Posts from the Pampas
Dispatch #11 — The Street Art of Suardi
Note. This dispatch has a quiz.
I like street art. No, not the mindless graffiti which you find scrawled over countless buildings in Barcelona. That brought back memories of the precipitous decline of New York City in the 1970's and 1980's. No, I’m referring to murals and the like.
Tucked away in a vacant lot a few blocks from the Suardi city plaza is a series of murals. Look at the one below:
The first panel translates as “If I knew that the world would end tomorrow, I’d still plant a tree.” The second states “Wars will go on as long as the color of your skin is more important than the color of your eyes.” Some of the other postiings — “Say No More” and “Gracias Totales” — refer to popular refrains by Argentinian musicians.
The quotes are interesting, but what’s really fun to spot are the cultural references in this mural. This is the quiz. How many can you identify? (I figured out about ten of them).
The opposite wall had a number of panels. The one below refers to a dark period in Argentina’s history between 1974 and 1983, in which approximately 20,000 citizens (estimate by Amnesty International; Argentine activists place the number at 30,000) were swept up by the military and disappeared. What happened to them? They were killed, somce after being tortured and raped. The military dumped the bodies into the ocean, rivers and lakes.
The mural commemorates Ramon Girau, a native of Suardi, who was a desaparecido. The white kerchief on the right, reading Nunca Mas (Never Again), was the emblem of Los Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, mothers who gathered every Thursday in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, to protest the disappearance of their grown children.
The military dictatorship’s actions were in response to kidnappings, murders and bombings carried out by the left. As is often the case, the government’s brutal response dwarfed the violence of the opposition. And, I should add, the desparecidos included intellectuals, journalists and those civilly opposed to the government.
At the end of our stay, I met one young man, age 16, who was about to leave for Australia to study English for three weeks. He blithely dismissed the suffering caused by the military juntas’ actions. The rebels’ activities were much worse, he commented. He went on to claim that the numbers of the disappeared were inflated (“only” 8,000 disappeared, he said). I was stunned and almost lost my temper with him.
Ok. Back to a lighter note. Check out the murals below, which were located near the bus station in Suardi. They are a product of the mural workshop from 2015.
I love the well dressed pig and the flying elephant.
Near one of the two elementary schools were the following murals, whose theme is the rights of families:
Then there are the murals with sayings attributable to Argentina’s favorite son, Pope Francis, or as he is known here, Papa Francisco. These are located by the main square.
The first translates as “Don’t bury your talents. Don’t be afraid of dreaming big things!? The second has a great sketch of Papa Francisco saying “Make a mess.” Along side is his comment “God never tires of granting us forgiveness.” At first I thought the “Make a mess” comment was satire. But it is a quote from his sermon at a youth gathering in Paraguay, the final stop of his Latin American trip. He urged young people to change things which were wrong in society, but clean up afterwards.
Some of the people in Suardi have mixed feelings about the Pope. Some are disappointed that he has not been able to carry out greater changes. Others feel slighted that the Pope failed to visit Argentina during his 2015 trip to South America.
The final picture of public art in this dispatch relates is from a quinceañera, the big 15th birthday party which many Latin American parents throw for their daughters. The first one I saw was in Nicaragua in 2013. We were in a small village. It was the middle of the day, hot with a blazing sun. And there, moving slowly down the center of the village’s only road, was a procession of boys dressed in black suits, girls dressed in frilly outfits and the birthday girl clothed in a lacy white dress. It was obviously the prelude to the party.
In Suardi, it is not uncommon for friends of the birthday girl to enshrine some advice or words of encouragement on the driveway. It’s in paint, not chalk. Consider the one below:
“Ange… To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong. We love you. Your friends.”
Good advice. After all, during our stay in Argentina, we made a number of faux pas. But, it was a rich and rewarding experience.
