Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TEATRO GRAN REX
( 4322-8000;
www.teatro-granrex.com.ar
; Av Corrientes 857)
A huge theater seating 3300, this
place hosts myriad national and international musical productions, from Cyndi Lauper to
Kenny G to Björk.
THEATER
TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
Just like the tango and
dulce de leche,
street protests are a well-known pastime for
porteños
. Whether
the city is booming or in the midst of a depression, unless there's martial law, someone is out on the
street demonstrating against something. Plaza de Mayo has long been the focal point of protests.
The best-known voices of dissent are the famed Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (the Mothers of Plaza
de Mayo). On April 30, 1977, 14 mothers whose children had disappeared in the Dirty War marched
on the Plaza de Mayo. They demanded to know what had happened to their missing children. The mil-
itary government dismissed them, claiming that their children had simply moved abroad, but the wo-
men continued to march in their iconic white handkerchiefs every Thursday. They played an essential
historical role as the first group to openly oppose the military junta and they opened the doors for later
protests. In 1986 the Madres split into two groups. Asociación Madres de Plaza de Mayo announced
that the group would stop participating in
la marcha de la resistencia
around Plaza de Mayo. The oth-
er group, Madres de Plaza de Mayo Línea Fundadora, still marches every Thursday.
Even in 1996, when the economy was good and the country was under civilian control, a number of
protests broke out against corruption and the reform of pensions. Senior citizens hurled eggs at gov-
ernment buildings and were chased by trucks mounted with water cannon. The protests after the eco-
nomic collapse in 2001 were particularly large and vociferous. Thousands of people - in the poorer
areas as well as middle-class neighborhoods - spontaneously gathered in public parks in Buenos
Aires. To the shouts of '
¡Que se vayan todos¡
' (get rid of them all), they banged pots and pans - an
act known as a
cacerolazo
. Both the economic minister and the president eventually stepped down,
and some of the politicians who hadn't fled the country were beaten in the streets.
There are still occasional grievances on Plaza de Mayo, whether it's a protest against the price of
beef and tomatoes, or against the closure of a hospital. You can always count on protests being loud,
but these days they're usually peaceful.
