Well, after equal parts subterfuge, sweet talk, and dosh, I finally have my visa to go to Brazil. My (very rough) plan is to leave BsAs (alas) next week, head to Uruguay for a few days, then on to Brazil. My cousin Josh is going to meet me in São Paulo on the 16th and we will go to Rio from there, and I don’t want to retrace my steps more than necessary so I will probably head north to Salvador, stopping in some places along the way. But who really knows? Like most times, I will just play it by ear. Anyone in the know out there have any suggestions of things not to miss in Brazil?
The native culinary options in Buenos Aires tend towards the bland (for some reason, most Argentines are highly averse to hot and spicy food of any kind). For that reason, my friend Thomas is always on the lookout for possible restaurants with a bit of picante in the menu, so we decided to try a Mexican restaurant called “Mole” that he had spotted a few times from the bus. One of the risks that one runs from spending a lot of time in places with amazing food is that their equivalents in other countries almost always pale in comparison. The best ones really attempt a fusion of influences from both countries. The food was terribly mediocre, but at least it was a touch spicier than the local fare. And anyway, the company was great and beer is always beer, so you really can’t go wrong with a few of those.
Ultimately I had a lot of fun and shared a trashy night with Thomas, Vagner and Juan Carlos. After dinner, we went to a dragshow/stripshow combo in a seedy bar that smelled of…something organic and yeasty. The drag queen (and the strippers for that matter) were particularly aggressive in confronting and/or involving the audience in the various acts. We all cringed in fear as they approached us, with beseeching expressions that said “Please don’t involve me in this. I am a good person who is kind to animals and children.” As the drag queen accosted the audience members, asking each where they were from, I was somewhat surprised by the heavy presence of Americans in the audience.
I decided that the theme for the night was “imitation”. The food was an imitation of Mexico, the drag queen an imitation of (hefty) womanhood, the “dancers” an imitation of the erotic. None of these things are quite up to their originals, but they tell a fascinating story nonetheless.
Thomas and I took a walk around a fairly working class part of Buenos Aires yesterday. The architecture was in general not as nice as the more central areas, but the street, tree and sidewalk infrastructure was pretty similar to other areas, suggesting that these public services are of fairly strong importance in an economically diverse number of neighborhoods. I also started taking greater notice of the little metal stands in front of many houses that hold the day’s trash for pickup. There is no other city I can think of where trash pickup happens as frequently as here in Buenos Aires. They pick up every night Monday through Friday. It is fascinating to me that so much attention should be paid to this part of public service infrastructure, but relatively less on increasing the number of cars in the very overcrowded subway for example. Is this a conscious decision on the part of the citizens, or merely something that evolved rather randomly? It never seemed a big burden to me that trash pickup in the US happens once a week. I also wonder if people are less inclined to think about how much garbage they produce when small bundles are picked up almost every day.
Ok, I am feeling much more love for the change.gov website and the Obama administration than I was a week ago. Not only did they revamp and put back the detailed “Agenda” section, they included the issue that I (and others I am sure) wrote to them about, and more. And they stated in clear terms what they support. From the “Civil Rights” page:
Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
After the civil rights letdowns of the election, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you, Barack Obama, and thank you, transition team!
Last night I went to meet a friend of mine, Juan Carlos, in from Peru out at a gay bar in Palermo. We met in front of the bar at what we thought a reasonable hour 11:15pm. But then this is Argentina, and people are really just sitting down to dinner at that hour. The bar didn’t open until about 11:45, and we were the first ones there. As we had the place to ourselves for the first hour or so, it was a pretty relaxed atmosphere. We started talking about getting older, and the reasons for my trip these last couple of years. Juan Carlos is 38 and has a little anxiety about reaching 40 and what it all means. I assured him that it means nothing or anything you want it to mean, and not to worry too much about what society at large thinks. I told him that for me, it was a great opportunity to think about the experience of living and being (and not being), and how lucky I felt that these last 2 years had given me a completely new perspective. The bar started to fill up and we turned some of our attention to the collection of men in conversation around the bar. Juan Carlos had been talking to another friend of his here by phone who had told us about a dance party going on in another place, and Juan Carlos started asking around to find directions. At one point he asked some younger guy about the party, who looked at Juan Carlos, let out an audible if small gasp, and told him that yes, he knew about the party, but…it was going to be quite…young…and was Juan Carlos sure he wanted to go? Seeing Juan Carlos’ crestfallen expression, I couldn’t help but let out a giggle. Coupled with our earlier conversation, I could tell that this did not sit well with him at all. It was around 3am, which is past my usual bedtime, so I begged off while my friend, with a determined “I’ll show that little queen” look in his eye, set off to find his party.
There were major demonstrations across the country today, in scores of cities protesting the spate of anti gay initiatives (notably prop 8 in California) that are targeting gay people. It would seem a sleeping giant has awakened (at least that is my hope), for I have never seen this breadth of demonstration organized in such short order. Towleroad.com has a report and galleries of pictures from across the country. Although social acceptance is something that can not (and should not) be legislated, equality under the law is long overdue. It is about time we got angry and motivated and took this fight to the public in a much more vocal and visible way. Hooray and thank you to the demonstrators, I wish I had been there with you.
