(Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Like many North Americans, I was really only familiar with Eva Peron through the musical (and movie) Evita. I knew the song “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” but that was about it. Visiting Buenos Aires helped provide some context for these pop culture tributes: I will provide a very simplified account here.
Our first encounter with Evita was her family tomb in Recoleta Cemetery. This cemetery is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and actually warrants its own post – that will appear in a few days! As you can see from the above photo, Evita has not been forgotten: people still regularly visit and leave flowers and gifts at her family tomb.
After visiting the cemetery, we walked for about 45 minutes to the Palermo district and the “Museo Evita” (see photo at the top of this post). It is located in a mansion purchased by her foundation in 1948 (the intention was to house women in need) and provides a wealth of information about Evita and Argentinian life during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It also contains video recordings that allow visitors to see and hear the real Evita, rather than the movie or musical versions.
Evita was a controversial figure: she and her husband enjoyed a remarkably high level of support from the poor but many of the Peronist policies created conflict with other groups in Argentina. Alas, Evita died at the very young age of 33 and her husband’s regime was toppled not long afterwards.
This was also the day that we wandered into the astonishing El Ateneo bookstore on Avenida Santa Fe, just around the corner from our hotel. El Ateneo is actually a chain of bookstores but this is the flagship location. It is not difficult to see why: this building used to be a theatre and the bookstore has maintained the original design. It made us feel very cultured: it was such a nice store that I ended up buying a couple of CDs here just to experience it as a customer.
While this was the nicest bookstore we saw in Buenos Aires, it was far from the only one. Even though Argentina is a highly “wired” society (almost everybody seemed to be carrying a smartphone), there were far more bookstores in downtown Buenos Aires than you would find in a large North American city. Hopefully, Argentina can maintain this admirable distinction, even as demand for more expensive goods increases. You’ll see some evidence of this trend in an upcoming post!
I like that you used the under-used word ‘astonished’ in this post. I also feel that North America is lacking in the bookstore department. I remember being astonished by the quality of the bookstores in Russia and Greece. Even neighborhood shops had solid collections of serious work, as opposed to the standard ‘Indigo’ collection of children’s, self-help and cookery books.
Yes, the quality of the books in Argentina also appeared to be higher than in North America. I’m also glad that you like “astonished” – it is fun to throw into conversation as well.