Dear forum members, let us stay calm, respect opinions and not accuse each other of being K, as apart from a old, grumpy former exile in France I have never met someone who showed unconditional support for this government...! A very weird thing, indeed. In many European countries there's often this strong and often unforgiving socialist- conservative divide but in Argentina people are pretty realistic with a mentality that implies that all politicians are thieves anyway - which happens in every country but it is just so obvious here, and I happen to like cynicism about politics, which is absent in the minds of many strongly polarized Europeans I have met.
Anyway. What I am seeing here on this last page is another argument that in my personal view would be way too unforgiving to Buenos Aires.
I am more conscious than ever of the negative sides of Buenos Aires and I would agree that it can be a bit repetitve place every now and then. But, please, when somebody starts favouring an extremely dull, superficial, children's museum-like, Disney city as Barcelona over Buenos Aires, I think you have just missed the essence of the capital of Argentina. I invite you to go and live in a place like Vienna. Beautiful museums, nice architecture too, more of a traditional European capital. After a while you will find out that in essence many of these European glorious capitals are all the same and rather boring and monotonous, without life, without a certain spice to it.
Buenos Aires is a very young place without a lot of history - point taken - and will never be able to compete with the historical castles in Spanish cities and the war memorials in northern France. It's the New World, get over it. Many here come from the U.S. - well, I am from Europe and apart from a couple of art deco skyscrapers in New York I find the whole of North America incredibly uninspiring in terms of history and architecture. You were born out of European civilization, the European tribes have dominated the world until recent times and it is logical that you would find most of the attractions on that continent.
Buenos Aires is unique because its legacy is completely focused on a Golden Age during which there were almost no limits and when an aristocracy with unforeseen wealth decided to mirror European culture and architecture in Argentina as a way of progress - it is not Las Vegas after all. The interesting product of inviting so many architects from different nations is that architectural styles mixed and there is simply no place in the world with so much diversity when it comes to
fin de siecle beauty. Yes, the country also saw the massive arrival of poor, displaced Europeans who came under false promises, and apart from the beautiful buildings not much was done to get rid of the poverty that was already rampant under the criollo population before the masses of tanos and the who-knows-what arrived.
Anyway, of course you already know about the architecture in Buenos Aires. Maybe these glamorous looks were the reason you originally moved here. You also know that it is not always being conserved that well, and of course, this may give you a million different reasons to continue complaining about everything that sucks out there. One thing I got tired of in Argentina is seeying people always complaining, complaining, complaining about everything. A bit of an Italian influence, it seems. Expats are not the only ones committed to that vice.
Buenos Aires is so much more interesting to me, than let us say, Barcelona, because of the sheer diversity of architecture and its weird spread around the city. It is one of those rare places in the world where you can often find treasures in shaky streets in distant neighbourhoods, among the weirdest 70s appartment buildings. As soon as you get used to the lack of order in how Buenos Aires looks, you get to appreciate the beauty of its ugliness. In cities like Barcelona all you find is a couple of special buildings among historical buildings that all look the same, all employ the same, lets say Catalan/Spanish style. These cities havent experienced the unique boom that Buenos Aires have and you won't find streets over there that combine the most divergent styles. These cities do not have that typical melancholical feel to it, that is why I say they feel flat, superficial to me. In Buenos Aires I love walking in places like Lezama Park and being able to recognize both the melancholic poverty of historical immigrants that once lived close, and the wealth of people who had their own little American dreams in Buenos Aires, such as the Biscuit Factory near La Boca.
Yes, some 'Parisian' buildings in Recoleta may have this Disney feel to it. If you live in Buenos Aires, you may ask yourself after a while, why am I not going to Paris then? They have more. And its French. Authentic. But you are not going to find the mix of millions of European immigrants who really shaped a country and among whom some built their own fortunes and threw up buildings from all kinds of cultural backgroudns in the city. Much more so than in the U.S..... I think..... in America, there were way more immigrants and from many more different origins, but they were kind of sucked in a homogenized American culture from the beginning. Argentina was practically an empty country without a lot of character and was profoundly influenced by its own waves of immigration, which were uniquely overwhelming. Seeing people talking Spanish like Napolitan fishermen may seem 'nothing special' to some of us, but I never stop being interested in the cultural impact of that good old immigration that can be seen here every day, in its barrios, in its people...
Whenever I get a bit bored of the cute cobble-stone streets of San Telmo, I take a subte and enjoy the wide avenues and beautiful parks of Palermo, and whenever I feel like it I make a little trip to whatever part of the city that has a unique feel. To me, because of that and because of its size (size with a lot of character, because cities like Lima and Mexico City are big too, but there is much less to see) Buenos Aires is such a vibrant world class city, not boring at all, full of life but also quiet whenever I need it, depends on the area. In many European cities, I adore the historical value of monuments and things like that, but I always start missing the diversity in the city of BA that is the product of the historical competition of European nations and cultures. I like our European civilization and especially in that nineteenth century period, so I am biased in a way. If you are more interested in clubbing than in sightseeing, maybe Barcelona would be a better place. They also have a beach. But in Buenos Aires I can simply be a tourist every day and encounter new suprises again and again. And I just love the melancholical feel of the more southern barrios.
I'd love to explain you in more detail why apart from its unforgiving negative aspects, Buenos Aires is my favourite city in the world (read: not the most beautiful, not the most diverse when it comes to food and non Western cultures, etc, but just the most appealing), just ask me. If you want to disagree, disagree. But do not write off our positive opinions on the basis of 'yeah hes probably a K supporter' because every person who lives in Buenos Aires becomes cynical in some ways. However, people who (not necessarily specifically someone in this thread, but more the general negative crowd I would imagine) forget about the beauty and attractiveness of the place, and just shout their desilusion all the time, please allow for a bit of sunlight in your life....
Time to freshen up some of your own recuerdos....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrS6aNtkOtU
