Borges – a life, biography by Edwin Williamson

This is the biography of Jorge Luis Borges, the iconic writer of Argentina and one of the preeminent Latin American authors whose works have intrigued me. I had tried reading some of his fictions, essays and poems in the past but did not manage to reach the same wavelength of the author. But I found the lifestory of Borges more interesting than his fictions. I am now more fascinated with him and plan to reread his works.

Borges´s writings and life were influenced by three things; the sword , the dagger and the third one.. even more deadly.. women.

His mother Doña Leonor, a strong-willed woman had burdened him with the ¨sword of honour¨. She brainwashed him with the historic and heroic tales of the family ancestors who fought against the Argentine dictator Rosas in the beginning of the ninetieth century. He was under pressure to live upto the expectations of this noble and historical legacy or feel unworthy. His mother had interfered in his love life too. She would approve girl friends for him only those from the high society and wrecked his relationship with women from lesser class. Borges lived with his mother even untill his sixties.

The dagger was a contribution from his father, who kept advising the Bohemian, timid and shy young boy to be a ¨man¨ and take the dagger to stand upto those who challenged him. The father, who himself wanted to be a writer but never made it, also instilled this fear of failure in the son.

The women … inspired and frustrated him throughout his long life. His writings and life were influenced by the bloomings of love and the doomed affairs.. by his ¨anxiety to find love¨ and his eternal search for a Beatrice from the Divine Comedy of Dante. Nora Lange, Haydee Lange, Maria Esther Vasquez, Margot Guerrero, Ëstela Canto and finally Maria Kodama were some of the women who made his story. Norah Lange, the redhaired Scandinavian- origin beauty was the one who inspired his defining writings and tormented him the most. After initial interest in him, she chose to become the lover and later wife of Oliverio Girondo, his rival also in the literary movement of Argentina in that era. She went beyond Girondo when she published a book ¨45 days and 30 sailors¨. During the launching celebration in 1933, she was dressed like a mermaid surrounded by other writers including Girondo in sailor´s costumes. Borges, the pobrecito, never recovered from this.

Then there is Estela Cantes, who plays games with Borges. After several months of courting in the parks, streets and cinema halls, when Borges proposes timidly to her, she says ¨Jorgie, don’t forget that I am a disciple of Bernard Shaw. We cannot get married without first going to bed with each other.¨ Borges mother wrecks this relationship by banning the entry of Estela in her house.

Borges ends up with an Indian-style arranged marriage to Elsa Astete, chosen by his mother when was at the age of 68. But the marriage did not last and the couple separated in a few years.

Towards the end of his journey of frustrated love life, Maria Kodama, junior to him by several decades, fulfills his life by reciprocating love unconditionally. She rekindles love and romance and new creativity in him. She felt attracted to him when she was twelve years old as a student when he was in his fifties. While being fond of Borges, she valued her own independence and resisted being tied in marriage when Borges proposed. Eventually she relented and agreed to marry him at his ripe age of 87 and when she was 41. Maria Kodama, born to Japanese father and Argentine- German mother, gave to Borges fulfillment of love, which eluded him in his whole life.

The end of the life of Borges was like a typical Borgesian fiction. He left Buenos Aires in November 1985, somewhat secretly without telling anyone that he would never return. He settled down in Geneva and married Maria Kodama. Since Argentine law did not allow him to divorce his former wife, he got the marriage papers done in a Paraguay court. His marriage was on 26 April 1986 and he died within two months on 14 June 1986. He was buried in Geneva itself.

Borges ended his life outside Argentina, like the other Argentine iconic figures. Exile, asylum and sad ending seem to be part of the history of Argentine heroes. The liberator of Argentina and the founder and Father of nation San Martin ended his life as an exile in Europe. Che Guevara, the other icon of Argentina died in the jungles of Bolivia. Peron, who left Peronism as a heritage which continues to influence the politics of the country even now, spent two decades in exile in Europe. Even Evita´s corpse was on exile incognito in a cemetry in Milan for two decades. And Carlos Gardel, the Tango idol died away from the motherland in a plane crash in Colombia. Do I see too much of Borgesian coincidence here or am I influenced by the lyrics of Tango which are mostly about bitterness and betrayal; anguish and sadness.

Borges deserved Nobel prize but his political alignment and pronouncements came in the way. He hated Peronism, after the Peron administration humiliated him by transferring from his library assistantship to the post of Inspector of Poultry and Rabbits in the Public Markets of the Municipality. Blinded by his hatred of Peronism, he went overboard in supporting the Argentine military dictatorship which overthrew Peron and he also supported the Chilean military regime of Pinochet. This political indiscretion cost him dearly and deprived him of the Nobel prize..

Borges had a seminal influence on the up and coming Latin American writers of his era and inspired the movement of ¨Magical Realism¨which is a contribution of the region to world literature. Borges was an intellectual giant and was one of the most cosmopolitan personalities. He spoke and wrote in English fluently and had read a lot of Eurpean and American literature, although he never had any collegiate education.

Borges left behind a Borgesian genre of writing….inventive and intriguing, fabulous and fantastic, labyrinthine and puzzling, speculative and metaphysical, weird and witty… Some of his writings are like the pronouncement of wisdom by Indian sages.. never direct. The Argentine judges who denied a literary prize to him in 1941 called his work¨obscure and arbitrary cerebral game¨.

The author of the biography, Edwin Williamson (Spanish professor from Oxford) has done justice in this book( published in 2002) to the greatness of Borges with his vast knowledge of Latin American literature and his objective observations of the politics and society of Argentina during Borges´s life time.


Here is a line from Borges´s poem ¨El amenazado¨

..Being with you, or not with you, is the measure of my time..


Borges defied age and blindness. He got married for the first time at the age of 68. Later, he married Maria Kodama when he was 87. Borges became blind in his fifties and needed help for reading among other things. When he became the Director of Buenos Aires Public Library after his blindness, he wrote ¨I speak of God’s splendid irony in granting me at one time 800,000 books and darkness.” It is extraordinary that Borges not only overcame the handicap after losing his eyesight but in fact he flourished and bloomed with his writings, giving lectures, international travel and even fell in love !!

Did someone say Love is Blind….

Report on Latin American economic situation

The economic survey of 28 August 2008 issued by the Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean ( ECLAC) is positive and optimistic about the prospects of the region. Highlights as follows

- the growth of the region in 2008 is estimated to be 4.7 %, making this year as the sixth consecutive year of growth, a record in the last forty years. Although the growth has come down from 5.7 % in 2007 and is expected to decline to 4% in 2009, the growth figures are good considering the current global scenario of slower world growth and increased volatility and incertainty in the financial markets.
- Brazil´s growth in 2008 is projected as 4.8% in 2008 and 4% in 2009; Mexico´s growth 2.5 % in 2008 and in 2009; Argentina´s 7% in 2008 and 5% in 2009; Colombia´s 5.3% in 2008 and 4.5% in 2009. Peru will have the highest growth in the region with 8.3% in 2008 and 7% in 2009.
- For the fifth consecutive year, the region showed current account surplus which stood at 0.5% of GDP in 2007.
- One of the outstanding points of the region´s macroeconomic performance in 2007 was strong growth in investment, which stood at 21.1% of the GDP.
- External debt dropped to 19.9% of GDP in 2007 from 21.8% in 2006. The total external debt of the region was 720 billion dollars in December 207. The governments have paid off their debt and restructured and improved the terms of their debt with better rates and currency composition.
- Average inflation increased to 8.4% in 2008 from 6.4% in 2007.
- The region has developed greater capacity to withstand external shocks due to its strong macroeconomic fundamentals, fiscal solvency and external surplus.
- Foreign exchange reserves increased by 43% to 460 billion dollars in December 2007.
- Foreign Direct Investment increased by 46% in 2007 reaching a record 106 billion dollars.
- Unemployment has been steadily decreasing since 2003 reaching 8% in 2007 and is expected to go down to 7.5% in 2008.

Santa Evita - Argentine novel by Tomas Eloy Martinez

This is the story of Eva Peron after her death. Yes, it is about the life-story of her corpse. The embalmed body of Evita had an eventful journey for 22 years as she had in her real life journey of 33 years. She was a political figure for six years as the wife of Peron but her corpse had influenced Argentine politics for over two decades and created a bizarre history, becoming part of the Argentine mythology. Evita died in 1952 but her body was kept waiting for three years for the construction of a monument, which was never built. In 1955 the military overthrew Peron and hid the body for ninteen years. It was brought back from a cemetry in Milan for proper burial in Recoleta cemetry in Buenos Aires in 1974.

The military dictatorship tried to hide the embalmed body to prevent it from becoming a rallying point against the regime. Col Moori Koenig from the military intelligence service is given the responsibility. He moves it from one hiding place to another in Buenos Aires city. But he and his colleagues involved in this venture, as well as their families meet with one disaster after another. He, as well his accomplices, who hated Evita when she was with Peron , are hipnotised by the body and become obsessed with it. They get emotionally attached to the corpse and reach a stage when they cannot live without the body.

The Spanish embalmer Dr Ara, who is contracted to embalm the body of Evita is also obesessed with the body in another sense. He considers the embalmed corpse as his master piece of art and is more possessive of it than the family of Evita. He makes some extra copies of the wax body to mislead others. This was the first challenge for col Koenig to identify the correct one.

The miltary dictatorship forbade any public reference to Peron or Evita. How did they call Evita´s corpse and refer to her in their internal conversations and correspondence.. mare, the person, deceased, that woman...

At the same time, fanatic supporters of Evita, calling themselves as the Commando of Vengence, manage to track down the hiding points and put flowers and candles next to the coffin, despite the extraordinary security cordon.

Finally the body is sent out of the country to a cemetry in Milan, while copies of the body are sent to other European cities to mislead those trying to track it.

The author Tomas Eloy Martinez has used ¨magical realism¨to tell the story. He weaves facts and fiction in and out and one does not know what is real and what is imagined. In any case, the way Evita´s body was dealt with by her supporters and opponents is like a mystery thriller fiction. Martinez has added more mystery by his story-telling. Sometimes it reads like the compilation of his own real efforts to uncover the secrets of disappearance of the body. Besides the corpse story, the author has also brought out excerpts from the life of Evita based on interviews with her butler, hair dresser and others associated with her closely. But one is not sure whether these were factual or fictional.

The author, like many other Argentine and Latin American writers, was forced to exile in 1975. He lives in USA.

Does the story of the afterlife of Evita sound like the incarnation belief in India ? Sure.. there is as much mystery and magic in this real life story as in the Indian mythologies. No wonder there are thousands of Argentines who are followers of Indian Gurus and spiritualism. I do not get surprised when some of them tell me seriously that perhaps their last incarnation was in India !

Tomas Eloy Martinez has revived my interest in Argentine literature. My experience with the other Argentine authors is mixed. Or to put it more candidly, I got confused after reading some of the works of Borges, Julio Cortazar and Luisa Valenzuela and could not finish some of them.

Now, for the real story of Evita´s corpse, the readers can see my 2006 blog entry,
http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2006/05/evita.html#links

un novio para mi mujer - Argentine film

I saw today the film ¨Un novio para mi mujer ¨- a boyfriend for my wife, which was released on 14 august.

This is the story of the misery of the married life of a young couple in their thirties. El Tenso, the man is trying to cope with his wife La Tana who cannot stop talking, complaining and grumbling. She finds fault with the newspaper headlines, government, weather, friends of Tenso, party life and everything in general. She rains down the choicest abusive words to criticise and make cynical comments. El Tenso pays a radio station to hire her for the talk show. Her non-stop critical comments on everything and everybody becomes a hit.

Tenso wants separation but does not have the courage to tell her. He hires a man El Cuervo Flores to seduce her and make it as an excuse for seeking divorce. It works. She falls for the charm of the seducer and enjoys his company. She changes her attitude and starts to appreciate the good things of life. While Tenso is happy with the changes in Tana, he becomes jealous and asks Flores to stop the seduction. Tana becomes depressed and Tenso confesses to her that he was the one who hired Flores. She explodes and seeks separation. Both go to the shrink and fight there also. They go to the court for divorce. When the court delays their case for an hour, they go to a cafe separately. There they rediscover each other and reunite.

Valeria Bertuccelli has brilliantly acted as Tana while Adrián Suar has also fit in well as Tenso. The movie was directed by Juan Taratuto. This is the third film of this young director who started his directorial career in 2004.

The dialogue between the husband and wife, or more precisely the monologue of the wife has been animated with lot of humour. These hilarious dialogues are the best part of the film. A delightful romantic comedy ..with a typical Argentine psychiatric touch....

The Sandal Revolution of Paraguay

Fernando Lugo wore sandals and a simple white shirt and trouser for the ceremony of his inaguration as President of Paraguay on 15 August, which I attended. Somebody called it as Revolucion Sandalia- Sandal Revolution !

Lugo said he would forego the presidential salary of 40,000 dollars per year. He would continue to live in his own modest house during his presidential tenure. His sister will be the official hostess in his household.


Lugo, popularly called as the Bishop of the Poor, had worked as priest in the poor parts of Paraguay and Ecuador. After initial hesitation, Vatican let him leave the church to pursue his political career in 2007. Many priests in Latin America had embraced Liberation Theology and had fought on the side of the poor against repressive regimes and sacrified their lives in some cases. Lugo is the first priest to get a chance as president to practise Liberation Theology.

Lugo has created history in Paraguay by singlehandedly defeating the Colorado party which had ruled the country for the last sixty years ! He entered politics only in 2006 and got himself supported by a coalition of leftist and liberal parties. Pitted against almost impossible barriers, he got elected with an overwhelming majority.

In his emotional inagural address, he outlined his Agenda for Change. He promised to change not only the politics of the country but also the culture of the society. Change is not going to be easy...but it is not impossible, he said. This was reflected in the song of the Sembrador group, which followed the oath-taking ceremony. Here is part of the lyric..

la lluvia y el viento
me llaman amigo
la noche y la luna
me quiren besar

Despiertate hermano
ya llega la aurora

(the rain and the wind
call me as friend
the night and the moon
want to kiss me

wake up my brother
the dawn has come)


Poverty alleviation, land reforms, education and health would be his priorities. He made part of his speech in Guarani, the native tongue of the indigenous people and paid tribute to them. Paraguay is the only Latin American country where the indigenous language is spoken by the settlers and the whole population.

While the world media is obsessed with labelling him and making comparisons with others, Lugo said he will go his own pragmatic way. He has no revolution to export nor agenda to change the world. He has a limited domestic agenda to change the lives of the poor and the excluded. This is obvious from the fact that he did not make any reference to foreign policy or regional affairs in his hour-long speech.

It is not only the politics of Latin America which is changing.. the Presidential attire too is undergoing a revolution. While Lugo is on the top of this change with his sandals and whiteshirt, suits and tie have been discarded by the presidents of Bolivia and Ecuador. Both were wearing colourful traditional shirts without tie. While Correa had put on a jacket over his shirt, Evo Morales had his trade-mark casual jacket on.

During my call on Lugo on 17 July, I gifted to him Mahatma Gandhi´s autobiography in spanish. And Gandhi too wore sandals....Gandhi went further by foregoing even the shirt...and achieving independance for India. Lugo´s assumption of power on 15 August coincides with the Independence Day of India on the same day.

skiing in Bariloche

I skiied in Bariloche last weekend. The Catedral mountain ski resort of Bariloche is a different experience from Las Lenas, where i had gone last month.

Here in Bariloche, the scenery is breath-taking. The Nahuel Huappi Lake contrasts the shining white snow of the slopes with its distant,and deep, mystical and magical blue waters. The bushes and trees onthe slopes catch the fresh snow and offers you like flowers, as seen from the picture below...

Some of the slopes are somewhat narrow but are thrilling as one goes gliding on the shoulders of the mountain with snow-clad bushes and trees on both sides as in the picture below..

The other difference is that Bariloche is for families and even non-skiers. Those who do not ski can go up in the chairlifts to the top of the slopes, enjoy the view, walk and play around in the snow, have lunch in the restaurants on top and watch their friends and families skiing down.

The last difference is that the ski resort is part of the charming city of Bariloche, which has many attractions. There is plenty to see, feel and experience.

Hmm.. one can also here a lot of the Brazilian expressions.. cafezinho, amorzinho ..There are hordes of brazilians descending on the slopes here. It is, of course, a different experience to see the Brazilian garotas fully clothed.. unlike in Copacabana.

We went for dinner to a resturant called as Naan- which means Indian bread. When we reached there, the door was opened by the 5 year- old Uma, the daughter of the owner Erika, who makes the guests feel homely with her cooking and serving. They play Indian fusion music in the restaurant. Oops.. there is no indian food there.. just the names ...

Olga - Brazilian film

I saw this 2004 release yesterday. This film is based on the real-life story of Olga Benário, a German whose destiny is linked to Brazil.

Olga, born in a bourgeois German Jewish family becomes a revolutionary and goes to Soviet Union, where she is given army training. In 1935, she is assigned to protect the Brazilian communist leader Luis Carlos Prestes, who is returning to Brazil to raise a revolutionary movement against the dictator Getúlio Vargas. They travel to Brazil, pretending to be a married couple but during the long journey fall in love with each other. The Communist upraising fails and both are arrested and put in jail. As an act of personal vengeance against Prestes, Vargas deports Olga, seven months pregnant, to Nazi Germany, as a gift to Hitler. The Nazis put her in a Gestapo women's prison, where she gives birth to Anita, who is given back to the mother of Prestes. Later, Benario is taken to a Nazi concentration camp where she is killed in a gas chamber in 1942.

The movie is about politics, war, persecution and revolutionary spirit. It gives a glimpse of the communist movement and its repression by the military dictatorship in Brazil. The Nazi atrocities are portrayed graphically.

The movie is also about love which blossoms between the ideologically strong and disciplined Olga and the idealistic but sensitive and fragile Prestes, who knits a dress for Olga.

Camila Morgado has excelled in her role as Olga while Caco Ciocler has tried to be like Prestes.

Although one does not see much of Brazil in the film, it is one of the best to come out of the Brazilian cinema, which produces occasional hits. Jayme Monjardim, the director has done a good job although the critics have not been very generous to him on this film.

The Honorary Consul- novel by Graham Greene

The reason why Graham Greene is coming into this blog, rather than in my other blog " Floating Weed" is because this novel, "Honorary Consul" is about Latin America. I reread this novel with greater interest and curiosity last week since the location of the story is Argentina and Paraguay. I wanted to experience these countries through the eyes, ears and senses of Graham Greene, who has also spent time here.

The main character is Charley Fortnum the honorary consul of Britain in Paraguay. Although he is of British origin, his character has been tropicalised as a Latino. He imports cars dutyfree every two years and sells in the local market, although he is not entitled as a honorary consul. He is a bachelor in his sixties and floats on scotch whisky to get over his loneliness. One day the sixty year- old Charley falls in love with a twenty one year- old Clara, the girl from the puteria of senora sanchez. After this, his main obsession is to keep her happy and is thrilled when she becomes pregnant. Clara, while enjoying the unexpected affection of Charley, has an affair with her husband´s friend Doctor Eduardo Plarr,also of English origin. Eduardo´s father, a revolutionary, is jailed by the Paraguayan dictator and is killed while trying to escape from the prison.

Eduardo helps the guerillas to kidnap the American ambassador to Argentina while visiting Paraguay. But the amateurish guerillas bungle it and kidnap Charley by mistake. The guerillas do not want to give up even after discovering their mistake. They ask for the release of political prisoners in exchange for freeing Charley. But the British govenrment does not care for the life of an alcoholic and unscrupulous honorary consul. The revolutionary guerillas prefer to die rather than surrender. The Paraguayan police discover the hiding place of the kidnappers and kill them including Eduardo and free Charley.

The novel has got everything of the south america of the sixties and seventies; repressive military dictatorship, corrupt and decadent governments, guerilla war by revolutionaries of the Cuban vintage, role of United States in those days in the region, the vestiges of British presence in the region, catholic bishops turning into leftist radicals, poets living out lives of magical realism and the puterias, the refuge of the machos and poets.

The novel gives a glimpse of the conditions of the society caught between the traumas of the violent conflict between the dictatorship and leftists. Greene has captured the Porteno spirit of the elegant city of Buenos Aires, gossips and leisurely conversations in its cafes and shopping in Florida street. Eduardo´s mother tries to sink the depression caused by the disappearance of her husband by consuming packs and packs of Alfajores, the typical Argentine chocolate candies in Cafe Richmond in Florida street.

The kidnapping takes place in the Corrientes province of Argentina bordering paraguay, separated by Parana river. Greene has portrayed the situation in Paraguay, one of the most backward countries of south america, which has started changing only now. The story of the catholic priest Father Rivas, a product of "liberation theology" who leaves the church to become a revolutionary, has come true now. The catholic priest- turned leftist political leader Father Fernando Lugo has just been elected to become the President of Paraguay in August 2008. Lugo wears only sandals and leads an austere life, as part of his solidarity with the poor.

Greene has vividly brought out the Latino characteristics of Clara, the doctor and the honorary consul, with their ambiguous and tentative approach to relationships. Clara is a typical young and naive puta who adjusts herself smoothly and professionally to please her clients with absolute emotional detachment. The novelist Saavedra leads a bohemian life in a latino setting along with the revolutionary poet Aquino. With all these typical latino characters, Greene has been able to caputre the latino spirit and their way of interpretation of love and lust, hope and betrayal, illusions and dreams, in those times of dictatorship and ideologies. Greene has explored the theme of love through the characters of his novel. Dr Plarr thinks cynically that love is nothing but a bargain used by those offering love to demand reciprocal afection or obligation. For Charley, love blossoms when he meets Clara and wants to give so much without expecting any return. Father Rivas´s indian wife sees love as devotion to him despite his ambiguous approach to her.

Graham Greene had lived in Buenos Aires for sometime and that is how he had absorbed the comedies and tragedies of the Argentine society. He had stayed at Lancaster hotel in Cordoba avenue.

Greene has dedicated this novel to Victoria Ocampo and in memory of the many happy weeks he had passed at San Isidro and Mar del Plata. Victoria had hosted Rabindranath Tagore for two months in her houses in the same two cities.

La historia oficial - Argentine film

This is the first and only Argentine film which has won an Oscar award . It won in the foreign language category in 1986. I had been looking for this and finally got to see yesterday.

Alicia, a high school history teacher is happily married to a successful lawyer Roberto and they have an adopted daughter, the five year old Gaby. Her contented and innocent life takes a turn when one of her students asks if she believed in what the history books say. This wake up call is followed by the revelations of her childhood friend Ana ,who returns from exile. Ana recounts how she was detained and tortured on the suspicion that her husband was a subversive. She tells the horror stories of atrocities and disappearance of people and the handing over of children of disappeared parents to families related to the military junta. This makes Alicia to question and find out how Gaby came to be adopted by her husband. Her husband is evasive and denies any wrongdoing. But Alicia is determined to find out the truth and embarks on a mission to find out if Gaby is the daughter of a disappeared mother. She goes to search hospital records and finally gets to meet Gaby´s grand mother whose daughter had disappeared during the repression of the dictatorship.

The director of the film, Luis Puenzo, has vividly brought out the trauma suffered by Argentine society during the the years of dirty war waged by the military against leftists and their sympathisers. Rather than dramatising the crimes of the dictatorship, the director has used a middle class family to tell the sufferings subtly but poignantly.

The mothers whose children had " disappeared" continue even now their mourning and walking around the Plaza of May in Buenos Aires. They are known as the Mothers of Plaza of May.

Norma Aleandro ( Alicia) and Hector Alterio ( Roberto) and the other actors have portrayed their role realistically . The actress Norma Aleandro herself had gone into exile in Uruguay and Spain and returend to Argentina only after the restoration of democracy.

The movie was started in 1983, after the fall of the military dictatorship but had to be suspended and resumed secretly after the director and actors received threats from the military officers.

Argentina has still not got over the nightmare of the suffering under the military dictatorship. Military officers involved in killings are even now brought to justice and the scars have not healed yet. This is a reminder of the historical stain in the otherwise sofisicated, refined and cultured society of Argentina.

This film certainly merited an Oscar and the other awards it won.

U.S.-Latin America Relations - A New Direction for a New Reality

U.S.-Latin America Relations - A New Direction for a New Reality

This is the title of a report published in May 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. The task force which brought out the report includes among others Charlene Barshefsky former USTR.

Here are some highlights of the report:

-For over 150 years, the Monroe Doctrine provided the guiding principles for U.S. policy toward Latin America, asserting U.S. primacy in the foreign affairs of the region. Over the past two decades, those principles have become increasingly obsolete. Washington’s basic policy framework, however, has not changed sufficiently to reflect the new reality. U.S. policy can no longer be based on the assumption that the United States is the most important outside actor in Latin America. If there was an era of U.S. hegemony in Latin America, it is over.

-the era of the United States as the dominant influence in Latin America is over. Countries in the region have not only grown stronger but have expanded relations with others, including China and India.

-Latin America hasbenefited greatly in recent years from democratic opening, stable economic policies, and increasing growth. Many countries are taking advantage of these developments to
consolidate democratic institutions, broaden economic opportunities, and better serve their citizens.

-The region has undergone a historic transformation politically, with military authoritarian rule giving way to vibrant, if imperfect, democracy in almost every nation. Economically, Latin America is now one of the more open market regions in the world and a crucial global provider of energy, minerals, and food.

-U.S. policymakers must change the way they think about the region. Latin America is not Washington’s to lose; nor is it Washington’s to save. Latin America’s fate is largely in Latin America’s hands.

-Latin American states,especially the larger ones, do not consider their interests to be primarily determined by diplomatic, trade, or security ties with the United States.

-Latin America already supplies more oil to the United States than does the Middle East, and the
region has great potential to be a major provider of alternative fuel sources, increasing U.S. and regional energy security through diversification.

These highlights are reproductions from the report itself....

Full report in uncorrected version
http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/LatinAmerica_TF.pdf

Boca vs River super classic

According to Observer newspaper of UK, one of the fifty sport events one should watch in life is a super classic game between Boca Juniors and Riverplate teams of Argentina. In fact, this event is the top in the list of fifty. I watched it today at the stadium of Boca called as La Bombonera.

More than the game, the most exciting thing to watch was the Boca fans. The stadium, which was packed with 61,000 spectators was a riot of colour, noise and energy. There was almost non-stop singing, drum beating, throwing of paper rolls and insults hurled at River. The Boca fans call themselves as the number 12 ( La doce), which means they are the twelth player.

La Bombonera was vibrating when the fans started to jump in rhythm.. They say "La Bombonera no tiembla. Late" ("the Bombonera does not tremble. It beats.")

The fans, irrespective of their ages get into a frenzy and are transformed into totally different creatures inside the stadium. Grandmother, father, son and kids were shouting the most abusive and colourful words together against River players and the coach. It might be more appropriate to call it as a game of "Putas" (bitch ), since it was the word most used with many prefixes and suffixes.

There were so many songs praising Boca and damning River. Here is their Hymn.

Boca es nuestro grito de amor.
Boca nunca teme luchar,
Boca es entusiasmo y valor,
Boca Juniors. . . a triunfar. .




The rivalry between Boca and River Plate is the most intense in Argentine football and, perhaps, in the whole of Latin America. There is no equivalent even in Brazil, where the rivalry is dispersed among many teams unlike the intense bipolar rivalry between Boca and River which divides the whole country vertically.

La Bombonera ( means chocolate box) stadium in La Boca area of Buenos Aires is like chocolate boxes stacked up together.

Boca fans are more from the working class while River has an affluent fanbase, hence their nickname, Los Millionarios. Boca Juniors claims to be the club of "half plus one" ("la mitad mas uno") of Argentina's population, but a 2006 survey placed its following at 40%, still the largest share.

Maradona, who had played for Boca has a special balcony in the stadium and whenever he is there, a banner says " El Juancito esta presente". Today he was there.

In today´s game Boca won 1-0 to the delight of my hosts Francisco Okecki, his mother Maria and his two sons, who are hardcore fans.

Boca and River have played 182 games so far. Boca has won 66 times, River 61 times and rest were draws.

valle de la luna ( moon valley)- visit on 3 May 2008

They call this as the valle de la luna ( moon valley ) because it looks like the lunar surface. It is 300 km from San Juan city in the province of San Juan. This 63000 hectare park has been declared as a world heritage site by UNESCO.

The moon valley has fossils from the Triasic period, which lasted for 45 million years from 228 million and 187 million years back. They have found fossils of the first reptiles/dinosaurs of the world. Paleontologists from all over the world do research at this site in their quest to understand and reconstruct prehistorical evolutions.

The landscape of the valley is a natural beauty. The wind and the rain have worked out some incredible sculptures on the rocks.

Here is a spinx-like rock





Here is a picture of the rocks formed like balls. They keep coming out of the surface like pumpkins. The outer surface is formed by manganese.

The rock formation below is called as Submarino..since it resembles a submarine

More fotos...in my foto gallery http://picasaweb.google.com/viswanathanifs

The valley is surrounded by hills which shine reddish in the sun due to iron content in their rocks. The valley attracted 70,000 tourists last year. The park arranges moon light trips every month. They say it is magical.

Although it was not in my original programme of the visit to San Juan, last week, it became possible thanks to the offer of the helicopter by the Governor Jose Luis Gioga. It took us one hour by helicopter from San Juan city and at the valley we spent an hour touring the valley with a guide, who is passionate about the valley.

San Juan is one of the most dynamic and progressive provinces of Argentina. Although it is small with a population of 800,000 and 97 percent of the area is arid and mountainous, the hardworking San Juaninos have made the province as the second largest wine producer in the country. Syra is the signature wine of the province. The province´s agro exports include wine, table grapes, olives and fruit concentrates. There is also a thriving and growing mining industry in the areas of gold, silver, copper etc. And , of course, it has the Amancay Golf club , where I played nine holes before rushing to the airport.

El Nido vacio - Argentine film

I was there at the premiere of the film El Nido vacio - empty nest- yesterday at Village Cinema. It is a film about a couple, who find the house empty after their grown-up children leave home to be independent. The couple try to make sense of their togetherness trying to find a new meaning and bond to sustain the relationship. The man, Leonardo, who is a successful playwright, gets more introspective and gets into the usual midlife crisis. The hyperactive wife, Martha, restarts her life by resuming her university studies and having fun with social get-togethers. She also resumes shouting...to compensate for the days when she could not do so in the presence of children. Leonardo is uncomfortable among the friends of his wife and in social occasions. But his eyes follow the skirts and legs filling up his mind with fantasies. The fantasy at the clinic of a young female dentist takes the form of reality. He lets himself go after her. He is successful in getting her to reciprocate a bit and to take her to bed. But it is a one-shot affair. He feels guilty and does not proceed further.

The director and producer Daniel Burman has handled the theme very well. He has done it in an Argentine way making the story happen in the cafes. bars and restaurants through long but lively conversations. Fortunately, he has not made the film too heavy and complicated as the Argentine writers tend to do in the case of such themes. He has let the characters express their emotions and feelings in words, gestures and unspoken silences. He has let the story flow smoothly in a leisurely pace without any twists or complications.

Oscr Martinez has done justice to his role as Leonardo and so does Cecilia Roth as Martha in a realistic and credible manner.

For me, what the movie shows is what happens in the corner and sidewalk cafes of Buenos Aires every day. Couples and friends sit there for hours sipping cafe and talking..talking..and talking. It is part of the Porteno ( residents of the port city of Buenos Aires are called as portenos) culture.

Paraguay elects a Leftist ex-Bishop as President

Fernando Lugo was elected in the elections held on 20 April. It was not surprising, since he had been leading in the opinion polls for the last one year. I had been predicting and talking about this to the surprise and consternation of my Paraguayan friends.

It is a historic election for Paraguay. The Colorado party which was continuously ruling the country for the last 61 years was defeated for the first time. On the contrary, Lugo is a newcomer to politics. He took to politics only in 2006. He was one of those believers and practioners of Liberation Theology and was known as the Bishop of the poor. He formed a coalition with an assortment of political parties and indigenous groups and won the elections against formidable obstacles put in his way.

Lugo is the first Leftist President of the country. He wants to change the conditions of the poor. He wants to carry out land reforms and rid the society of corruption. Paraguay is the second most poor country in South America after Bolivia and one of the most corrupt and mismanaged.

But credit must be given to Colorado party candidate and the current President who quickly conceded defeat gracefully and committed to peaceful transfer of power due on 15 August. This shows the maturity of the leaders in contrast to what happened in Mexico. Credit is also due to the government which organised free and fair elections even after knowing that they risked losing power.

The election was colourful in a latino way ! The three main candidates were a bishop, woman ( queen) and a general ( knight).

Lugo´s election completes the Circle of the Left in south america where all the countries except Colombia ( where leftist ideology has been kidnapped and held hostage by FARC) have elected leftist governments. I prefer to call this development as empowerment of the masses , rather than an ideological shift. The masses who were marginalised and excluded in the past have exercised their power to elect those who have an agenda for them...simple !

Lugo is moderate, balanced and mature. He proposes to follow the model of Tabare Vasquez of Uruguay, who is respected in his country and in the region for his pragmatic approach. The opposition had accused Lugo as a Chavista and of receiving funds from Chavez. But Lugo is independent and nationalistic. Lugo did not indulge in any anti-American rhetoric. His language is not confrontational or polarising like in the case of some south american presidents.

Lugo will face many challenges to implement his agenda for change. he does not have a cohesive majority in the congress. His coalition parners, which include communists, liberals and indigenous groups have divergent agenda. The traditional political parties have control of the Congress and many provinces.

In foreign policy, he is going to make some changes. He is going to open diplomatic relations with China. Paraguay remains as the only country in south america to have recognised Taiwan. Lugo is asking for a better deal from Mercosur, which is run by the big boys, Brazil and Argentina. He has asked for a fair price for the electricity being supplied to Brazil from the 12000 MW Itaipu dam. Although President Lula ruled out renegoiations, his foreign minister Celso Amorim has hinted that discussions were possible. Lugo has demanded a simliar fair deal from a joint hydro power project with Argentina too.

Lugo seeks partnership with new powers such as India. Of course, the outgoing government had also attached importance to India and opened embassy in newdelhi. Lugo can be expected to be more friendly. Paraguay is the fourth largest exporter of soya in the world and this is important for India. There are opportunities for investment by Indian companies in agribusiness.

"India: from misery to power" - book by Patricia Campos Mello

I have just received a copy of this book in Portuguese ( India: da miseria a potencia") , which was launched on 25 March in Sao Paulo. Patricia is a journalist, curently based in Washington DC as the correspondent of Estado de Sao Paulo daily. She had visited India for three weeks in 2006 to interview people and collect materials for the book. India Brand Equity Foundation had financed and organised her visit.

Patricia has given an overview of the emergence of India as an important market, IT power and rising power. She has quoted the usual sources such as Thomas Friedman and businessmen like Nandan Nilekhani. She has quoted me too...


She contrasts India's IT skills and business boom with the poverty, caste system and problems faced by India. The photos she has put in the book are those which describe the misery and problems. She has forgotten to put the pictures which could have reflected the potencia! India seems to have given her a cultural shock from which she did not succeed in gaining her balance.

She has made the predictable comparison with China. She has earlier written a book on China called as " o mundo tem medo de china".

She has compared Brazil with India , the countries of the future. She says that while Brazil has been waiting eternally as the country of future, India has taken off. She has referred to the term "Belindia" which is used in Brazil to describe the inequality; the developed part of Brazil is compared to Belgium and the rest to India. She says while Brazil continues to be Belindia, India is no longer what India meant in the past. She has mentioned in passing the growing partnership between the two countries.

Patricia's book is a timely fill-in for the Brazilians who are puzzled and amazed by the sudden and rapid rise of India. Brazilian government and the business are curious and serious about India.There are no contemporary books on India in portuguese. Books on India available in Brazil are about culture and spiritualism. Although Patricia has not gone into the details of what has caused the paradigm shift in India and and in the mindset of Indians, the book serves its purpose by making the Brazilians to search for answers within themselves. I guess the three week stay was too short for her to understand the complexities of India.

My feeling is that the Brazilians have also reached a take off stage with a new confidence, energy and optimism. Brazilian companies are on a buying spree in neighbouring countries and outside. In 2007, Brazilian outward investment was more than the inward Foreign Direct Investment. The discovery of new oil fields, the commodity boom, leadership in fuel ethanol... are some of the factors which have strengthened the confidence of the Brazilian business. This has been complemented by the political equilibrium achieved by the government with its pragmatic policies friendly to both the Wall Street and Favelas. The government has successfully raised its profile in the region as well in the world by careful and astute diplomatic initiatives. This business- government synergy and putting their act together with a new vision and determination has made Brazil unstoppable....

Viva Brasil !

"Black Novel" book by Luisa Valenzuela

Luisa Valenzuela, the Argentine writer has used the setting of Manhattan for her Argentine hero to roam around, get lost and confuse himself. Augustin, the hero of the novel takes refuge in Newyork, after the military dictators smoke out free thought in Argentina. He gets a grant for the stay and write a book. One day he goes to a theatre, meets an actress in the play, goes with her to her house and kills her with a gun, for no reason and without any provocation. He runs away from the scene. He takes refuge in the house of a writer-friend Roberta and confesses to her. She cannot understand how he could have commited murder and tries to analyse how it could have happened. Both of them come to a convoluted conclusion that may be it was part of a make-believe theatre. In a sub-plot, Roberta visits her friend Lara who runs a sadomachist centre where men and women live their fantasies, sexual perversions and let themselves be tortured and punished. Lara tells the writer that her centre should give abundant materials and themes for the writers. Later Augustin also visits Lara's den and lets himslef subjected to a milder version. The book ends with a confusion in the same way it starts.

The title of the novel is self explanatory. It was all black ... after going through the dark alleys one ends up against a black wall.

There are, of course, some interesting parts in which Valenzuela gives clear and vivid touch of Argentina contrasting it with the new world of NewYork.

After having tried the other books of Luisa Valenzuela and failed to appreciate except one book, I did not want to give up. I finished this book.. but it left me with a sense of vacuum at the end of it.

Now I understand why there are so many psychologists in Argentina. Luisa Valenzuela, Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar and the other writers should be confusing the Argentines thoroughly and making them to seek psychic help.

Argentine souls go to Ashrams in India and Indian bodies come to dance Tango

Thousands of Argentine souls visit India seeking greater wisdom and deeper understanding of spirit. The Argentine visitors dip in the Ganges to purify their souls and stay in Ashrams to enlighten themselves. There are hundreds of followers of Saibaba, Harekrishna and Ramakrishna Mission, among others in Argentina. The other day when I was in the restaurant of the famous resort Llao Llao in Bariloche, a waiter named Jorge greeted me with a Namaste. He is an Anandmargi and has lived in Calcutta for three months. He has assumed an Indian name and practices meditation and recites mantras. During her fashion show yesterday,Monica Socolovski, the Argentine fashion designer told me that Saibaba is her great inspiration.

While the Argentine souls have been journeying to India since many years, there is a reverse traffic now. Indian bodies have started come to dance Tango in Argentina. Sharukh Merchant, partner of the Tandoor restaurant was bitten by the Tango bug in Boston and is here since the last several months. He is an accomplished tango dancer.

In his dinner at Tandoor the other day, he introduced me to Mamta,who has come to Buenos Aires to learn Tango. She is going to be here for three months. She goes to different tango studios and practices every day. She has started going to Milongas, where a faster version of Tango is danced in clubs and where one gets chance to dance with different partners.

Mamta had started learning in India and continued it in New York and she is here to breathe and live Tango...

It may not be a big deal if she is learning salsa, samba or merengue. But Tango is a different ball game... literally...my readers might recall the reference to balls in my blog on the novel Kiss and Tango... http://latinamericanaffairs.blogspot.com/2007/12/kiss-and-tango-novel-by-marina-palmer.html#links
Tango is the most sensual dance in which sparks are emitted by the rubbing bodies. That makes it more challenging for the tradition-bound Indians who are more preoccupied with souls than bodies.

Tango is only a reflection of the amazing adventurous spirit of Mamta, who has broken several myths and streotyping of Indian women. She is a single woman ( her fiance from India will visit her soon), who has come alone to stay in a new city whose language is new to her. But she has been managing confidently and successfully the Buenos Aires Taxis, the Machos in Milongas and even the city traffic on a cycle on a weekday. Bravo..

In case the readers imagine that she is an adolescent bitten by the dance bug.. hmm .. forget it.. Her children have grown past the adolescent stage into the twenties. She has beaten the age. She is as fit, as energetic and as mad ....as any teenager.

She has started going for a spanish class so that she can understand the lyrics of Tango and interact with the Argentines.

She is by profession a graphic designer. She has studied and worked in New Zealand and then moved to NewYork from where she has come to the Tango land.

Rather than continuing with my interpretation of her, let me put the readers straight into her blog: Tango y espanol in Buenos Aires
http://tangoandspanishinba.blogspot.com/

And she has an interesting foto gallery too..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24668244@N07/?saved=1

Felicitaciones Mamta... Felices aventuras !

Before I end, I must mention the third Indian who has come to Argentina for a month to learn tango and experience Argentina. He is Udai from Bangalore. He has taken a break from his Microsoft job to travel around for a year. He has already done a month in Brazil, before coming here. He is on a backpack trip with a Guitar and amzing spirit.

"Bedside manners"- novel by Luisa Valenzuela

This is the second novel of the Argentine writer Luisa Valenzuela that I have read. The first one" Clara" was a simple and straightforward story but this one is " magical realism".

It is the story of an Argentine woman who flees military dictatorship, lives in USA for ten years and returns home after the restoration of democracy. Her friend advises her to take rest in a country club outside the city of Buenos Aires to prepare herself to the new realities of the city. But her rest is constantly disturbed by a wicked maid, who takes advantage of the woman who had been out of touch with the country for ten years. The maid increases the amount to be paid for purchases she makes for the senora every five minutes ,attributing the increase to inflation. An army regiment uses the country club premises including her king size bed for exercises. A sergeant is hiding under her bed as part of the exercise and the poor starving guy steals the food supplies of the senora. The captain is planning a coup to overthrow the civilian government. He belongs to the typial Latino military school of thought which is cocky and confident that it alone knows how to govern and has contempt for the civilians. But the army detachment is mocked and teased by the slum dwellers who have nothing to look for and nothing to fear. The senora calls for a doctor and finds that the doctor doubles up as a taxi driver to supplement his income. He seduces the senora to have sex but as soon as it is over, he starts commanding her like a macho.

The story is quintessential Latin America... Argentina. It has been the reality not very long ago. Luisa has weaved magic into this reality. She has made it funny and satirical.

It is a pity that Luisa has made it as a short novel of just 120 pages, after having elaborately opened the themes of the story on all sides and raising readers' expectations.

After reading this book, I started another novel of Luisa called as " He who searches- como en la guerra"It is about a psycho analyst in Madrid who goes to study his subject, an Argentine woman, after midnight. The woman says "she awakens in men a love so intense and real that afterward they cannot bear it and abandon her".

Another typical Argentine theme.. they say Buenos Aires has more psychoanalysts per capita than any other capital!

But the novel drifts into all directions and unconnected digressions... I have now abandoned it after reading about 100 pages. It became heavy like the works of Borghes !

Goa Carnival - Brazilian touch

This year's carnival in Goa was given a Brazilian Samba touch by the Brazilian consul general in Mumbai Paulo Pinto, who has sent me these fotos.

Here he is proudly waving the Brazilian flag and singing,

"Eram mais de mil mulheres belas, e eu só pra todas elas!!"
means- there were thousand pretty women.. and I was the only one for all of them"

I am not going to write about carnival, since it is more for seeing......

Of course, my readers would be disappointed that these Carnival fotos are not upto their expectations ! Who knows? Paulo Pinto might succeed in Brazilianising the Goa carnaval with more samba and less Clothes......

Love in the time of Cholera - Movie

The novel " Love in the time of Cholera" was the first book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez I read. At that time, I did not know that he had won Nobel prize or that he was one of the greatest Latin American writers. I had picked up the book at a random browsing in a NewYork bookshop by sheer instinct. The title was intriguing. When I started reading, I could not stop. It was so absorbing and powerful. This great romantic story transported me to a new world..literally...the new world of Latin America. And that was how I got interested in Latin American authors and in Latin America.

So, the novel has a special significance for me as an inspiration which lead me to become "Passionate about Latin America". The passion has remained as enduring and inolvidable as Florentino's passion for Fermina.

Against the above background, I was a bit apprehensive that this English film of a Latino story and that too by Hollywood might not do justice to a great writer and story from Colombia and might reduce the great impact made on me by the book. And the reviews of the film in Argentine media were unfavourable.

With hesitation, I went to see the movie yesterday, the first day of its release in Argentina. It was released in USA in November 2007.

Hmmm... I liked the film and enjoyed it. It not only rekindled the romantic feelings generated by the book ten years back but also gave a visual dimension of enjoyment to my treasued memory of the book. The last scene in which Florentino, the hero, sails on River Magdalena with Fermina and his command to the captain of the ship to hoist the black flag ( to announce cholera in the ship - in those days) so that his love moments can go on uninterrupted is very touching.

The story is about Florentino's long wait of over fifty years to regain the heart of his beloved Fermina. The young Florentino falls in love with her at first sight and writes letters and poems to her. After initially encouraging him and responding to him, she turns him down due to pressure from her father and her own female whim. She gets married to a doctor, has the usual married life of ups and downs and reaches the age of over seventy. But he does not give up. He waits year after year with full-blooded love for her, undiminshed by time. Of course, his body lets itself indulge in carnal unions with over 600 women.. and he keeps count and an annotated diary. When Fermina's husband dies, he comes to her house on the day of the funeral. He reiterates his love saying he was waiting for that day. The 72 year-old widow shouts at at him to get out of her life. But he is persistent untill she relents. And he takes her on a cruise in the River Magdalena to celebrate the fulfillment of his passion after having waited for a life time. There, the two hearts are reunited and reignited. And the two old bodies even make love.

Javier Bardem, the Spanish actor has superbly acted as Florentino while Giovanna Mezzogiorno, the Italian actress has portrayed the role of Fermina truthfully.

Shakira, the Colombian singer has lent her voice to the background songs which go harmoniously with the mood and flow of the story taking place in Cartagena in Colombia.

Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate in Argentina

Magical Realism- is not just a genre of Latin American literature. It could be a visual experience too ! This is what i felt, standing before the magical beauty of Glacier Perito Moreno. Was it magic? ..a dream ? ... an optical illusion? or real? I could not be sure. My eyes were moist with the misty with the white and blue, soft and frozen snow. My mind did not trust my eyes. My heart stopped its beat. I was swept off my feet. My soul took refuge in the heavenly abode of the glacial ambience. The only part which was conscious and did its duty.. my fingers... kept clicking and clicking..digital pictures. Welcome to view them in my photo album

http://picasaweb.google.com/viswanathanifs

I was stunned and overwhelmed by the majestic sight of Perito Moreno Glacier on 8 jan 2007. I had seen pictures and a movie about it and was expecting something. But what I saw was more than I ever imagined.

The Glacier stands majestically with its 50 metres height, like a wall, on the waters of Argentina lake. It is held on two sides by the snow-clad mountains. The area of the glacier is 250 square kilometres. There are many glaciers in the world, some bigger than Perito Moreno. What makes it distinct is its easy access at an altitude of just 1000 metres and pleasant climatic conditions surrounded by lush green scenery.

From time to time, pieces of the glacier fall with thunderous sound causing a kind of tidal wave in the lake. The pieces float on the lake moved by the winds.

After the admiration from a distance and close up views from the boat, the climax came with the walk on the glacier. The guides took us for about a kilometre over the glacier. It was my first ice walk with crampons ( ice spikes) fitted to my shoes. During the walk, one comes across a number of tunnels, cave-like openings and streams of water rushing into the holes of the glacier. One is scared of the possibility of the surface caving in and an ice burial.

The Argentina Lake, which is 100 kms long and 5 kms wide starts from the Glacier and stretches upto the small town of El Calafate, from where the tours to Glacier are organised. I stayed in the Design Suites Hotel, which has fantastic view of the lake. El Calafate is a typical Patagonian region marked by barren lands and merciless fierce cold winds. Cattle ranches and sheep farms are the only activities.

The little village of El Calafate, with a population of just 16000 residents, has 8000 hotel rooms and hosts 400,000 visitors every year. It has a modern airport, a nine-hole golf course and plenty of restaurants serving Cordero- sheep meat which is barbecued in Asadors (open pits).

The most memorable aspect of the glacier is the bluish hue, shining and reflecting the sunlight. It has inspired a local poet to write a poem called as " El Azul " - The Blue.

Here are some excerpts of the poem..

Azul..glacial, arriesgo una palabra

glacial como alma de los hombres

glacial como la mole que lo mece

O simplemente El Azul....

Carlos Paez Vilarao - Uruguayan artist

During my visit to Punta de Leste, the Uruguayan beach resort last week, I visited Casa Pueblo ( people's house ), the studio of the famous artist Carlos Paez Vilaro.

Carlos is a prolific and multimode artist. He is primarily a painter but has tried his creativity in painting, murals, ceramics, sculpture, films, cartoons,music, writing and architecture. Below are some of his paintings:

Casa Pueblo is a striking building and reflects the creativity of Carlos Paez. It is hanging on to the sea side of a tall cliff overlooking the sea. After entering the building at the top of the cliff, one keeps going down and down to the water level seven stories below.

He now lives in part of the Casa Pueblo and has made the other part as a hotel. He has designed and built it with local materials from the same site, with his own hands! From every room in the building, he welcomes and worships the sun, reflects over the blue waters and dialogues with the birds sitting on the bamboo stick roofs.

He has built a similiar building and a church near Buenos Aires in Argentina.

I was touched by a documentary film on him shown in the casa pueblo. Coming from a poor family, he emigrated to Argentina and started work in a printing press. He developed interest in painting and returned to uruguay. He joined the African band and played tambore. He travelled to Bahia in Brazil and studied the African traditions there. Then he visited Europe, Africa and Asia and Oceania. He had particularly relished his interaction with Africans. He has held exihibitions in cities around the world and has painted murals in many parts of the world. He has also painted many parts of women, who have been his sources of inspiration !

He is now 84 years old but is still burning with vigorous creativity. He has three Argentine children and three Uruguyan children. One of them was in a plane,with the uruguyan rugby team, which crashed into Andean mountain in 1972. While others gave up hope, he continued search for three months and found out that his son was one of the 16 who miraculously survived the crash and the exposure to snow and hunger for several weeks. They had eaten the flesh of their dead colleagues. He wrote a book ENTRE MI HIJO Y YO, LA LUNA in which he quotes Walt Whitman

"If you cannot find me immediately, don´t give up.

If I am not in a place, look for me, I´ll be waiting for you somewhere,

I wait for you, in some place I am waiting for you."

I gave him a book on India in Spanish and invited him to visit. He gifted to me a copy of his autobiography, "Arte y Parte"

more about him

http://www.carlospaezvilaro.com

Kiss and Tango- novel by Marina Palmer

Did I find the book or the did the book find me?... Sounds like the title of a story by the Argentine writer Luis Borges?
I was in one of my exploratory walks in the jacaranda-clad avenues, filled with the aroma coming from the side-walk cafes of the elegant city of Buenos Aires. I came across a English bookshop. I stopped when I saw the title.."Kiss and Tango- diary of a dancehall seductress". It was instant seduction.
But when I saw name of the author... I hesitated. I thought it might be another one of those Gringa ( American woman ) package with lot of marketing hype and a bit of story. But I gambled, as my Argentine amigos do in love and life, and bought the book. .... Dios Mio... When I started reading, I could not stop. And when I was nearing the last pages, I did not want it to end. I wanted it to go on like all-night tango... It was sheer enjoyment from the beginning to the end.

The story is about a young American woman,who visits Buenos Aires for a week and gets introduction to Tango. After her return to New York, she starts learning, finds it interesting and becomes obsessed. She dances all night and yawns all day in the office. She loses interest in her advertising executive job, quits it and comes back to Buenos Aires to become a professional tango dancer.

Now tango becomes life ... or life becomes a tango. She discovers the meaning of the saying " two to tango". She might be a great dancer but she needs a partner. And she starts the pursuit of an ideal partner.. a dancer who will lead her on the dance floor perfectly, a macho who will take her to orgasmic heights, a husband who will be tender, loyal and blind to the other beauties and a man with the right age, height,length and without bad breath. But she gets one disappointment after another and goes through one desencuentro ( a meet which did not materialise because the guy forgot or got the date or place mixed up..) after an encuentro.

She goes through the every day ritual of finding a partner at the milonga ( dance hall). The woman has to wait for a " cabezeo" .. a nod inviting you to dance. So she hangs around desperate for a cabezeo. After dancing with one man, she wants to do with others. But when he dances with others, she cannott take it.

What happens after the all night tango? the man invites her for a little " mate"- the bitter Argentine herbal tea at 5 am. your place or mine?. It could be climax or anti-climax, she is never sure. When she finds out, that experience makes her wait for or dread the dance partnership with that guy the next night.

One dance, one night-stand ... Then she starts seeing beyond the night and the morning sex. She wants marriage but finds it as a mirage. Compromisso( commitment in spanish) is the word missing in the vocabulary of the tango Machos. She is frustrated, desperate and goes through jealousy, rivalry, fights and heart-breaks.

Tango becomes a nightmare. Life becomes like the tango lyrics.... sad, frustrating, bitter and nostalgic.

After dancing in many Milongas and a few shows and short of funds, she ends up as a street performer in Calle Florida, the famous shopping avenue of the city. She runs out of audience when the Argentines are hit by the economic crisis of December 2001. She flees Argentina and gets away from tango. She returns in 2005 to rediscover that Tango had never left her. It has become part of her body and soul and she remembers every "body" with whom she had danced

I found the book as a window to the world of Tango, Buenos Aires and the Argentine society. The author has given an authentic flavour of the life of Portenos, as the inhabitants of Buenos Aires are called.

I enjoyed her subtle British style wit and tongue- in- cheek American upfront articulations about sex and feelings. She is provocative and hilarious.
Her website http://www.kissandtango.com/home.html is as interesting as I imagined about the author of Kiss and Tango. She lives in Buenos Aires.

Here are some excerpts from the book:

-She realises the law of physics: two bodies that rub against each other for four hours, three times a week cause friction; friction causes sparks; and sparks cause a fire. And by definition , tango is about containing the fire. you need a fire, because without it, there is nothing to contain. So tango is about playing with fire without getting burnt".

-Tango involves kicking the heels between the legs of the partner. When the the macho does not behave, he gets it up. But the machos dont flinch because either they dont have balls or they have become so numb after so many hits.

-Latin lovers love the chase more than the conquest.

It is Jacaranda time... in Buenos Aires

It is jacaranda season. There is a riot of jacaranda flowers in Buenos Aires. The Jacaranda trees adorn the avenues. Those inside the car peep out to see the trees. Those hurrying for work, slow down after seeing the flowers. Those sipping cafe in the outdoor cafes sit longer letting their imagination soar in the sky.

The jacarandas add to the joy of playing in the golf courses. There is a purple carpet of fallen flowers under the jacaranda trees. The golfers look up the tree and down the carpet and hit yet another bad shot!

The romantic spring season of Buenos Aires is made poetic by the jacarandas...

NOS CUBRIMOS CON FLORES
BAJO LA JACARANDA
CANTAMOS NUESTROS AMORES.

EN ESA TARDE ESTIVAL,
LOS TRINOS CANOROS,
LA BRISA DEL VIENTO,
EL RUMOR DE LA FUENTE,
TODO SE CONVIRTIÓ
EN UNA CASCADA DE BESOS,
EN ESA TARDE PASIONAL.

LA LUNA NOS ENVOLVIÓ
EN SUS RAYOS PLATEADOS,
AMANECIMOS COBIJADOS
BAJOS LOS RAYOS DORADOS.

BAJO LA JACARANDA
NOS CUBRIMOS CON FLORES,
BAJO LA JACARANDA
CANTAMOS NUESTROS AMORES.

Homage to Maria Rene Cura, 1 December 2007

I was invited yesterday to the ceremony for paying homage to Rene Cura at Chivilcoy. Rene Cura was a friend and admirer of India till her death in July 2007. She had established Anand Bhavan ( inspired by the one in Allahabad) as a centre for Indian studies in 1977 and published a magazine " India eterna y actual" from 1982 to 2007. She had visited India and had interacted with Mrs Indira Gandhi. She was close to Victoria Ocampo another admirer of India. Rene Cura was conferred with Padmashri award in 1984.

In my speech, I paid homage to her contribution to promotion of Indian culture in Argentina and the foundation she had laid for Indo- Argentine cultural relations. I talked about the potential to build on this foundation a partnership between the modern India and the new argentina.While Rene Cura was passionate about India, I am passionate about Latin America.

The ceremony was simple and elegant. The last issue of the magazine " India eterna y actual" was released. The two ladies who read excerpts of Rene Cura's writings did it professionally and emotionally.

I was also impressed with the city of Chivilcoy, although small with a population of 70,000, has beautiful plazas and a large public library with over 100,000 books in a five-storey building.

Indian photo exihibition by Graciela Roger

The photographer Graciela is on the right. Ambassador Biritos who was Argentine ambassador in India is on the extreme left. Ambassador Mignini from the foreign office is next to me.

Graciela has an interesting collection of fotos of faces and people of India. She has visited india four times. She has been to many parts of india, outside the conventional touristic places. She has even held an exihibition in India during the time of Ambassador Biritos in India.

The exihibtion was inagurated today and is open to the public from 27 to 30 November at the Circulo Militar, Av Santa Fe 750.

Hunabku - New Argentine film

Last week I was invited to the premier of this film at the Recolecta Village cinema. The film is being released in theatres in Argentina on 29 November 2007.

The movie is directed by Pablo Cesar, the famous Argentine director. He is at the moment in India as a jury in the international film festival in Goa. He has earlier directed a Indo- Argentine joint production called as " Unicorn- the garden of fruits" released in 1996. The cast of this film has both Argentines and Indians.

Hunabku has been shot in the glaciers region of Patagonia in the south of Argentina close to the city of Calafate. The glacier scenes are spectacular.

The story is about Lucas a 13 - year old boy who shifts to Patagonia, with his father who is posted there to develop a tourism project. The boy is fascinated and mesmerised by the glaciers, mountains, sea and the fantastic bounties of nature. His wanderings in the magical Patagonian landscape triggers new emotions, imaginations, fears and curiosities. He decides to study anthropology. His father, immersed in his own project, thinks that the son has gone crazy. Luca's mother becomes depressed by the isolation in the desolated patagonian emptiness. Finally, the anthropology teacher Nicolas helps the whole family to come to terms with the nature and with each other.

Pablo has used sitar and santoor music from India to add to the mystery of the mountains. In fact, the theme of the movie is like an Indian one. Nicolas the anthropologist is like a Guru in the Himalayan mountain unveiling the mysteries of life in simple terms while using riddles to mystify simple things.

Indian Culinary Engineers in Buenos Aires

Sharukh Merchant ( extreme left) and Belliappa ( on the right) are the Culinary engineers in Buenos Aires.

Sharukh has done masters from MIT in telecom engineering. Belliappa has studied electronics engineering in USA. Both have left their engineering vocations and are in restaurant business which has become their passion. Both love Buenos Aires. They have opened an Indian restaurant " Tandoor" in Buenos Aires, since June 2007.

I had dinner in Tandoor yesterday with my Argentine friends. The food was delicious. The ambience elegant. The building in which the restaurant is located is historic. We visited the kitchen which is clean. My Argentine friends saw for the first time tandoor cooking of India.

I had pre and after dinner drinks and conversations with Sharukh and Belliappa. I found their passion for Buenos Aires as profound and infectious as mine. They speak fluent spanish.

Shahrukh has another passion- Tango. He learnt tango in Boston, formed a Tango society there and became a Tango teacher ! He does Salsa too.

By night in Chile - novel by Roberto Bolano

This is the story of a boy who wanted to be a poet but ended up as a Opus Dei priest Father Sebastian Urrutia. But he continues his literarary pursuits as a successful critic, although he writes poems occasionally and unsatisfactorily. He is sent to europe to study the challenges for preservation of churches. He encounters priests who consider pigeon shit as the most challenging. They keep falcons to drive away the pigeons. But then one of the priests confesses that falconry is destruction of the very symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Father Urrutia gets an assignment to teach Marxism in ten lessons to General Pinochet and his Junta secretly. He frequents the house of a literary lady Maria Canales who hosts all-night parties for the authors and artists while the city is clamped in night curfew. Later they discover that the American husband of the hostess colludes with the Chilean secret service to detain, interrogate and kill those suspected as subversives, in the basement of the house where his Chilean wife had literary soirees. This last part is based on the realife story of Mariana Callejas, a Chilean who was married to Michael Townley an American involved in the repression in Chile.

Father Urrutia describes the dilemma/excuse/explanation/ justification of those who went along with the dictatorship in these words:
"At the end of the day, we were all reasonable ,we were all Chileans, we were all normal, discreet, logical, balanced, careful, sensible people, we all knew that something had to be done, that certain things were necessary, there's a time for sacrifice and a time for thinking reasonably."Father Urrutia confesses that he has spent his entire life fleeing from the wizened youth.

The novel brings out the creative and destructive forces which had shaken and shaped the Chilean politics, literature and society in the last thirty years. The author uses magical realism to take the readers between reality and imagination; between Neruda and Pinochet; between Chile and Europe; and between the church and the state. He relishes sarcasm and satire in his powerful imageries and graphic style of writing.

Bolano himself was a victim of the military dictatorship. He was imprisoned. Later he went into exile in mexico and Europe. he died at the age of fifty in 2003.

This is the second book of Bolano for me. I have already read his other novel "Distant Star", which was also about literature caught in Chilean dictatorship.

Argentine Polo tournament

I was invited to the semifinals of Hurlingham open at the Hurlingham club today. La Dolfina beat Chapa Uno by 17-15. It was not surprising since the world number one Adolfo Cambaiazo played for El Dolfino. He is the Tiger Woods of polo. His game was indeed very impressive. He is fast on the horse and is an artist with the polo ball. He was the youngest player to win a 10 goal handicap at the age of 19. He has won every medal and tournament in polo.

This is the polo season in argentina. They have three majors: Tortuga open, Hurlingham Open, and Palermo Open.

The number of ten handicappers in the world is eleven, all of them from Argentina.
There are 2000 polo grounds in Argentina. many of them private in farm estates. Hurlingham itself has 5 polo grounds. The number of polo clubs affiliated to the Argentine Polo Association is over 150.

Pepe, the Argentine friend and player who was explaining to me the finer details of the game has two children who have been on the horse since the age of two. They have been playing polo since six years of age. Pepe's grand father was a polo champ. Like him there are many families with polo tradition.

Argentina is on top of the games

Yesterday, Angel Cabrera of Argentina won the Singapore Open Golf. This is his his fourth international victory this year. He had won the US Open earlier this year. He is the second Latin American to win a major, after Roberto Vincezo ( another Argentine) won the British open in the sixties.Andres Romero another Argentine, almost won the British Open this summer. He made ten birdies on the sunday and was leading untill the disastrous double bogies.

Yesterday marked another Argentine victory in Tennis. David Nalbandian won the ATP Masters after beating Federer and Nadal, the number one and two.Argentina has produced some great tennis stars in the past.

Last month Argentina came in the third place in World Rugby Championship.

In Footbal,Argentina is among the top. After the El Dies ( number ten) Maradona, now there is Lionel Messi capturing the imagination of the world footbal fans.
The rivalry between Boca and Riverplate is the most ferocious. There is also a class division here. Boca supporters are the masses while the Riverplate supporters are from the upper classes in general. This year Riverplate has won the semifinal of the World club championship and is now going to Tokyo for the finals.

Yesterday I saw a few buses full of screaming and shouting youth escorted by several police cars. They were fans of Independiente club, one among the top. They needed protection from their rival club fans! I had not seen this even in Brazil.

In Polo, Argentina is the best. They have the best nine players in the world of the top ten. There are so many polo grounds here. The horses and the game are not expensive. Kids learn horse riding during summer vacation in their farm estates.

Guess what is the national sport of Argentina.. it is Pato.. a polo game in which they used duck( pato in spanish means duck) instead of ball. The player hooks the duck from the ground and carries while the others try to stop. But these days they use a leather ball with a handle to hook and carry.

Nueve Reinas - Argentine Film

Nueve Reinas- (nine queens) is the first Argentine film I have seen after my arrival here.
The story is about two conmen, one a pro Marcos ( role played by Ricardo Darin, a popular Argentine actor) and an amateur, Juan ( Gaston Pauls - another Argentine actor) who is the son of another conman. The two join together and pull off tricks on people stealing money and cheating them. One day a friend of Marcos comes up with a scheme to sell a set of forged rare German stamps called as nueva reinas. They see an opportunity here to make big bucks but then they are taken for a ride by many other intermediates who try to cut deals and seek commissions. The conmen get conned.

It is a delightful crime comedy. Ricardo Darin and Gaston Pauls have acted well. The movie was directed by Fabian Bielinsky. The movie has been shot in Buenos Aires. Released in 2000, it is said to be one of the best Argentine films and it has won many awards.

Hotel, Soccer and Tango for gays in Buenos Aires

An exclusive hotel for gays, Axel Hotel opened today in Buenos Aires, the first of its kind in a country famed more for machismo and Catholicism than overt homosexuality.

Male tango dancers and drag queens will perform at an inauguration party tonight to which 1,000 people have been invited.

The hotel, aimed squarely at gay men, not women, is the second opened by the Axel group, a Spanish company which started its maiden one in Barcelona in 2003. Named after a former boyfriend of the founder, Juan Julia Blanch, the group plans rapid expansion.

The move to Latin America is a sign that a continent once marked by conservatism and homophobia is liberalising, albeit slowly and unevenly. Colombia has recognised gay rights and Venezuela has outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Argentina blazed the way with a law allowing civil unions among homosexuals which has helped make Buenos Aires Latin America's gay capital. Some 300,000 gay visitors are estimated to spend £300m here each year in the city.

Last month the city hosted the 10th Gay World Cup soccer tournament, a first for South America, and next month it will host the first gay tango festival, Tango Queer.

Ines of my soul - novel of Isabel Allende

It is after a long gap that I had a chance to read Isabel Allende again. In this book " Ines of my soul" Isabel has chosen a historical theme and has recreated the time of conquest and colonisation of Chile. The novel is based on a real-life Ines Suarez, who was one of the rare women who accompanied 110 conquistadores who founded Chile.

Ines is a not-so pretty daughter born in a lower middle class family. She falls in love with Juan de Malaga who teaches her the art of love-making. But Juan is given to gambling and womanising and is not meant for a quiet family life like the many characters of Jorge Amado of Brazil. He abandons Ines and goes away to the New World in search of fortune and adventure. Ines goes after him to the Americas and lands in Panama and later in Peru. The real reason is her quest for adventure rather than find the husband. Here she falls in love with Pedro de Valdivia, a war hero,who has a vision to conquer Chile and seek glory. Ines follows his expedition over the Andes and desert. Since both are already married, they live as lovers although he makes her as the Gobernadora of Chile. She gives crucial support for the expedition and later for establishing a settlement in Chile with her medical and other skills. When Pedro abandons her in order to comply with a judicial ruling, she marries Rodrigo, the loyal captain of Pedro who had been silently in love with her for several years. The story ends with the killing of Pedro by the Mapuche Indians of Chile in a battle.

Isabel has give a flavour of conquistadores, clergy, Indians and the Spanish royalty and the role they played in the conquest of Latin America. She has given fair space to the native Indians who fought against the Spanish conquerors unsuccessfully. Isabel says she did four years of research for this novel. One could see the fruits of that by the vivid accounts of the campaigns, the struggle between the Indians and the Spanish and the courage and adventurous spirit of the Spanish adventurers,who braved so much misery and suffering.

Ines has become yet another memorable adventurous and passionate latina character in my soul too. Ines says " a man does what he can; a woman does what a man cannot"... I have nothing to say....

Rosario Tijeras - Colombian film

I saw this film, with a hesitation that this might be yet another exaggerated drama on drug trafficking in Colombia with predictable scenes of crime and violence. But I found it different. The difference was made by the electifying performance of the charming and seductive Flora Martinez perfect in her role as the "femme fatale". She is a Canadian of Colombian origin and has acted in other films and soap operas.

Rosario Tijeras, the heroine ( Flora Martinez) is a hit-woman for the drug world of Medellin. She kisses her victims before shooting them to death. She is a merciless killer and a drug addict but has a tenderness and sentimental side. She has affairs with many men but eventually falls in love with Emilio. She has had a tormented childhood and filled with internal pain and insecurity. In the end she pays for her criminal career with her life.

The Spanish actor Unax Ugalde and Colombian actor Manolo Cardona have complimented the superb acting of Flora Martinez.The Mexican director Emilio Maillé has done a good job by portraying the reality of drugs, crime, love and death in Medellin.The film, released in 2005, is based on the novel of the same name by Jorge Franco.