I
walk the ten blocks to the charming cottage where his girlfriend Julietta
live. There is little curb appeal in Palermo - houses are set behind walls.
One never knows until one enters. The house where Joe and Julietta live
is a funky, comfortable cottage, part Indonesian thatched roof, part Berkeley
cottage, part Soprano decor. Best of all, it has a backyard with a small
pool and barbeque. Few houses in Palermo have "yards."
They tell me that real estate, especially
in Palermo, has already risen to bubble proportions again. They would love
to purchase their home, but they have calculated that if they saved 3,000
pesos a month, they would have the money to buy it in two hundred years.
Financing? Forget it.
About the safety of living in Argentina,
Joe says that Buenos Aires is safer than any large U.S. city. He
says that the economy in the 1990's was like that of Tokyo today. Palermo
is gradually becoming gentrified as the Southern Cone's answer to Soho.
There are 350 restaurants in this area alone, he tells me. A fellow journalist
walks in and they greet each other and talk a little business before his
friend goes back to his table.
I ask the two about the melancholic
nature of Argentineans, something I heard about in thes states but have
not picked up on since I've been here. In fact, I've found Argentinians
to be full of hope, open, and friendly. Most surprising to me, is that
they are not bitter because I am an American, as is the reaction of many
Europeans I meet.
In 1997 when Argentina's collapse
occurred, Joe tells me there were a record 181,000 Argentinean entries
into the US who never returned. "Since then, the US has tightened
visa restrictions, and since 9/11, it is almost impossible to get in,"Julietta
adds.
Bryant Gumble did a piece on Argentina
a few years ago in which he stated that Buenos Aires has the highest
per capita psychoanalysts in practice anywhere in the world. Yes, Julietta
and Joe agree, everyone they know is in therapy. "We are a melancholic,
introspective people Julietta says. "Compared to Brazilians who live only
for the moment and are very happy." Wayne says he sometimes regrets not
moving to Brazil.
ARGENTINA, LAND OF EMIGRANTS
During the two world wars, many Europeans
took what they had and came to what was then the promised land to begin
anew. There was gold in the streets then. Anyone could succeed then
and most did.
About 60-70% of Argentina's population
is Italian or Spanish and the rest are made up mostly of French, German,
Jewish, and Swiss ancestry. Julietta's great grandfather was German, her
mother Spanish.
Joe, who was born and raised in New
York, says that when his grandfather left Hungary to escape the Nazi's,
he had a choice of two ships, one headed for Argentina and the other to
New York. On a flip of a coin, his grandfather boarded the ship for America.
Joe says, "I could have just as easily been Argentinian instead of American."
Is Argentina the flagship polyglot
country? What the world will look like when and if borders blend?
As recently as the early 1990's,
Argentina was the fifth wealthiest country in the world. It was the grain
and livestock capital of the world. Argentina remained neutral as long
as she could and profitted by selling to both sides. She only joined the
allies in 1995.
So what do they like most about Argentina
I ask the couple? The education Joe says. He has a 10 year old son who
attends private school, but beyond private school, especially in the university
system, educational standards are incredibly high. Many presidents have
come and gone over the past 2 decades, but those who went fastest where
those who proposed cutting funds to education.
Julietta says her grandmother had
only an elementary education. But her mother is a nuclear physicist.
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Page
Moments
later everyone is up, frantically rolling rugs, moving furniture, as the
water begins to pour in through the front door. The street is a river
and the house a tributary. I move my laptop and cameras up onto the bed,
toss some towels and newspapers inside the door of my room, and return
to the main house. Two feet of water now fill the first floor. From where
we sit in a second floor bedroom looking out a window, the street is a
raging river, just inches below the window sill. The phone does not work.
The power is off. Nobody knows why this is happening. It continues to rain.
Boated bags of trash float by and the two cars parked across the street.,
rise and float, bumping into each other. A dog howls. There is the distant
wail of a woman. Majo, Frederick, and friends bail water.
