As winter lingers here in Buenos Aires, disappointed football fanatics hang up their remeras, or team shirts, and replace them with winter abrigos, or coats – a sight I never believed I would see during my year-long jaunt in Buenos Aires. I was among those ignorant extranjeros, or foreigners, who automatically linked Latin America to tropical climates and sunny living. My expectations were met with great force upon my arrival in January when the greedy Argentine humidity hit me in the face as I stepped out of the door at Ezeiza International Airport. However, January, February and March came and went. Before I knew it, I had delved into my sweater supply which I had once so bitterly resented in the dog days of Enero, or January. Furthermore, my winter coat was soon summoned out of the abandoned suitcase in the closet, and quickly demanded I buy ear muffs to match it (N.B. which were shortly followed by mittens). Ashamed to admit to anyone back home that yes, Argentina does indeed get “rather chilly,” I convinced myself for quite some time that it was merely a “phase” and something to do with that sneaky and detrimental pest we refer to as Climate change.
As I complained long distance about the winter to my mother, and then as she reminded me of how much I had already complained during the Argentine summer, I tried to make a list of all the positives that an Argentine winter actually had to offer. And not just any Argentine winter, but this very Argentine winter, which offered us Mundial, or World Cup, festivities galore. One day on the number 132 bus, I had delighted in hearing a group of uniformed school children commenting on the fact that this year was the year of “White and Blue”, or, in other words, quite a year for Argentine patriotism. With a two hundredth birthday having been celebrated in May, the country now eagerly looked towards the hopeful team carefully selected and organized by perhaps one of the greatest players and Argentinean personalities of all time, Diego Maradona himself.
The mental preparations for the World Cup were no small chore, and it took quite some time for the Argentine people to get not only their white and blue ready, but also their vocal chords, their physical fitness levels (with which they would fight the crowds to the front of the pantallas gigantes, or giant television screens), and their complete conviction that Argentina would win and bring home the shiny golden cup. These measures took only a few months in the eyes of an extranjera, like me, whilst to the porteños it had been a four year wait. An advertisement campaign released on Argentine national television comically highlighted the passion and emotion prevalent in the majority of the country when the national team stepped up to compete against another country in the Mundial. “If their team loses,” one actor posing in the street commented, “they just go home and weep. No one speaks for days.” I suppose I took this advertisement too light-heartedly.
When Tevez, Messi and friends said their final goodbyes to the chance of bringing home the oro, or gold, against Germany, I did not hear a peep out of the majority of the city for hours. For what is normally a hectic and at times overbearingly loud ciudad, Capital Federal ever so uncharacteristically wrapped itself up in a blanket and shut itself up in a corner, avoiding conversation and contact with anyone or anything. I comforted the city in any and every way that I could, by engaging anyone I found in small talk about other topics. “Forget Messi’s fatigued final performance for now,” I encouraged, “and concentrate on finding that perfect overcoat for your dog to greet the winter with open paws!" (N.B. Dog coats are so popular in Buenos Aires that they are not solely modeled by lap or handbag canines, they are even favored by Alsatians and Labradors alike). As always, my good friend Susana Gimenez approved my choice for conversational topics with the feature of her July issue entitled “How to Dress your Dog for Winter.”
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