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argentina - with a kiss on the cheek.
By Author: Edward M. Uli
E-mail: edwarduli@yahoo.com
Submitted on Wednesday 10th July 2002
“Argentina - with a kiss on the cheek.”
By Edward M. Uli
Of all the international countries I have traveled to, my business trip to South America was the most interesting experience of all.
Three weeks after the national tragedy of September 11, 2001, while the fear of air traveling was still prevalent across the nation and when United States reopened its airports to resume traveling, my company booked my flights and planned out the agenda for my business trip to South America. Of course, I was fervently uneasy about the safety of the flights from terrorists and worried for the troubling political and economic crisis spurring protests and riots in South America, but I did not let my innate senses prevent me from traveling and being part of the vital goal in winning a significant business deal with a well-known broadband-based service provider in Latin America.
I took a four-hour flight from San Francisco’s International Airport to Chicago O’Hare International Airport. Then I took a connecting flight for nine hours to Buenos Aires, Argentina. My flight arrived at Buenos Aires’s Aeropuerto Internacional Ministro Pistarini de Ezeiza (Ezeiza International Airport) at 9:50am Argentina time. I checked in through customs where they stamped my passport clearing me for entry into the country. The airport appeared very modernized with high technology equipment and was very clean. In search for a ride to the city, the general information clerks were very nice and helpful in hiring me a remises, which is a hired chauffeured car who drove me to my hotel. Besides being safer than a taxi, I learned that the other difference between a remises and a taxi was that a remises was essentially an unmetered taxi with a flat travel price which is negotiated at the time of hire. For security and safety precautions the general information desk maintains a record of each driver with passenger. So for a trip from the Ezeiza Airport to downtown Buenos Aires to my hotel was between – dollars including toll costs.
There were lots of open flat lands along the way to the city and the weather was sunny with blue skies and humid air. The pleasant scenic ride took approximately 45 minutes, and as we entered the City of Buenos Aires, we came to Argentina’s famous Obelisk Monument. This monument is in the form of an Egyptian obelisk and very similar to The Washington Monument. It stood tall in the center of the well-known “Avenida Nueve de Julio”, which is an avenue or boulevard in the center of the city. The name “Avenida Nueve de Julio” commemorated the date of Argentina’s independence from Spain on July 9, 1816. The Avenida Nueve de Julio Avenue is considered the world’s widest avenue, constructively designed with twelve traffic lanes (six lanes both sides).
When I arrived at my hotel, I checked in, showered, and dressed up ready to meet the clients. Because the business site was within walking distance from my hotel, I decided to have some lunch before the meeting. Since my hotel was located on the famous Florida Street, which was considered a bustling pedestrian avenue, I decided to have lunch there. This street was constructively designed with a layer of white tiles and was always cleaned at midnight by a maintenance crew. Its sole purpose was for pedestrians to walk on as they shopped in the array of shops, galleries, magazine stands, and restaurants that stayed opened until 10:00pm. It is constantly speckled with both businessmen and businesswomen ambling to work and tourists taking advantage of the depreciated peso to purchase lots of cheap souvenirs.
Finally, at the business site, I was escorted into the building, then into the conference room where the meeting was to be held. I met and shook hands with two businessmen already present. We talked about how my flight was and how beautiful the day was in Argentina while we waited for the other ten members of the group. When the additional group members arrived, I noticed a difference in how they greeted me in comparison to how they greeted each other. The business meeting consisted of both professional men and woman. As they shook my hand and exchanged business cards with me, each of them turned and greeted one another with a shake and a kiss on the cheeks. I stood astound as I observed each man to woman, woman-to-woman, and man-to-man practice this form of greeting in a happy gesticulate manner. It was a culture shock to me, because as a Polynesian American citizen, the only times I have seen such greeting practices was either in church, during family visitations, weddings and funerals. I thought to myself, if this were to happen where I live, in Silicon Valley, California, the courts would be overflowing with sexual harassment cases everywhere. After the meeting I just had to ask a couple of people about such business greeting antics because I found it so interesting. They said that this is how they greet each other everyday at work. One of the businessmen, Sergio, who attended the meeting, asserted that it was like a fresh start of a new day. Then one of the businesswomen, Gabriela, added that whatever had happened the day before like a disagreement or animosity to each other, greeting with a kiss on the cheeks somewhat cleans the slate for a new business day.
On a Friday evening, one of the businessmen, Gonzalo and his wife, who was studying for her PhD degree in Sociology, invited me over for dinner at their home. They served and introduced me to the delicious traditional Argentinean dish known as the empanada, which is a Latin-American turnover consisting of a mixture of ground beef with spices wrapped in a filo-doughy empanada shell called “tapas de empanadas”. I was grateful and sincerely appreciated the family’s hospitality, but most of all enjoyed the spicy empanadas.
On the weekend, Gabriela and another business colleague took me out on a tour of Buenos Aires. We went to an Argentinean Flea Market where lots of antiques and artifacts were being sold. I was introduced to a traditional item known as a Mate, which is a hollow gourd with a long bombilla (a silver straw with a strainer on one end). The Mate was used to drink some special herbal tea infusion either for medical purposes or amongst very close friends. In a traditional Mate sharing event, in a circle of friends, there is a host who pours the hot water into the gourd, elaborately preparing an infusion mixture of tea, and then serves up the cup to be passed onto a friend who will drink all of the contents. The gourd is then returned back to the host for a refill. Once the gourd is refilled, it is passed onto to the next friend for drinking. This process continues going around the circle many times, until there is no flavor left in the infusion. I was told that this ceremony was to be practiced and shared with those whom you hold dearly to you heart. According to Argentinean tradition, Mate friendships are the best kind of friendships to have.
Next we visited an historic cemetery “Cementario de la Recoleta” (Recoleta Cemetery), which is the final resting place of a famous Argentinean lady, Señora María Eva Duarte de Perón. Eva Perón, also known as Evita Perón, was an actress who married an Argentinean man, Colonel Juan Perón, and helped him win the presidency in becoming the President of the Republic in 1946. She became active in politics and in the labor movements. She was revered by the lower economic classes and became a spiritual leader of the nation who led the fight for the passage of the women’s suffrage law, which gave women in Argentina the right to vote and equal suffrage. She died of uterine cancer in Buenos Aires, July 26, 1952 and now lies in a family crypt in the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. Her extraordinary career inspired the hit play Evita, by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was subsequently made into a film starring Madonna.
We then went to lunch at a restaurant where I was introduced to some delicious strips of beefsteaks. In Argentina, I was told that beef ruled and was the country's longstanding agricultural and gastronomic pride and joy. I had thick juicy steaks with a pungent tangy marinade flavor of spices, which made a great tasty meal. The asadores (grill chefs) really made you want to go for more.
After lunch, we visited the Casa Rosada (a Government Building) located in Plaza de Mayo, a place where citizens of Argentina would assembly to listen to political speeches or opinions. In this plaza stood another obelisk monument but a much smaller version of that in the center of the Avenida Nueve de Julio. This smaller obelisk monument was erected in 1811 and commemorated the anniversary of the 1810 May revolution. The Casa Rosada is the workplace for the President of the Republica of Argentina. This building became famous for its pink exterior, which earned the well-known name, The Pink House. It was on the balcony of this building where Eva Perón stood and presented her speech for the passage of the women’s suffrage law. At the entrance of the building stood two Grenadiers of San Martín (soldiers of San Martín’s own military corps) guards armed with swords and dressed in their smart red and blue ceremonial uniforms. It was then explained to me that these guards guarded the building day and night. Next we proceeded to view some historical monumental figures like Christopher Columbus, the land discoverer from Spain, and lots of statutes and monuments of one General Don José de San Martín, the legendary military hero who led Argentina’s battle for Independence on July 9, 1816. We also saw the exterior of the Catedral Metropolitana facing the Plaza de Mayo, which contained the tomb of Argentina’s revered hero, Gen. Don José de San Martín.
The day was getting late and I was having a great time exploring Buenos Aires with my new international Latin-American friends. But I didn’t want to be selfish in taking them away from their families and friends, so to finish the tour and end the day we visited our final attraction. We strolled down on Florida Street and entered Buenos Aires’s finest retail complex, the Galerias Pacifico (Pacific Galleries). This was a magnificent and luxurious shopping mall in the center of the city. The ceiling depicted a beautifully painted mural, which created a luxurious shopping environment. I was told that the building was built to look like the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, Italy. The female janitors were wearing French Maid uniforms as they worked inside keeping the place clean and beautiful. We walked around in the two-story building watching people shopping in stores and dining in restaurants. When leaving the mall, we noticed a couple outside in the open on Florida Street entertaining pedestrians for money by doing the tango, a national Latin-American dance with a basic pattern of step-to-step common rhythm with intimate separations and characterized by long pauses or elegant reserves with stylized body positions and exuberant passion. The couple put on a fascinating show and it was a great way to end our day.
On the day of my departure, the hotel had prepared a remises to take me back to the airport. I checked out and said my farewells to the front desk clerks and gave kudos to their general manager for their great hospitality services before getting into the remises. My driver was an older man, probably in his mid fifties, who drove a very clean Mercedes Benz with tinted windows, leather seats, and air-condition. When we entered the “Avenida Nueve de Julio” in downtown Buenos Aires, there was a huge assembly of people marching on the streets carrying banners screaming and ranting. On the sides of the streets were people clanging and clattering pots, pans, and things that looked like saucepan lids, while others were clashing and tussling with the police who were armed with shotguns and tear gas. My driver immediately turned to me and told me that these were protestors causing a riot because the government imposed banking restrictions by freezing people’s savings and limiting cash withdrawals to only 0 a month and the people are very angry. As I sat in the back seat and thought to myself, what a mess, my driver explained that the crowd was yelling they want all politicians out and they want their money. He then added that they’re demanding free access to their bank accounts and for the resignation of President Fernando de la Rua. Although all this excitement was interesting to me, I searched around for ways to get out of this traffic but all I could see were throngs of protestors blocking the streets. The driver assured me not to worry because he will find a way out through the back streets. As we headed for the back streets I saw residents up in their balconies bellowing down at the protest and then I heard sounds like shotguns being fired. It was a very tense and interesting experience of my life. But the driver with his wits and experience successfully got us to the airport safe and on time for my flight. I awarded him with a huge tip as an indication of my sincere gratitude for getting me to my destination safely and in good timing.
As I sat in the business lounge gathering my thoughts and reviewing notes from the successful meeting held earlier of the week, I couldn’t help but think of all the new personal experiences I had acquired from the trip and the cultural education I received from my Latin-American friends during our tour of Buenos Aires. Argentineans are warm, helpful, and pleasant people. They welcome you into their homes and treat you with respect. They are not only sophisticated, but also a well educated workforce. It was a pleasure for me to have met such cultural people. As I began to board my flight, I took one more look into the airport and noticed a group of people shaking hands and greeting each other with a kiss on the cheek.
Copyright © 2002 Edward M.Uli