Dr. Juilee Decker and Argentine Government

Today started off quite terribly but ended well. As I was late for school yesterday I left the house extra early this morning. I left at about 10 till 8:00 this morning to catch the train (about 1/2 block from my house) at 8:04. I took the train to Carranza and got on the Subte. I was on the Subte for a while then the lights on the subway all went out. At the next station (Aguero) we were told our train had technical problems so everyone had to get off. This meant that tons of people were all waiting for the next train (literally, people jam themselves into the subway cars, it's very typical to have an entire body against you for the whole ride during busy hours). The next subway came but there was no way I could have fit in it as many of the other people that had to exit the first train crammed themselves inside. The next subway came but it sat there for a while, which was very unusual. Then an announcement was made saying that the D Line was down. Just great, I was stuck in a substation and had no clue how to get to school from there. After about 20 mins there was announcement that only two stations on the line (there are about 13 or so total) that would be actual stops, neither of which were my stop; however, the subway still didn't leave. 10 mins or so later they announced that normal service would continue. Long story short, I was still about 20 mins late and was in the Aguero station for about 40 mins - not fun. I'm told that problems like this happen all of the time and I just experienced what being a true Argentino feels like.

But the day did get better, a lot better; I met the Spanish-speaking version of Dr. Juilee Decker (minus all of the invites to speak at national conferences and published articles of course!). Her name is Susana and she is the instructor for my private classes, which started today. She's currently working on her thesis for her Master's in Latin American art. She knows a little bit of everything and a lot about most things, she also asks me the exact types of questions Dr. Decker asks me. Today we talked about the idea of public art, the academies, Guernica, Las Meninas, "Las Senoritas d'Avignon," El Tres de Mayo, methodologies of art history, precolombian art, The Armory show and The MoMa exhibiton entitled "Abstract Art" in 1936 (these two were brought up as she told me how Latin American's define modernism in art history and I described how the modern movement began in the US) - more or less, it was awesome. The class will become more of a history/civilization class over the next two classes or so, but to start in art was amazing.

In my group class we talked about the Argentine Government and its numerous issues. First and foremost, los Argentinos are required to vote. In the last election there were about 30 presidential candidates. However, the process is very corrupt as the major candidates have powerful people in each neighborhood (many in the poorer neighborhoods) that trade cash and/or food for votes. In the last election, Kristina de Kirchner (wife of a former president) won. At first the people loved her, but now she's not the most popular person. Some say she tries to act like Evita (Eva Peron - a national hero for the people), this really makes people angry as Evita is someone you don't try to act like nor speak badly about - Evita is Evita and no one can be like her. Second, she has a very "I'm the president, I'm better than you" type attitude which no one cares for. She, at least from what people have told me, wasn't like this during her campaign. Unlike in the US, there are no debates - it's more about political connections. It also suprised me that US politics are widely popular and are major news here. Many people love to watch our debates, and the current political news is front page news here (I found out about Obama on the Argentine news). Back to the Argentine government, it has its share of problems. For one, moneda (coin money) is scarce. This is a problem b/c to ride the bus you have to use coins; most people here travel by bus (there are about 600 different bus lines and each line has multiple buses, literally thousands of buses!). In order to control the economy the government stopped adding money to the economy (a good thing); however, they just stopped making coins to do this (very bad idea). In a nut shell, there is a major shortage of coins. Next are politics between the city of Buenos Aires and the rest of the country. For example, there is a huge strike right now. Many farmers are blocking roads into the city and this strike has gone on for about 2 months now. It has to do with taxes and the government regulating incorrectly. The public schools are also bad here as many are without heat right now and in very very very poor condition (students closed a major intersection just yesterday to protest). Another issue is healthcare. Here all healthcare is free for everyone (both Argentino and forgeiner alike). But anything that's not an emergency takes forever (you typically have to wait at least 6 months for a non-emergency surgery). A great city and country but certainly with problems (not that the US is perfect by any means). This situation leads to strikes and protests on a daily (literally) basis.