Buenos Aires bits and pieces

Coming to the end of our stay in Buenos Aires—continuing to enjoy fabulous weather, several outings with friends, an encounter with a long-lost teaching colleague, and of course, our obligatory visit to Belgrano R.—neighborhood of Andres’ youth, as well as a beloved walk down proverbial memory lane every time we come to B.A.  We stop by the front of his house,  his various schools, and the homes of relatives, most of whom lived close by.  He regales us with childhood memories of sidewalk sticker games, after-school fights, riding along with the milk-man, who even in the 50’s made his rounds on a horse-drawn wagon.  We seem to never tire of this slice of personal history, and interestingly learn new titbits every visit.


Andres' old house

We rounded out our week with a visit to the Eva Peron museum, which elucidates her tremendous popularity and the continued quasi-saint status she continues to enjoy with some segments of the locals.  This is propagated at Evita’s tomb in the Recoleta cemetery, resting place of the rich and often famous.   Another photo stop…..


Our other stop is the small house—now a somewhat confusing museum—where tango crooning legend Carlos Gardel lived with his mother until his early and tragic death in an airplane accident. 

                                                                      Carlos Gardel

A final stop took us to the impressive and clearly very undervisited Parque de la Memoria (Park dedicated to the memory of the disappeared), which lies within the confines of the university of Buenos Aires.  Consisting of an array of long stone walls in a zig-zag formation, with the thousands of names of the disappeared etched into small granite pieces, all organized according to the year of disappearance.  The remainder of the grounds has a selection of sculptures all related in some form to this particular stain on Argentina’s past.
….pensar es un hecho revolucionario…. meaning, thinking is a revolutionary act.