Berkley Center

Even after spending more than three months living and learning in the beautiful country of Argentina, it would be quite a stretch to call myself an Argentine expert. The Argentinean people are complex, and although I think I have grown accustomed to the lifestyle in various ways (avoiding doggy droppings and becoming immune to cigarette smoke included), there is always room left to explore and discover this vast culture and its people.

Regardless of how entrenched in the Argentinean culture or lifestyle I may or may not feel though, there has been an inherent cloud of confusion that has hovered above me since the day I arrived, in regards to "America." From week one of classes, I have felt this simultaneous embrace and resistance of everything American, and even as my time here begins to dwindle down I’m not sure I am any closer to understanding this dilemma. Some things seem trivial at times, and others of great importance, but so far the one constant is that there is no constant when it comes to the United States of America.

It was the first week of classes and my first class was "Latin America in International Politics." As I looked over the syllabus, I noticed our first assignment was a text in English. Initially, I thought this was a nod to the foreign students, maybe to get the large group of us engaged and involved early on with a reading we may have been familiar with. However, as the students trickled into their seats the second day of class, I was astonished. A majority of the class was participating in a discussion about a text that was assigned in a foreign language. Not only getting by, not only understanding bits and pieces, but engaging one another in serious discussions about the third wave of democratization by Samuel Huntington.

Although reading a text by a prominent American political scientist is not necessarily a humming endorsement or embrace of America, it was more the way the class was receptive to the concept of an assigned text in a foreign language. I immediately imagined Professor Arsenault assigning a text for a class in Spanish or Italian back at Georgetown and the confusion/outrage that would ensue. In my classroom during my second class meeting, there was no confusion or outrage. From that moment on, I feel as if I was subconsciously on the lookout for other embraces. Maybe it isn’t fair to consider that one occurrence an American embrace, per se, but it was such a striking experience that I don’t think I will ever forget it. There I was, preparing to spend the next four months abroad drowning myself in text translations and misunderstanding concepts thanks to a language barrier, yet sitting in the middle of an English debate about an English text by an American author.

Even with this embrace of America in Argentina that was further enforced by Batman: The Dark Knight selling out for weeks, billboards displaying Miami and New York in all of their beauty, or Carly Rae Jepsen blasting at dance clubs every weekend, it was the resistance toward the concept of America that hit me even harder. From the outlaw of American dollars in Argentina and President Fernandez de Kirchner spending the near-entirety of her Day of Industry speech essentially bashing the United States, to certain Argentineans blurting out any English curse word at the sound of Americans speaking English, there is as much resistance toward America, or the concept of America, as there is embrace. Don’t get me wrong; I’m well aware that we are not as beloved as we may lead ourselves to believe. After three months though, what caught me so off-guard was that even with all of the love we got as a nation here in Argentina, there was just as much if not more backlash.

Three months into my quest to learn more about this beautiful country, I’m intrigued by so much more than the diverse barrios of Buenos Aires or the vast geographical landscape of the nation as a whole. It is the indecisiveness towards what is sometimes a foreign concept and other times a familiar concept, known as America, that has grabbed my attention. As Argentineans flock to sell out Batman for weeks at a time they also resist hearing English on the sidewalks, and I couldn’t be anymore hooked as to why.