upstairs. Fantastic!
Swint was very happy to see me when I got back. Buenos Aires was lovely, but it is good to be home. Mbae'chapa Paraguay!
Exhibit A: yesterday, Km 8 Acaray. On the road as chauffeur for Zayda, working as "debt collector"
Exhibit B: Beautiful view of the Acaray river!
Exhibit D: Nearly got the fusca stuck! Slurpy, sticky red mud everywhere. Forgot to buy a newspaper to put down on the floor. Damn!
Exhibit E: Fusca died a whimpering, hiccuping, spluttering death at km 4. At least we were back in the city and could take a bus home. In the ICU with the mechanic...come on fusca, don't quit on me now! The mud-spatters look a bit like tears...
