Tucuman

I spent much of last week in San Miguel de Tucuman (better known as simply Tucuman), the capital city of the smallest province in the republic. This is popularly known as the "garden of the republic" because of its long history of sugar, lemon, and orange production. Still today, a huge amount of sugarcane is grown and processed here, in the shadow of a mountain range that towers up above fertile plains. It also has the distinction of being the "Philadelphia of Argentina" (my phrase, not one widely used here!), aka the city of independence. It was here in 1816 that the Congreso de Tucuman met to issue its declaration of independence from the Spanish crown. It was so important, they even named the last stop on our subway line for the "Congreso de Tucuman."

I was invited to the University of Tucuman by Raul Ajmat to give two lectures, one on The City's End and other on historic preservation policies and practices in the United States. I also had a series of meetings with the various faculties of the architecture school -- urban planning, history of architecture, preservation -- where I learned about how their programs work and had some fascinating discussions about preservation practice in Tucuman. The university, on a rather dusty campus on the outskirts of the city, serves close to 50,000 students (although I never saw more than a couple of dozen in any one place) -- it is the only national university in the northwest provinces. The architecture school alone has 3000 students who spent six years (right out of high school) getting an architecture degree.

I was treated wonderfully, welcomed heartily, and even given coverage in the two local papers. I also had a chance to talk to visit the city's sites and talk with people about memory of the dictatorship years. Things are a bit different in Tucuman. Because Tucuman was at the center of fighting between the guerillas and the military, there was greater sympathy for the military -- even several people active in human rights efforts today said at that first they were pleased about the military takeover. Remarkably, the military governor from 1976 to 1977, Antonio Domingo Bussi, was elected governor twice in the decade after the fall of the dictatorship despite it being quite clear that he directed the torture and kidnapping. It was only last year (after the lifting of an amnesty law) that Bussi was sentenced for his crimes. But in Argentina, after a certain age you can request house arrest. So, he lives now under house arrest in a country estate, while the forensic analysis of bodies continues, and new prosecutions planned.

The gateway Bussi put up on the edge of Tucuman still stands. One half is still visible: Cradle of Independence. The other words have been taken down: Grave of the Resistance.