ARGENTINA: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

When I realized I was doing Argentina this week, the first thing that ran through my mind was “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.” Of course I know there’s got to be more to Argentina than one piece of history brought to us by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Located in the southern part of South America, it’s the second largest country on the continent (after Brazil). In fact, it’s the eighth largest country in the world, when it comes to area.  The land itself is as diverse as its people. The Andes mountains (not to be confused with Andes Mints. Mmm…) border the western side of the country, while there are rich fertile plains in the northern part of the country, called The Pampas. They are subject to some volcanic activity along the mountainside border with Chile as well as earthquakes. 

The Pampas

 While the official language is Spanish, as with most of South America, there are several other languages that have large numbers of speakers who live in Argentina. You’ll also find pockets of Arabic, German, Guaraní, English, French, and Brazilian-Portuguese spoken here as well.  

Rio de la Plata

Located on the Atlantic Ocean side in the Rio de la Plata, the capital Buenos Aires has almost 13 million people in it. It’s one of the largest metropolitan areas in South America, bringing a lot of diversity to the area. Roughly 92% of Argentines identify themselves as Roman Catholic, but less than 20% are actually practicing. Having access to clean water, sanitation, and medical supplies are contributing factors to why most Argentines have a fairly long life expectancy.  (Although there are some risks for communicable diseases in the poorer and/or less urbanized areas, of course.)

The name Argentina itself comes from the fact that Spanish explorers were following a rumor there were large silver deposits in the mountains, for which there were none found in the area where they landed. The Latin word for silver was argentum.  (In fact in French, also based from Latin, the word for both silver and money is the word argent.) I think this is hilarious in a sort of anti-climactic way. The capital Buenos Aires roughly means “fair winds” after the long form of the city name that was named after the patron saint of Sardinia: Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María del Buen Aire. I can understand why they’d just call it Buenos Aires. Mostly because it saves in ink on government forms, I imagine. 

Buenos Aires, Argentina

 A lot of Argentine culture has been heavily influenced by other European and American cultures, but it has also mixed with the local peoples and its own history to create its own unique culture. As we take a look at Argentine cultural arts, you can definitely see how it may be similar to others but yet it is definitely, indubitably all Argentina.

Next up: Holidays and Celebrations

Resources:

Wikipedia: “Argentina” “Buenos Aires” “Etymology of Country Names” “Etymology of Argentina”

CIA World Factbook: Argentina

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: THE FOOD

This was a meal that required a lot of time. Not so much that I really had, but it managed to work out in the end. It all started with trying to find conch. The first place I went to was out, but I did manage to find it at the Saraga International Grocery Store for $10/lb. (That place is huge! I wish I had more time to look around.)  And then we promised the kids we’d buy them their own bikes with some of the tax refund – no hand-me-downs this year. But needless to say, it set my start time back a couple of hours.  No problems though.

The first thing I started was the bread since I knew it would have a lot of resting time involved. It seemed like after every step, it had to rest for an hour or something. (Sounds like my dream job…)

Shhh... it's resting.  

While it was resting, I got started on the ducuna.  It starts out with grated sweet potato, which also seemed like I’d never get to the end of that task. But then after I added sugar, it –of course—had to rest an hour.

Grated sweet potato and sugar. It's also resting. I feel like I just walked into naptime at the culinary daycare.  

I made a Caribbean tarter sauce for the conch fritters. I’m not a huge fan of tarter sauce in general, but this one didn’t add horseradish, one of the very few foods I DON’T like. So, I thought it wouldn’t be too bad. It was way more tolerable than regular tarter sauce, but I’m still not a fan. Tarter sauce ranks right up there with Monday mornings, stepping in mud puddles in sandals, and the Twilight series.

Then I ran back to the bread to kneed it (or as we called it, punching the dough) and formed it into the rolls.  After that, you guessed it, it had to rest another 45 minutes to an hour.

Beat on the bread, beat on the bread, beat on the bread with a baseball bat. Well, ok, the Ramones did it better. 

Which then gave me time to start chopping the vegetables and conch for the fritters. (The word is still out on the correct pronunciation of the word conch: some say /kahnch/ and some, like in south Florida, pronounce it /kahnk/.  Maybe they're both right. I pronounced it /kahnk/ in the store and they had no idea what I was talking about. Then they said "Do you mean /kahnch/?")  I made the batter and mixed everything together. And –can you believe it? —it had to rest in the refrigerator for an hour.

By now I was ready to put the bread in the oven.  Yeah! After 25-30 minutes, it was ready! (Finally…)

Mmmm... woo-hoo! 

 Then I was able to wrap the ducuna into foil balls and put them in boiling water for 50 minutes. The directions said that it has to cool completely, or it’d be sticky. Well, I cooled it down, and it was still a little sticky.  Maybe I didn’t have enough flour in it or something. I thought it was supposed to be more solidified.

Putting the ducuna in a foil bed and dunking it in boiling water. Hmmm, sounds a little like a spa treatment. 

The fritters turned out really well at first sight, but I had to put some of them back in the oven because the insides weren’t quite done. But after that, it was really good (minus the tarter sauce, that is). 

That's $8.99 in a restaurant. Just leave your tip on the table when you leave. 

 Overall, it took a lot of time to make this dinner. It taught me patience and planning in making this. And for a meal that had to constantly rest, I certainly wasn’t able to. The bread turned out amazing, but to be authentic, it was missing an ingredient, besides the vanilla extract I forgot to put in.  In Antigua, this is known locally as a bun and cheese. They take the bun that I made and put a sort of cheese spread on it. I think it's made with cheddar cheese, but I forgot the research to find a recipe for it. So, I was only halfway authentic. But that’s ok. The kids enjoyed the conch fritters (which to me, the conch had the chewiness of octopus and the taste of a scallop). And when the kids eat it (and I’m including my 3-year-old whom I sometimes call Mikey [from the old Life cereal commercial: “give it to Mikey; he hates everything”]), it must be good.

Not sure if this is what it was supposed to look like, but it was good nonetheless. 

Up next: Argentina

Resources:

Ducuna: http://bizzz.com/caribbeanrecipes/antigua-barbuda-ducuna-or-boiled-sweet-potato-cakes/

Conch fritters: http://www.caribbeanchoice.com/recipes/recipe.asp?recipe=121

Antigua raisin cheese bun –

http://latinfood.about.com/od/rice-recipes/r/antigua-raisin-bread.htm

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: MUSIC AND DANCE

The music of Antigua and Barbuda has a lot of similarities to and is heavily influenced by the music of nearby Trinidad and Tobago. While there are several types of music heard and played here, there are three main types of music found in Antigua and Barbuda: steel pans, calypso, and soca. Others also include reggae and zouk (another type of music from the Caribbean).

While the correct term is steel pan, many people call it steel drum. However, it is not a drum at all, as most people know it. A drum by definition is called a membranophone, meaning an instrument that creates its sound from a membrane (like the head of a drum, made of various materials). A steel pan falls under the category of an idiophone, one that creates its sounds from vibration.  It gets its name because it was originally made out of used oil drums that were made of steel which are then formed into the instrument. The “notes” are arranged using the cycle of fifths. There are many different sizes of steel pans, some are quite large while others are smaller to give an array of range.  A famous steel pan band from Antigua is the Brute Force Steel Band. The Hell’s Gate Steel Band and the Big Shell Steel Band are two others. The video is of the Antigua Carnival Panorama 2011 champs, the Hell’s Gate Steel Band. It’s really something to see all those people performing together. It really makes me want to buy a steel drum next (side note: I just purchased a Zimbabwe [of the Shona people] mbira today – I’m still excited, and I haven’t even received it. I have a long time before I even get to Zimbabwe to blog about it. But by then, I should be good.)

Calypso is an integral part of Antiguan music because it is closely tied to other forms as well. It also came from Trinidad, created by slaves at a time when they were not allowed to speak to each other for fear of planning to overthrow their “owners.”  In Antigua and Barbuda, calypso has been used as a means to express social and political ideologies, often using metaphors and symbolism, much like Rai music does in Algeria. Calypso bands often will have two guitars and a bass guitar, but will add other instruments, like drums as needed. Every year, there are calypso contests, especially during Carnival. I really like the musician Claudette Peters (from the band Taxik). There isn’t a lot of information on her, and only a few YouTube videos. One famous calypso band is Burning Flames. This is a video of the song “Swinging Engine.”  Ok, it's not much of a video per se, but the song is cool.

Soca, which is probably the most well-known form, is closely related to calypso. It’s actually a combination of calypso and cadence (another genre from the Caribbean) with certain Indian instruments, like the dholak (a type of drum), the tabla (another type of drum, I mentioned it when I wrote on music from Afghanistan), and the dhantal (a long metal rod struck with a smaller U-shaped metal rod). It’s once been thought that the term “Soca” stood for “soul calypso” (as in SOul CAlipso), but it really was a misinterpretation of a quote from Soca musician Lord Shorty, which actually was supposed to be that “soca was the soul of calypso.”  Soca is also very popular around Carnival time as well. It’s mostly a pretty upbeat style of music. One famous soca band is El-A-Kru; this is the song “Expose.” 

There isn’t a lot of information on traditional dance. I did however manage to find a video for the Xephorae Dance Theatre performing with the Da Vibez Steel Band. I don't know if it's traditional to Antigua or not, but it's still good. Although I am wondering what the significance of the baskets on the head are. [The first part is announced in French, so I'm not sure where they're performing.] I also found a video on YouTube of some guys doing what they call a Bakka dance on Market Street. But I can’t find any more information on traditional dances. There are several dance troupes, including several videos on YouTube of the Antigua Dance Academy.  There are also several dance contests during Carnival festival.

Music and dance go hand-in-hand in Antigua and Barbuda. When you hear the music, you can’t help but sway to the music. Even if you’re not a dancer, like me. I totally wish I were a dancer though (partly because most dancers have really awesome bodies).  Perhaps that’s why I can’t find any information on Antiguan dance – dancing is so engrained into the music that it’s not known by its own genre.  It’s more of an expression, of something that comes natural, rather than a deliberate move. Whether you give it a name or not, you can tell it comes from deeper than the heart – music and dance is built into the fibers of what it is to be from Antigua and Barbuda.

Up next: the food!

Resources:

Wikipedia: “Music of Antigua and Barbuda” “Steel pans” “Calypso” “Soca”

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: ART AND LITERATURE

Antigua and Barbuda is an artist colony of sorts.  With its gorgeous scenery, many photographers are based here. There are a number of other types of arts that are popular like textiles, basket weaving, and painting.  But no matter what the type of art it is, there is one thing that is the common denominator between them all, and that’s bright colors.  Certain arts use natural materials such as pottery, bead jewelry (and jewelry in general, including gems and pearls) and certain kinds of sculptures. 

There are a number of art museums dotting the islands and create a Mecca for artists. One of the largest and most well known is called Harmony Hall, thought of as the center of arts in Antigua by some.  Throughout the year, there are a number of craft, trade, and art shows all over the islands where people can meet and share their arts.

A number of authors have arisen to fame who have originated from Antigua.  Two of the more well known are Jamaica Kincaid and Marie-Elena John.  Jamaica Kincaid was born and raised in St. John’s, but now resides in the United States, dividing her time between her home in Vermont and teaching in California. Her first novel “At the Bottom of the River” was published in 1983, and she’s written many since then. Some of her more famous novels are “A Small Place,” “Lucy,” and “Mr. Potter.”  I actually downloaded a sample of “Mr. Potter” on iBooks. It was pretty good; I might go back and buy it to finish it. Many of her novels surround life on the island of Antigua, and are pseudo-autobiographical in nature, although she does claim that basically there are many parts that are true and many parts that aren’t.

Marie-Elena John is another Caribbean writer from Antigua whose first novel, “Unburnable” came out in 2006. This book is mostly a historical fiction but also a little bit of a mystery novel as well. I read the first chapter of the sample that I got off of iBooks, and I’m intrigued. I think I may have to buy this one as well. Or at least try to find it at the library. She does a lot of work with various nonprofit and governmental human rights organizations and focuses her work on various African nations. She also divides her time between residing in the United States and Antigua.

One thing I noticed in both samples I read and in looking at the art that comes out of Antigua is the attention to detail. But it’s not always the meticulously cleaned up detail to make everything right, it’s an attention to detail that shows things how they are: like a giant magnifying glass. It’s almost as if they are celebrating, or rather conveying, to the world the beauty that is, not the beauty that is in the corrected.

Up next: music and dance

Resources:

art: http://www.antigua-barbuda.org/press132.htm

Wikipedia: “Jamaica Kincaid” “Marie-Elena John” “Unburnable”

iBook samples: “Mr. Potter” (Jamaica Kincaid); “Unburnable” (Marie-Elena John)

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS

Antigua and Barbuda certainly do not have as many public holidays as other countries, but there are many local festivals that take place all year round, including the Antigua and Barbuda Literary Festival (I would LOVE to attend!).

January 1. New Year’s Day.  Antiguans bring in the New Year with a huge gala affair. There are barbecues on the beach, lots of food and drinks.  Decorations are usually still up from Christmas. Most bars stay open extra late, usually until dawn. Fireworks and live music fill the night. On New Year’s Day itself, there is a costume parade that takes place.  It seems that New Years is almost as festive as Carnival. 

First Monday in May. Labour Day.  Most people take this time off from work to spend with their families and friends.  Many people enjoy a barbecue on the beach with a lot of good food and drink. Some also prefer to travel to the sister-island of Barbuda (about 30 miles northeast from the island of Antigua). There are also parades going on during the day as well that are hosted by various trade union organizations. 

July 3. CARICOM Day.  CARICOM stands for Caribbean Community, an organization and agreement among 15 Caribbean nations, mostly members of the English-speaking countries.  It celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas (1973). There are TV specials on and a lot of political speeches regarding the state of nation as a CARICOM member.

Late July-early August. Antigua Carnival. This is a HUGE festival in Antigua. It’s filled with talent shows, concerts, parades with lots of elaborate costumes, food, drink, and partying. It’s practically non-stop for 11 days. I guess if you were going to head to Antigua, you’d probably want to go for Carnival.

November 1.  Independence Day.  Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1981. Everywhere in Antigua and Barbuda, businesses and schools start decorating for the holiday weeks in advance. Many people will celebrate with barbecues, parades, and lots of traditional food and drink. People will also wear traditional clothing and the national colors of yellow and red around this time as well.

December 9.  National Heroes Day.  There are four people designated as National Heroes, to which they are honored: Sir Vere Cornwall Bird (first prime minister of Antigua, you’ll find his named attached to a variety of buildings, the airport, etc.), King Court (led a slave rebellion), Dame Ellen Georgian Nellie Robinson (leader in education), and Sir Vivian Richards (great cricket player).

December 25.  Christmas. Christmas is celebrated around food and drink. Many people prefer stew pork as the traditional Christmas meal. There are usually several other side dishes and desserts that surround the main dish. There is still decorating and Christmas lights and caroling, but there is also a lot of other music and outdoor activities as well. However, this is still a holiday that is spent with family and friends. A lot of the traditions in Antigua were brought over from the British, except with a notable island twist.

December 26.  Boxing Day. I have seen this holiday listed as a Canadian and UK holiday, but had no idea what it was. Apparently, it’s traditionally the day that you take your Christmas boxes and share its contents with the poor. (A Christmas box is a wooden or clay box used to put gifts in.) These days, it’s customary to tip those who provide services and to donate gifts to charity. Some employers would give bonuses to its workers, and schools will sometimes create a Christmas box with items to send to poorer countries.

Up next: Arts and Literature

Resources:

Wikipedia: “Public holidays in Antigua and Barbuda” “CARICOM” “Antigua Carnival”

New Years: http://travel.mapsofworld.com/antigua-and-barbuda/new-year.html

Labor Day: http://www.visitantiguabarbuda.co.uk/events.asp?id=30&e_startDate=1-May-2011

CARICOM Day: http://aglobalworld.com/holidays-around-the-world/antigua-barbuda-caricom-day/

Independence Day: http://www.antiguanice.com/v2/client.php?id=769

Christmas: http://www.antiguanice.com/v2/client.php?id=953

Boxing Day: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/boxingday.html

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

Sun. Beaches. Caribbean breezes. The island nation of Antigua and Barbuda lies in the middle of all this. It’s been inhabited by several different groups of people throughout its history, starting mostly with the Arawak and Carib Indians, then the Spanish and French, followed by the British who brought African slaves with them to work the sugar plantations. (Slavery was abolished here about a decade before the United States could even get their act together on the issue.)

The name Antigua comes from the Spanish word for “ancient,”possibly a shortening of Santa Maria la Antigua, ultimately referring to a sacred icon in a cathedral in Seville, Spain; Christopher Columbus bestowed the name himself. The name Barbuda comes from the Spanish word for “bearded,” possibly from either the way the fig trees looked or possibly from the beards the natives sported. And apparently, I have been pronouncing it wrong all these years: it’s an-TEE-guh and bar-BOO-duh (although Wikipedia says it's also pronounced bar-BYOO-duh. If you know which is right, or if they're both acceptable, please let me know!) 

English is spoken in Antigua and Barbuda, although Antiguan Creole is more widely spoken. While most people can speak Standard English, in most social situations, people will choose to speak creole. This is especially true after gaining independence.

Antigua and Barbuda are located just southeast of the island of Puerto Rico. It’s roughly the size of Tampa, Florida when it comes to area. The entire country has about 89,000 people, which is roughly the same as Reading, Pennsylvania. The island of Antigua is the main island and the one most populated. The capital, St. John’s, is here. (As a grammarian, the use of theapostrophe bothers me. It’s like, I’m constantly asking, “St. John’s what?”)  The island of Barbuda is to the northeast a bit and is much more rural; it’s largest city is Codrington. There are actually several other smaller islands that also belong to Antigua and Barbuda.

The country itself has a fairly high percentage of clean water and sanitation, even in the rural areas. Only about 86% of the people are literate though, and there is high unemployment. Antiguans’ main industry is tourism, although there is light manufacturing and construction also contributes to the economy as well.

One of the problems that Antigua and Barbuda has is a problem with offshore banking. In 2009, Texas billionaire Allen Stanford wasarrested for a $7 billion multi-national Ponzi scheme involving 30,000 investors. He was recently convicted of 13 of 14 counts last month, and I think he’s facing around 20 years in prison. He based himself in Antigua and fronted a lot of money to the island nation. In return for being allowed to stay there (after he was forced to leave the island of Montserrat after authorities closed his offshore bank back in the 1980s), he did pay his workers first-world wages, which they, in turn, used to pay other people for services, such as gardeners, nannies, etc. When Stanford was arrested and brought back to the US, the people who worked for him were fired, and they were forced to fire those who did services for them as well: a trickle-down effect to stagnant waters. After all that’s said and done, thousands were left without jobs, and the money dried up.

But Antigua and Barbuda’s natural beauty and tropical climate will continue to attract people from all over the world. The fusions ofcultures and laid-back auras of the Caribbean continue to perpetuate a fascination with Antigua and Barbuda.

Up next: Holidays and Celebrations

Resources:

CIA World Factbook: Antigua and Barbuda

Wikipedia: “Antigua and Barbuda” “Etymology of country names”

Allen Stanford scandal: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17298267

FOLLOW UP: ANGOLAN ART

This was a recent article posted today on my local newspaper’s website, the Indianapolis Star. I thought it was a pretty cool article.  Apparently through CT scan technology, art experts-turned-scientists have found that in these figurines from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it shows they have created what looks like outlines of the digestive tracts inside the figurines. Even though it’s not from Angola, it is nearby, and they really do resemble the Chokwe art I talked about. And it’ll be a while before I get to the DRC, so I thought I’d post it now. It makes me wonder if any Angolan figurines have the same digestive tracks created inside. Who knows?

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120419/LOCAL/204190317/IMA-uses-CT-scans-reveal-inner-secrets-African-statues?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|News