El Sun, 23 December 2001, "Carmen Lopez" escribi�: [...] Most argentineans are a mixture of Italians and Spanish > people. Culturally we are a mixture of andaluces and italians, perhaps that > is why we are "picaros". Andaluces???? Are you sure? I thought that most of the spaniard emigrants to Argentina were gallegos and asturianos (from Galicia and Asturias, north of Spain).
[...] Today I don�t have much to say about my country > because as I was exhausted with our awful TV images, I decided to spend a > day out in a country house and try to avoid talking about politics for a > while (though it was not possible at all). In your message written this morning at 8:45 (sunday!!), that I deleted by mistake, you said something about the need of a leader in your country, and about your dissapointment with De la Rua's performance. I've been thiking about it all day long because I voted for Fox (and against the Partido Revolucionario Institucional), looking for changes in the goverment and in the way power had been exerted for almost 100 years in this country, and I'm also very dissapointed with the results. Now I know that we DO NOT need leaders in Mexico and in Argentina. What we need is leadership. No more strong men, allmightly presidents or caciques, please. They fail, they are very dangerous. We need stronger groups acting in all levels and stances of reality, that share power in balance. We need better politics, with people doing politics from business, the academy, the arts, the civil organizations, non-goverment organizations, communities, special interest groups, etc., etc. We need stronger institutions. That's something we have to learn from americans. They can afford a "leader" like Mr. Bush because his power is delimited, balanced, compensated, by a number of power stances across the society. In latin american countries presidential power is almost absolute. > As for kisses, here in Argentina, we are very warm people, even men kiss > each other!!!!! I think that is nica to be able to express our feeling > freely without taking care of analising them. Interestingly, warmth is not part of the stereotype of argentinians predominant among mexican population. I would say it is the opposite: argentinians are seen as cool and arrogant. Remember that we had thousands of refugees (exiliados) from Argentina during the dictadura militar period. Of course, kisses are always welcome :-) Saludos desde la ciudad de M�xico Salvador S�nchez
