Buenos Aires: A Tale Of Two Cities

[Noesdeayer]

Ries:
Why would anyone spend time "in the poor residentioal barrios" ?
Only if they were admirers of Cristina's "relato" and her never ending Keynesian economic policies with heavy rake off for her Peronacho cronies.They might even be interested in seeing how less fortunate people live there.Even though they themselves do not.

 

[Ries]

noesdeayer-
I am not saying I would never go, on principle, to any barrio.
Just that, in the course of my normal life, I probably would not visit La Matenza or Quilmes, unless I had a reason to.
not because I am snobby, or because I somehow dont want to know how ordinary people live.
We had a friend over today, for example, who lives in San Martin- which I have never been to.
Last year I went to Adrogue by train, which was interesting, from Constitucion, to visit a blacksmith I know out there.
The longer I am here, the more places I go.
I must say, though, the time I went to Villa Soldati, I was glad I was with a Porteno friend- the villa out that way is huge and pretty sketchy looking. I would not feel comfortable walking around on my own in the neighborhood of the San Lorenzo stadium.

 

[Girino]

I must say, though, the time I went to Villa Soldati, I was glad I was with a Porteno friend- the villa out that way is huge and pretty sketchy looking. I would not feel comfortable walking around on my own in the neighborhood of the San Lorenzo stadium.

My husband drove through that area last week following Google Maps and he came home shocked. He said it looked like some slum in India and that it is the worst he has ever seen in Argentina. He is a local.

Google Maps doesn't take into account safety when giving you directions, which is another thing to factor when driving through South America, especially in metropolis like Buenos Aires.

I went to Garin with him while taking home a family housekeeper. We wanted to go back to visit her but she said it is too dangerous to venture out there for us. She said the road we took that day (following Google Maps) was not safe. Luckily, nothing happened. But if a local lady says it is dangerous, it gotta be dangerous. I didn't perceive it as dangerous, so I think I still don't understand this country's facets well enough.

I understand if a foreigner doesn't want to venture to certain areas of the Greater Buenos Aires. I will always have the look and the face of a non native and I will always stand out. Though people don't stare at me on the street, I know that they could smell me as a foreigner down a mile.

 

[gracielle]

December 2, 2016

http://www.buenosair...ationstyle-city

The luxurious, vacation-style city

A trip to Vicente López and San Isidro in the north is like entering another world for most porteños......

 

[Girino]

Indeed, it is a beautiful area, but not very cultural. There are glorious mansions with all kind of maids and servants, but they are not treated any different than "mucamas" of the average expat family in Buenos Aires City. The first time I witnessed so was - surprisingly - in Italy, where I got to visit the residence for the year, of a family of wealthy Argentines. It was an ancient countryhome who used to belong to Machiavelli. It was awesome and you could see the Florence dome from the garden, separated by beautiful Tuscan hills. This Argentine family had two full time maids, also from South America (I can't remember if Venezuelan or Peruvian) and did, indeed, treat them as servant. The maids did everything, including grocery shopping, cooking, bathing the children. However, our host apparently didn't like the fact that we didn't do our beds ourselves. (I thought that since there were people paid to do so, it would have been a show of pity to). I was appalled to see servants 2008. Not that we don't have cleaning ladies in Italy, but we don't have people doing EVERYTHING for you.

And recently I got to know the world of mucamas a little closer, when I found out how much they are paid. I thought that the wealthier the family, the better the money. Boy! Was I wrong! They are paid very little, often work in black and I can't really understand how they are managing to cradle out of their poor barrios in the pampa to spend their day working as underpaid maids in those luxury mansions. However, a family will pride themselves about their "mucamas" who have been working for them since many years. They said "they are like family", but they never actually sat to eat at the same table with them, and not once they gave them a ride or some comfort of sort.

When things got in our hands, the first thing we decided was to double the lady' salary. And I brought her cake. And I insisted that she sat to have lunch with us because to me it was unbearable to sit eating a fancy lunch when in the other room someone was eating scraps or nothing at all. Unfortunately (for her) this situation lasted only a week, because then her employer died.

Recently I was at another big house in San Isidro. There was a Peruvian maid in her 50s who slipped on the carpet, fell and hit her head. Nobody paid attention to her. She immediately stood back again and said "it was nothing". I had seen the whole scene in horror and I'd have rushed her to get her head checked. But to them, it was "just" la mucama. What if it was their precious blonde-haired boy?

So I don't find it has to believe to ElQ's story about his gated-community neighbors in Garín and it is an Argentine trait as sad as poverty.

 

[on the brink]

Argentines flock to the Northern suburbs because they are leafy, quiet, and relatively low in crime. Far from "flounting" anything, houses there are shielded from the street by high hedges, walls, and trees. The richest the house, the more hidden from the street it is

While the wealthy choose Martinez, regular folks find San Fernando nice and affordable, with plenty of small homes, a vibrant town square, and many active neighborhood associations.

 

[on the brink]

My husband drove through that area last week following Google Maps and he came home shocked. He said it looked like some slum in India and that it is the worst he has ever seen in Argentina. He is a local.

Google Maps doesn't take into account safety when giving you directions, which is another thing to factor when driving through South America, especially in metropolis like Buenos Aires.

I went to Garin with him while taking home a family housekeeper. We wanted to go back to visit her but she said it is too dangerous to venture out there for us. She said the road we took that day (following Google Maps) was not safe. Luckily, nothing happened. But if a local lady says it is dangerous, it gotta be dangerous. I didn't perceive it as dangerous, so I think I still don't understand this country's facets well enough.

My Navegador Garmin warns me when approaching an unsafe area. Before buying it I relied on ACA maps, until I learned that what looked like smart shortcuts often turned out to cross some really hairy neighborhoods.

 

[Noesdeayer]

Serafina:
Reading your post about the "mucamas" etc.I was reminded about a comment made by Cristina --"nuestra primera descamisada y sacrificada-----our first shirtless and self sacrificing one"----when she was empress--oh,sorry--president about how proud she was about always taking good care of her Chilean maids down in Santa Cruz.
It has been almost 15 years now that Chile outranks Argentina in almost every field of endeavor of worth .
Presently you would be hard put to find a Chilean woman of any social strata who would emmigrate to Argentina to work as a maid.
I told this story to Chileans in Santiago who answered, "Mira quien habla-----Look whose talking".

 

[gracielle]

18 December 2016
http://www.lanacion....rita-se-agranda
Chacarita....the Buenos Aires neighborhood ranks No. 16 as one of the most sought after by international travelers to stay....and is the only barrio listed in ARG.

16 December 2016
http://uk.businessin...airbnb-2016-12?

AND No.17 is Zizkov, Prague....the other home neighborhood of our fellow expat, estebandepraga.

 

[rickulivi]

For those that think that people that live in Recoleta live in a bubble, I am not sure what their definition of a bubble is!

I happen to live in that so called bubble, but when I walk to two blocks to my local Disco, who greets me with an extended hand, on the outside door? A man without legs, sitting on his wheelchair. I mean no legs, no upper legs. Nothing. Then I walk to my feria, another two blocks away. And who do I find sitting daily in the same spot in the sidewalk? A lady and her bag. And who tries to sell my a little packet of hand towels? The same short guy with poor legs. And when i turn a corner, who do I find? The man trying to sell me some dusters. And when I sit for a coffee, a ten year old kid approaches me begging. And as I leave, I am approached by a young father with his three sons asking for money. And as I walk towards my apartment, I pass several old and young ladies sitting on the sidewalk asking for money. And then I see coming towards me the same fellow on crutches, because part of a leg is missing, and asking for money. And as I am about to turn the corner towards my building, I see the same person sleeping in his sleeping bag next to the ice cream shop, in exactly the same spot every day. And when I enter my building, I am greeted by our doorman who lost his son, who was run over by a bus. And as I walk towards the elevator, I remember the former doorman that two years ago was killed also by a bus, three blocks away from our building.

I live in Recoleta, and it is not surrounded by a bubble. In fact, I think you see and feel more poverty in that area than you do in other less prosperous parts of town. If you needed to beg, where would you go? To Liniers or to Recoleta?

I forgot to tell you, when I sit for lunch at any of the restaurants in the area, and I engage in small talk with the waiter, I am reminded of the two hours by bus that it took him to get to work, and the two hours he/she needs to spend commuting to go home at night.

If you live in Recoleta, you see and experience the poverty of Buenos Aires first hand. No need to see the slums in the villas to understand how difficult, and sad, life is for the poor and the less fortunate ones.