It has been quite the busy and tiring week here in Cordoba. On Monday we met up with Professor Adler at our hostel in the morning. There we met our coordinator for the trip, Estela, who is an attorney in the province and incredibly nice. After some discussions about the upcoming classes and internships to follow in Buenos Aires we were joined by Mariana who would be showing us around the city and taking us on day trips out of the city when we were done with classes. She is exceptionally nice as well with a great sense of humor. After discussing our plans for the week, Estela showed us to where we would be doing our classes at the Universidad Catholica de Cordoba, a Jesuit University located in the center of the Jesuit block (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) in the city. We took the opportunity to have an informal class session to discuss the differences between the common law system the United States uses and the civil law system used in Argentina.
On Tuesday we started the day with a tour of the Nueva Cordoba section of the city where we were staying. Mariana our guide showed us where all the nightlife was centered and was able to explain to us the unique nature of the bars in Cordoba. Essentially, no one goes out until 2am. They stay out at the bars and discos until 5am when the after-hours clubs open. It’s quite different from all the cities I’ve lived in where all the bars are required to close at 2am. We then checked out some of the amazing churches in the area. Most of them are of a baroque style and all of them, despite their age, seemed to have ornate and gilded details just dripping off of every surface. In many ways it reminded me of the cethedrals I had seen in Europe of a similar style. We then went to the Palacio Ferreyra which is somewhat comparable to the White House in that it is an entire city block in the middle of a busy downtown area with a huge mansion and lawns behind a tall iron fence. However, this French inspired stone mansion was a private residence until just a few years. The government had only recently purchased it from the family the built it and lived in it for generations and converted it into a museum to house part of the national art collection. The house itself was a work of art, blending the original elements with new and modern additions (e.g. a staircase covered in cow hides). The collection there was outstanding with a fantastic mix of South American artists from a variety of ages. One of the rooms dedicated to art reflecting the “Guerra Sucia” and the kidnappings and killings of the period was especially powerful and moving.
After lunch we regrouped at the university for a class where we discussed themes of constitutional law and distinctions between the judiciaries of the U.S. and Argentina. The class was taught in Spanish, and although we had Estela there to provide translation for us as needed, we surprised ourselves with how well we were able to understand and participate in Spanish. We barely even needed her to translate and would often chime in to supplement the information in Spanish. It was incredibly fascinating to learn that the Cordoba Province is the first and only in Argentina to implement a jury system to their judiciary. However, here the jury functions more as a single vote in addition to the votes of a panel of judges that hears criminal cases. When the class ended, an official from the university came to bestow on us gifts of UCC swag. He then generously brought us to the bookstore where he loaded us up with books about topics we had expressed interest in, as well as many books on Cordoba and its history that he simply would not let us leave without. So much for traveling light. That night we decided to splurge a little on fancy steak dinner, where the meal included some of the best empanadas I’ve ever had, steaks the size shape and weight of building bricks, and local malbecs to wash it all down.
On Wednesday we started the day at the university taking a class with a different professor regarding issues of international law which, while incredibly relevant to our internships, would not make for very enjoyable blog material. That afternoon after class our guide Mariana took us to the nearby town of Alta Gracia where we toured the local estancia. The estancias in Argentina were like estates/plantations that the Jesuits built to help support their universities and churches financially. The old architecture was beautiful and it was nice to get out of the city and explore a smaller town. Alta Gracia was also where Che Guevara grew up and we were able to tour his childhood home. That night the power in the city went out and we prayed for the sake of public safety that it would be restored by the time Argentina’s World Cup match started the next day.
On Thursday around 8:30am we awoke to the sounds of fireworks, car horns beeping, cheering, and cheap plastic horns blowing. We immediately knew that Argentina must have scored in their match against South Korea and hastily dressed and joined the rest of the hostel watching the game downstairs. Looking outside the streets were completely deserted. However, whenever Argentina scored a goal (4 in total this game) the streets would erupt as people would run outside to cheer, chant, set of fireworks, and blow horns. Then as quickly as everyone had appeared they would disappear back inside once play resumed. Mariana arrived as soon as the game ended and took us out. We all got some Argentina flair to wear and fought out way through the celebrations in the street into the Jesuit block. She showed us around the churches and other universities in the block. The churches there we equally as ornate and beautiful as the others we had seen in the city, but all unique in their own ways. We then toured a building that was formerly a detention center for those that were arrested during the “Guerra Sucia.” It was a very moving experience and a well put together museum now, that included scrapbooks made by the family members of the desaparecidos. Right from the museum we went to a class that focused on the human rights issues relevant to the time and helped explain some of the things we had seen and left us wanting to learn even more about it.
Today (Friday) we took a long bus ride out of the city into the hills where we toured small towns started by German immigrants. The bus ride out led us up winding switchback roads through the foothills in fog as dense as any I've experienced in San Francisco. The combination of the winding roads and not being able to see more than an inch or two outside the windows was a perfect recipe for car-sickness for some of us, but fortunately there were no casualties. It was great to get out of the city and do some hiking. It was odd being in towns that had almost all alpine style architecture and German themes everywhere. If many of the signs weren’t in Spanish it would be very easy to forget altogether that we were in South America, not Germany or Bavaria. Even the place where we stopped for lunch specialized in German food. It was a long and tiring day but just what we needed before heading into the bustling city of Buenos Aires for a month.
