Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ORIGIN OF THE ARGENTINE
TERM CHE
C
he
has become one of the hallmarks of colloquial Argentine
Spanish, as in “
¿
Como estás, che?
” (“How are you, man?”).
Everyone calls one another
“che.”
The tango singer Carlos Gardel liked
to speak in the café slang and sprinkled his conversations with com-
ments such as
“Macanudo, che, macanudo,”
a very characteristically
porteño
expression for “Good, man, very good.” Later, the young
revolutionary Ernesto Guevara used the word so frequently in con-
versation during his travels through Latin America that by 1955, when
he first met Fidel Castro and other Cuban insurrectionaries, he was
already nicknamed Che Guevara. Later he would come to be known
simply as “El Che.”
By 1909, some 59 percent of eligible school-age children in the nation
attended primary school. For the city of Buenos Aires, the number was
far greater: 83 percent. One of the weaknesses of the system (so far as
the nation's economic development was concerned) lay in the contin-
ued dominance of classical education. Few secondary students received
any technical training at all. In addition, most education stopped at the
primary level.
Even though general standards of living may have improved for all
workers, European immigrants participated in the economic improve-
ments to a greater extent than did Creole (native-born) laborers.
Elite prejudice against the working class had been a constant theme
throughout the 19th century. Moreover, sons of the gauchos still pre-
ferred to work in the familiar ambience of cattle production, leaving
farming, sheep raising, and urban jobs to the immigrants.
While Argentine urban society denigrated natives of color, it also
produced social conformity in the children of immigrants. The dress,
language, and culture of European immigrants became objects of
derision at all levels of
porteño
society. Sons of immigrants at the turn
of the century began to reject their parents' heritage and embrace
“
lo argentino
” (that which is Argentine). A leading proponent of a
return to Hispanic values in Argentina was Emilio Becher, grand-
