Women expats and helpers who live in Buenos Aires have voluntarily given their time to put together ‘Hola, Buenos Aires!’ e-book for those wishing to relocate to Argentina’s capital city. The ladies are from all over the world and, after experiencing the city first-hand, decided to take an old, spiral-bound city guide that they had found in the University Women’s Club of Buenos Aires, update it and turn it into a modern manual for managing the metropolis.

The first edition of the book was published in 1989 with six or seven contributing women. It was then updated, with the last print edition publishing in 2003. The new e-book is a result of the efforts of 23 contributing ladies, including some who no longer live in Buenos Aires, but helped out with editing and proof-reading.

All proceeds from the US$14.99 cover price of the e-book will go to the Association of Sponsors of Rural Students and Schools (APAER), an Argentine NGO that promotes education in disadvantaged rural schools.

The book covers topics ranging from food, traffic, the ‘how-to’ of everyday life (like paying bills, when stores are open), to coping with culture-shock. The Argentina Independent had the chance to sit down with one of the project’s leaders, Michal Leon, who has been living in BA since October 2009. She is an entrepreneur as well as wife of the South African ambassador to Argentina. Although their time in Buenos Aires was up at the end of September, Michal felt it would be helpful to update the book for those choosing to move to Buenos Aires, helping them to have an easy and accessible guide to help them in the integration process. In a way, the digital version of ‘Hola, Buenos Aires!’ is her legacy in Buenos Aires.

“When you move to a country with someone from that culture, the shock is much softer, but for those who do not have that, this book will help them,” Michal explained.

When it comes to the basics, the book also helps out on letting sojourners know things to expect that you are not expecting, like food. The simpler things, like peanut butter, tomato juice, tomato and bean sauce, just do not exist. Hot sauce is also hard to come by, although some foreigners have taken on the challenge themselves.

There is a section on where to find a screwdriver or how to get your laundry done if you do not have a washing machine, as well as sections that have information for those who are bringing pets, or even legal matters that expand beyond the embassy. There is a chapter for those who are choosing to leave Argentina and how to prepare for that, too.

“The book is meant to prepare people who choose to live in Argentina for a month up to forever,” Michal added.

The book was released online on Monday and costs US$14.99. All proceeds go to APAER. To download the book, visit: www.uwcba.com.ar.

The Argentina Independent would like to invite talented writers to submit short stories, excerpts and poems in English, for the second edition of our short story competition. The contest is open to all writers who want to share their unique voice with Argentina’s English speaking community. Deadline for submissions is Friday 5th October.

We will announce the five finalists on 10th October, and readers will be invited vote to decide the winner, who will have their piece published on our homepage. All five finalists will have the chance to read their pieces at the BA Books Lover’s Night on Friday 26th October (details to follow shortly).

Contest Guidelines

1. All entries must be less than 1000 words. There is no minimum word count.

2. All entries must be submitted by Friday 5th October at midnight.

3. Please submit a Word or Text document, size 12 pt. font. Include your name, a title, and word count. Please proofread thoroughly.

4. Participation is limited to one submission per person.

5. The writing entered and all rights to it must be your own. In submitting your entry, you agree to The Argentina Independent’s non-exclusive use of your writing on our website, newsletter, and associated printed press. You maintain full copyright for your entry and, where used by The Argentina Independent, the writing will be will be credited to you as the author, with a link to your website or blog where applicable.

6. The winning entry will be published in our November edition and online.

SEND ALL SUBMISSIONS TO: [email protected]

Please title your email Writing Contest: [Your Name].

Lead image by Jeffrey James Pacres

Lujan's Cathedral spires tower over Plaza Belgrano. (Photo: Diego Espinosa)

The pamphlets you’ll find at the tourist booth in the central plaza of Luján feature photos of the famous “Our Lady of Luján” national basilica, emphasise religious tourism, and invite you to explore your spirituality and to find inner peace in the quiet provincial city.

The two towers of the neo-gothic church measure some 106 metres in height, a pretty clear landmark in the flat and expansive plains. Everything in the main plaza seems small beneath them. When we hear about Luján or see it on television in Buenos Aires, it’s usually in October, when multitudes embark on foot for the 60-km pilgrimage to this very church.

However, while it is a religious capital of the country, Luján is certainly home to other destinations. And whether you want to witness the pilgrimages that fill the central plaza this time of year, muse over the religious and cultural elements of the Argentine national identity, or just leave for a quiet weekend or day trip, Luján is just a few dozen kilometres and an inexpensive bus-fare away.

First stop on most visitors’ lists is Plaza Belgrano, which stretches out in front of the Basilica. As you walk closer to the looming church, you’ll find a whole assortment of Virgen de Luján and Basilica-related products: miniature statues, candles, key rings.

History of an Icon, and a Country

So, what is this giant basilica doing here? And what about this Virgin of Luján, the protagonist of the church and the pilgrimage associated with it? These are the questions you might ask yourself as you step off the bus in Luján. Luckily, the Historical and Colonial Museum (part of the Complejo Museográfico ‘Enrique Udaondo’) is a superb – as well as beautiful – place to answer some of these questions, although the information and guided visits are only available in Spanish.

The history of the virgin of Luján goes back to a story that allegedly takes place in the year 1630. Before it was formally established as a town, the land that now makes up Luján was situated along the colonial camino real, where goods were traded and sold along the Spanish imperial route that connected the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata with the Viceroyalty of Peru. According to legend, a Portuguese landowner in what is today the province of Santiago del Estero asked that his friend bring him two religious statues of the Virgin Mary along the commercial route. When passing along the banks of the Río Luján, the horses carrying the caravan of items that included the statues refused to move forward – the only way to get them to continue was to remove one of the icons and leave it there, in present-day Luján.

The Virgin of Lujan (Photo: Diego Espinosa)

This is the so-called “Miracle of the Virgin of Luján”, which gave rise to a private sanctuary in the home of a wealthy landowner in the area, later a temple to the Virgin, and later still to the neo-gothic church we know so well today.

It wasn’t really until the late 19th and early 20th century that this religious icon, and the sleepy town of Luján, became protagonists of national and religious narratives in Argentina. At the time, the country’s elite, along with eradicating “savage” (i.e. indigenous) cultures, was determined to establish a distinct national identity in the face of huge waves of European immigration. This identity would be specifically Hispanic and Christian, with the romantic and literary imagery of lone gauchos and endless pampas sprinkled on top.

In 1887, construction began on the Basilica, which was completed in 1935. Huge pilgrimages organised by ecclesiastic and political leaders celebrated the crowning of the Virgin, in 1887, and the naming of the Virgin as patron of Buenos Aires Province, in 1900. The image of the Virgin also began to appear in pubic buildings throughout the nation’s capital city.

This period also saw the rise of the nation’s first and most important museums, which also worked to solidify national narratives and identities.

In 1917, Luján was granted national funds in order to renovate the abandoned colonial-era town hall building, and convert it into a museum. The museum was to be specifically colonial in theme, and was meant to pay homage to the Catholic and Hispanic roots of Argentine (and particularly provincial Bonaerense) heritage.

At the Colonial and Historic Museum, you can learn much more about the founding of the museum as well as the building and the city’s role in other historical processes.

It’s obviously a must to enter the basilica, which is always quite full of followers of the virgin and the church, and where you can observe the structure’s interior sanctuaries and pieces of religious art.

Walk behind the museum and just a few blocks away from the plaza, down a dusty path, you’ll find yourself at the Parque Ameghino, in front of Río Luján, which is dotted with picnic tables. Along the river are a few restaurants, as well as a boat excursions, which make up a relaxing, water-side environment. The whole area has a family feel, with pony rides and other activities for kids and parents grilling meat or serving mate in the picnic area of the park.

Estancias, Tigers, and Other Attractions in (and around) Luján

At Lujan zoo you can get up close and personal with the big cats. (Photo: Beatrice Murch)

While you’re still in the central area of the town, there are a number of other museums that you can visit. The Museum of Transport, attached to the Colonial and Historical Museum, has a range of antique carriages and transportation equipment. The Fine Arts Museum, located on the other side of Plaza Belgrano, and the Cupula building (which is by the river in Parque Ameghino), feature exhibits from local and national artists. There are also two main theatres in the city, the Municipal Theatre and the Galpón.

If you have the time to reach the outskirts of the city, there’s a whole world of estancias and rural tourism, and you can also reach the well-known Luján Zoo. Entrance to the zoo is a little pricey ($130 for foreigners, $90 for residents), but you are allowed to get exceedingly – and frighteningly – close to a number of wild animals.

Although much of the cultural and touristic scene seems to revolve around the emblematic Basilica, there’s certainly more to do in Luján than entering the famous structure. As well as opportunities to learn all about Argentine history and identity, there are a number of other places and situations that might help you find the inner peace you need after time spent in Buenos Aires – perhaps strolling through the quiet town streets, sitting on the benches of the gorgeous indoor patio of the Colonial museum, or joining the families and Lujanenses for a mid-afternoon mate by the river.

The 57 bus departs to Luján from both Plaza Italia and Once, and the $10.50 ride’s final stop leaves you conveniently next Plaza Belgrano.

Tens of thousands of people have joined anti-government marches around the country, with Argentines marching for “security, liberty, and justice”. The protests, known as cacerolazos, due to the tradition of banging pots and pans, began at 8pm in a number of cities.

The biggest demonstration took place in Buenos Aires, where marches started from different points around the capital, arriving at Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada where numbers are said to have topped 200,000, according to unofficial figures.

Banners could be seen which included demands against “insecurity” and the possibility of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner standing for re-election. There were also petitions for greater transparency in official statistics on things such as inflation, and the lifting of restrictions on access to dollars.

Protests also took place in the cities of Córdoba, Rosario, Mar del Plata, Bariloche, and Mendoza, among others.

The effort to mobilise Argentines into marching on 13th September began a number of weeks ago on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Brazilian police are investigating the deaths of six adolescents whose bodies were found in Parque de Mesquita, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

It is believed the bodies are those of some youths who have been missing since Saturday.

Investigators believe the victims had no relation to organised crime and were killed by drug traffickers in the nearly district of Chatuba as a show of strength.

The bodies were found without clothes, and showed signs of torture and bullet wounds. Some were tied up. They were found on a route that is being widened as part of the preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games.

It is the second mass-killing in two days. Yesterday, four people were found dead in a house in Japeri.

Three died and 30 were arrested after 600 peasant families clashed with police and security forces in Bajo Aguán, Honduras, this weekend. The families had moved onto the land to occupy it on Saturday in protest of a wave of violent evictions of landless peasants in the region.

On Sunday, police moved in to evict the families from a 540-hectare terrain. According to the Unified Peasant Movement of Aguán (MUCA) hundreds of officers closed the exits and threw teargas.

According to MUCA, before the police operation, the farm’s security guards shot at the peasants, and ambulances were not allowed to enter the area.

Civil society groups have blamed the country’s president, Porfirio Lobo, for the latest deaths. In 2011 the president decreed the militarisation of the region after various confrontations, something which is said to have only further aggravated the situation. The total number of deaths due to land evictions in the area now numbers over 80 in the past three years.

Last month, various civil society groups, along with the National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP), accused Lobo of human rights violations in the region. The Front has called for urgent new agrarian legislation to stop the conflicts in the Aguán.

When Gustavo Giorgi was 17, his friend played him a record that changed his life forever. It was The Smiths.

Gustavo Giorgi stands with the first edition of UltraBrit and his inspiration, Morrisey. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

“I knew the name, I had seen them in magazines, heard about them,” he recalls. “But when I started listening to The Smiths, they really changed everything. With them it was more than just the music, there were other things…”

According to Giorgi, The Smiths “opened a door” for him, to a place he would never leave. Today, a tattoo of the nickname of the band’s lead singer Morrissey (MOZ) adorns the inside of his left bicep, and his office is lined with posters and tour merchandise of the band.

One of the many porteños influenced by imported British music, Giorgi, now 42, is also the entrepreneurial force behind one of the newest publications in Buenos Aires, UltraBrit.

He released the first edition of the new magazine last month – a glossy, Spanish-language focus on British music past and present for local anglophiles.

There is certainly a lot to cover. Politics aside, British culture has maintained a strong influence on Argentina for centuries. This dates back to a wave of settlers arriving in 1806, coinciding with the British invasions of the Río de la Plata region. Initially settlers were mostly businessmen and in relatively small in numbers, but the trickle of immigrants continued, and their influence on local culture was significant. Today there are around 100,000 Anglo-Argentines who tie their roots back to the UK, while British sports such as polo and football are among the country’s most popular.

In the last 50 years, immigration has also taken place on the radio waves. Beginning with The Beatles, and establishing itself with The Rolling Stones, British music took the country by storm, drawing huge followings and inspiring local musicians and movement.

This influence was clearly evident in Argentine pop-culture and music of the era, specifically rock nacional, whose origins, while heavily shaped by North American blues and jazz, featured many translated British numbers, and were deeply affected by the arrival of the Beatles.

A Rocker at Heart

Giorgi with one of his main passions: his motorcycle. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

Giorgi is a music-loving, motorcycle-riding, entrepreneur looking to capitalise on the niche market for British music and culture here and realise his passion for music at the same time. He plans to use UltraBrit to market everything British for the local population.

“The idea is to expand it for those who know British music but speak only Spanish. There are a lot of people who don’t speak English… for them you only have Rolling Stone and Los Inrockuptibles.”

He has always been listening to music, but it wasn’t until his late teens that he realised his passion for British rock. “When I was about 16 or 17 years old, I listened to The Cure a lot. I was a kid who was always listening to music, any music.”

His father was a diehard Beatles fan, his first exposure to the British scene, but Giorgi wasn’t as taken by the “fab four”. Then it all changed with The Smiths and he fell into the scene during a landmark period for British music, picking up Joy Division, Echo and The Bunnymen, Lloyd Cole and The Commotions, Siouxsie & The Banshees, etc.

A man with a keen eye for business – he is running a successful insurance company and nurturing UltraBrit on the side – Giorgi feels he is at a point in his life now where he can pursue his passion, having identified a market that he has lived in since his teenage years.

“I live in this niche consumer group, of this British music and culture” says Giorgi. “Buenos Aires is a tremendously anglophile city. Leaving politics aside, there is a huge cultural influence, the music, the literature, everything.

“I think the niche was born with the Beatles, and then was consumed by The Stones. This is a country of The Stones. They come here, and they can fill up five River Plate stadiums. That’s a lot of people.”

Giorgi's love of the Rolling Stones and British music. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

The Rolling Stones themselves have talked about incredible energy when playing in Buenos Aires, leading them to declare Argentines as their favourite crowd.

Targeting this large group of Stones fanatics – known locally as ‘rolingas’ – a feature in the first issue of Ultrabrit is Michael Cooper, the son of the famous photographer Adam who captured arguably some of the best images of the Stones. Cooper has lived in Argentina for 18 years.

The first issue also contains articles on the new music scene in Manchester, profiles of Richard Coleman and Morrissey, and a special review of the life and times of Led Zeppelin. The magazine also reviews up and coming bands such as Yuck and Bombay Bicycle Club. In general, it’s an interesting mix, both looking back and looking forward in terms of British music and cultural influence.

With this balance, Giorgi is confident UltraBrit offers something unique: “Our magazine is about the music [and] the culture. We have reviews of albums you aren’t going to find in these [Rolling Stone and Los Inrockuptibles], you aren’t going to find this stuff in Spanish anywhere else.”

From Radio Waves to Pages

Giorgi’s ambitions reach beyond the new magazine. “The truth is, in Buenos Aires there has always been a very important space to fill in regards of needing someone to start up a multi-faceted business, a 360-degree concept, to sell books, radio programmes, internet [sites], and magazines, within the same consumer niche.”

He has already been running a radio show, also named UltraBrit, for five years now. Like the magazine, the show concerns all things British music and features bands from today and yesterday.

“I began to discover the market for British culture in Argentina when I started the radio show in 2007. It has been on for five years now, though at first it wasn’t just British rock, but also rock nacional.”

The radio show has evolved over time, beginning with just general rock and then moving to a greater focus on the British scene past and present.

“We started doing exclusively British rock about two years ago, but we play and have played a lot of North American rock as well; The Pixies, Nirvana, Sonic Youth all of this, Jane’s Addiction.”

As Giorgi puts it: “It’s the kind of stuff I like to listen to at home.”

The show plays music from the past and present, often getting in contact with the bands via email and discussing both current and historic trends. “We have contacts with one of the biggest radio programmes in Manchester. We hear a lot from them, and we bring bands that people wouldn’t normally hear in Buenos Aires.”

Speaking about the British music scene now, Giorgi feels it is going through a period of change, with North American music more dominant now than it has ever been. Giorgi’s contemporary favourites include Muse, Arctic Monkeys, and Kasabian. However, in his opinion the past decade has had something missing in terms of new bands making an impact on the scene.

Giorgio enjoys mate, while discussing his magazine. (Photo: Felipe de la Fuente)

“I think that the rock, the guitars, everything is changing to more electronic influences.” For Giorgi, nothing has topped his all-time favourites, The Smiths, The Rolling Stones, etc. Nothing has really made him stop like those bands did when he first heard them.

That said, he has seen glimpses of the ‘onda’ in recent groups. “I think that there are some though, Bombay Bicycle Club’s ‘A Different Kind of Fix’ [the third studio album from the British band] was very interesting.”

In his words, “they will get big”.

Issue 2 and the Future

In many ways, the radio show is very similar to the new magazine, developing organically and engaging in the music in depth. It is easy to see the origins of the magazine within the show, a new vehicle for the concept Giorgi is pushing.

In October, Giorgi will travel to London for a creative meeting with the British contingent of UltraBrit. The magazine currently has 15 people working on it, 13 here in Buenos Aires and the other two in London and Liverpool. He aims to get more involved and develop a strategy for expansion.

Giorgi sees this niche as existing across Latin America, a void that he plans to fill in a music-hungry continent. He says the plan now is to expand across the region, first targeting Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. By the time the November issue is released, he aims to have it available in three or four of the countries mentioned and to grow from that in the following issues.

As for where the project may eventually take him, Giorgi draws on the spirit of the British bands that inspired him to get it started in the first place: “This is totally independent, we can do whatever we want.”

Find out more about UltraBrit online at www.ultrabrit.com and look out for September’s issue, featuring a new album by Muse and an exclusive interview with Natalie Curtis, the daughter of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. UltraBrit show is every Thursday from 7-9pm on KSK Radio. 

The swampy backwaters of the Tigre delta makes for an uneasy backdrop for Anita Piterbarg’s atmospheric debut feature length from the production team behind the Oscar winning ‘El Secreto de sus Ojos’.

It’s Viggo Mortensen’s first foray into Spanish speaking, on celuloid at least. It’s well documented that the actor spent part of his childhood here, firstly in Córdoba and Chaco, then later in Buenos Aires, and has maintained an affinity with the country, as an ardent supporter of the San Lorenzo football team and aficionado of Argentine culture. According to the actor he felt at home on set, having regularly taken the Tigre-bound train for fishing trips as a child.

The film offers an opportunity for Mortensen to flex both his adoptive porteño muscles (his Spanish is flawless) and acting dexterity, playing the characters of two starkly contrasting Argentine brothers, in both lifestyle choice and temperament.

It centres on Agustín, a successful doctor with his own practice, married to the beautiful Claudia (Soledad Villamil) and on the verge of adopting a newborn baby together. Yet happiness eludes him. His unease at the boisterous playing of a group of toddlers in his waiting room and his preference for sharing time with cans of Schneider beers and the four walls of the spare room over his thoughts with his wife suggests trouble in domestic paradise and a reticence to accept the stifling hand he feels he’s been dealt.

A chance visit from his terminally ill out of town twin brother Pedro offers him a one-time get out of jail free card and the break he’s been craving for. An audacious proposition to help end his life and to take over his identity for a sum of money. While Pedro takes a bath in the flat, a bloody coughing fit ensues. Agustin’s snap decision leaves him with blood on his hands and a corpse in his bathtub. With his wife out of town, he is able to makes a seamless transition and heads for the island, stepping into Pedro’s river sodden espadrilles, and turning his back on his life as Agustín.

As the protagonist clumsily muddles his way through making acquaintances with the various characters relevant to the life he’s adopted, Piterbarg plays with the subtle differences between the two brothers’ demeanours, emphasising the austere and hostile winter backdrop of the Tigre to mirror the locals’ distrust and animosity in their reactions towards Agustín in what they interpret as a curious change in Pedro’s behaviour.

The opening scene, shows Pedro’s honey beehives, and metaphors involving the colony and order are present throughout. Pedro appears to have developed a close friendship with a local girl, who helps him introduce a new queen to the colony, deftly squashing the defective one between her gloved fingers. “If a colony is not working well, the queen must be replaced.”

We get a sense of Agustín adopting a similarly callous approach, flippantly replacing his barren wife in the city for the local girl Rosa, referred to as ‘la pichoncita’ (baby bird), with whom he consummates the relationship his brother had failed to.

Seemingly everyone has a plan and a role to perform, worker bee fashion, yet it becomes increasingly clear that Agustín isn’t at all clear of his own. His unease at the uncertainty of his predicament is palpable and his unsustainable efforts to pass as his brother leave him exposed and trapped by the messy circumstances of the underworld his brother inhabited and he then inherits.

The film clearly boasts an impressive budget, with a multinational production team, headed by 20th Century Fox and with support from Spain and France. With polished performances from Daniel Fanego and Javier Godino in supporting roles, and Moria Casan’s daughter, Sofia Gala, cast as Rosa, the first half shows all the promise of a film capable of following in the cinematic footsteps of ‘El Secreto de sus Ojos’. Yet it’s the length that lets it down. At three minutes shy of two hours, the plot loses momentum and intensity after the hour and a quarter mark, and the underwhelming and somewhat disappointing ending points to a lack of risk-taking by playing it safe.

Despite being a predominantly Argentine project both in terms of direction and collaboration, ultimately it fails to transmit the essence of the country’s cultural identity in any great depth, at times too polished and obvious in places, and less about personal interpretation.

Perhaps the global success and Academy Award of ‘El Secreto…’ and the newfound status of contemporary Argentine cinema both on home turf and internationally, has come at the cost of no longer solely appealing to a local audience. The model of an Argentine film geared for export is one that’s here to stay, and I’m prepared to bet my devalued pesos on it.

The Red Cross has confirmed that the 6.7 magnitude earthquake which struck Costa Rica today has left no victims but has caused structural damage.

The eipcentre of the quake was just 3km off the country’s Pacific coast in the province of Guanacaste, a popular tourism destination.

“The movement has caused chaos in the capital, but there are no victims to report. In Guanacaste, there is infrastructure damage and we are undertaking inspections and working to check safety,” Melvin Calderón, the chief of the Costa Rican fire service, told TeleSUR.

Neighbouring Nicaragua was put on tsunami alert as a precautionary measure. The quake was the result of a fault line that is 100km long and 60km wide that is local to the coastal region.

Grace Protopapas caught up with Los Murciélagos, Argentina’s blind football team, before they headed off to London to compete in the 2012 Paralympics.

Camera and editing by Hans Fresen
Lead image by Luján Agusti