One weekend in Diamante with the Gregorutti's

I haven't had time to add a new entry in the past two weeks because I have been keeping very busy exploring Argentina and meeting new friends along the way. Last weekend I took a long-distance bus to the city of Rafaela in the Santa Fe province to visit fellow ETA Brian, and the weekend before that, I stayed with my friend Facundo in his parents' house in Diamante. It is difficult to condense two weekends of activity into two blog entries, but I will try to summarize as best I can.

Diamante: Most of the university students only live in Parana Monday though Friday; on the weekends, they return home to their respective hometowns in Entre Rios province to visit with their family and friends. Therefore, Facundo and his family were very kind to invite me to their home two weekends ago when I was very bored and at a loss of things to do in Parana. Facundo's mom cooked Estofado (beef stew), Milanesas, and a delicious salad with diced hard-boiled eggs, steamed zapallito, and chickpeas.

Facundo's mom also prepared achicoria for me, which is a green leafy plant eaten by a lot of Argentines with Italian heritage. Interestingly, I've already tried this vegetable before at my home in the US, but my grandma and her sisters refer to it as gigordia. I may sound a little nerdy, but I think this is really cool that on two distinct continents, people descended from Italian immigrants have preserved the tradition of eating this same plant, and that the Americanized and Argentinized versions of the original Italian name differ very slightly. I am really interested in studying the cultural and lexical similarities and differences between Italian-Argentines and Italian-Americans. I've noticed several other similarities between the two groups in the food, i.e. the plethora of similar cold cuts or fiambres, such as mortadela, pizza (although Argentine pizza is considerably thinner, less heavy on the cheese, and almost always features an adornment of whole green olives), pasta (lasagna, gnocci, cannelones, raviolis), and milanesas or breaded veal cutlets with fresh lemon on the side. Also, I've noticed similarities in the tradition of gathering together the whole family to eat on Sunday. In the US, my grandparents and parents were accustomed to this familial tradition, but since then it has fallen by the wayside. In contrast, Sunday family lunches are very much alive in Argentina. Now one difference that I am aware of is purely linguistic: in some parts of Argentina, where there is a large population of Italian-descendants, it is common to affix the article el or la, meaning "the", in front of a person's name. For example, I am "la Christina." Although the Spanish language uses artices in front of nouns, an article is not used for a person's name. The custom of saying "la Christina" or "el Facundo" in Diamante comes from the influence of the Italian language where articles are placed in front of people's names!

During my stay in Diamante, I brought my own supply of Quinoa along just in case it would be difficult to find any grains/carbohydrates that I could eat for over the weekend. His family really laughed it up when I showed them my bag of Quinoa seeds because to them it looked exactly like bird seed or mijo. Facundo's dad ran out right away to pick up a bag of bird seed to show me how much it resembles Quinoa. I've seen el mijo, and it is true! Some of my friends tell me that, with all my dietary restrictions, I eat like a bird, and now I realize how right they are!

Talking with Facundo and his family was really a two-fold learning experience for me. First of all, conversing with Argentine people who do not know any English (with the exception of Alfonso, Facundo's Dad, greeting me with "Good Morning")is really helpful. Non-English speaking Argentines don't alter their vocabulary, intonation, or syntax at all so as to make it easier for a Native-English listener to understand them. I want to learn Argentine castellano, not some simplified/Americanized version of it. I really think that even after only spending roughly a day and a half with the Gregorutti's my castellano improved noticeably. Facundo even told me that he could notice a difference in my intonation afterward.

Second of all, I learn a lot about Argentine culture, past, and present by talking with Facundo and his parents. His parents engage me in interesting conversations about the rising price of beef, the baseball-sized hail stones that terrorize Buenos Aires periodically, and the ships from all over the world that come to the Diamante port through the Parana River to pick-up and deliver grains. Actually, while I was in Diamante, I saw a HUGE ship from Hong Kong that was picking up soy to bring back to China. Interestingly, China imports a lot of soy grown in Argentina. I couldn't get over this when Alfonso told me. China, soy-based diet capital of the world, imports the majority of its soy from Argentina!