UPDATE: Argentina #5

Happy Independence Day, USA! Today we walked some of the busier streets of the Monserrat neighborhood, where tourists gather and pose in front of the iconic Obelisco de Buenos Aires, built in 1936 to commemorate the city’s 400th birthday, through the theatre district, to the Plaza de Mayo, which honors the May 25, 1810 revolution that led to independence from Spain. Today mothers of the 30,000 desaparecidos - the disappeared - marched around the square, as they have every Thursday since 1977 to protest the Dirty War and to advocate for the recovery of their grown children’s remains, many of whom were tossed from airplanes into the Atlantic, with the implicit aid of the United States government. The movement’s symbol, a diaper that the mothers wear as a white headscarf, can be spotted throughout Argentina, graffitied on sidewalks and buildings (see below).

Simple fare on this chilly day included lemon-poppyseed cake and fresh croissant with hot beverages, then empanadas with hot chocolate.

Photo of the Day