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Published: March 26th 2011
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Dear reader
I'm a fan of travel literature, and think of travel blogs as a sub-genre with unexplored potential. But how much can we expect of blog entries? Should they be merely snap shots, or could they include lengthy pieces of interesting descriptions? Do travel blogs give any insights into the people who live where we’re merely passing through? Let’s be honest, sometimes the locals get left out. What then is the point of a travel blog which ignores how ordinary people go about their daily lives?
Is it that bloggers simply don’t notice the human element? Is it a language barrier? Could it be that they’re not interested in the men, women and children they come across? That they’re too busy planning the next stage of their trip? Or perhaps they think describing how students, workers, housewives and grandparents live and think about their place is unimportant? That it would be an intrusion to do so? By not engaging with those who live in the cities, towns and rural areas travellers inadvertently reduce them to a backdrop, to silent figures who are only there to offer meals, transportation and a bed for the night.
Blogging is about
sending messages into the blogosphere. But do travel bloggers consider their potential audience? If they did, perhaps that bit about what they had for breakfast and where they spent the night would be left out, and more would be included on what the locals think and do, how they live and make a crust. A travel blog is like a postcard to family and friends, but it’s also available for reading by the public. Yes, I confess, I’m addicted to reading travel blogs! And I’d love to see more public travel blogs convey something about the people whose cities, towns, suburbs and villages are being visited. The beauty of travel blog entries is that there’s much more space for descriptions than on a postcard. Why not use it?
Once Guapo and I cross the border into Uruguay, the plan is to make sure we include the Uruguayans in our blog entries, as I’m pretty sure readers will find them much more interesting than our own comings and goings.
This week I’ve been searching high and low for books about Uruguay and its people. A Latin American expert told me the university library had just ordered several hundred books
with at least some of them on Uruguay. That was the most exciting news I’d had for weeks! But when I contacted the librarian she said only one of the texts on Uruguay was in English. Oh well, I thought, one book is better than none. She gave me the title but then added it wouldn't be available for quite a long time! Someone must have reserved it already … Anyway, after some searching she gave me the titles of five other books, already catalogued, all on Uruguay. The list showed three were available for loan. So having had my library card renewed I flew up the stairs to the third and fourth floors of the social science library.
The first title is Contemporary Women's Narrative from Argentina and Uruguay. I soon discovered that of six writers included, only one is Uruguayan ... typical! Her name is Armonia Somers (1920 – 1990), author of Only Elephants Will Find the Mandrake Root (1986) (and many others). The second book, A Courageous Girl – A story of Uruguay, by Bessie Marchand (1862 – 1941), is a novel about a young Uruguayan girl around the early 1900s. It turns out Bessie was
a teacher in England who wrote adventure stories set in locations around the world, although she herself never travelled outside Great Britain. The third title is Forgotten Conquests (2001) by Gustavio Verdesio, an academic at Michigan University. His book analyses texts written during the colonial encounter with the nomadic tribes on the River Plate’s northern shore in the 16th and 17th centuries. I don’t know what his connection is to Uruguayan, but his treatise is a masterpiece.
Forever hopeful, I went with a friend to the largest fund raising book fair in Canberra, checking out all the Latin American titles on display. After fruitless searching, my friend noticed a copy of Paul Theroux’s Old Patagonian Express: By train through the Americas (1979). First thing I wanted to know: was there any mention of Uruguay? The answer was as I had expected. Imagine travelling from Boston to Patagonia. You get to Buenos Aires, spend a few days, but don’t go to Uruguay. Oh well, his loss! Now, it just so happens that Guapo’s grandfather emigrated from England to Uruguay in the late 1800s to help build the national railway grid, so from that point of view Theroux’s marathon rail journey could make for interesting reading. I decided to fork out the dollars.
Bye for now
Guapita
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