Let the city take the lead...

Today my Spanish courses were cancelled because of planned protests in the city.  Public transportation was running when I woke up so I decided to go out for the day.  This blog post is a little all over the place, because that's exactly how my day went.

I started off by leaving the house and heading South down Santa Fe.  I knew that I wanted to eat somewhere new and probably needed WIFI if I was going to have any chance of figuring out the rest of my day.  I stopped a nice little cafe and it wasn't anything special, but it was new and different.

Cafe con leche y tres medialunas.

I remembered that one of our professors recommended that we go to "barrio once" to see some of the things there and look at the shopping.  We are studying the Jewish immigrant population in Buenos Aires and Argentina in general and this was one of the first established Jewish communities.

I had a plan, paid my "cuenta" (bill) and headed on my way.  I needed to get over to the subte (subway) and so I walked down Callao to get over to Cordoba to catch the subte.  Little did I know, Buenos Aires had a little surprise for me...

Sarmiento Palace

In an early blog I wrote about going to Sarmiento's home and the school he built in the Delta, but I stumbled upon this palace in his name on my walk to the subway.  

Turns out... I also got a view of the Parish del Carmen on my walk also... and it was a beautiful day.

Parroquia del Carmen

I made it to the subway and got off on my stop near Once.  With no better plan, I just figured I would wander around and see what seemed interesting.

Plaza Miserere

I walked around the Plaza Miserere and was able to take a photo of the monument that stands there as a tribute to the first President of Argentina - Bernardino Rivadavia.

Bernardino Rivadavia - Monument

Near the Plaza Miserere I found a small area that is dedicated to missing/dead children of some sort.  To be completely honest I am not really sure what it was all saying, but I have added it to my list of things that I need to research.  I took some pictures of the memorial...

I can only assume that these shoes tied to the string are the shoes of the missing/dead.

Justice

A view of the memorial area

After walking around and looking at some of the pictures of the missing/dead children I continued my journey of finding new things...

I walked along the building above until it opened up into a shopping center and subway station.  I was immediately greeted by some of the protesters that were en route to the Plaza de Mayo for the demonstrations that were to take place.

This is the protesters as they were leaving the inside of the building - where they were drumming and setting of fireworks that sounded like gunshots.  They are carrying a large Argentine flag and were going to march the plaza.

The shopping was decent and cheap as promised by our professor.  I didn't carry a lot of pesos on me, but I believe that I will be returning to purchase some new shoes.  I found a great pair for under $40 USD.

I decided that one of the other things on my Argentine bucket list was the take one of the original subway cars that run on the A line here.  I decided to figure out how to get home from one of the stops or just transfer to my regular subway.

Original Subway Car - still in operation

I didn't have to decide which station to get off at or whether or not I was going to use the transfer because the rail line shut down at one of the stations and the workers made everyone get off the subway.  They weren't going any farther because of the demonstrations.

I arrived on the street from the subway platform to the following:

This road was basically cleared of all automotive traffic...

because these protesters had the other side of this intersection completely blocked...

and three helicopters like this were flying over the situation.

So, I started to walk in the other direction and wouldn't you know it... I got another surprise from the city.  I came across the national congressional building here in Buenos Aires.

Plaza in front of the national congressional building and the congressional building in the background on the left.

I walked around for a bit and had lunch at a nice cafe near by.  I decided to get in a taxi and go home as I watched a large police vehicle traveling the direction of the demonstrations...

Police vehicle traveling down a street in Buenos Aires littered with protest fliers.

It was an interesting day and I truly enjoyed it...

Ciao,

Tim

Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

Today we had a pretty regular day at school with a bunch of Spanish and grammar and reading and talking… however on my way to class I got to see 3 special presidential guards… which were pretty decked out.  That’s Katy – a girl that I taught how to take the Subte (subway) today.

After classes we went to the Plaza de Mayo to watch the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo walk at 3:30 p.m. as they do every Thursday.  Their organization was formed 35 years ago and they still come to the Plaza de Mayo every single Thursday to walk.

This is the Casa Rosada, the Presidential Residence. 












This is a equestrian statue that is dedicated to General Manuel Belgrano.  Manuel Belgrano was a central figure during the Argentine move for independence.










May Pyramid – celebrating Argentina’s Revolution.



















These are the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo – Linea Fundadora. 















These are the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo – Association.  This is a more radicalized faction of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo who have decided to take a more pro-active political stance than the others who still walk simply to get answers about their missing children.








So it was really pretty sad to watch these mothers.  The Mothers in the top photograph still walk with their original head scarves with the names of their missing children embroidered in them.
I thought this would also be a good time to highlight what the police force looks like in Argentina compared to Lawrence, KS.  I got a few of them to accept me taking a picture of them.  All of them were ignoring me until one guy in particular just yelled “CHE! PHOTO!” and all of them stopped talking and waited for me to take the photo.

I especially like the guy with the baton that seems like he is completely ready in case stuff really goes down… They also have their version of the PTV available apparently in case a bunch of people all of the sudden decide to get crazy.
Tonight the plan is to eat here at home and then go to a Latin dancing class at the gym my host mom’s go to and then out to a bar in town that is pretty close to my house to take advantage of free pizza Thursday’s there.