Who's Buenos Aires?
If one reads three recent North American newspaper travel section stories about Buenos Aires, and then reads my blog post from July 2005 when I was in Buenos Aires (see link below), it's as if we are talking about different worlds. Compare, for example, my "Witnessing the Political" piece to the cheap "hipster heaven" that the Globe and Mail's Tralee Pearce characterizes the city as.
That Buenos Aires is a "hipster heaven" for some fortunate enough to be able to choose to be hipsters, there is no doubt. Pearce's piece points this out clearly. She also underscores what a bargain it is for us North American's wanting European sophistication on a shoestring. But that the city is also wrought with unmanageable poverty, exploitation, and despair for millions is equally true. This is, of course, ignored in all of the travel section pieces linked to below. The conditions that I observed on my trip to Argentina last summer, in fact, can be directly linked to the tragic wake of the failed neoliberal experiments of the past 30 years -- neoliberal experiments encouraged by the financially powerful capitalist system of the Global North that undergirds what makes Buenos Aires such a cheap hipsterville for gringo tourists.
For a stark contrast illustrating the two differing poles of the contradictory lifeworld that shapes Buenos Aires, compare the following articles:
The Buenos Aires of excess and exuberance
That Buenos Aires is a "hipster heaven" for some fortunate enough to be able to choose to be hipsters, there is no doubt. Pearce's piece points this out clearly. She also underscores what a bargain it is for us North American's wanting European sophistication on a shoestring. But that the city is also wrought with unmanageable poverty, exploitation, and despair for millions is equally true. This is, of course, ignored in all of the travel section pieces linked to below. The conditions that I observed on my trip to Argentina last summer, in fact, can be directly linked to the tragic wake of the failed neoliberal experiments of the past 30 years -- neoliberal experiments encouraged by the financially powerful capitalist system of the Global North that undergirds what makes Buenos Aires such a cheap hipsterville for gringo tourists.
For a stark contrast illustrating the two differing poles of the contradictory lifeworld that shapes Buenos Aires, compare the following articles:
The Buenos Aires of excess and exuberance
- Welcome to Hipster Heaven: Buenos Aires::The Globe and Mail, Jan. 21, 2006
- Three Nights: Buenos Aires::Renee Huang, The Globe and Mail, Jan. 21, 2006
- Dog Days in Buenos Aires::Peter Mandel, Boston Globe, Jan. 23, 2006
- Witnessing the Political on Street: A Walk from Avenida 9 de Julio to Plaza de Mayo::Marcelo Vieta, July 29, 2005
- Wealth and Poverty in Buenos Aires::Marcelo Vieta, a photo essay
posted by Marcelo Vieta at
1:35 PM
