Odds and Ends: Politics and Mate
A very big day today in Montevideo, Uruguay and you probably won't read much about it in the U.S. A new president, a left of center politician and one-time guerrilla, who spent years in jail, will take the oath in the famous Independence Plaza in the Uruguayan capitol today. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending. Good for her. It will keep the local spotlight from falling totally on Hugo Chavez.
Our knowledge of Uruguay, such as it is, probably just about begins and ends with futbol. One former politician said of the country's devotion to the great game, "other countries have their history, we have our futbol." The Uruguayan's are proud of their two World Cup championships and are already looking forward to hosting the 100th anniversary of the Cup in 2030 in a storied stadium in downtown Montevideo. The first championship was held in the same stadium in 1930. That will be a party.
Back to new president Jose "Pepe" Mujica; in his initial comments he sounded more like an American-style moderate than an ex-con. He pledged, among other things, to try to improve relations with Argentina; relations that have suffered over a controversial paper mill in Uruguay that environmentalists say threatens the Argentines along their shared river border. Pepe, in pledging to work on the dispute, said he didn't consider Argentina a "foreign" country. Sort of like us saying we don't consider Canadians to be foreigners, at least we didn't before the most recent hockey game.
Argentina and Uruguay do share much. A spectacular river - the Rio de la Plata - a language, much Spanish colonist history, most of the same tango moves, grilled beef, futbol, and a curious tea-like drink called mate.
If Starbucks is to America, then mate is to Argentina and Uruguay. Young men especially carry their gourd cups of mate all day and all night, constantly adding steaming hot water from a thermos to refresh the brew that is sipped through a silver straw. Mate is simply everywhere. One young Argentine tried to explain to we gringos what the habit was all about and simply concluded, "we drink mate, we don't know why."
Still, like folks from the United States and our Canadian neighbors, we can't always get on the same page. Tango, for instance, is common to both the South American neighbors, but the Uruguayan's reject the more athletic aspects of Argentine tango, preferring a more romantic, fluid style. When told of the dramatic nature of an Argentine tango show, a young man in Montevideo shrugged and simply said, "that's Argentina."
Both nations also share a weak economy and a burdensome foreign debt, but these days, who doesn't. At least these Latin American neighbors have their mate and, at least, two forms of tango.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Uruguay and Argentina
Odds and Ends: Politics and Mate
A very big day today in Montevideo, Uruguay and you probably won't read much about it in the U.S. A new president, a left of center politician and one-time guerrilla, who spent years in jail, will take the oath in the famous Independence Plaza in the Uruguayan capitol today. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attending. Good for her. It will keep the local spotlight from falling totally on Hugo Chavez.
Our knowledge of Uruguay, such as it is, probably just about begins and ends with futbol. One former politician said of the country's devotion to the great game, "other countries have their history, we have our futbol." The Uruguayan's are proud of their two World Cup championships and are already looking forward to hosting the 100th anniversary of the Cup in 2030 in a storied stadium in downtown Montevideo. The first championship was held in the same stadium in 1930. That will be a party.
Back to new president Jose "Pepe" Mujica; in his initial comments he sounded more like an American-style moderate than an ex-con. He pledged, among other things, to try to improve relations with Argentina; relations that have suffered over a controversial paper mill in Uruguay that environmentalists say threatens the Argentines along their shared river border. Pepe, in pledging to work on the dispute, said he didn't consider Argentina a "foreign" country. Sort of like us saying we don't consider Canadians to be foreigners, at least we didn't before the most recent hockey game.
Argentina and Uruguay do share much. A spectacular river - the Rio de la Plata - a language, much Spanish colonist history, most of the same tango moves, grilled beef, futbol, and a curious tea-like drink called mate.
If Starbucks is to America, then mate is to Argentina and Uruguay. Young men especially carry their gourd cups of mate all day and all night, constantly adding steaming hot water from a thermos to refresh the brew that is sipped through a silver straw. Mate is simply everywhere. One young Argentine tried to explain to we gringos what the habit was all about and simply concluded, "we drink mate, we don't know why."
Still, like folks from the United States and our Canadian neighbors, we can't always get on the same page. Tango, for instance, is common to both the South American neighbors, but the Uruguayan's reject the more athletic aspects of Argentine tango, preferring a more romantic, fluid style. When told of the dramatic nature of an Argentine tango show, a young man in Montevideo shrugged and simply said, "that's Argentina."
Both nations also share a weak economy and a burdensome foreign debt, but these days, who doesn't. At least these Latin American neighbors have their mate and, at least, two forms of tango.
Posts
