December 2, 2007
On Thursday I finally received a motorbike ride here from a guy named Lucas. Lucas is one of the few existing Afro Argentines here in Argentina. In order for you to understand the history of Afro Argentines I will fill you in on a little of it. There was a time when Buenos Aires had a 45% black population but this is no longer so. These are the three reasons I have been told and discovered threw research there are very few blacks in Buenos Aires.
1. Most of the black mails were killed in the 1865-1870 Paraguayan war.
2. A large amount of the Afro Argentines died in the 1871 yellow fever epidemic.
3. Afro Argentines began mixing with the white argentines and the off spring of such unions pass as white.
There also use to be a club called The Shimmy Club founded in 1924.Most of its members were Afro Argentine but the club also accepted whites. For you to have an idea of what the Shimmy Club was, I will insert an excerpt from an essay written by a professor named Dr. Alejandro Frigerio.
Enrique, an Afro-Argentine in his mid-fifties, gave me, in 1991, the following account of a carnival dance organized by the Shimmy Club, and held in a ballroom for rent named “The Swiss House”:
“ This was around 1973, 1974… I used to go to the Casa Suiza… There were tables around the dance floor, and that is where the elders sat…. I remember la Negra San Martin, who was very well known… very respected in the community. There were also the Nuñez, the Lamadrid, all elders… well known in the community..(…)
And people danced. First everybody danced, and then the older blacks went out to dance candombe. And then no white danced, they did not let whites to dance ..(…)… When, at midnight, they started playing this, everbody started shouting: “eh, eh, eh, bariló, eh, eh, eh, bariló”, which means let the drummers come to the floor…. and then the drumming started ….(…)… After midnight, it was the experienced blacks who danced, and if a white person (who were at the time called “chongos”) tried to dance, people would shout: “Out with the chongos! Out with the chongos!” and throw them out. And then all the blacks danced, the elders danced….. “Eh, eh, eh, bariló, eh, eh, eh, bariló”. And they all knew each other, and shouted at each other: “do this step, do this other one!”. And then the younger blacks danced; oftentimes they danced a more modern type of candombe, maybe influenced by other dances…. but they let them do it because they were “sons of” or “grandsons of”; and after it was over whites danced again. And then anybody could play the drum (if they played it well ).. But when midnight arrived, it was blacks who played the drums, and it was blacks who danced..(…)
Argentine candombe is danced differently from the uruguayan one… (….)….. the style of the Argentine candombe, I think, is… because of the type of steps and movement, a dance of elderly people. Because it is danced in the manner of an old black (…) … it is not like the Uruguayan candombe, they move around a lot. The argentine one is different, it is smooth… slow movements..(…)
The drummers were all argentines…. [...]… When black uruguayans went there, it was a struggle! Uruguayans went to a corner to play, they did not let them play in the foreground. And sometimes there was trouble. I know that black Uruguayans were not liked too much… I never knew why this was, and why there was this rivalry with Uruguayans. But Argentine blacks never liked Uruguayan blacks… [...] … And I saw it in the parties of the Shimmy Club, Uruguayan blacks were shunned. There was no integration with Argentine blacks… And this comes a long way..(…)
I still remember that when the Casa Suiza closed, at maybe two or three in the morning, blacks went out parading through Corrientes avenue, playing the drums.. I remember that….. ”
The Shimmy club closed in the 1970’s and the black community of Buenos Aires lost its meeting place. Before I met Lucas I met a friend of a friend named Sakinah, on the ferry to Uruguay. She told me she was doing a paper on the subject of Afro Argentines and their music candombe. This inspired me to go home and do some research of my own and I discovered the Dr. Alejandro Frigerio essay. I met Lucas last weekend at my friend Latoya’s house party. I asked him where he was from and he said Argentina. I then asked where his family was from and he said Argentina again.
“Wait so your Afro Argentine”?
“Si”?
“Wow Mucho Gusto.”
Lucas only speaks Spanish but we still managed to communicate well. I thought he would be a cool person to learn about Afro Argentine history from and to put in touch with Sakinah. The next day Lucas texted me and asked if I would like to go out for a drink. I was tired that night and did not feel like going out and coming home at 5:00 or 4:00 in the morning. So I rejected his invitation feeling a little bad. So on Thursday I text him and asked if he wanted a drink later. He agreed and picked me up from my house at 11:00 at night. When I walked out my front door Lucas was waiting for me with two helmets and his motorbike. I was so excited that I would finally know what its like to ride on the back of a motorbike. Now that I have its my preferred way of travel. I felt like I was floating over the streets of Buenos Aires and being serenaded by the wind. It was a different way to experience Buenos Aires and it felt like a different city to me that night. I can now tell my children and grand children about the time I rode through the streets of Buenos Aires on the back of a motorbike. Lucas and I ate in Plaza Serrano, played pool then had coffee in Abasto. My favorite parts of the night were when we were traveling on the moto and I felt like I could ride all night. When I get back to New York I am seriously considering learning how to ride a vespa in the summertime, but now to a more serious topic. This is to all the readers of my blog. I need your advice. When Lucas and I were out Thursday night he offered to take me to Cordoba Argentina on his motorbike on the 15th of December. He also mentioned he was going to Mendoza in the middle of January with another friend who had a motorbike. I agreed to Cordoba because I heard it was 8 hours away from Buenos Aires, and thought it would not be that bad on a motorbike. I figured we spend like two days there then head back to the city. I was thankful to Lucas for this offer and a little excited but then thoughts started to creep in my head. I do not like Lucas as a potential romantic situation. I think he is a cool guy but I see him as a friend or big brother. I am not sexually, or physically attracted to him, and I know Lucas likes me as more than a friend. He stares and smiles at me, calls me beautiful and when we were riding on the motorbike he kept cuddling my hand with his in a romantic way, which was a little weird. I am not stupid I know if I go on a trip with Lucas there is a possibility of sharing a room with him. Lucas seems like a gentle man who would not try anything but then again I only known him for two days. Here is were the plot thickens. Lucas invited friends and I to his 33rd birthday party yesterday. When we arrived he and his friends were passed drunk. The party was at his house on the roof deck. The grill was going and I looked up at the sky and noticed the Cheshire cat smile of the moon and the stars. One of his friends staggered over to us, was mumble and sounded and looked like Sylvester Stallone. He began to try and tell me something but I could not understand him and passed him along to my Argentine friend. Lucas called me over and brought me to his friend that speaks English as well and had her translate for him. She informed me that Lucas would like me to meet his mother. I was taken by surprised with that one and his friend began to laugh. Lucas and his friend introduced me to his mother and I made it through the introduction as politely as possible. His mother with the help of Lucas’s translator friend began to tell me about the Shimmy club.
Another friend of Lucas’s named George kept interrupting and saying stupid little things. Later I told Lucas to take a picture next to him mom for his birthday but he started to act weird and told me to take a picture with his mom. I said no and that I meant for him to take one with her. He finally sat down to do it but did not act like he really wanted to. It was just a weird vibe in the party. His friend George kept looking at me then whispering to Lucas. He would not stay out of my face. He tried to get me to dance with him but I declined. Lucas then told his translator friend to tell me he was inviting me to come with him and his friends on December 15th to Cordoba and Mendoza for ten days. I did not like Lucas’s friends. They gave me bad vibes. I don’t know if there personalities were that way because they were drunk, but knew it would be weird to go anywhere with them for ten days. Especially being the only girl. I told his friend to tell him I was not sure. When I sat back down my Argentine friend asked me
“Jennifer he is taking you to Cordoba on his motorbike”?
“I said yeah.”
She then said
“You know he is going to charge you with sex right”?
This surprised me a little. However she did have a valid point. I don’t really know Lucas and I know he is interested in me in a romantic way. I have not lead him on in anyway and would hope he would know that I was not planning on having sex with him during our travels, but the drunk Lucas I was witnessing at his party was a little different from the sober Lucas that took me for a moto ride Thursday night. What if he was expecting something in return? I don’t know him that well and I don’t know his friends at all. It would be risky to go traveling in this situation. If I do go and there is a misunderstanding I do not want to be stranded in the middle of Argentina. So my question to the readers of my blog is, what would you do? The fact that I am even unsure determines that I am answering my own question, but I am still open for advice.
<img src=”
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