In the past month, I have taken some time to do some tourist exploration of Buenos Aires. In visits organized by my classes and on my own, I visited an important site to the Perons, Teatro Colon, and La Casa Rosada. Here are my impressions, some historical background on these visits, and even pictures!
CGT: For my Cultural Questions in Argentina Class, we went to visit the Confederación General del Trabajo de la República Argentina, General Confederation of Labor of the Argentine Republic, which is the largest union (sindicato in Spanish) in Argentina. You could maybe compare it to the AFL-CIO in the United States. Founded in the 1930s, today the CGT is part museum part working space. Historically, however, this building and organization played a key role.
Photograph of Evita and Juan Peron together at La Casa Rosada.
Everyone in the United States knows about Juan and Evita Perón, but we don’t really have a good grasp of how Perón came to power. He began as the Argentine-equivalent of the Secretary of Labor in the mid 1940s, and introduced important worker reforms such as maternity leave, annual vacation, and an eight-hour workday. He also introduced the annual complimentary salary (sueldo annual complementario), which is when workers in Argentina get an extra half salary in June and December. All these reforms, which today we think of as fairly standard, were revolutionary when Perón introduced them. When Perón is asked to resign and is exiled in October 1945, the workers of the CGT organized a huge protest in Plaza de Mayo for October 17. Perón was allowed back into Argentina on this day, and Plaza de Mayo was filled of workers, all of whom, to the horror of the elites of Buenos Aires, took off their shoes to celebrate Perón. It was at this protest that Evita became publically known, and subsequently almost universally adored, to porteños (people who live in Buenos Aires).
When Perón becomes president in 1946, the CGT becomes even more important as the headquarters of one of his most important constituencies. All of this was the background information we had when we arrived at the CGT. We were led through parts of the building by an older gentleman who had personally met Evita (and began to tear up at her mere mention). Evita’s office was at the CGT, so we saw some of her personal items and got to read many newspaper articles about her and her activities. It was very interesting to hear the almost reverence of our tour guide for Evita contrasted with some of the more troubling aspects of her life—she is ferociously against the middle class, might have embezzled money from her charity to help the poor, among other questionable actions. The visit ended with our guide telling us we are the “revolutionaries of the future” who are responsible for continuing the legacy of the Perons.
Teatro Colon: For my Spanish conversation class, we get to take field trips to practice listening and experiencing important cultural activities in Buenos Aires. In October, we took a tour of the Teatro Colon, a huge opera theater in the heart of the city. The venue got a facelift for Buenos Aires bicentennial in 2010, so it was even more beautiful for our visit.
In the main theater area at Teatro Colon
As our guide explained, many people went to the opera to socialize and be seen—seeing the actual show was a secondary motive. The operas were not generally in Spanish, so unless you spoke German or Italian, you were going to watch the show and watch other people. The theater features busts of famous musicians and world-class stained glass ceilings. The most interesting part of the visit was the explanation of the different seating sections in the main theater. There is the main part with nice cushioned seats that you would expect in any opera theater. Then, going up the sides, are the boxes (I couldn’t help thinking of Phantom of the Opera), with one reserved for the President and Vice President. Next was more seating sections, then a standing area just for men and just for women. I was unsure why they were divided, as the next section up was standing for both men and women. As you can expect, the price for seats goes down the further up in the sections you go.
Stained glass ceiling in the main portion of Teatro Colon.
The last section was not as obvious, but as our guide explained, for the high-society widows, missing an opera was a big social sin. However, if a woman was in mourning for her husband, she was not supposed to be seen celebrating. The elites of Buenos Aires figured out a loophole to this problem—the women could go to the opera and sit in the basement, looking out of vents to see (could they really see?) the production.
La Casa Rosada: The pink house, Argentina’s seat of government, offers free tours every Saturday and Sunday (you hear that, White House!?). As touring the most important government building is something I will most likely never have the opportunity to do in the United States, I decided to go with a group of friends. The gate to the building was just open, we walked through a metal detector and we were in!
Our guide explaining the White Room at La Casa Rosada, one of the most important rooms in the building.
The structure itself, a fusion of two preexisting buildings, is beautiful and adorned with items from all of the presidents of Argentina. Though maybe originally attended for the President to work and live, today the offices are in La Casa Rosada, but the President lives in a house further away. Our tour, in English and Spanish, took us through the house to see various exhibits and important rooms. We saw the room where all the press conferences happen, which has been decorated with images of important women in Argentine history, all part of an important initiative of Argentina’s first female and current President, Cristina Kirchner. Additionally, we got to go in Cristina’s actual office; I would like to point out that her desk is just a messy as mine!
I am very glad I went later on in the semester and not during the first weeks of my time here. After living in Buenos Aires for almost four months and taking classes about New Argentine cinema, Cultural Questions in Argentine History, and Latin America in International Politics, I had enough background to know whom the important people and events were.
With friends in front of Casa Rosada.