Submitted by Natalie Veiga on the 2018 fall semester program in Buenos Aires, Argentina…
Classes just started this week and yet, I’ve already had the opportunity to roam through so many parts of Buenos Aires. This city is full of history, transcending even the limitations of its formal establishment as the capital of Argentina. Many of my professors have remarked on this, even in our first classes. Argentina’s history is more than just five centuries old, they tell us, reaching further than our limited understanding of this country’s colonial story can explain. There are highlights here, but also darker sides – multiple disappeared groups of people at various points throughout its history is just one of them. Even walking around and being confronted with it every day, seeing modern businesses alongside historic façades and bars housed inside colonial buildings, on our way to class or as we explore throughout Buenos Aires, we will only truly see a part of that history.
I can tell from the few corners I’ve had the opportunity to go to, that there is more here than any one neighborhood can tell us. There are so many different sides to this place and its people, so many different voices needing to be heard – particularly now, in the midst of political and economic tension as a legalized abortion law is on the verge of passing. This is something these people have certainly become accustomed to, with a political and social history that feels like a roller coaster, full of civil disobedience and various military coups.
Everything from cathedrals to cemeteries, from plazas with parks and bars to graffiti-riddled side streets, they are all just the beginning to the next four months here. I feel like I don’t yet have enough firsthand knowledge to speak about what I’ve sees. Right now, I’m just keeping my eyes and ears open everywhere I go, like I will when I sit in class every week. What I do know is that the pictures I take speak more than my words probably can at this point, and that I can’t wait to learn about and truly understand everything this city has to tell me.
