Best Night Ever

Last night, our program director, Debora, took us to a tango show and dinner at a beautiful theater called Tango Porteno. The night started with a 45 minute tango lesson in a large ballroom. I had taken a short lesson earlier this week at a Milonga, or dance hall, with my internship director, Natalia, and hadn't failed horribly so I was excited to practice my new skills.

Well, the steps the tango teachers taught us were not exactly the ones I learned previously so unfortunately I didn't have the upper hand I thought I had. My dance partners were also inexperienced non-Argentinians as well so I couldn't just follow their lead as I did at the Milonga. The first partner I had seemed to have two left feet which didn't compliment my unfamiliarity with the new steps. But thankfully during the second round my new partner had better rhythm and we did pretty well if I do say so myself. The lesson was a lot of fun, and we got certificates at the end!! Afterwards we headed downstairs into the theater where dinner and the performance would be.

When I tell you that food was the best meal I've had in Argentina...

We had a few options for each part of a three course meal. I chose veal empanadas as the appetizer, steak and mashed potatoes for the entree, and a trio sampler of flan, dulce de leche ice cream, and a cheese tart for dessert. Everything was AMAZING. The empanadas were heavenly, the steak was cooked to perfection, and there are no words to adequately describe how good the dessert was.

After thoroughly enjoying our meal over conversation and laughter about our experience in Argentina, the tango show began.

To be honest, before coming to Argentina I thought tango was one of the more boring Latin dances. But if actually learning it didn't fully change my mind, watching professionals dance tango while singing and portraying as much emotion as humanly possible definitely did. The women were in beautiful, sparkling costumes as they swirled across the stage with their partners, telling an action packed love story through tango. At some points it felt like I was watching acrobats with all the seemingly impossible flips and twists the pairs did while maintaining their passionate facial expressions.

As the show came to an end, I found myself wanting more. Much similar to how I feel about my time in Argentina as I prepare to leave in a few days. Through my ups and downs here, this city has enchanted me, and I'm so grateful to have had this experience.

Worst Experience Ever

Being in a Latin American country, especially Argentina, it is to be expected that one would experience awkward racial encounters at best or outright racism at worst. Last weekend I had an encounter that was somewhere in between.

Last Saturday I had to work at the co-op that my internship, Amigos de la Tierra, is a part of to help package and sell their artesanal goods. They hold a feria all day so we were meeting up at the office at around 9am to go help set up. I was the first one to arrive at the office so I was waiting outside in the cold with my jeans, scarf, and coat on. As I'm waiting, a young man walks by me, and we made what I thought to be meaningless, brief eye contact. But after making said eye contact he stopped and asks me:

 "estas trabajando?" (are you working?)

Thinking he may be volunteering with us I answered:

"si." (yes)

But then he proceeded to ask me:

"cuanto?" (how much.)

Confused, I responded:

"cuanto es que?" (how much is what?)

To this he looked at me side eyed and stated:

"por el sexo." (for sex)

Needless to say, I was mortified. This random man had assumed I was a prostitute looking for work in broad daylight while fully dressed. I couldn't even respond in Spanish. All I could utter were repeated "no's" until he got the message and walked away.

Before coming to Argentina, I had read about Black women being mistaken for prostitutes, but I hadn't thought about it again until it happened to me. Thankfully it wasn't at night time or on a smaller street because who knows what he could have done.

Again, I've been reminded of the consequences of my identity as a Black woman that follow me wherever I go and affect my experiences regardless of how carefree I try to be. But to be clear, I didn't write this post to dissuade Black women from traveling to Argentina because it's important that we experience the world and that the world experiences us, but as a reminder to always be aware of your surroundings and to understand the context in which your environment operates.

Until next time,

Alexis