'El Che' Monument Cast

Tomorrow, a bronze monument to Ernesto "Che" Guevara will be taken to a foundry to be cast. Designed by Palermo-based sculptor Andrés Zerneri, the bronze statue will be dedicated on June 14, 2008, which at would have been El Che's birthday if he were still among us and full of piss and vineagar. The statue has an interesting history, outlined in this highly propagandistic Prensa Latina article. Most interesting, the metal used came from a drive to collect keys and other tiny bronze objects:

Over the past two years, 14,454 people from all over the world have contributed more than 3,000 kilograms of bronze to cast the four-meter-tall statue, which will be erected in Rosario, Che's birthplace.

No word on whether Fidel Castro will attend, but I suppose there's hope as it seems he might have some more free time on his hands in the coming year.

Read more

Googling "Buenos Aires" So You Don't Have To

Last weekend the Big Papers in New York had two interesting Buenos Aires stories that you might have missed. First off, a Wall Street Journal Page One story used the 91st birthday party of Julio de Rizio to profile the famed Argentine crank-caller, who first became famous by informally circulating tapes of his crank callers. He performed at his own party:

Mr. de Rizio then made harassing calls to a middle-aged comic-book collector and to a fellow who was offering his services as pop vocalist. He got him to belt out a few bars -- badly off-key. Finally, he called a handyman who had advertised that he would take care of "everything your husband doesn't have time to fix." Mr. de Rizio went off on a bawdy riff about not having time to satisfy his wife. He asked the flustered handyman whether he could fix that.

In the second article, from Friday, New York Times art critic Ken Johnson reviews a New York retrospective of Argentine art. The older works from the 60's get a warm pat--"...the sense of revolutionary euphoria conveyed by this part of the show is impressive."--but the newer stuff, well, not so much. As Johnson writes, in declarative clarity rare for an art critic, "The trouble is partly that many of the new works are just not very good."

Read more

Faena Filtración

Alan Faena, you got some 'splaining to do! During his recent trip to Buenos Aires, where he headlined Personal Fest, former Soundgarden head Chris Cornell had what you might call an imperfect stay at the Faena Hotel + Universe. (Let's say his experience won't provide the hotel with the same fluffy PR it usually receives, as in a recent Times UK artice I mentioned on Gridskipper.) I'll leave it to the folks at Page Six to explain:

December 18, 2007 -- FORMER Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell and his wife, Vicky, lost more than $30,000 worth of valuables when their Argentine hotel room was flooded. The couple were staying at the posh Faena Hotel in Buenos Aires last week when, a pal of Cornell's said, "after performing in front of a sold-out 20,000-capacity arena, Chris returned to his room and was relaxing with Vicky when the walls started trembling, like in an earthquake. Then, Chris smelled something burning, and suddenly, the entire entrance of the hallway collapsed and gallons of freezing cold water entered the room. Within a matter of moments, Chris and his wife were up to their knees in water . . . They finally scrambled out but lost a lot of stuff." A rep for Cornell said, "Chris was understandably shaken - however, he was just happy no one was injured in the flood."

I'm just going to throw it out there that the in-room flood probably wasn't organized by one of the Faena's "Experience Managers".

Read more

The Shortest Honeymoon Ever

Every Argentine political analyst--bar none--noted at some point that Cristina Kirchner would have a harder task that her husband did (it's easier to start at the bottom--no expectations) and would have a short honeymoon period. But this short? Just two days after her crowning, Cristina is already embroiled in a Watergatish scandal involving the $800,000 in cash (give or take a few pesos) that Venezuelan-American Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson was caught smuggling into Argentina on August 4. How is she embroiled? Well, the U.S. attorney's office alleges that the money was meant for Cristina's campaign (not that she needed it, considering the sad state of the opposition). She, admittedly, is not happy about the situation, calling it a U.S. government "garbage operation"; for his part, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, accused the U.S. government of engaging in a "political, psychological and media war against the progressive governments of the hemisphere."

I hope, being a journalist and all, that the unveiling of this scandal will be slow and satisfying. It will be fascinating to see the Argentine PR machinations (Kirchner's Chief of Staff Alberto Fernández is already calling it a U.S. intelligence operations), the U.S. government over-reaching (we're good at that), and the public reaction if the accusations turns out to be undeniably true. Will the people react in anger and hamstring the brand new presidential mandate? Or will it just be great with a shake of the head and a wan smile, politics as usual?

Here's an NYT story and the criminal complaint in both English and Spanish.

(Photo: AFP)

Read more

Out With The Old... Pt. 2

Much as we were bemoaning the replacement of antique houses with anonymous towers on our street, Jeff Barry over at Buenos Aires, City of Faded Elegance (or as I like to think of where I live, Buenos Aires, City of Transito Lento--if you've seen the commercials you know what I'm talking about) has two nice photo-heavy posts (1, 2) on the huge changes going on in Barracas. Above, you can see one of my talentless mashups of his photos, photos which he places alongside older pix from the city's wonderful interactive map.

Read more

La Bella y La Bestia

Much has been made of the beauty of Argentines--especially the women--over the years. In this excellently intriguing Observer article from 2006, titled "High-flying, adored and siliconised", the writer plumbs the depths of beauty psychology and digs up the evocative quote, from an English friend who lived in Buenos Aires during the dictatorship, that, "Watching the women strut by on Florida Street is like watching racehorses at the paddock."

I won't get into this debate, save to note that Buenos Aires is not an ugly place. Or a great place to be ugly. Which brings us to today's article from BBC News correspondent Daniel Schweimler about Argentine writer Gonzalo Otalora (above). The article, titled "Argentina: Ugly people strike back," takes the re-publication of Otalora's book "Feo" ("Ugly") as the leaping off point to discuss the difficulties the homely, pimpled and asymmetrical face in Argentina. "But not everyone in Buenos Aires is beautiful," Schweimler writes. "Otalora, for instance, is downright ugly, and he is not embarrassed to admit it."

Otalora is also funny. He is heartened by the boom in unlovely Argentine celebs like President Néstor Kirchner and footballer Carlos Tevez, but saddened by the arrival of the aesthetically remodeled Cristina as presidenta. And he's doing something about it:

He planted himself in front of the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada or Pink House, to harangue President Nestor Kirchner to change the law. It's not fair, he said. The beautiful people get all the breaks. Beauty is a natural advantage and he wants the good-lookers to be taxed to finance compensation for the ugly people.

Read more