Abasto

Today we had a class outing to Abasto - the place where tango was born. I think the place where tango was born is kind of like the places that George Washington slept. I've heard several stories about the origins of tango, and also where it all started. Well, today's version was that it started in Abasto.

Abasto is a part of Buenos Aires to the west of center. There is a big shopping center there that is what used to be a huge indoor market. The market drew lots of immigrants to the area and supposedly this is how tango was born. Well, now that I think about it, I guess I didn't understand the connection.

Our guide, Nora, told us that when the market closed down, the building fell into disrepair, and so did the neighborhood. Lots of poor people from other countries, such as Bolivia, Peru, etc., as well as other parts of Argentina, moved in, and there went the neighborhood. It became a seedy, dangerous place to be. But, when the Abasto shopping center was opened, the neighborhood saw a revival, and according to Nora, is now an expensive place to live.

As we toured the neighborhood, I saw a police officer talking to a man who had his pant leg rolled up and had a big scar. While Nora was explaining the history of lunfardo, the special form of "Spanish" they speak in Buenos Aires that has influences from Italian, Portugues, English and the mob underworld and is featured heavily in tango lyrics, an old drunk stumbled up and interrupted and gave us his own version of whatever it was he thought we were talking about. And on another street we saw a down-and-out looking guy snorting something out of a little plastic bag while sitting on someone's steps. So, as far as Abasto being a desirable place to live, I think it needs more time.

We saw some houses painted with a special type of artwork that was popular in Buenos Aires in the early part of the 20th century. Buses used to be painted with this style of art, called fileto, but I heard the military dictatorship outlawed it - explain that one. It is a very ornate style of painting with lots of flowers and curvy lines.

We then went to the house where Carlos Gardel, the most famous tango singer in Argentina, grew up with his mother. Gardel moved to Buenos Aires with his mother from France when he was four years old. He made some records, starred in a few movies, and then died in a plane crash when he was young. He has since attained mythic status, and along with Borges, Maradona, and Evita, he is among the most commonly seen images in Buenos Aires - well, I think he is more famous than Borges and Maradona even - Borges is not a particularly attractive image to promote products, but I saw that American Airlines has an image of Gardel, looking dapper in his hat and slicked back hair, on the window of their office on Santa Fe.

Nora told us several things about Gardel - because he died young and has become somewhat mythologized, it is said that his singing gets better every day. Claudia said that there was some speculation that he might have been gay, but Monica, one of the other guides, said that was not true. Well, who knows - Abraham Lincoln could have been gay.

The house was a style of house that is called 'chorizo' after the sausage. It is long and narrow and you can walk from one room to the next, but each room has a door that can be closed, and they all have doors that open out to the patio. It would be a nice house to live in. But really, the house was not that interesting.

When we finished, I stayed behind and went back to the shopping center because I thought it would be worth seeing. I headed straight to the food court and had some chow mein which was pretty good and then a Freddo to get the taste of chow mein out of my mouth. I tried doing my homework for Martin for tomorrow, but it was too noisy and I couldn't concentrate. We have to read this article about medicine and respond to it. Ugh!

It was a fun class today with Claudia. I tried making a joke which was really stupid, but Claudia said, "look at how you make these interesting observations that are very innocent like a child" or something like that. I told her it was because I am reading Mafalda, but really it's because I think it's fun to make jokes in another language.

I think I'm in for the evening. I'm going to give my homework another crack and then settle in to watch Latin American Idol. I am completely lost as to what is happening, so I hope tonight will clarify who the finalists are and where they stand.

Argentina is playing Mexico in the America Cup semifinals. Claudia said tonight will be an evening without men.