Saturday, December 10, 2005

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Part 2

There is a passion here that outweighs all other national interests. It supercedes the love of the tango, the madness of Maradonna, the addiction to máte, and the burgeoning psychoanalysis industry. It's bigger than the images of Che Guevera painted on every back alley wall and more intense than the graffiti desecrating every equestrian statue of General Julio Roca. It is the grandest of all Argentinian customs.

It is "leaning in doorways."

Everywhere you look, on every street, there are men leaning in doorways. Sometimes they smoke or sip máte, but mostly they just stand there, appearing to stare into space and guard doorways. The doorways never seem to lead anywhere. Upon closer investigation, you realize that these men are neither staring at nor guarding *anything*, as these words both suggest some minimal amount of purpose or activity and the people we´re speaking of are engaged in nothing of the sort. Often, they will raise one arm to about ear level in order to support the weight of the body as it is leaned against the concrete edifice of the doorway. People walk past them and they simultaneously appear to notice and not notice this happening. Many of them are balding and all have hairy arms. The sleeves are often rolled up. The faces are always severe.

It is a kind of stationary dance, the elements of man and doorway sometimes becoming so artfully intertwined that it´s impossible to distinguish one from the other. I´ve tried, when no one is looking, to lean in a few doorways myself, but have yet to even approach the level of skill that would be necessary to lean in a doorway publicly. Perhaps someday.

All throughout the city people go about their business, buying and selling and throwing bad attitudes at tourists. Vegetables fall on the ground and are picked up without a second thought. Traffic speeds by and newspapers are halved and quartered. Babies are carried in cloth sacks and children try to sell you cigarettes. And all the while, the unsung heros of Buenos Aires maintain their solemn vigil. Standing. Watching. Leaning. Always Leaning.

Leaning Men of Argentina, ¡I salute you!

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