Heroes and Icons

We left Buenos Aires after four days having loved every minute of it. There are more than 20 million people in the greater BA area - a little more than half the population of the country. Like many capital cities, the provincial population and immigrants are drawn in by the possibilities that such a huge metropolis offers with the inevitable consequential social problems. In the last two weeks while we have been in South America tanks have been sent into the Rio shanty towns and violence has erupted in the suburbs here too.

Latin America has greater disparity between rich and poor than any other region in the world and I suppose that's what leads to the emergence of national heroes who fight for or represent the poor.  Add in the taste for passion and drama from the Italian-Spanish heritage that is embodied by the tango and perhaps it is  inevitable that these popular heroes will be transformed into icons such as Eva Peron, Che Guevara and Diego Maradona.

There was a constant stream of people visiting Evita's grave in Recoleta cemetary when we were there, Che t-shirts are on sale everywhere (just like London) and the face of Maradona appears on street corners especially around Boca where he used to play. The emotions they stir here were clear from the tears of the young man in front of us at the cemetary and the passion of the fans at Boca.

In the main square there are daily demonstrations as well as the camp of neglected veterans from the Malvinas/Falklands war and the regular presence of the mothers of those who disappeared during the former military regime.  The city and national governments have a lot on their plate as a new financial crisis threatens the country.

Time will tell if the current president Cristina Fernandez can become an icon, or even succeed, which are two very different things. After all, Evita died very young before much could change, Che's revolutionary ideas never really caught on much beyond Cuba and Diego's dream of leading Argentina to world cup glory this summer ended in humiliation and his sacking.

So like Spain's national symbol of the fighting bull (which invariably comes second in the contest), the icons here tend to represent heroic failure. But at least they tried and the hope they brought had huge value in itself.

In any event if all else fails one can always resort to denial - a great example being the map in the in-flight magazine of Aerolinias Argentinas, which shows the Malvinas islands as belonging to Argentina!