On Saturday, John and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Wow, the years have flown! The real date of our anniversary was September 21 but we preferred to celebrate on the weekend, when we could get someone to watch the boys. Matias, the nephew of Angelina (our Paraguayan sister) spent the night at our apartment so that John and I could have a date night. Matias’s mother (Agripina) kindly escorted him to our apartment. They live in La Matanza (a neighborhood in the Province of Buenos Aires) that is relatively close but takes 3 bus rides and 2 hours to get to our house in the center of Buenos Aires city. Matias is in high school but he is not familiar with the city and figuring out so many different forms of transportation to a strange place is understandably confusing.
We left the boys with pizza, carrot sticks and a movie at 7:00PM. We had a lovely evening in our neighborhood. Since restaurants don’t open until 8:00pm, we had dessert before dinner. A fancy chocolate store (Rapi Nui from Bariloche) recently opened about 3 blocks from our apartment. We had a delicious ice cream in the magical outside garden.
We left the boys with pizza, carrot sticks and a movie at 7:00PM. We had a lovely evening in our neighborhood. Since restaurants don’t open until 8:00pm, we had dessert before dinner. A fancy chocolate store (Rapi Nui from Bariloche) recently opened about 3 blocks from our apartment. We had a delicious ice cream in the magical outside garden.
After ice cream, we went to the Gran Bar Danzon for dinner. We had heard about the restaurant when we lived in Buenos Aires in 2004-5 but had never patronized it. The atmosphere made us feel like we were experiencing nightlife at the restaurant/bar. Arriving just after 8:00pm, we were the first patrons. Later, people came to the bar. Only toward the end of our meal did other patrons arrive for dinner. We quickly wrapped up our meal around 9:45pm so we would have time to watch a movie.
After paying the bill (not cheap), we speed walked to the theatres in Recoleta where we saw the new and very popular film, The Clan. The mothers at Colegio del Salvador had talked a lot about the movie. It is based on the true story of a family/clan in the 1980s who kidnapped their friends for ransom and the killed them. All of the mothers had strong feelings about the movie because they remember learning about the events when they were children. One of the mothers even circulated in the same social circles as the Puccio family and could have easily been one of their targets. As an outsider, I felt that the movie had an underlying political point (that horrible violence such as the government-sanctioned disappearances during the military dictatorships can corrupt those involved and lead some crazy people to continue such horrible violence for their own personal interests). Such an impression was due in large part to the background news stories during the movie about the end of military rule and the return to democracy. Argentines, I think have become accustomed to attention being drawn to the disappearances and violence that occurred during the military dictatorships. The amount of attention publicly paid to recognizing those who suffered from state violence is noteworthy. Plaques and remembrances are abundant. For example, at the lobby entrance to the Ministry of Economy, on the right side is a foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary and on the left side a plaque commemorating individuals who were disappeared. While I strongly believe it is very important to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and to never condone disappearances, torture, and unjust imprisonment, I also think that such an emphasis on the errors of the military regime fail to recognize that some Argentines supported (and likely continue to support) what the military regime did and it is important to understand the rational behind such actions (at least in part so that such actions can be avoided in the future).