Southern Cone

I arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay 2 nights ago after a day that began at 3:00 AM and entailed 2 plane trips. Riding on the bus from the airport to the hotel I was amazed at how different Montevideo looked from brasil. The houses looked like a dutch or german style and the streets seemed well-ordered with sidewalks compartmentalized into well-mowed lawns. When I stepped off the bus the windy, salty air hit me and I looked up the little hill where our hotel was located and down at the at coast line across the street. It feels like San Francisco someone said and I agreed. We have all gathered in this little country of 3 million people where the president is a doctor that practices once a week and that's on the border of brasil and right across the river from argentina for the regional Fulbright conference. Everyone here is based in the southern cone of Latin America –chile , Paraguay, argentina, Uruguay and brasil. There are about 40 of us and we are spending the week giving presentations of our work, touring Montevideo and generally networking. We also doing things like meeting the ambassador to Uruguay. that was last night and some had an interesting conversation with him where he said that he was a bush appointee, knew him back in the days before he was governor, doesnt agree with some of his policies anymore, and no democrats in congress showed up to his confirmation process because it was right before recess. We also will be meeting two of the survivors of the Uruguayan rugby team that crashed over the andes in the early 8os and ate their dead teammates to survive - some of us have a bet as to who will be the first person in the group to ask about that.
And yesterday I was reminded that the Fulbright is indeed a U.S government program. After the welcome remarks to the group we had a presentation by a local columnist and professor here in Uruguay on 'Press Freedom and Democracy.' He basically criticized all of the leftist governments in the region saying they were prone to conspiracy theories and were suppressing democracy by cracking down on the press. he also idealized the U.S press, and dismissed the idea of consolidation as having an affect on U.S media. No context was given (like the fact that the Venezuelan media supported the 2002 U.S-backed attempted overthrow of democratically elected president hugo chavez – and in fact five out of the six major networks there are owned by a single owner, who supported the coup). But then the introductions began and then the first day of 3 days of presentations of peoples work. It’s an amazingly eclectic group- scientists, historians, anthropologists and political scietists studying everything from water rights in Argentina to shamanistic music of idegenous tribes in paraguay. The Brasil group is biggest contingent –there are 15 of us. It is also the contingent with the only other black people – both women, both gay, both with dread locks, both brilliant. One is in Salvador like me studying to be a doctor and getting her PHD at Rockefeller university. She is looking at a disease endemic to brasil. The other just graduated from college and is based in rio. She is studying black women and funk music. Yesterday as the presentations started, the sister pulled out her box of crayons and started making the most brilliant doodles and notes of what people said- like a pitcher pouring the words ‘foreign investment’ into a wine glass that stood on top of a puddle of words made up of the names of developing countries. At the top of the page she wrote ‘spill-over effects.’ And I lost my bet that I would be the oldest person here. One gentleman who is about 60 started off his introduction with – “I was a farmer in Nebraska for 20 years before going back to school…..” pretty damn cool.