Election day!

Sunday, June 28th marked two important occasions: international gay pride day and elections! The first passed by without a peep; since, unfortunately, the Cordoba gay scene is super underground and it is highly uncommon to see a same-sex couple walking together on the street, a march is out of the question. The elections, however, were impossible to ignore. For the past month or so the streets have been papered with these handsome faces:


The first, Luis Juez, former mayor of Cordoba and primary guilty party for the mess at city hall mentioned in the previous post (he was the one that gave all his friends and family lifetime jobs and ridiculous perks there), ended up winning the senate race. The second, Eduardo Mondino, lost. He did, however, achieve immortality with an incredibly catchy campaign song that is sung at least once a day in my house.
The vote here is obligatory, which meant that Sunday buses were running free to nearby towns for all the people that had to go vote. It also meant that the sale of alchohol was prohibited starting at 6 pm the night before, in a savvy move to avoid that familiar election day concern, hangover voting ("let's see, I think I want the United Leftist Front party...oooh, my head hurts... oops, I voted for Juez!")
The elections were a big topic of conversation for the last couple of weeks (now supplanted by swine flu), and it was pretty interesting to hear people's attitudes towards voting. Most of my friends made the trek to the "cuarto oscuro" (the dark room, or voting booth), a few mentioning the need to vote in order to maintain a democratic system that is relatively new (the last military dictatorship ended only 26 years ago). A few others said they weren't going to vote, risking a fine, because they were disillusioned with politics.Well hey, it's hard not to be when you see a video of the debate between Juez and Mondino, in which both (during a commercial break that was recorded regardless) accuse each other of being criminals and con men, and neither denies the accusation. Yikes.

Pay in coins, get some fish sticks

So recently my Aunt Anne (another faithful reader) asked if in Cordoba we were also having a coin shortage like the one in Buenos Aires, mentioned in a New Yorker article.
The answer is yes! Almost everyday I am either told the vegetable guy owes me 15 cents for the next time, or the photocopy lady lets me get a few copies and pay back the 20 cents another time if I only have a 2 peso bill. Having a hundred (and I'm paid in 100s) can be like having nothing if you don't want to make a grocery store trip, cause most people would rather lose the business than part with their small bills. Granted, my "business" is usually a peso worth of candy, so it's an understandable decision. Today was the best though: I bought some spinach and cheese patties (just had one for lunch, EXCELLENT) for 7.50 and gave the guy a ten and two peso coins. To show his gratitude for the coins, not only did he give me back a 5 (thus only charging 7) but also threw in two calamari and cheese sticks. Awesome!

Fight! For the Right!

So, when faithful blog follower Joanie Howland asked why I hadn't written in a while, I told her that basically, although I am having lots of fun in Cordoba, it's fun of a very routine, ordinary variety and not very blog-worthy. However, there are a few things about my life in Cordoba that, although common, are still pretty interesting: protests! Here's a rundown of some of the recent incidents of civil unrest I have participated in, performed at or been inconvenienced by:

1. Festival of Solidarity for Iveco, April 24th, 2009. Iveco is a car parts company where many of the workers were fired in a supposed violation of their labor contract, and thus the entire body of workers went on strike. As is often the case, I was (and am) not completely clear on the details of the conflict: I know there are more than two sides to every story and some people tell it that the firings were a necessary, legal step to combat this oft-mentioned economic crisis we're all going through. I'm not sure, but I do know that the festival was in support of normal, working people who are currently unable to support their families, and if dancing with the murga made them feel even a little bit better, it's got to be worth something!




2. March for the 40th Anniversary of the Cordobazo, May 29th, 2009. The Cordobazo (on this same date in 1969) is the name for a giant, 36 hour strike of union workers and students in opposition to the dictatorship of Ongania and the limits said dictatorship was putting on the rights of students and workers. It turned into an armed conflict between the protestors and the police, tons of property was destroyed, hundreds of protestors arrested and twenty were killed. The spirit of the march, as far as I could tell, was in memory of the fallen, but also a call to repeat the Cordobazo; not so much the violence, but union of students and workers in a common cause, something that is sadly missing today, as evidenced by the 4, count'em, FOUR, different marches to commemorate the event.

3. City hall and bus driver strikes, Friday, June 12-? The city hall workers have been striking since Friday, in protest of a proposal to cut their salaries and limit their benefits. Here's a pic from the Argentine indymedia website (Giacomino, mentioned in the poster, is the mayor who wants to make the cuts): As a result,choripan (sausage sandwiches) stands have popped up everywhere (here's a nice shot of a typical choripan vendor): their owners taking advantage of the lack of regulation, and things are generally a mess. Meanwhile, from Friday to midday Saturday all the buses of the province were on strike for a salary increase, impeding people from traveling for the long weekend and, more importantly, getting to work. The incredibly frustrating part of it all is that these two groups represent two of the most well-paid sectors of Cordoba, with salaries higher than teachers, accountants, and even doctors, to name a few. Even more frustrating, who does the bus strike inconvenience more than anyone? The little guy, of course. People with money have cars or can take taxis, but the less economically fortunate folks have no way to get to their jobs, where they are undoubtedly paid less than the bus drivers.

Cerro Colorado!

Because of a ton of work (Hogwarts with the kids, Precision here in Cordoba with businesspeople) I haven't had a lot of time to keep you guys updated on my life: which isn't a huge problem because recently I haven't had that much of a life beyond classes (though I'm certainly trying!) So now, better late than never, are some pics from my Easter trip to the Cerro Colorado (about three hours north of Cordoba) with Vicky and Vappu. Cerro Colorado, for me, is the best of both worlds, because you are totally in the middle of nature, but you also have a little town with excellent West Texas style architecture. Here's the church:And here's Vicky enjoying nature with some te-re-re (mate with orange juice instead of hot water):

And there was plenty of beautiful wildlife, both large:
and small:

We ate well: noodles, rice and tuna and other delicacies:
And at night, we hit the most hoppin' bar in town (and the only bar in town), Hugo Mario, to play pool, mingle with the families of Cerro Colorado, and even chat with Hugo Mario himself!Here I am pretending to know what I'm doing:

And here are the girls outside of Hugo Maria doing their impression of me sleeping on the bus:

On Easter Sunday, Vicky and I climbed the actual Cerro Colorado:


It was beautiful up there, and the view was awesome (if a little vertigo-inducing):
And on Sunday evening, we had beer and salami sandwiches for the road and then headed back to the hustle and bustle of Cordoba!

March 24th, Dia de la Memoria

Last Tuesday, March 24th, was the 33rd anniversary of the coup d'etat in Argentina (not the only one, but the most significant) that began the "Dirty War", a.k.a.7 years of military dictatorship and uncountable human rights violations.
I spent the afternoon with Vappu, Vicky and the murga at a big march through downtown. Here's some of the hubbub before we set off:
The march was pretty awesome.... I was with the murgas the whole time, so I didn't get to see the breadth of the thing, but Vicky said that it stretched for at least 10 blocks, and there were tons of different groups there: lots of political parties, people with posters with faces of the "desaparecidos" from their town, and of course the "Mesa de Trabajo," (Work Table), an organization that consists in the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Abuelas of the Plaza de Mayo, and HIJOS, who are children of desaparecidos. There was lots of drums, chants,and theatricality! One murga organized a little skit where people carrying posters with bad things "repressed" all the other dancers, who were walking around with red blindfolds. Then, together they shout "No to repression!" the drums pick up and the bad people disappear!
I was one of the bad guys, "Ignorance"- here I am with "Capitalism"- check out the American flag face paint!
The march was at least 3 hours long, which is way longer if you're kinda dancing throughout! At a certain point it split up, one group ending in the Plaza San Martin and the other (the one I was in)at a police station where lots of corruption has gone on (I heard different stuff about kids even being killed there just 4 years ago but I'm not positive). There is a lot of anti-police sentiment here in Cordoba, and from what I've heard from more than one dark-skinned pal who ended up spending the weekend in jail for no good reason, it is pretty justified.
So yes, I left the march pretty invigorated with all the cries for social justice and human rights, as well as the inevitable call for memory of the horrors of the dictatorship and punishment for those involved (almost all of whom are roaming free to this day, thanks to pardons from recently-deceased ex-president Raul Alfonsin and total a-hole ex-president Carlos Menem). I was therefore surprised by my conversations with a few students about the holiday.
One student, a 44 year old accountant who was an adolescent during the dictatorship, seemed very cynical about the whole thing, saying that the march was a paltry percentage of Cordoba's population (arguably true) and that most Argentines are too busy trying to get by with crazy inflation and superlow salaries that "memory" isn't really a priority. Another student, a late 20's woman at the company where I teach, told me that she didn't support the holiday or the march, that it was an excuse for a vacation and that people, essentially, have a selective memory: she mentioned how the dictatorship was preceded by a good deal of violence from the left-wing Montaneros, and that the military killed a lot of innocent people as well as said radicals because they "didn't have time" to figure out who was "good" and who was "bad"... pretty nuts.
So yeah, I am learning that the stuff that seems pretty black and white from an outsider perspective is much more complicated inside the country. I know where I stand, but it's pretty interesting to hear other perspectives!

Video from the Corso!

Thanks to Vappu, there is now a video of the dance part of our presentation with the murga! I'm the one in the yellow pants rapping in an impossibly thick gringa accent.
Here's the link:
DESFILE!

Way better than "Dominicans"

Me: "What do we call people from the Dominican Republic?"
Student: "Dominican Republications?"