Argentina’s Many Mysteries

Vice President Julio Cabos lays out his plan

Peggy Lowe called it the “shrug,” the unmistakable rolling of the shoulders that Argentines use when unable to explain the country’s many political mysteries. We first experienced this cultural tick on our second day in Buenos Aires when we became witnesses to the drama The New York Times has called “Argentina’s running political soap opera.” Inside a bedecked meeting room in one of the city’s federal buildings, the Knight-Wallace Fellows ’09 met with Julio Cobos, the country’s vice president and a principal actor in this delicious telenovela. Mr. Cobos had become an enemy of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after voting last summer against her plan to raise farm export taxes. The two had not spoken since the previous July and Kirchner and her husband Nestor Kirchner, the country’s previous president, had effectively barred Cobos from Casa Rosada, the presidential “The Pink House” (or the edifice where Madonna pretended to be Eva Perón).

While the Kirchners refused to speak with Cobos, the vice president was more than happy to chat with our group. There were warm introductions, a robust question and answer session and unanticipated memorable moments— the suave Cobos offered The Baltimore Sun’s Rona Kobell a goodbye hug and kiss that the Motion Picture Association of America’s ratings board would register as NC-17. Naturally, we asked him about his troubles with President Kirchner. That’s when we saw the shrug. “It’s not in my hands,” he said with a sly smile. “It’s in her hands.”

Our group was always in able hands thanks to KWF Director Charles Eisendrath and Assistant Director Birgit Rieck. Neither is a native “porteño” but both have Buenos Aires running through their veins. Argentina should be experienced through the senses (especially taste) and Birgit and Charles cut a swath across the city like confident gauchos. Within 130 minutes of touching down at Ezeiza Airport on Dec. 3 (summer in Argentina, bitter cold in Ann Arbor), the group found itself at La Estancia restaurant for a calorie infusion that would make Richard Simmons cry. Fellow Geoff Larcom, a columnist for The Ann Arbor News, described the feast as “waves of beef, from all parts of the cow’s body.” It was just the beginning of our carnivorous carnival. The Eisendrath mantra (“Damn the cardiologists, full speed ahead!”) rang in our ears as we ate our way through mountains of asado, chorizo, morcilla, and mollejas. Between meals, we even learned a few things, thanks to some thought-provoking seminars.

The brilliant Elena Inés Highton de Nolasco—the first woman to be sworn in as a justice on Argentina’s Supreme Court during a democratically elected government— offered us a behind-the-robes look at her country’s seven-member Supreme Court and how she spearheaded the country’s first domestic violence clinic. The justice patiently answered our questions about the comparisons between she and Sandra Day O’Connor and her court’s role in pursuing those responsible for crimes during the Dirty War, the state-sponsored violence committed by the country’s ruling military junta between 1976 and 1983. Also memorable was a meeting with Hermenegildo Sábat, Argentina’s foremost political cartoonist and illustrator. His brilliant caricatures—seen in the pages of Clarín newspaper—have made him a hero of his people and an enemy of the government, especially the current president.

Of course, our exposure to art wasn’t limited to Sábat. We embarked on a private tour of MALBA, the Buenos Aires museum of modern art which houses more than 200 pieces of 20th century Latin American art. We saw spectacularly ornate mausoleums at Recoleta Cemetery, the resting place of Eva Duarte de Perón, Juan Perón and many of Argentina’s wealthiest and most famous families. The colorful San Telmo barrio mixed artists with antiques, and crafts and commerce. As vendors hawked their colorful wares, we parted with pesos.

Perhaps we should have heeded the words of Argentina’s Private Bankers. The economists offered us a prediction for the U.S. economy (bumpy) as well as the plan to steady Argentina’s always-fragile markets. A trip to the Army’s headquarters revealed some details about the Falklands War and spin from a military spokesperson that would make Swifty Lazar blush. We soon headed south of the city to catch a tango show at El Barracas, where impossibly handsome men and women twirled across a floor as we twirled more meat into our mouths. Another tango was San Lorenzo (4) against Club Atlético Independiente (0) in an all Buenos-Aires soccer battle.

Naturally, we took part in an annual KWF tradition— the Foreign Correspondents Dinner at La Brigada, the favorite restaurant of the Head Fellow. Along with laughter, wine and recruiting, former and future Fellows shared book and story ideas. An army of waiters served us until we were stuffed as eggplants. It was the same experience another night with Andres Rosenberg, the stylish Argentine sommelier, who offered a short history of his country’s wine and long pours of delicious Malbec.

But it was not all like that. We visited the offices of the Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo where the now-elderly women spoke with equal parts sorrow and rage about the whereabouts of sons and daughters and husbands and wives who were detained by the junta during the Dirty War. Some human rights groups say as many as 30,000 may have been tortured and killed. As the women told their stories and held up photos of beaming youthful faces, it was hard to keep journalistic distance. Many of the group were moved to tears after listening to their stories.

“I remember lining up to hug the women as we left,” said Lowe, a political reporter for the The Orange County Register. “And even though we didn’t speak the same language, it was if we did. We were grateful they shared their stories. They loved us for caring. I specifically remember Laurie Copans hugging one of the women, and one of the women touched her face. They talked to each other, but they didn’t speak the same language. But they did, you know?”

After our meeting with the Madres, we visited the former Navy Mechanical School, the largest of nearly 400 detention and torture camps that operated in Argentina. It is Latin America’s largest human- rights museum. In the middle of a leafy area of Avenida Libertad (Liberty Avenue), past tree-lined parks and cheery storefronts, we toured a monument to the worst of mankind. It was a sobering day, and all of us were haunted by the words: Nunca mas. Never again.

We left the city near the end of the week for KWF’s traditional visit to Los Dos Hermanos, the handsome estancia an hour outside of Buenos Aires. Our band of journalists-turned-gauchos-fora- day rode horses past cattle and across dusty bush. (Yes, the horses survived.)

“Turns out my wife is a fine rider, even though she had not ridden since childhood,” said Larcom, who traveled with spouse Kristen, an Ann Arbor city attorney. “In what other midcareer program would you find this out about yourself?”

What ’09 aspired to ...

We discovered some of us are willing to bleed for the group. Sky News (U.K.) producer Stephanie DeGroote drew a horse that unexpectedly channeled visions of Secretariat. Thankfully, Degroote suffered only a flesh wound, clearing out a large branch with her face, so no additional KWF gauchos faced the same fate. The Los Dos Hermanos staff fed us like kings, and we took advantage of the sweet life. Some of us sat poolside sipping Cerveza Quilmes; others fell asleep in hammocks as soft as a lullaby. A few brave souls challenged a group of ranch hands to a game of fútbol. (Stunningly, our U.N-inspired group beat the Argentines, 5–3.)

We even made news during our stay in Argentina. Clarín featured our visit (plus a handsome photo of the group) with Cobos on page 18 of its Dec. 5 edition. (What, no A1 placement?). Later in the week Fellows Lowe, Darrell Bowling, and Kathleen Galligan, a photographer for the Detroit Free Press, held a multimedia presentation for the editors and reporters of Clarín. “Some of the reporters and editors seemed reluctant to move to the web,” said Lowe, who writes a much-chatteredabout political blog at her paper. “We essentially said, ‘Um, that’s not an option.’ ”

Options were certainly plentiful at Fellow Patricia Kolesnicov’s Buenos Aires apartment, the scene of our most memorable evening. The empanadas were great, the dancing left much to be desired, and the night was capped off by the Fellows declaring what we admired most about three of our comrades (Kolesnicov, Maria Poveda and Jakub Svoboda) who would soon return to their lands (Argentina, Spain and the Czech Republic, respectively).

“December 10th was the last day in Argentina for most of us,” said Darrell Bowling, a senior video producer for MSNBC.com. “It was an emotional goodbye because the country truly bonded the group’s, dare I say it, love, for one another. For me, the trip solidified that the ’09 Fellows will be my friends for the rest of my life. It was really hard to say goodbye to Jakub, Maria and Pato, even though I believed I would see them again.”

It’s worth noting that KWF ’09 was lucky to rely on a number of Spanishspeaking Fellows, including Povida, the youngest Fellow at 31 and a health reporter for La Razón in Madrid. “Because I lived 24/7 with everyone on this trip, my Fellows became my English teachers,” said Povida. “In fact, I spent much of my time in Buenos Aires learning American slang. To me, a Spanish girl, Argentina was the place where I had to talk more English than ever.”