Argentina - beyond tango and soccer

“Latins are tenderly enthusiastic. In Brazil they throw flowers at you. In Argentina they throw themselves.” –Marlene Dietrich

Tango and soccer are probably the main elements in the foreign representation of Argentina. Academics and poets have gone out of their way to spot the melancholy of tango in Argentinean society, and the national arrogance and pride in soccer; to see tango in the soccer and soccer in the tango, Diego Maradona being the ultimate producer and reproducer of the genuinely Argentinean in the outsider mythology. But Argentina is a country of endless colours. Buenos Aires has the third largest Jewish community in the world outside of Israel. Paradoxically, the country also represented a safe haven where a number of Nazis could take refuge after World War II. The Argentinean capital has a world-leading density of psychoanalysts, many of them operating from the area popularly baptized as “Villa Freud”. The literacy rate is the highest in South America, and following the economic boom of the 90s Argentina imported more silicon implants than any other country. That is perhaps why many Argentineans claim to represent the smartest and most beautiful people in the world. Buenos Aires is considered the techno/electronica capital of South America and holds the world record of 65 000 people in one rave, but also hosts one of the best opera theatres in the world. The country probably also had the dubious honour of experiencing the shortest presidency, lasting only one hour, in the political turmoil of the crisis of 2001.

A great part of the national Argentinean imaginary has evolved around its capital, which inhabits more than one third of the total population. One of the most striking features of Buenos Aires is its strong European influence, both ethnically and culturally. The capital’s porteño (literally “from the port”) self-image is inseparable from its European roots, and emphasises the Argentinean uniqueness, and often auto-exclusion, from its Latin-American location. From the second part of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century Argentina received a much desired migratory wave, mainly from Southern European countries such as Italy, Spain and France. In 1914 it was estimated that about one third of the total Argentinean population was born in a foreign country. The immigration to Argentina is still significant and the migrants are today mainly people of Bolivian, Peruvian and Paraguayan origin.

The country has its formal religious base in Catholicism, but has fostered a wide range of spiritual expressions, ranging from popularly canonized saints and Pentecostal churches to mystical traditions and New Age inspired cosmologies. And, not to forget, the Church of Maradona. Within the Argentinean religious field the reasonable appears absurd and the absurd reasonable, and state authority becomes entangled with magic realism.

The Argentinean, or perhaps more accurately porteño, self-perception and arrogance is world-known, and even God himself has often been ascribed an argento citizenship. But when in Buenos Aires, one more frequently observes a passionate patriotism mixed with a deep sense of concern for the country’s future and a vigorous political mistrust. The military dictatorship of the 70s and early 80s, and its devastating dirty war where 30 000 people were disappeared, is vividly alive in the social memory, and the generals’ heavy foreign loans laid the cornerstone for the economic crisis of 2001. The crisis drove thousands of Argentineans to march the streets armed with pots, pans and other kitchen utensils, in a carnivalesque display of the government’s political impotence, and hence establishing the cacerolazo as a form of social protest. The large porteño middle class, abruptly awakened from the 90s’ neo-liberalist dream of comfortable living, faced a reality of confiscated savings, monetary devaluation and a general restriction of personal freedom. And though the Argentinean economy currently seems to stabilize and develop, the Argentinean continues to watch the political power with a gaze of distrust and vote for the lesser thief.

The Argentineans nevertheless show an appealing talent for distracting themselves from the political and economic chaos, and fervently throw themselves into all that life can offer. In the porteño night the restaurants are at their busiest around midnight, nightclubs close well after sunrise, and the holders of old and new money share the streets with fashionable middle class teenagers, flamboyant transsexuals, carton collectors from the poor villas surrounding the city and, increasingly, drunk European tourists. In the weekends the Argentineans flock to the parks to enjoy their mate-tea in the sun, and in the homes and the traditional parrilla restaurants the abundant barbeques, the Italian ice cream and the malbec wine stubbornly offer refreshing breaks from the city’s unkind beauty ideals.