Iguazu!

Hey again guys!

I am back again after anothter busy week. I had my history test today and I think I did pretty well on it. It was mostly about Juan Peron, the President who started the infamous Peron movement. Some of you may know his wife...Eva Peron or Evita. They have a very interesting history, and I will definitely explain it to you if you ask me about it when I get back to the states.

Speaking of coming back, I have 2 more weeks...Time is moving so quickly. I think I am ready to come home though. It is getting to be that time around the holidays and I just want to spend time with family like everyone else is. I feel like I have seen so much here in Argentina, but it is time I think.

Regardless, I still have time for one more adventure. So spontaneously my friend and I decided last night that we had to travel one more time. So this time we are going to Iguazu Falls for the weekend. If you didn't know, Iguazu is one of the largest waterfalls in the world. I hear that when Iguazu is compared to Niagra Falls, the poor Canadian falls are nothing close. Also the falls are all around the area, it is not just one single fall of water.

Also the falls are at the northern part of Argentina very close to the border between Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. The falls are a little far on the bus that I am taking....around 18 hours. Yeah, so I will be enjoying myself by revising my paper on the bus. However, as I said about the buses to Mendoza, this bus will be nice. The seats actually turn into layout beds so I defintely will be comfortable.

I will be staying in a town, Puerto Iguazu, on the Argentina side of the falls for a day after I arrive tomorrow at noon. Then after that I will go back home Sunday night and get back to Buenos Aires on Monday.

So that is the plan guys. I'm sorry that I am keeping it so brief, I have to go pack tho!

Talk to you soon. I will definitely be taking a ton of pictures for you to see.

-Ray

Busily Working... with 3 weeks left?

Another day, another blog post….I am back again to give you an update!

I have been doing well so far since my return from Brazil. I won’t deny that I miss that country a lot. The difference in people was quite apparent the second I stepped off the plane. Of course not all Argentines are like the stereotypical cold city dwellers that I write them to be. However, they definitely aren’t the fun loving and warm Brazilians that I met during my trip.

What I want to acknowledge here though is not a stereotypical image of Argentina, but instead a noticeable difference in the everyday interactions with people from Brazil and Argentina. Granted, it is far more complex then that-I do want to say thought that Buenos Aires for me is like any big city where the pace of life is so quick and rapid, that people don’t have time to focus on others when they are trying to get somewhere. In Rio, regardless if it was a big city, the people still maintained a friendly attitude. Despite all of this, I will be back to Brazil at some point.

Anyways enough of my obsession with Brazil, let’s talk about my investigation about blacks here in Argentina. So far it has been going great. As I have told you, I have been looking at the marginalization and the issues they face in the Buenos Aires area. Previously, I said that many of the reasons why blacks face issues here is because many people do not believe they exist here. If they are black and they live here then to an Argentine they are certainly foreigners. If there are any blacks here, an Argentine may say “there are very little here-nearly all of them died in the wars or the yellow fever epidemic.” What many Argentines do not know about is the immigration from Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) or about the possible black heritage that some Argentines carry.

Very quickly I will mention Cabo Verde. Cabo Verde is a ring of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Africa across Senegal. Cabo Verde was once a colony of Portugal, and because of that Cabo Verdeans speak Portuguese. What occurred on Cabo Verde was that many blacks on the islands ended up mixing with many of the Portuguese. Because of this, many Cabo Verdeans look mixed but a bit more European.

Last week I went to Dock Sud in search of a community of people from Cabo Verde. My Spanish teacher had told me about a possible Cabo Verdean community in this area but she wasn’t sure. This neighborhood is located on the outskirts of the city and is considered by some portenos (residents of Buenos Aires) to be a “barrio feo” or an ugly neighborhood. They consider it this because the people there are poorer and the streets and buildings are run down. However, my perception of the area didn’t seem that bad because the people were very friendly. I ended up in the neighborhood by bus and was asking around about it. Initially I was nervous, but I kept asking store owners about the Cabo Verdeans. Finally at one point a store owner gave me the address to a Cabo Verdean community center within 10 minutes from the store.

When I got there I looked a little lost. I was greeted by a man of Cabo Verdean descent who was born in Buenos Aires. The color of his skin was nearly the same as man. He told me to have lunch there in the center with him so we could chat. I quickly explained to him my investigation and what I was looking for. He ended up telling me that his grandmother moved from Cabo Verde to Dock Sud in 1930, and that the community center I was at was established in 1933 as a center of support. Following our discussion about his family, I asked if he had ever experienced racism. He replied to me that he personally never had an experience, yet he knew of some people who have. In addition, he pointed out that blacks face discrimination in the work place and that blacks were some of the most impoverished in Argentina. After this he suggested I come back to the community center so I could speak to more Cabo Verdeans.

After my first visit I went back on Saturday and met 4 older Cabo Verdeans. All of them were in their seventies and were once sailors who traveled around the world by sea. They all had all immigrated from Cabo Verde to Argentina during the 40’s and 50’s for a better work opportunity. This makes a lot of sense because that time was during the most prosperous years for Argentina. At that time Argentina was under the presidency of Juan Peron.

It was a little difficult to understand some of the men because their Spanish had a hint of Portuguese lingering. One also told me that in addition to Portuguese, there was a dialect that was spoken on the island. When they spoke in the dialect briefly it sounded like a mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian-it was very distinct.

When I asked them about discrimination one of them told me that racism and discrimination here is “baja la carpeta” or underneath the carpet. It is a quiet racism they said because no one openly admits it.

One man pointed out a man in the doorway to me who looked like a typical white Argentine. He told me that the man told the Cabo Verdean that he had a black grandfather who married a white woman. However, the family did not acknowledge those black roots because there is a certain amount of shame to have African descent. To many Argentines, it is taboo to talk about those pasts. In a study done, it is said that around 5 percent or 2 million people in Argentina have black descent. Pretty interesting to find such things out considering the country supposedly does not have blacks right?

Furthermore, all these things I learned will definitely be included in my final paper. Also tonight I am going to a discussion at the legislature of the city about the human rights and the political affirmation of blacks here in Argentina. I already know that I am going to find some insightful info.

Once I’m done with all my work though, I will have a 20-25 page paper written and I have to present all my findings December 7th. Right now I have 10 pages, and my due date is next Tuesday for my second draft. Wish me luck guys!

As for Thanksgiving, all the kids in my program will be having Thanksgiving at my director’s house. It will not be the same, but I will have to make the most of it. I am already mad because there will be none of grandma’s rice and beans. I have come to terms with that though haha

Anyways, I have 3 more weeks though until it is back to the states…I have already been dreaming of home and school again. I guess that means it's almost time right? Well, not too long guys.

See you soon!

Back from Brazil-Muito Bem!

Oi!

So I got back from Brazil Wednesday night. As I have told some of you, I absolutely loved Brazil and I want to go back as soon as possible. There is so much to say, so this is probably going to be a long post.

To start off I would like to say that I had a feeling that I would like Brazil. If it was one thing I missed about the people, then it was their kindness and helpfulness with everything. No where in my life have I encountered such a thing. They also have a great sense of humor. Anytime when I was unable to communicate with Brazilians in Portuguese, we usually joked about it and used hand motions to try and get across our point. Usually what followed after our hand-signaled conversation was laughter and smiles.

When I got to Brazil I landed in Sao Paolo, the largest city in Brazil and also the financial capital. It is also the largest city in South America with 10 million, which is larger than NYC. NYC has about 8 million people. Regardless I did not stay long in that big city because it is too hard to navigate for a foreigner.

Instead I went to Parati which is a small tourist town in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In order to get there we took a bus that took about 7 hours. This was the way we did all of our traveling from the cities we visited. Parati is a very small colonial town and is a very large spot for many tourists. It was very tranquil and calm. What most tourists do is go on boat tours and go to the small islands close by to see the beaches and the water. I ended up doing this and also a little snorkeling. Very beautiful, here is a picture of one of the small islands I saw:

After staying in Parati for a few days I went to Isla Grande (Ilha Grande-the name in Portuguese). It was a bit of a process to get to Ihla Grande though. First we took a bus from Parati to Angra (about 4 hours), then we took a boat about an hour boat ride from Angra to Ihla Grande.

Ihla Grande was just beautiful. It actually felt more like authentic Brazil and less like a tourist area. For one, cars were not allowed on the Island. Also most people could not speak English on the island. This was a notable difference from Parati which seemed touristier. The only downside of our time was the weather. It was mostly cloudy and rained the each day. Fortunately when we went on our hike through the island we saw some sun. Here is a picture of the island from the top of a high point:

When we finished our hike we toured some of the beaches. Ihla Grande had many beaches. The best was the last one that we visited. It had very blue water, but also white sand. I had never seen anything like it before. The following is a video of the beach while I sat down and just took in the beautiful site on the sand:

Following Parati we finally left for the city of Rio de Janeiro. I had been very excited for Rio because I had heard so much about the city, the beaches there, and the people, the host of the future World Cup and Olympics. However, I was very fortunate that I got to see other parts of Brazil before so I could compare the towns to the big city. Overall the Brazilian culture is very strong and many Brazilians are proud of their heritage and language.

Also it appeared to me that many Brazilians have a ton of energy and passion. My friends and I went to a soccer game in Rio at Maracana Stadium. You would have thought that the soccer game was the finals with the crowd’s energy, but the fans were just proud of their team. They had cheers, songs, dances, drums-it was like a big party at the stadium. And the stadium wasn’t even filled all the way.

You will also see in some of my pictures what looks like run down houses. These places are the favelas (shanty towns) or the poorest neighborhoods. In Brazil, at least 50 million people live in places like these. This would average to about 1 in 4 people in Brazil. Poverty is a large problem in Brazil because if you are poor in Brazil, you have it bad. However, if you are rich then you are living very comfortably. The distribution of wealth is one of the worst in the world. Also with the favelas in Rio, what has happened is that many areas where there was once free land are now full. To solve this, many of the poor build houses on top of one another. Furthermore, a majority of the people in these favelas are black or of darker skin. This is one of the sad realities of Brazil.

Although there is racism in Brazil, I believe they are very tolerant of different people since the country itself is such a mixture of cultures and people. For example, I was talking to an Argentine man who was working at Pan de Azucar (Sugarloaf Mountain-A small mountain with a lift where you can see all of Rio). He was born in Buenos Aires and was of Arabic and Italian ancestry, and his skin color was very near to mine. After talking to him for a bit, I asked him why he lived in Rio for 20 years instead of Buenos Aires. He told me that since he came to Brazil, he felt welcomed by all. For that reason he moved to Brazil, and eventually married a Brazilian woman. Furthermore, in Rio and Brazil he had a name, “Carlos”. However, in Buenos Aires and Argentina his name was “negro” or black. This was a powerful statement to me because this came from a native of Argentina, but it spoke to me of the very real racism that is so often denied in Argentina. Nevertheless, I could clearly feel the kindness of the people that he spoke of to me as I interacted with the people. Despite popular belief, at no point did I feel unsafe in Brazil.

In Brazil I never received stares from anyone. Many of the Brazilians believed that I was Brazilian, whereas in Buenos Aires I always received attention for the color of my skin. My friend on the other hand in Brazil received many stares for his blonde hair. Also when we went to a Brazilian flea market everyone called him Gringo (foreigner). This term isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they acknowledged his status. However for me, I felt like I fit in, instead of being a curiosity to all like I was in Argentina. All of this I felt despite my lack of Portuguese which is crazy to me.

I can’t count the amount of times that I had Brazilians ask me in Portuguese if I could speak their language. It was very funny, but also I believe that I should learn Portuguese before I return to Brazil. Unlike in Argentina where I can speak Spanish and find out the thoughts of the people, I felt bad because I could not really talk to the people and see their experiences.

Also Portuguese is not Spanish. It has it’s similarities but it is different. Although written Spanish and Portuguese look very close, when verbalized it is very different. The language itself is very sing-songy like Italian but the pronunciation of words is very distinct. One example is the word student. In Spanish the word is estudiante, and in Portuguese it is estudante but it is pronounced es-too-di-an-ch (like ranch). So when I do learn it will be a little challenging, but it will be a good experience for me I am sure.

To conclude this post about Brazil I want to talk about Brazilian hospitality and the example I experienced. My friend and I met a Brazilian dude on vacation in Parati and we traveled with him until we arrived in Rio. He was a financial stock analyst in his hometown of Belo Horizante, about 8 hours from Rio. He was very helpful to us since he spoke Portuguese, Spanish, and English. I have to say that I am very grateful to him because he made navigating the towns a lot easier. Before he left Rio he invited us to stay with him and his parents in his home in Belo Horizante. So after my friend and I left Rio, we went to Belo Horizante and stayed with the guy and his parents. They were so good to us-the mother cooked us breakfast, lunch, and dinner and our new friend showed us his city. He was so proud of his city, which was very pretty and also more tranquil than Rio or Sao Paolo. It also seemed very residential to me.

And although his parents could not speak English we spoke broken Portuguese and we were somewhat successful in conversing. Now my question to many of you is this, would you open your house to someone you just met like this? Honestly, before this experience I don’t think I would-yet I think maybe some of that Brazilian kindness has rubbed off on me.

BUT ANYWAYS, I could go on and on about Brazil. I definitely have a lot more places to explore in Brazil. I hope you guys enjoyed reading though. Also here is a link to my album of Brazil: Album of Brazil

Also I realized that I have about a month left. Time flies right? Yeah, I can’t believe I am almost down with this experience here in South America. I will hopefully write about how I feel about that very soon. Until next time guys!