Unlike Warsaw, I didn't have a specific contact or organization in Buenos Aires. After lots of emails and no answers, it seemed like making a list of addresses and just showing up was the best way to go.
I had twelve or so addresses for different organizations, and I spent most of the first two weeks knocking on doors or realizing that some doors didn't exist anymore.
I tried to plan the visits based on geographical convenience. Buenos Aires is huge, and going in clusters or devoting a whole day to finding (whether successfully or not) an organization was sometimes necessary, especially given the fact that I spent considerable amounts of time on public transport, walking, or being lost.
The first few days were really disappointing. I showed up to what is now a man's apartment to discover that the organization once housed there is disbanded. He was very nice about it, but it was obviously awkward. At this point, I'm pretty used to awkward interactions but normally they don't result from my showing up to someone's house uninvited with a bunch of questions about gay life in the city. Oops.
One of my addresses was extremely old. Two others were incorrectly listed as well. Because nobody seemed to respond to email or FB messages, I was really discouraged. The likelihood of stumbling upon the right places seemed small.
Luckily and strangely enough, two of my addresses were half right/half wrong. What I had listed as the offices for one organization was a combination of two others (although they were located on a different floor). I met with the president of ATTA, the same trans organizations whose house was the location of the meeting in Salta, and although she told me that volunteering would be difficult because right now they are working on HIV issues and trans support, both of which are extremely private, we set up a time for an interview.
I showed up to the Liga de los Derechos del Hombre thinking it was the office of another queer organization, but although it is a more general human rights organization, in another stroke of luck, La Fulana, the lesbian and bisexual women's group, holds their meeting in that office every Friday night.
When I got back to Buenos Aires, I also messaged Saulo, who added me to the Gay Geeks Facebook group, so I was looking forward to a picnic that Saturday and to a set of contacts that were active and regularly scheduled events.
So, at the end of my first week, I had three solid contacts and a lot of wrong addresses. As an aside, I had decided to enroll in Spanish classes at a school, El Pasaje, in the center of the city, because I really needed to practice.
On Thursday, I met with Kristal, a friend from a hostel in Cordoba, and we had empanadas and talked for a while. We walked around the city and stumbled upon Palacio Barolo, in which the architecture is inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. We stayed in hell, the first few floors, but as you go up, you reach purgatory and heaven. It was great to see her before she left to continue her trip in Chile.
That Friday night, I showed up to La Fulana. Sole met me at the door. I was nervous and discouraged but she was super nice and told me to calm down and then let me explain what I was doing and how and why.
As it turned out, I attended the social meeting of La Fulana (there are two every Friday; one for activism that I had missed because I had been given the wrong time, and a social group after that). There were lots of nice people and it was also a great chance to hear from a variety of women about their experiences in the city and growing up. There are different topics every week, so I imagine that I will end up learning a lot by the time I leave the city.
At the end of the meeting, I was invited to attend the 15th anniversary celebration of La Fulana that Sunday. Of course, it sounded like a perfect way to spend the day, so I made plans to meet with a few people beforehand and go to help set everything up.
After the meeting, Erica helped me get home. It is not difficult to navigate to the office space but the subte closes really early (around 10/10:30), and I had no idea which bus to take. Luckily she helped me out.
The next day I woke up and headed to the Planetarium, which is in the parks of Palermo, for the Gay Geeks Celebration of Spring picnic. I arrived on time with my Kindle and some strawberries and food to share, and I wandered around until I found what seemed like it might be the right place.
There was a fairly large group of people setting up tents and stations with anime, Pokemon, and various other geeky stuff, but I quickly realized something was wrong. First of all, there were a lot of teenagers. Everyone there looked to be in high school, and I knew from Facebook that most of the people in Gay Geeks were around my age or a little older.
I was also nervous because, although I try really hard not to write anything off immediately, there was a guy carrying around a Japanese body pillow. If you're not familiar, it's a body pillow that has an image of an anime woman, usually scantily clad, on the pillowcase. (There's an episode of 30 Rock in which James Franco is in love with his pillow and fakes a romance with a main character on the show to hide it, but that's another story.) They're problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it literally makes a woman into an object that can be manipulated and paraded at the will of the owner. The group also looked less like a picnic and more like a fair or market of anime things for sale.
Anyway, I made the rounds a few times but it didn't seem right and frankly, I was really nervous that it was the right group of people and I was going to be the creepy older person and also, well, hanging out with guys who didn't find body pillows problematic. I was ready for disappointment and being a bit of a sad sack.
But as Caroline Todd says, do something every day that scares you, so I waited around for a while reading and watching for someone closer to my age or that I recognized from the Facebook group.
Finally, as I was getting ready to leave about an hour later, I ran into Elias. It was total coincidence, but he also looked like he was searching for a group and so I asked and, blessedly, it was another Gay Geek.
We stumbled upon the actual group, sitting on a blanket and having a proper picnic, and they welcomed me and it was fantastic. I ended up spending five or six hours in the park talking to different members of the group.
In a weird coincidence, Sant, who used to live in Quito, had met another Watson as she traveled through Ecuador last year working on her project related to LGBT art and performance.
I got confirmation of the address of another LGBT group and was told they had multiple group meetings I could attend if I wanted. It was excellent news and I made plans to visit the next week.
We played a few card games and not to far away, a group of teenagers set up a "Mileyfest," which was a bunch of blankets with Miley Cyrus related things. It was cute and also strange to watch as long-suffering fathers and mothers sat on rocks and waited as glittery banners and buttons began to cover the fence.
The lake near the picnic
The blankets and food setup. At this point people were mostly talking in groups.
I went home that night feeling much better about things.
Because the women at La Fulana are ridiculously nice, I began my second full week in the city at a party, a celebration of the fifteenth year of La Fulana.
That morning, Erica came to my apartment and we walked to Chubi's house and then Laura drove us to the location of the celebration so that we could help set up. Mostly, I blew up balloons and tried to stay out of people's way.
Ana, who lived in Texas for a while, joked as I helped to carry a few things, "This is what we call making the gringa work." In reality, I got to sit at a table with some really nice people, eat delicious food, and watch the celebration. Most of the women I met at the meeting were working in the kitchen or as waitresses, and although they told me that they had assigned roles early and there was nothing left for me to do, I have a sneaking suspicion that they were just being really nice, as has been the pattern.
There was an asado with multiple appetizers, wine, coke, and of course, birthday cake at the end. The party was cheerful and everyone was happy to be there.
I saw Marcela, from ATTTA, at a table near the front with other members of ATTTA. She gave a speech about the shared activism and sisterhood between La Fulana and ATTTA over the years.
There were lots of speeches about how La Fulana had helped many women, how it had changed lives and brought new family.
I was really honored to be able to participate in the celebration and spend time with the women of La Fulana.
The setup in the hall of the party.
On Monday, I headed to my first language class.
I had anticipated, based on what many people told me before leaving the US, that there would be a major language barrier in Poland and a much smaller one in Argentina. The opposite has been true. Happily, I studied Spanish in high school and college so I don't feel like a complete fool or have to rely solely on hand gestures to communicate, but I wanted to improve my skills. When I left Poland, one of my regrets was that I had not enrolled in a Polish language class. Anyway, it seemed, for many reasons, like a good thing to do here.
I did intensive language courses the first week of class, meaning that I spent four hours a day with our teacher, Anahi, and Bill and Fernanda, my classmates. Before arriving we all took a test that indicated our placement, so the three of us were put at the same level. Although it seemed like four hours might be a bit much, it passed really quickly. We all liked each other, and Anahi was a great teacher so by the time 2:30 rolled around, it was almost a surprise that so much time had passed.
One afternoon, Bill, Fe, and I ate empanadas at a place close to the school and then went to the conversation hour, which was fun and is a weekly thing at the school. Another, Bill and I went with Cindy and Lalinda, two other students, to eat and then grabbed a cup of coffee.
At the end of the week, I signed up to continue at the school with private lessons twice a week. It gave me more freedom to explore my project but still provided an opportunity to formally study Spanish and improve my language skills. Plus, the school was a great place to meet people and the teachers and staff are all really nice.
I continued to explore organizations nearby, but had little luck. Occasionally, addresses were different on FB than on websites or buildings no longer existed or were empty. One address fairly close to my apartment is now sad and empty and up for rent. Because there is no Facebook group or website for the group, I'm not sure if it still exists or not.
I checked places off my list but continued to add more, thanks in part to the really helpful teachers at El Pasaje.
That Friday, I went to La Fulana again, this time coming early enough to attend both the activism meeting and the social group. Afterward, we went to dinner and stayed out talking until late that night. One thing that I really like about Argentina is the idea of the sobremesa, which is talking around the dinner table for a period of time even when there's no dinner left. I still can't get used to such late meal times; 10:30 dinner is weird for me, but I'm getting better every week. I made it home late that night, after getting lost on the bus (not unusual) and taking a cab for the distance between my stop and my house because I had no idea where I was and had forgotten my map.
The next day, I went to the Gay Geeks anniversary party. In another Watson-year moment, I went by myself and wasn't sure who was going to be there, but didn't realize this was odd until multiple people asked me who I came with and expressed disbelief when I said I came alone.
The party was tons of fun, and there were people there from the picnic as well as lots of new people. I stayed until early that morning and walked to the bus with Ondina, who lives in the neighborhood above mine and needed the same general bus route. She flagged down the bus and helped me get off at the right stop, woot woot, and we had a nice conversation on the fairly lengthy ride. I made it home happy and feeling much better about contacts and social opportunities in the city.
With German and Bitacora (Juan) at the party
With a group of Gay Geeks
These weeks I'm particularly thankful for:
1. The Gay Geeks and La Fulana
2. El Pasaje Spanish School
3. My apartment in Palermo and a chance to get settled in a new place
Very good seeing all the pictures you post. Continue to have fun and take care of yourself.
ReplyDelete