We've met a quite a few different people at this point, and have started to have a variety of really interesting, and in-depth conversations--which is amazing to me, given how rusty my Spanish has gotten over the last several years.
One of the most interesting topics of conversation has been President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (who incidentally, has been awol for the last month, in spite of power outages in Buenos Aires, and soaring inflation country-wide.)
President Cristina is an extremely polarizing figure in Argentina.
I am always interested in the politics of a place, and the whole time we’ve been in Argentina, I’ve been trying to better understand the political and economic situation, and how I would feel if I lived here.
What I have noticed is that Argentina, like the United States, is an extremely polarized country, and probably with good reason.
Why political turbulence runs Argentina
Since we’ve arrived in Argentina, the peso has dropped .04 in value compared to the US dollar. Since Thanksgiving, it’s lost an entire peso’s worth of value when compared to the US dollar. One dollar equaled 5.8 pesos in the middle of November--today, the official exchange rate is more like 6.8.
And then of course, there are the problems with the electricity, power, water, roads, etc. etc. And in many places, there are the inescapable signs of poverty, often right outside the nice parts of town. The government claims there are 1 million poor, but I've been told by locals that it is closer to 10 million.
These are the problems that lead people in Buenos Aires to constantly protest, and that lead people across the country to have such differing and strong views about who's to blame. So as we've gone across the country, I've tried to identify where people fall in their political view points, and what are the conditions that lead to their beliefs.
Paz believes Cristina is a source of corruption and greed
Our first hostel host, Paz, who we formed a close relationship with over the course of several days, was our first glimpse into Argentinian politics. And she hated Cristina with a passion.
Paz thought Cristina was a “stupid woman,” that she was terribly corrupt, that she gave a lot of the country’s money to her friends, and that the only reason she was president is because she used her dead husband (who was the president prior to her) to get the sympathy vote.
Paz hated that Cristina didn’t support the Pope, and that she fought with the Mayor of Buenos Aires, who had even considered running against Cristina in a prior election.
To hear Paz talk, most of the country hated Cristina, and was just waiting for the next election when they could boot her out. She seemed to think something was brewing, which was easy to believe as we saw daily constant protests in the street over the loss of power, and drove by the shacks in some of the poorer neighborhoods.
Because Paz was a small business owner, long time Buenos Aires resident, traditional, and Catholic, I might equate her to some of the older conservative generation in America, but compared to the conservatives in America, Paz seemed liberal, so it was hard to label her the way you might label someone with a certain belief in the United States.
Pipi and Sylvia think Cristina is the tits
Our first counterpoint to Paz was Pipi and Sylvia, the couple we met in El Chalten. They were about 55 years old, lived in a province outside of Buenos Aires, and were unapologetically in love with Cristina.
Upon asking about Cristina, Pipi said--in one of the few English phrases he could utter, “She is a BEAUTIFUL woman!” He and Sylvia thought she was intelligent, helpful to the people, and just plain wonderful. In fact, Sylvia and Pipi thought that the only people opposed to Cristina were the snobs in Buenos Aires, who were obsessed with the mayor.
At first, I wondered if I had more in common with Pipi and Sylvia at first. They loved rock and roll, liberal literature, and were very concerned about the danger of illegal abortions in Argentina. They believed education should be free, were appalled when they heard about my student loans, and thought “Obamacare" was great. As far as religion goes, they proudly told us, ‘Creo solo en el Amor!” (I believe only in Love).
On the other hand, Pipi and Sylvia had no interest in travel outside of Argentina, found the city—and especially the Recoleta, where Paz lived, to be snobby and terrible, and were interested only in good food, rock music, and the countryside.
Pablo: "Cristina gives money to killers"
We met Pablo in Puerto Madryn during our tour of the estancia. Pablo was a younger guy who worked on a ranch outside of town. He liked the Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy, and watched a LOT of terrible US TV (like Two and a Half Men.)
Pablo was our driver to go visit the elephant seals, so we spent the entire day with him, and gained a pretty good rapport. Over a lunch of choripan, I asked him what he thought of Cristina, and I quickly realized I had definitely hit a hot button.
For about 20 minutes, all Pablo could say was how stupid, how corrupt, how terrible Cristina was. So, it seemed that he shared the view of Paz. Except for, unlike Paz, who was most upset about Cristina’s lack of moral integrity, this kid was furious that “Cristina takes all the money and gives it to people who are doing nothing,” adding, “I pay for people to live who will kill me in the streets.”
We told Pablo that we were surprised to see such different—and passionate—view points across Argentina, and he said, “the only people who like Cristina have been abducted by aliens.” He also told us that if he was flying a plane and Cristina was on it, he thought that maybe he would crash it.
So, after 3 wildly varying view points—the middle-aged, single, established, small-business owner from Buenos Aires, the older hippie, free-love couple from the suburbs, and a red-neck country kid, all that is clear is that Argentina is just as divided as the US. And while that the subject of politics elicits extremely passionate responses, everyone seems very open and willing to discuss their point of view, and educate the foreigners on the "right" way to view the situation.