Living History

Once again, this semester has thrown another curveball: as you may or may not know, this Wednesday, ex-president Nestor Kirchner died of a heart attack--he had already been in poor health. His death was also strangely on the national census day.

The white dot is where I live--about a 15 minute sub ride to the Plaza de Mayo.

To put things in perspective, he was: President of the nation, chancellor of UNASUR (SA international alliance), head of the current day Peronist party, former governor of the province of Santa Cruz, and past husband of the current president, Cristina Fernandez Kirchner. Additionally, Nestor's presidency was considered the first truly stable democratic government that Argentina has ever had. The power that this man had in this country is tremendous and his influence was a major factor in the current administration (he was basically quasi-president).
 He was still nonetheless a very controversial politician with many, many allegations of corruption. Like most things in this country, people either hated or loved this man. But his passing is reflective of a tremendous space of power and politics that he has left--the government will be making the rounds over the next few months.

I went Wednesday night to the Plaza de Mayo and La Casa Rosada (presidential palace) to see the events that were happening, and to be honest, I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. Thousands upon thousands of people with banners, fireworks, chants, floats, and graffiti everywhere--the scene was anything but quiet. Argentina is a place of passion, they are a people of extremities and when there are things to either morn or celebrate, they are anything but somber.Sure, maybe there have been larger gatherings that have happened and perhaps Nestor isn't going to go down as one of the most famous people in the world, but to see and feel what I felt, is something that very few countries in the world produce from their culture. Whether the Argentines were crying for the tremendous loss or cracking champagne to celebrate his death (many reasonable people really didn't like him--including the family that I live with) it cannot be denied how much of an influence he had and how reflective he was of this country--we can only guess where this place will take me next.

I call it living history.