My introduction to Argentina was a small college town full of passionate people with traditions, pride and history…and who, fashion wise, are legit stuck in the 90s (check out the platform shoe craze!) – Cordoba.
My first night, I got a glimpse into the politics. There was an elaborate protest outside our workspace with floats, signs and smoke, horns, drums, singing and thousands of people. I have yet to be in a city where we have not been in the middle of at least one protest – it has been eye-opening and seems to say a lot about the state of the world right now – but in Cordoba, I found it to be an ongoing theme.
This first protest was against something that outraged me as well – basically their Congress was passing a bill to reduce the sentencing of those responsible for a genocide that occurred in the 70s (read more here).
Though small-ish, Cordoba is the second most populated city of Argentina and is very well known for education – the National University is the oldest in Argentina and was the 4th ever in South America…oh and education is FREE in Argentina for ANYONE (so start thinking about that new Kindle baby parents!)
I found myself in the middle of a “Defend Public Education” protest and, after visiting an artist commune called Cabezas de Tormenta one Saturday morning, I wound up at a “No Pogamos por Tocar” concert protesting the “Pay to Play” protocol of Argentina. Indie music is not recognized as “work” or “employment” in Argentina, so these bands need to “pay to play” at most venues and it’s very difficult to be a full-time musician. Cabezas de Tormenta is doing a lot to bring awareness to the fact that music is their work and they are creating opportunities for bands to play in certain venues.
I also learned about three very important Argentinian traditions – mate, empanadas and asado.
Especially in Cordoba, people take their mate very seriously. You will see them with their mate cups and thermoses on the street, at work, on the bus…anywhere. What is it? Pretty much tea – mate is really the cup that you drink herba mate out of, but there is a special and ancient way to make it and drink it. It is meant to be shared: one person makes the mate and passes it, you finish the mate and pass it back to who made it so they can continue the process and pass it to the next person…and so it goes for however long you’d like (be sure not to move the straw, or bombilla, not allowed).
Mate = the reason everyone stays up super late in Argentina and sleeps all morning. Nothing opens until at least 9am and you won’t find a restaurant open for dinner until 9pm. We drank mate for a couple hours one night at a friend’s family’s house before making homemade empanadas – it keeps you up and wired without the caffeine crash of coffee…even the 8-year-old was up until 1am.
That night felt like home – friends and family members just kept showing up before and after dinner, there was a guitar sing-along, we helped my friend’s niece with her English homework, her mom stayed in the kitchen and just kept bringing out more food…this is when the Italian influence of Argentina fully resonated with me! Seriously though, Argentina is as much of a melting pot as we are – it’s a land of immigrants (mostly from Italy and Spain, but also Lebanon, Germany and the Middle East…there is a huge Jewish influence as well).
And, because I can’t go a month without heading to the mountains, a group of us rented a cabin in the Sierras and our local friends did a traditional asado – basically a BBQ but the grill is open and you slow cook chorizo, steak, pork, veggies with egg, potatoes (and you are suppose to throw grass and leaves into the coals for local flavor) for hours. Around midnight, they put out forks and knives and 30 of us just stood around the tables as they cut up the meat…it was a delicious free for all!
I still made pizza…
Cordoba, though brief, was low-key and local and that was A-OK by me!
They just love The Beatles and indie music from like 5-10 years ago…my kind of town:
we need a kindle asado!