BICENTENARIO

A few weeks ago was the Argentine Bicentennial and to celebrate they cut off the main artery of the city, 9 de julio (supposedly the widest boulevard in the world, at least the widest when it was constructed - I think it's about 8 or 9 lanes wide and it takes two lights to cross it) and had 4-1/2 days of festivals, parades, concerts, spectacles, fireworks, exhibitions, food stands, etc. In some ways it was like the state fair. only much more expensive, crunched into a couple of days, and with up to 3 million people.

It was the largest gathering of people in Argentine history.


Some items of note:

In a country that has a hatred against bolivians, paraguayans and peruvians similar in some ways to what you hear in the United States about Mexicans - theys steal our jobs, they don't bathe, get them out of our country... there was a beautiful moment.

One of the days included a parade of the different national/ethnic communities (depending on how you spin it) in Argentina. I don't know how many dozens of groups were there representing Mexico, Peru, Lithuania, Peru, Nigeria, Uruguay, Poland, Czechoslovakia, .. and sensibly, Bolivia as it is now the second largest immigrant population in Argentina.
And I thought it was going to be uncomfortable - it was hard for me to imagine porteños clapping and cheering while groups of bolivians danced in traditional dress and showed off their cultural pride. but it was great. there was only love <3 in the air at least from what I could see and clapping and general merriment was abound.

There were other moments like that where I expected tensions to arise. I thought there might be some backlash to the military parades, but again everything went over quite smoothly.

I learned some numbers: 250,000 Peruvians. 400,000 Polish. 300,000 Russians (the largest population in South America). I think the Mexican population was about 3,000.

There were some issues of course - like total lack of trashcans which meant spotting various dirty diapers laying on the ground to be trampled - yuck. But this grossness and possible hygiene disaster actually resulted from a really great thing. This event was the first time in a long while everyone says that families came out in mass. Most mass events in Buenos Aires are not usually seen as family friendly. But these were a few days where families took to the streets and parents showed and explained to their kids everything they saw, whether it be about the provinces (Argentina is made of 23 provinces like the US is made of states) or during the last parade to finish of the festival by a dance group called Fuerza Bruta portraying different historical periods of Argentina including tango, the economic crisis, its indigenous roots, the dictatorships (symbolized by a several story high metal Constitution that went into flames) and the War in Islas Malvinas. That parade was my favorite part.

I also can't count how many times I saw kids playing soccer with sprite bottles thrown out on the streets. Futbol was going to appear at the bicentennial - even if there were no soccer balls around.

For the best and most emblematic pictures of those few days (where I pulled the picture above) see...
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/argentinas_bicentennial.html