Opinion Sur Joven

Goodbye

March 15, 2008

It is so hard to say goodbye. I started planning my journey about a month ago and I’ve been thinking a lot ever since.

The things I left behind, the words I never said, the actions that could have been and never were, who knows why, remain stuck in a part of myself ,and today I’ll put them into a case to travel thousands of miles away from the place we call home.

Now I’m facing a future as clear as unpredictable, as exciting as strange, but I’m always in the hope of searching for that eternal answer that makes us move and be curious about every step we take, just for the mere fact that we’re heading for something bigger than us.

I feel nervous, anxious and moved. These are days when words aren’t always enough for me to express to everyone around me how I feel and how I’m seeing them now that my life is so different.

Now I feel I’m the only person left in the quest for facing my strongest feelings and in that part of myself where I get up and question and challenge myself every day.

A country full of nostalgia

March 24, 2008

Buenos Aires - How to forget a glorious past. How can you talk about modernity when you’re still clinging on an era that keeps on repeating customs and refuses to abandon the habit of remembering over and over the stories of a country.

Argentina seems to be stuck several decades behind, when the dictatorship was showing its darkest side, when it wasn’t strange for the military regime to rule the streets of Buenos Aires and shut the mouths of all those who had different opinions, and when the only comfort was found in talks over coffee, milongas, extended and noisy toasts on the streets and, of course, shouting every Sunday at the football stadium: dignity and pride must be defended no matter what.

Life never moves on for people who insist on keeping that part of their personalities intact, on remembering that those past times that made them laugh, cry, think, shout and love continue to be features their future generations probably inherit.

Inside its seemingly petulant and arrogant look, Argentina feels sad. It doesn’t change its suffering for anything in the world, but it offers in exchange the kind and -at the same time- sarcastic smile of those who feel they are over all things and circumstances, these being adversity.

They say strength lies in weakness, and Argentines have learned their lesson through their history. Because no one can teach them to be happy if they reach happiness by defending their space and that part of their personality that defines them.

That’s why Argentina shows its skin and its blood on every street of Buenos Aires, on every person that greets you and at the same time asks you what the hell you’re doing here. They’ll never stay quiet, and they don’t have to.

I’d better keep listening to tango and going to the stadium to enjoy all the screaming.

Six weeks later…

May 2008

Buenos Aires – The best thing of each place is always having stories to tell, and here I do. At least, for someone from a different country, details count in a city that never sleeps and that usually shows you a special feeling on every corner.

There are thousands of stories. These days, although I’m always in a rush due to my Master’s obligations, I never miss the opportunity to see on the streets the contrasts between different neighborhoods, between history and the immense Argentine culture, and all things that have been lost as well.

For now, Mexico seems a bit distant, but I can’t help remembering it through some things. The porteños (people from Buenos Aires) have a warm personality that makes you feel calm, even if the way they express is different from what we are used to.

It’s funny when people identify me as “the Mexican” and relate me to Mexican icons. From the well-known comedian Gómez Bolaños (creator of the TV show El Chavo del Ocho) to Maná, Luis Miguel, the mariachis, tequila –very popular down here-, the reason why the Mexican football team was eliminated by you-know-who in the 2006 World Cup, our “popular” vocabulary and other appreciations by the “ches”. It’s as if Mexico followed me everywhere I go and it’s present, whether I feel nostalgia or not.

Argentina is passionate about almost everything it says and does, although it still won’t show me whether it’s a simple feeling expressed in a grandiloquent style. Everyday’s comments are almost always about the same: what president Cristina Kirchner did right or wrong, the new season of “Bailando por un Sueño” [1], why Boca Juniors isn’t perfect, why River Plate is the leader, the smoke on the city, the conflict between farmers and the government and the lack of domestic supplies, who’s right, who’s against whom, who’s to blame, etc.

Everything can be questioned and everyone gives their opinion with the necessary intensity each issue deserves, because here every person needs enemies to argue with, even about the most insignificant issues.

But, I must confess, I like all that. With every step I take on the streets of Buenos Aires I try to absorb something; I don’t just accept what I saw and heard the day before. I’m starting to question myself over the same issues and trying to learn more and more about a form of identity that refuses to die.

And I’ll keep moving forward. I’m sure Argentina has more things to tell me and teach me. So I’ll keep my eyes and my ears open...