Che!

Many people in Latin America consider Argentineans to be stuck up. The other night, Hector, Luisa's boyfriend told a joke about how an Argentinean commits suicide: he climbs to the top of his ego and hurls himself off.

Here I am in a Southern suburb of Buenos Aires called Avellaneda. It's been 6 years since I've been here, and I'd forgotten how much of a developing country Argentina really is. On Saturday night, some people broke into the factory downstairs from my friends' apartment and stole whatever money was there. They pulled up some of the tin roof tiles and got in that way.
Another reminder of "development" is dysfunctionality. There are protests going on right now because the taxes on gas, water and electricity have gone up tremendously, but the increase depends on how much you use. So, if you have a family with a couple of kids, you could be looking at a 200% increase in your payment, whereas if you are just one person, the increase would probably only be around 8 or 9%.
My friend, Luisa, has been an activist here since she was a teenager. In fact, her father sent her away from home at one point so that she wouldn´t be taken away by the dictatorship because of her organizing in school. These days, she is working in one of the slums on the edge of Buenos Aires, in addition to teaching disabled children and organizing with indigenous communities in the North of the country. (For those of you who read
Spanish, see: http://indoafroamerica.blogspot.com/) The good news today is that one of the indigenous leaders that Luisa is working with has managed to get the money for 4 tickets to Cuba. These tickets will go to 4 young people from the indigenous community so that they can study medicine. Once they arrive in Cuba, all their needs will be taken care of, but they have to get themselves there. Over the last 5 years, Luisa and her group have sent 16 young men and women. Once they finish their studies they'll return to help their communities, which are poor and marginalized, often not even having the rights to their own land.

Personally, I'm fine. I finished reading "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," and I'm on to "Motherless Brooklyn". I think that I'm going to look for work that allows me to combine social issues with the arts. Another thing that I'm consider is spending just a few weeks in Brazil and going to New Orleans for a couple of months to do community/arts activities there.
This weekend, Luisa, her partner, Hector, and I will go to visit Luisa's family in a region of Argentina called Entre Rios. We'll go hang out on the beach at the river there (it is summer here, after all), and maybe I'll get to ride some of the families horses. That's something I haven't done in eons.