A very Surreal Day in Buenos Aires

October 27, 2010 was a very surreal day. First of all, it was a public holiday – National Census Day 2010. Between the hours of 8am and 8pm, everyone was by law required to stay in their house and wait for the Census worker to come and then ask questions and document their presence. Once interviewed, people were allowed to leave the house and go about their day. However, there wasn’t much to do outside, as everything was closed. That included supermarkets, kioscos, restaurants, bars, theaters, etc. Public transportation did run on a holiday schedule (i.e. subtes/buses came infrequently) but taxis were barely seen on the street.

To me, this is an interesting method of taking down everyone’s information. In The States we submit our Census via mail. I am not sure if this is more effective as it is taken over the course of 10 months, and often Census workers end up being sentout to houses that have not completed the form. However, it just seemed bizarre that the entire country of Argentina shut down for an entire day just to take count.

What made this day even more bizarre was the turn of events in the morning. On a day where the ENTIRE country was up early in the morning, sitting at home ready for the census to take place, the people receive shocking news. Argentina's former President, Nestor Kirchner, had died at the age of 60 after suffering a heart attack.

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Nestor Kirchner

Kirchner served as president from 2003 to 2007, and was also considered to be one of the politicians with the best chances to win in the 2011 election. The current president is his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded him as president in 2007. The couple had faced some criticism within Argentina for appearing to get around presidential term limits by stepping aside for each other. Argentina has a limit of two terms at a time, if one takes a period off they are able to run again and serve two additional consecutive terms. Kirchner was very popular at the time he stepped down from his presidency. From what I have gathered (and I am by no means an expert on Argentine politics) his reason for stepping down was so he could essentially run the country for four terms. His first, his wife’s first, and then two additional. Had he run two consecutive terms, there was a chance he would lose popularity and not be voted back in the future. Smart man... I’m sure he did not anticipate his death. Since then, Cristina has made a run for Presidency. Too bad I will not be here for the elections; it would be really interesting to see how they unfold.

Wanting to take part in such a historic event, Kristine, Nadia, Julie, Britt and I headed down to Plaza de Mayo to see the crowds who were gathering at the Casa Rosada (official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina). Walking the completely empty streets was really creepy. It felt like that scene in Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise is walking through a completely empty Times Square. Here we were walking down Calle Florida, which is usually packed with pedestrians at all times, and no one was in sight. However as soon as we turned the corner we came upon hundreds of people sitting mass. I was told that by night the number had grown to the thousands. The scene itself was also very surreal. No one was speaking, crying, chanting, etc… People just sat there with their signs in silence.

 

In the following weeks every free wall space on the streets was covered in graffiti reading “Nestor vive!” or “Fuerza Cristina”. There were protests or demonstrations all over the city, but that’s really noting new – there seems to be daily demonstrations about one thing or another in Buenos Aires. Either way it was really interesting to live through this period of Argentina’s history.