The Other Argentina

As people keep reminding me, there is Buenos Aires and then there's the rest of Argentina. The rest of the country is largely pampa - big flat tree-less plains with vast cattle ranches and fields of grain. This (and the wine industry) is really what fuels Argentina's export-based economy. The gorgeous mansions that were built here in the 1800s were owned by land barons who lived in Buenos Aires while their managers took care of the estate (or "estancia") back in the countryside. As a little digression, the export of beef is so critical to Argentina that Buenos Aires has several monuments to Tellier - a Frenchman who I'd never heard of, but who's quite famous here for inventing the refridgerated container ship, thereby opening their beef industry to the world.

Today I got a little taste of the pampa while staying in the city by going to the "Feria de los Mataderos." In Spanish, "matar" means "kill", and the Mataderos are the slaughterhouses where the cows are killed after being trucked in from the countryside. Gauchos or cowboys work in those slaughterhouses and this fair is given both to celebrate them and to give them a place to socialize with each other and buy and sell things. In one of the pictures below, you'll see a real, actual gaucho - they still exist! By the way, this working-class neighborhood strongly identifies itself with Chicago - another great meat-packing city. They even named their soccer team "Nueva Chicago!"

In addition to the gauchos, we saw teenage kids doing traditional campo dances, which are a fascinating fusion of flamenco and native dance styles. My pictures show the couples dances, but there is a men-only version too, which is like an indigienous version of tap-dancing. I took pictures of it, but the guys were moving so fast that none of the pictures came out!