Tag Archives: Evita

She’s finally off

09 Wednesday Dec 2015

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An era has ended. Cristina Fernandez de Kirschner is off. It is not at all to her liking, like a little mad kid she has been behaving really badly these last 2 weeks, angry because she no longer will be the de facto Queen of Argentina. Yes, she does suffer from severe megalomania.

_KTI4245As she has even refused to take part in the hand over ceremony tomorrow, -she does not want to be on the same photo as her successor-. she had her last speech from the Casa Rosada today. And who would I be if I wouldn’t want to be present on that occasion. Hoping for an epic Evita kind of scene where the president would stand on the balcony speaking to the people, singing ‘don’t cry for me Argentina’, I was off, direction Plaza de Mayo.

_KTI4234What seemed to be a normal middle of the week rush hour, only changed when crossing the Av de 9 de Julio into the Av de Mayo. With a lot of elbow work and even a lot more patience, I tried to approach the square, camera at hand. People applauding at the necessary times to what the president was saying, although from where I was standing I couldn’t hear a thing. Sweat pearling down our faces and the rest of our body, as the heat of the day was only going up with all those sweaty people unwillingly touching each other, all with the same goal : to get to the square.

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It was all rather calm, the usual drums that I love so much, were absent. No one was crying. There was little singing. I am used to more emotions.

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I was only about 10 meters from the corner where the square starts, when people started to really push to get forward. The speech had ended and I guess they all wanted to have a last glimpse of her before she was gone for good. A girl next to me said that we all try to convince ourselves that right at that corner, there where the square starts, things will get better and we will have place to stand at ease, but don’t we all know, it will only get worse.

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I am not exactly a K fan, and she had left anyway, so I gave up my hope of a good shot and tried to make my way back.

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While pushing my way out, I realized that there were still more people going towards the square then back. Soon I was able to breathe again. Soaked, I couldn’t get home quick enough to wash the other peoples sweat off, but not before I got myself a nice light-blue-and-white flag, with a beautiful glitter-gold sun in the middle. I will need that tomorrow.

 

Exit Cristina, Welcome Democracy, Long live Mauricio, may the new era begin.

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Eva and Ricky…

07 Tuesday Aug 2012

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Argentina is automatically connected with Evita. One of the typical reactions to whoever I say that I am living in Argentina -one I already get bored-  is that they start singing “don’t cry for me Argentina”. Of course, that is the Evita everyone seems to know, the one of the Broadway musical.

If you want to get a touch of Argentina, this Broadway show is the one you should see. Not only is it the story of the wife of an ex-Argentine president, about all the spectators –at least all the ones that sat around us- are Argentine. About the only word you heard after the show during the standing ovation, was “maravillosa”. With the Argentine accent, of course.

I once read that every Argentine seems to have an opinion of Eva Peron : they either love or hate her. And she is probably hated as much as she is loved. All we can say that she (and her husband) changed the country for ever.

In the musical she is presented as the bad person, which did come as a surprise to me. Although I knew some of the songs –my parents used to have ‘the best of Andrew Lloyd Webber’ record- I didn’t know the musical. I must admit that I wasn’t looking for Argentina when I went to see the show : I went to see Ricky Martin (who plays the role of CHE).  Because –whatever his sexual preference might be- I absolutely love him. We even postponed going because he was absent 😉

And I was pleased with what I saw. It was a great musical in the typical Broadway style. Ricky is exactly what I expected him to be. But –I am sorry guys- I didn’t like Elena Rogers. I know she is very popular in Argentina, but I didn’t like her looks (she is tiny, not at all as Evita) and I didn’t like her voice as she seems to be shouting at the top of her voice instead of singing : she kind of spoiled the songs.

But don’t let this hold you from going to see the show when you go to New York, and if you are in Argentina, don’t miss the Evita museum. Although it gives a one sided view on her life (just as the musical gives the other one), the museum is nice, and the restaurant is absolutely the best, especially in summer if you can sit outside on the terrace.

Eva must have been a charismatic person. There is a myth in my family that my grandmother (who has since long passed away) wrote a letter to Evita on which she actually received an answer. What the letter said nobody knew, nobody has ever seen it, so we can even doubt it’s existence. But I guess that is why it is called a myth…

La Casa de Los Secretos

17 Saturday Dec 2011

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Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazo is a Argentine journalist who has a column in la Nación and in Perfíl. She also hosts a radio show “Magdalena Tempranísimo” on Radio Continental, between 6 and 9 am. I came to know her as the writer of “La Casa de Los Secretos”, a book I started and finished in one day, and that I loved.

The main character is a 15 year old girl who tells about things she has experienced in her youth, like the death of Evita, as well as things she imagined that could have happened. It is a story of family life in the ’50s, where the whole world was changing. Magdalena takes you to different places in Buenos Aires and makes you (re-)live the past. A past that has always intrigued me. How was life in those beautiful French style houses?

I absolutely loved the story, and the way it was written. Now I am going to check out her other books.

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