A Black Girls Guide To Buenos Aires

Tuesday September 25, 2007

THE BLACK GIRLS GUIDE TO Buenos Aires

I wanted to write a little side note for any African American woman planning on visiting BA.

1. Hair

You know this is the first thing I am going to talk about. If your wondering if its possible to keep you hair fly while you are here it is, but this is what you have to do. Send the specific hair products you like to yourself in Argentina. You will not be able to find it here, and when I say send it to yourself I mean by DHL, Fed Ex, or UPS any kind of mail service that brings it directly to your door. If you don’t send it this way you will be exposed to a traumatic process of receiving packages from over seas in Argentina. (See earlier chapter for details). If you usually go natural and don’t use relaxers than you are in good shape. However if you do use relaxers no fear, there is a woman here who can do it. She is from the Dominican Republic and does not speak English so you may want to know a little Spanish. You will need to refer to a relaxer here as Alisado con crème. And a blowout is Peinado con Cepillo Y Secador electrico. She did a blow out for me that came out great. I did not have my own hair products at the time so she used the one she had which were fine, but I am going to take my own with me next time. If you prefer to wear braids for your stay in BA she can do those as well. Her name is Andrea and she can be reached at this website www.trenzasyapliques.com.ar

2. Men

Ok because there is not that many black people here you will be considered exotic which means very aggressive behavior from men. Your name is no longer the name your parents bestowed you with it

“Morocha”

“Chocolate”

“Chocolate Bon Bon”

“Hermosa”

“Que linda”

“Ey Chica”

Ignore all this unless that is your style. Dismiss all the offers for hotels and massages (again unless that is your style) and ignore the meows, kisses, and hisses. You are not an animal, and if a guy try’s to fondle you kick him in the balls. Argentine woman keep their men in check because they are tough and don’t take bullshit. You have to be this way as well.

3. Race
No matter were you go you will be stared at excessively. When you first arrive it will be exhausting and make you want to leave but don’t worry you will get use to it. No matter where you come from outside Argentina doesn’t matter. When you are here and you are brown you are Brazilian that’s it period. Despite what people may say I did see a lot of black people here. They are in Constitution. When you go there you see one after another. The black men are cute there to. (At least from what I seen) A friend of mine told me Argentines consider constitution dangerous because that’s were all the black people are. The area seemed ok to me. However I would not recommend going there at night alone if you are a female. I was with a friend that lived there so I felt very comfortable. Plus I love my people and I feel no matter what part of the world you come from there is a silent respect for one another. Anyway that’s where most blacks are in Buenos Aires and I feel like there is enough of us here for me not to be stared at everywhere I go but whatever it is what it is.

4. Music/Dance/Club
If you’re a big hip hop head that likes to dance to the latest greatest Hip Hop in the club. It will be a little hard to be satisfied here. Here hip-hop is cumbia (see earlier chapter on Niceto) the Argentine style of reggae. If you are open-minded and love all types of music you will be fine. Everyone says good hip-hop is played at a place called Lost on Thursday. Though I have been told at lost they play hip hop like Ice Ice baby, Hammer Time, and Nelly from 5 years ago, but I cannot really speak because I have not been there and I really don’t go clubbing. I will be checking out a place called club Dynamite that claims to play New York Hip Hop on Wednesday nights. I will check it out and report back. Everyone I ask here has never heard of it. So maybe it is a hidden gem.

5. Shop
Clothes here are like everywhere else. The girls here are very tiny so are a lot of the clothes. A lot of food here is 0 calories. I went to order Empanadas the other day with a friend. We asked for three and he looked at us like we were crazy, because the Empanadas were a bit bigger in size. I so could have eaten three of those. Anyway just trying to give you a good picture on size here. There are woman on the bigger size but there are rare. I have not really dove into the clothes here because I could not find much I liked but I did manage to get a cute shirt. Be careful of the gringo price. This is when you think your buying something for the price on the tag of the item then when you get to the counter it’s a higher price. It’s happen to me once. An Argentine woman told me that sometimes the price would be raised if they see you speak English. No worries though its rare for that to happen people here are generally nice and fair.

6. Safety
Buenos Aires is generally a safe place. You just have to look out for street hustlers and scam artist. They are focusing on you more because you are an obvious tourist. Use your head and you will be ok. Here are some tips:

1. Never walk on the streets alone at night in the rough neighborhoods. Some of these are La boca, San Telmo, and retiro.

2. Go to an ATM in the day.

3. Always hail cabs with Radio Taxi on the side. Some cabs a real shady. I was slipped a fake twenty Peso bill by one once, then another tried to drive me in circles but I knew where I lived and put him in his place.

7. Food
Food is food. Its good here so no worries. However if you like spice you have to seek out specific restaurants that cater to spicy food.

That’s it for now. If anything else useful comes up I will be sure to add it.