What is truly unique about the Argentines? What has been inherited and acquired along the way? These and other questions are discussed by the journalist and writer Carlos Ulanovsky, author of the book 'Who We Are.' Following is an excerpt from the book:
Some years ago, a porteño newspaper with significant national circulation, sent a survey to foreign diplomats residing in the country. From this poll they were provided with a lot of information as well as questions that could put any Argentine on the spot. “I am struck by the deep melancholy of the porteño.” “The porteño is someone who is always looking back,” stated a Romanian visitor. “Why do they treat me with familiarity when we haven’t even met before?’” asked, almost offended, a French person. An American woman was surprised by the fact that everybody introduced themselves or greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. She was also amazed by the skill the porteñas showed walking in wrecked streets using heels so high they seemed fit for only special occasions. A Dominican and a Swede had similar opinions. The Swede said, “I always see a lot of people on the streets here, which isn’t true in my country,” while the Dominican added, “There are a lot of people on the streets and everybody is in a hurry, running from one place to the next.”
The foreigner who perhaps best understood the Argentines was Jose Ortega y Gasset. After several visits—some of which were long stays—he said that we were “emphatic and imprecise people tending toward narcissism and semblance,” and the existing disproportion between our magnificent intelligence and common sense was so great that it was impossible to resolve. Years ago, in 1925, he warned that “I will only trust the Argentines when I find them determined to seriously practice the sport of mental precision.” The writer Victoria Ocampo was the recipient of the confidences of important intellectuals. In her own land and in others’, over refined teas or drinks, she heard the opinion of Argentines directly from Rabindranath Tagorer, Waldo Frank and Graham Greene.
The academic Paul Groussac (a French writer who settled in Buenos Aires in 1866) believed that we lacked a clear historical background and that every day the lack of a real shared sense of life was more evident. In 1967 the Frenchman Pierre Kalfon explained that the Argentine, and specifically the porteño, was ambiguous and walked through life squeezed between two opposing feelings: a strong propensity to superiority and an equivalent inferiority complex.
Abroad, there is a lot of talk about us—which we like even if it is slanderous. They say we are warm, though arrogant, sweet, though over-beating, loyal, though moralist, and prudish, though charmingly opportunistic. The descriptions are pretty accurate.
It has been said that we are Italians speaking Spanish who dress like the English, look like the French and complain like a Jew. The famous Paul Samuelson, Nobel Laureate in Economics, defined us with the following irony: “In the world there are four types of countries: the developed ones, underdeveloped ones, Japan and Argentina.”
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