Buenos Aires - Argentina

Colon Theatre
Colon is among the 5 best theatres in the world, recognized by people like Pavarotti and the Wagner family. People like Strauss and Herbert von Karajan presented themselves there.

Malvinas will always belong to Argentina...
The issue concerning Falkland/Malvinas (independent of ideologies) is legit (independent of races, social classes or ideologies: The Islanders (or Kelpers) once were another people, mostly Gaúchos, who were expelled from the place in 1833. The area is situated at the continental platform of Patagonia and the name “Malvinas” has a French origin – “Îles Malouines”. This name reflects the support the French gave to the Spaniards, when they sold the island and decided to remove themselves from the contest. The French Crown recognized the Spanish sovereignty. The French navigator Louis Antoine de Boungainville, who had occupied the region, gave it to Spain in exchange for a certain value. Long before all this, Americo Vespucci, in the early 16th century, passed through the archipelago. The Spaniards were there from the mid-18th century until the early 19th century. After Argentinian independence, the Spaniards gave the island to Argentines. During the first years of the Argentine independence, the new government ignored Falklands/Malvinas, and only occupied them in 1821. At the same time, the beaches of the archipelago began to be visited frequently by fur hunters from the U.S. and England, which caused conflict with local government. Then the British arrived again, but this time to stay. The Clio frigate anchored at Puerto Soledad and, pointing their guns, demanded the governor José Maria Vernet, to depart with the population. The English put there a small population (today around 3,000 people) to sound like it is an English territory while they expelled people who lived there. Some Gauchos stayed there and resisted, being arrested by British Empire and prosecuted in London. Around Malvinas, Argentina also disputes the sovereign of some places in Antarctica that, today, are administered by United Kingdom: South Sandwich, Aurora and South Georgia – which means Argentina reclaims almost 1 million of Km2 in Antarctica, in which constitutes “Argentinian Antarctica” (even though those continental reclaims over Antarctica are suspended in virtue of the Antarctica Treaty of 1959). The staunch Argentine-Italian, anti-communist, Leopoldo Galtieri, in a government strongly supported by the USA, received the endorsement, in the Falklands War, of the USSR, Cuba and Moammar Gadhafi (admired by so many for their unconformity), while England received at the time the support of Israel – there was Argentine military who accepted this support, but refused to travel to Cuba at the time. As USA sponsored the military dictatorship in South America, they thought they would find support to fight with UK. But the United States never accepted an offensive against UK, its main ally, since always, together with Israel (people who destroyed Dresden and Hiroshima, for example…. What they would do with mere “mixed people”, “Gauchos”, from “Falklands”)... I try to imagine the reaction of English to those “exotic” resistant Gauchos in Falklands who were prosecuted in London. Except for Chile, which supported UK and USA, I think everyone here sympathized with Argentina (even Brazilians, which historically has a known rivalry with Argentines...). Today I see this imperialism in a way with leaders like Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales (which I hate and don’t represent myself in nothing!), but in historical terms there’s no way to compare Northern Europe and South American “imperialisms”. The difference between both is the global colonialist vision of the British Empire, while Argentina had regional adventures of colonialist interference, for example, supporting advisors with military coups in Bolivia and sending experts to help the “Contras” in Honduras to increase its sphere of influence. The British imperialism was almost everywhere and influenced the fate of South America in crucial points (especially Brazil, the creation of Uruguay and Argentina –invaded Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807 and their flags remain inside a church……………. I can talk about this because my maternal great-great-great-great-grandfather was an Englishman, who, like many Brits, decided to live in Brazil and fight in battles in South America as mercenaries, as part of their loss of influence in the British Navy during the beginning of the 19th century - a long story. I know several stories about him and I know that if he was here right now he would defend all these British triumphs, especially the hegemony achieved in South America (Portuguese monarchy and its heir, the Empire of Brazil, were totally subservient to the British Crown… The external debt in Brazil started by English influence – and not American as people imagine… English started putting Portugal in serious problems, since an earthquake long ago in Lisbon). I respect his personal life story, but, unlike my great-great-great-great-grandfather, I am not English, I live in this part of the world and for this reason I can notice certain peculiarities... I’m interested in the history of my family, they transmitted to me worldviews and influences, but I’m also not silly… the monarchies of Portugal and Spain were the largest affected at their colonial capitalist participation, since the beginning, by England, much more than their settlements. The English ended invading Buenos Aires because of the support Spain gave to Napoleon Bonaparte. So Great Britain started plans to obtain more influence on the Spanish settlements. In 1806, the English went to the Plata River taking first Montevideo and later going to Buenos Aires. John Whitelocke, a general of the British Crown, commanded a frustrated attempt to take Buenos Aires, trying to transform the whole Plata Region in a typical British settlement. The result is Spanish and Argentinians took part in a true rebellion, as they English came back again in 1807 with 11,000 soldiers, walking on the streets of Buenos Aires, confident of their supremacy. But the people from Buenos Aires resisted, even throwing boiling water at the heads of the English, avoiding with this the conquer of the city. As Brazil, Australia, Canada and USA and Argentina received settlers and immigrants in massive waves. So, the argument “Ah, but Falklands, Spaniards massacred Indians as well, so can’t accuse the English of massacring original population of Malvinas”………. First of all, Portuguese and Spaniards persecuted Indians, the same way English persecuted Native Americans in USA and Aboriginal in Australia. Around this, people forget that the Indians in Brazil and some in USA united themselves to Portuguese or English as a form to combat their enemy tribes (people also forget that several Indian leaders subordinated to the Kingdom of Spain encouraged their daughters to marry to Spaniard captains)…. So, no, some “noble” arguments don’t convince me, even because, I wonder why the replacement of settler population for a native population is accepted to some societies and not to others – this is evident in the global collective imaginary – and why taking natural resources of others, such as oil, is accepted by some societies and not others……. Well, here it is my opinion and observations.

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Buenos Aires
7 days is never enough but I'll bet they will let you come back. After reading your blog we're ready to book our flight. Just wish it was time for us to travel. It would be fantastic to see a performance in the Opera House. Thanks for another great blog.