While Argentina certainly has a distinct culture, which I have tried to share with you, the cultural exports of the US are quite abundant. People here love our music, television and movies. Cafés and clubs play almost exclusively American music, of which 80’s rock is probably the most popular. The Simpson is at times playing on three different channels at once (with some pretty hilarious dubbing). Without fail, every time I tell someone that I’m studying Criminology they ask me if I like CSI more than Law & Order.
It seems that because the people here have such a favorable opinion about our culture they acquire from this a favorable opinion of the people. I find this to be pretty silly. I wouldn’t say that our television or music (Especially 80’s rock) is particularly representative of our people or culture. I think one could draw some pretty strange conclusions about the US based the fast food and the abundance of crime related TV shows.
“Muy Amable, muy abierta.”
This is Estrella on the right. (The girl on the left is Yen, another student who helps me with my interviews). Estrella is from southern Argentina but moved to north to go to school. Yen and I asked her about what she knew about American and it’s people. She told me that her and her friends love to meet people from other cultures. She told me that people from Argentina are generally very open to foreigners for this reason. Estrella has never been to the US but she has met students from the US and thinks they’re very open and conversational. She also mentioned that she loves McDonalds Weird right? Apparently it’s considered to be international and therefor exotic.
On a political level things are going well between the US and Argentina. That’s Cristina and Obama who recently met in France during an international economics conference. Things have in the past gone through some turbulent periods as the US has supported, or not supported different leaders with varying degrees of respect for human rights. This was especially prevalent in times when the US supported the Argentine dictators solely because they harbored anti-communist sentiments. People were (understandably) unhappy that the US would support a dictator who did not respect the rights of his people just because he was against communism. Thankfully, things have progressed in both countries to the point that human rights have taken a priority.
Reporting Live from Rosario, Argentina 