La Pura Vida

abrir las ventanitas

Glad to be here on the couch instead of on the colectivo (bus) like I usually am at this time. Finished my Spanish test early, so freedom!

These days have been filled with activities and thoughts. Director Brenda explained that this time in Buenos Aires is meant to be intense – much to pack in during the weeks that we’re here. Once we get to our Independent Study Projects we’ll be more in control of our time. Lately my schedule has been - wake up a little before 8 to finish homework that I’m usually too tired to finish at night, shower, have coffee/banana/crackers with cheese and marmalade, and then leave to catch the bus or subway (depends on whether I’m going to the university or institute) around 9:15. Sometimes go to the Chinese supermarket next door here to buy something little (random candies) with a 2 peso bill so that I can have the necessary coins for the bus (always in high demand for me). I take the bus most days (subway once a week), bus 141. 80 centavos. I wait on the street Scalabrini Ortiz, watch for the red bus to approach and then flag it down... get on and put my coins in the little machine, ride through the streets for ~20 minutes. Get off when I see the Blockbuster on Rivadavia and walk down the street Puan for 4 blocks (past restaurants, internet cafes, bookstores) until I get to the University. The streets are wide and unmarked, one way, sort of a gray brick. Meet everyone outside in the plaza downstairs where people are usually drinking coffee or tea (little stands set up throughout the university, and a cafe downstairs). Social Movements and Human Rights seminar from 10-12. Professors change each week. This week is on theories of social movements. Lately the ideas from this class have been rocking my world.

Today we talked about cultural hegemony. Description from Wikipedia (reading this description last night helped me understand today’s class immensely. Had to read it a few times):

Gramsci did not contend that hegemony was either monolithic or unified. Instead, hegemony was portrayed as a complex layering of social structures. Each of these structures have their own “mission” and internal logic that allows its members to behave in a way that is different from those in different structures. Yet, as with an army, each of these structures assumes the existence of other structures and by virtue of their differing missions, is able to coalesce and produce a larger structure that has a larger overall mission. This larger mission usually is not exactly the same as the mission for each smaller structure, but it assumes and subsumes them. Hegemony works in the same manner. Each person lives their life in a way that is meaningful in their immediate setting, and, to this person the different parts of society may seem to have little in common with him. Yet taken as a whole, each person’s life also contributes to the larger hegemony of the society. Diversity, variation, and free will seem to exist since most people see what they believe to be a plethora of different circumstances, but they miss the larger pattern of hegemony created by the coalescing of these circumstances. Through the existence of small and different circumstances, a larger and layered hegemony is maintained yet nor fully recognized by many of the people who live within it. (See Prison Notebooks, pp. 233-38.)

Food for thought – that the dominating class rules not (necessarily) through might but by subtly infiltrating culture and dictating the “good life.” Because people are (understandably) focused on their own lives and basic survival, they may miss the grander picture of oppression...and so it continues.

Today I went to lunch with Brenda to talk over ideas for my project. During the course of our conversation, and because of my interest in hegemony, she recommended that I check out the thinking of Paulo Freire. Perfect - have heard of him but don’t know much about his famous education philosophy... Bought his book “Pedogogia del Oprimidos” today and hope to delve in during our travels. Exciting thoughts to ponder – the concept that people accept their conditions as meant to be or unchangeable, handed down from God or whatever the case may be – but that there is a slow process possible of consciousness raising (that’s my fuzzy understanding at this point). I could live in an indigenous community and learn about a project in the area of domestic violence, researching if and how they use this line of thinking. Much exposure to come though before I decide where.

To finish about typical days – go to lunch at one of the many restaurants/cafes on the streets around the University and then sometimes the park or internet cafe from 12-2. Spanish class 2-5 with a “pausa” from 3:30-3:50ish where we go to the cafe downstairs for coffee. We go into detail of random things in that class...descriptions of men’s underwear, motels rented by the hour, how we get along or don’t with certain people because of encounters with them in past lives...

Bus home and then get here around 6. Change into comfy clothes and am asked “Queres tomar algo?” Often have tea with the crackers/cheese/marmalade combo, and then do homework. Dinner time varies but is usually around 9:30. I usually love the food. Two nights ago I felt especially honored to be eating the delicious main dish – a pie with artichoke in the middle...my mom put so much time into it, as she had to scrape the ‘meat’ off each individual leaf with a spoon...wow.

Sunday I spent the day at the older sister’s house (with parents, Angeles, and anthropologist brother) for a famous asado. We prepared vegetables, steak, and dulce de leche cake! Incredible flavors...even tried the meat (big deal with camara and stares). I could appreciate the complexity of the flavor and am glad I tried it but didn’t want more. Very interesting to be in this closed neighborhood, 45 minutes outside of the city and a different world. It was guarded by security – only thing comparable I’ve been to is a cluster of beach houses in South Carolina where we had to give the name of our connection before entering. Inside – club house, tennis courts, everything well manicured, little kids playing in the street, beautiful colorful houses with space in between them, yards... after eating we went walking - as we passed a spring festival and I saw the kids jumping on an inflated moonwalk, I could hear the birds chirping and the song “We Are Family” playing...laughed to myself. All this reminded me of the movie Pleasantville. I know that day to day problems and such exist here too but on the surface anyway it is drastically different from life in the city. Wasn’t 100% enamored by the environment as I’ve heard some about the discrimination common in these neighborhoods but definitely an attractive place. The daughter and her fiance or husband moved there a few months ago since they have a baby on the way. Their life seems great - gorgeous house they designed where the light pours in, 3 siamese cats, Golden Retriever puppy, security of this neighborhood.

Ok, basta (enough) for now! I’ve been hearing “basta” a lot lately as Mara the Cocker Spaniel has been going on barking tantrums.

Closing thought – saw this painted on a wall at the University. At first it seemed comically simple but actually I think it’s something to ponder...

La noche no es eterna, solamente oscura.
The night is not eternal, only dark.

Will post details about the upcoming trip before departure Saturday.

Trying to "abrir las ventanitas" - sometimes get overwhelmed (not always in the bad sense) by everything and choices but as my mom here advised, in life we just have to open the little windows and see what happens!

posted by Colleen @ 2:55 PM