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Published: October 18th 2006
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First thing’s first - For all those in the Seattle area:
The photos taken by the orphans of Esperanza Viva Youth Home (Puebla, Mexico), who I taught in January with Aver School, are being displayed right now at the Green Bean coffeehouse in Greenwood! They will be up for the month of October and mark your calendar for October 28 at 7:00 because there will be a showing of the short films made by the kids, a thank you video, and some refreshments to enjoy while you watch! Go in any time to see the photos, hang out at this awesome coffee shop, and grab a cup of fair-trade coffee!
Here’s the info:
The Green Bean
210 N. 85th St., Seattle, WA
Saturday, October 28, 7:00pm to 9:00pm This weekend was full of holidays in Argentina. Yesterday was Día de la Raza which is Latin America’s version of “Thanksgiving.” The catch is that they aren’t “thanking” the colonizers; rather they are memorializing the millions of indigenous people who were killed during the colonization... Due to the sadder tone of the holiday, no one really celebrates the day with any sort of festivities, but some people march in the streets,
No smoking
An advertisement by the Government of Buenos Aires declaring the new no-smoking law. The government has a lot of advertising in general (radio, subway billboards, billboards on the sidewalks) which is interesting. A lot of them are from a series called Actitud (attitude) Buenos Aires, which advises citizens on everything from being kind to each other to keeping the city clean to using contraceptives. and it is a day off of work and school for everyone. The other holiday was Mother’s Day, which happened on Monday. Even though the date is different than in the states, my family seemed to celebrate it in a similar way - small gifts for mom in the morning and then went to their aunt’s house for brunch.
I also wanted to tell you guys about some interesting news in Buenos Aires…
As most of you know, Argentina experienced a “Dirty War” in the 60s and 70s where some 30,000 people were “disappeared” by the government. The government officials were given amnesty in 1984, so they couldn’t be taken to court, but Argentine Supreme Court overturned these amnesty laws in June 2005. Now the officials are being put on trial. A witness named Jorge Julio Lopez, a 77 year old construction worker, testified against Miguel Etchecolatz, ex director of investigations for the Buenos Aires Police, stating that he was present while Julio was tortured and witnessed him give orders to execute others who were captured. Julio Lopez disappeared on Sunday, September 18. The government was criticized for not giving Julio more protection, due to the fact that he
View in Jujuy
Near Coctaca. was such an important witness. About a week after his disappearance, Kirchner put out a 200,000-peso reward for information leading to his whereabouts. Then the government sent text messages to every Buenos Aires cell phone and a recording to every landline phone, asking to call a phone number with any information about his disappearance. It was crazy to get a text message from the government… There have been several protests for the Julio’s appearance, but despite all the efforts, unfortunately, after a month of searching, he has yet to be found.
The other news is that as of October 1, it is prohibited to smoke in “closed spaces” in Buenos Aires. This has been controversial because about 60% of people in Buenos Aires are smokers, and their argument is that if there are places for non-smokers, there must also be places for smokers, because they have rights too, not to mention they are the majority. Up until October 1, it was legal for restaurants to have the infamous smoking and non-smoking sections right next to each other, but bars and clubs - forget about it. Now I see new makeshift signs going up in most every restaurant and bar
River won!
These fans are celebrating the victory of River Plate against Boca soccer team. These two teams are the Buenos Aires, and you must choose one. As you can see, they take their soccer very seriously - imagine what the streets of Buenos Aires must have been like! in compliance with the new law. I guess I’m just happy not to be breathing a mouthful of smoke with my dinner when I eat out or come home after I go out at night with my clothes smelling like someone just smoked in my lap for four hours…
I went on a trip organized by my study abroad program to Jujuy (northwest Argentina) from October 4 to 9. We arrived in Salta by plane and then bussed-it to Tilcara, Jujuy. From there we took day trips each day to different close-by sites, like Pucará, the site of an indigenous village that was later taken over by the Incas in the 1500s, only to be taken over again by the Spaniards fifty years later. The same goes for Coctaca, the site of ancient agricultural lands, with rock walls built to protect the potatoes and corn crops from the wind of the desert. We also went to the Great Salt flats and a town called Humahuaca. On all the activities we were accompanied by anthropologists and sociologists from a satellite research center of the UBA, so we got to learn about everything we were seeing. Jujuy is a beautiful desert-like mountainous land with a river that runs through the canyons in the summer months. The mountainsides were made up of amazing red, yellow and nearly purple-colored rock like nothing I had ever seen before. The trip was great, the only drawback was traveling with 60 something other American kids of my program - a lot of waiting in lines for food and bathrooms not to mention feeling like the third invasion of these quiet little towns…but logistically I guess there is no other way to split a group of 115 students. This coming weekend is the other program trip - my group will leave by bus (20 hours!) on Wednesday for Mina Clavero, which a small town outside Cordoba, while the other half of the program goes to Jujuy (they went to Mina Clavero last time).
Well aside from that, my new interest lately has been going to peñas - which are bars-restaurants that have live traditional folk music and sometimes dancing. My new friend Dyego knows a lot of peñas so he has been taking me to see some good music and is trying to teach me how to dance the chacarera (lots of finger-snapping and stepping around). The other thing that is cool is that there are a lot of musicians, writers and poets that hang around these places so they are fun places to chat with interesting people into the early morning while listening to them play beautiful music together. And the other cool thing is that although peñas are popular with people my age and a little older, there are people of all ages - everyone from 60-something year old poets to little toddlers that stay awake till 3 in the morning…
Well, check out the Green Bean this month if you’re in Seattle… I hope everyone is happy and healthy these days. And let me know what life is like in your world…
Un besito,
Maggie
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Mary, Keg, Brooks and Sadie
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Maggie - we are so proud of you! Thank you for sharing your blogs with us. We are thinking of you and know that one person can change the world!