MALBA ~ Museo de Arte Latinoamerica de Buenos Aires

The Museo de Arte Latinoamerica de Buenos Aires is one of many museums and galleries in the capital. MALBA is wonderul in its airy simplicity, and in its great collection, and not to be missed.

The building houses the private art collection of collector Eduardo Costantini and is considered one of the most impressive collections of Latin American art anywhere with a permanent collection featuring Antonio Berni, Frida Kahlo, Antonio Sigui, Diego Rivera and others.

Benches are functional, and modern works of art.

Some of the works confront social issues and explore national identity, 

as above in Manifestacion by Antonio Berni. 

The work is from 1934. The artist is from Rosario, Argentina.

Time is well spent at MALBA. Delightful in every way, even in the parting shots.

The Carlos Gardel Tango Show

One of the largest and most elegant of BA's many tango shows is performed at the luxurious Esquina Carlos Gardel in a part of the city known as Abasto. The theatre is beautiful in its old-style appearance and features high tech acoustics and superb dancers. The performance is one of the biggest in Buenos Aires and apparently one of the most expensive, and it shows.



For the patron, in this instance, the former Berton House resident-writer, the show begins with a glass of Brut and a video show of the history of tango. Dinner is an option but we didn't partake. Wine flows through the night, though not quite in an endless stream as advertised. As the curtain opens the orchestra plays a sad sounding song that haunts the performance throughout; a beautiful refrain leading to the signature Mi Buenos Aires Querido.

Gardel was the preeminent Argentine singer, song writer and movie star, associated with the tango. He, along with lyricist Alfredo Le Pera, wrote many of the world's most popular tango songs. Gardel photos and representations abound in this theatre, and around the city. Born in 1890, Gardel (and Le Pera) died in a plane crash in 1935, sealing his fate as a tragic hero. His death was mourned throughout Argentina and around the world.




The show is quite amazing indeed with colour, sound and highly impressive dancing. I think the audio levels were a bit high, possibly to compensate for the large number of older American tourists in the audience, but that was a minor irritation. The female lead singer was terrific, and her male counterpart was quite good too. The haunting melody remains.

We have a maid? We have a maid.

I've never had a maid before (though I suppose there was a time when I thought my mother was assigned that role) and neither has Sherry. Early in January we were actually surprised to learn that weekly maid service was part of our contract with our rental apartment. (Apparently it pays to read the fine print.) There wasn't any additional charge; it was covered in our rental agreement.

I thought maid service meant general cleaning around our small apartment and was surprised to find that she, or he, had actually washed all the dishes we left out one day. And... had done the laundry of a pile of clothing we left on the floor. And, this person, our maid, was deciding where things should go. In those early days it became a guessing game to discover where the salt shaker, or my tooth paste, or the power adapter for the computer had been placed by our maid. Over time we figured out the logic.



Our maid is a wonderfully nice woman named Vilma (pronounced Beel-mah). We met her, by accident as it turned out, very early in our BA experience. She doesn't speak English, and at the time our Argentine Spanish wasn't quite up to the high level it is today. On that day voice levels increased dramatically, as if talking louder improved understanding.

This morning we met with Vilma again, and this time for the last time. Our Spanish, or perhaps Sherry's, was much better and Vilma was used to the two Canadians at Sinclair 3177. At least I hope she thinks we are Canadian and not the other thing.

There were thank yous, and hugs, and if I'm not mistaken,
an invitation to return to Vilma's nation anytime.
We will miss our apartment in BA. We will miss the maid service.
We will miss Vilma.