While my 'eyes' are still fresh...

This time I don't have a picture to go along with this story, I wish I did. So technically, I guess the 'eyes' portion of the title it's not accurate. In any case, here is the story...

So we are having lunch with my mom and Clara, when we get a call from the security company that monitors our home. It turns out that the alarm was triggered in zone 6 (that's the kitchen - consider this insider information). We have given a key from the outside door, so when ever the alarm sounds, they can come in and monitor the situation.

Something was different today. Supposedly the key was not working. Over increased annoyance from our side, given repeated inconclusive dialogues, I decided to take the car and come over to personally inspect the situation.

After a few minutes I was home, and there was the little truck with the two front doors and the back door fully open, in what at first seemed like an action film display. In the background the home alarm sound blasting full force to complete the whole action setup.

They had finally managed to get in. So after we went in again, together, he proceeded to clarify the situation, and the inability to open the door at first. It turns out that the security station wagon had been hit in a recent car accident a few days ago, and in the process it had rolled over. The keys from all the houses in the area had all fallen from their mounted arrangement in the wall in the back part of the truck, thus getting all mixed-up.

I guess no one had thought about assigning some sort of code to the key so they would not get mixed-up in this extreme situation like a car rolled over accident.

I absolute awe, I asked how were they planning to sort out this mess. The security guard, as if my question barely made any sense explained to me... 'Oh, it's not that bad. As we get new calls from new houses, with some trial and error we end-up figuring out which key belongs to which house...'.

I figured I had to share this. It gives you a insight into the culture of this country. Until the next time...

There is something about living in a beach town...

It's summer down here... and the past few weeks have gotten me thinking about the social implications of living in a beach town. Every day as I head out to work, or on my way back, I drive along the coast, and get to see the beaches full of people. The kids are playing and parents are simply relaxing and having a great time. It's quite a privilege that 'regular' cities simply don't have.

In Uruguay, during the first month of summer (January), most high and middle class families tend to leave town and go further east to summer towns. As they do, lower income class families take the busses down to the most affluent neighborhoods along the coast and make good use of the beaches. All along the coast, from Ramirez to Carrasco, people crawl out of overflowing busses to spend a day in the beach. It's great to live in a place that offers let's say a more 'democratic' access to entertainment!

Clara, KC and I have done just that... every afternoon that I can I just go down and play in the water. It also makes for quite unique photo opportunities.

Candombe...

Fully dressed comparsa during Las Llamadas de Otoño (the autumn calls).


Banderilleros performing their magic against the setting sun.


It's been close to a month since we got to Uruguay and yet, it seems like every day we are running errands related to our move. Every time we manage to finish one, two show up. Hence, I have not managed to create a lot of time, and even more importantly, space in my head to go out and shoot.

I did however, get out for a couple of hours to shoot las llamadas de otoño (the autumn 'calls'). As if the longest carnival in the world, comprised of 40 days of performances between february and mid-march was not enough, the comparsas manage to squeeze one additional parade before the arrival of the winter.

A full candombe group, or comparsa, is comprised of la cuerda - the group of drummers, las mulatas - a group of female dancers, and some additional characters with their specific dances (La Mama Vieja ("Old Mother"), the matriarch, El Gramillero ("Medicine Man"), Mama Vieja's husband, responsible for health and well-being and El Escobero or Escobillero ("Stick Holder"), who carried a long magical wooden stick that he uses to create new ways and possibilities for the future


La cuerda de tambores de La Gozadera, an open group from Malvin, Montevideo, Uruguay.



Mulatas dancing during the Llamadas de Otoño (autumn calls).

Candombe is what survives of the ancestral bantu roots, brought by the black slaves arriving to el Río de la Plata. Candombe, a drum-based musical style of Uruguay, originated among the Afro-Uruguayan population of Montevideo and is based on Bantu African drumming with some European influence and touches of Tango. The music of candombe is performed by a group of drummers. The barrel-shaped drums, or tamboriles, have specific names according to their size and function: chico (small, high timbre, marks the tempo), repique (medium, syncopation and improvisation) and piano (large, low timbre, melody).

While black culture was quickly repressed, to a big extent by the Montevideo establishment who considered the music and danced immoral, banning and harshly punishing those who performed it, the need of expression and liberation continued through the tambor. From this period of original celebrations in Uruguay, only the musical gathering is retained today, and find their principal manifestation in the "llamadas" of Barrio Sur and Palermo [+]. In Uruguay, people of African descent accounted for about half the population two centuries ago; they now number about 189,000 in a nation of 3.2 million [!].

Today, Candombe is performed regularly in the streets of Montevideo's central neighbourhoods on Sunday evenings as well as on many other occasions, and massively on January 6, December 25 and January 1. During Uruguay's Carnival period, all the comparsas, of which there are 80 or 90 in existence, participate in a massive Carnival parade called Las Llamadas ("calls") and vie against each other in official competitions in the Teatro de Verano theatre. During Las Llamadas, members of the comparsa often wear costumes that reflect the music's historical roots in the slave trade, such as sun hats and black face-paint. The monetary prizes are modest; more important aspects include enjoyment, the fostering of a sense of pride and the winning of respect from peers.


Groups of drum players light fires to heat-tune their drumskins, then march to the sound of the drums along the streets of the city to a meeting point.

To see more of my Uruguay work, click here.

Sources:
-Candombe.
-Wikipedia.
-El Toque de Camdombe.
-Rey Tambor.
[+] Excerpts of the paper presented in August 1994, in Salvador, Bahia, at the Second International Congress of Afro-American Cultures by Aglimira "La Negra" Villalba
[!] Excerpts from L.A. Times article by Sebastian Rotella

While my eyes are still fresh...

I am still enjoying this honeymoon of coming to a new place, and being able to be surprised and amazed by all the things different before they become the norm. As much as I would love to be able to have this ability innate no matter where I am (which at times I do), I realize that this happens a lot more gracefully when I am in a new place...

Among the many errands I have been running since we got to Uruguay, one of the more interesting was opening my business. You must understand that opening a business in Uruguay involves three main organizations (DGI - the equivalent of IRS, BPS - similar to the social security, and the ministry of work). Thankfully, at least they all have offices in the same building. It used to be that you would have to go from one office in one part of town, to the other in another part of town, just to find out that you had missed a signature or a stamp.

But integration, at least in some form has gotten to these institutions, that unable to link their systems together, now seat to reps, one from each company in the same desk, so once one has gotten all the information into the system, the other can go ahead to replicate the process in the systems of the other entity. Not fancy, yet more streamlined that in the past... :)

The final step in this process is to print your invoices in an 'official' print shop. There are only a limited number of print shops that are registered and authorized to print invoices, and the government keeps a tight control on such documents, like the numbers and series that have been printed. In order to finalize the process, you must know the name and the RUT (which is a 12 digit number) of the printshop. Since I did not know this information of any of the authorized print shops, I went with one that had given me a little hand made flyer on my way in, which wisely included precisely the required information to complete this process.

Feeling incredibly wise and smart for having accepted such flyer (and thus avoiding having to go back and make the line again), I decided to call the print shop to take the form and request the invoices. I was surprised by the phone number area code. Totally unfamiliar. Once I found out where this was, quite far and in a part of town I had never visited before, I requested to fax the form to avoid having to go twice, only to find out that the print shop did not have one of such hight tech devices available. So there I went... I had to ask several of the people at work to kind of get a sense of how to get there.

The print shop was quite amazing. You can see it by yourself in the image below. I have to say though, the service was outstanding. Incredibly manual and all, but the rep was well informed, was very detailed oriented, and the process - which existed - included a step by step form that was handed out to minimize problems. I chose the fast delivery option (there was also regular and super fast - 2 day turn around).


The print shop I was required to use to print the official invoices required by law to operate a business in Uruguay.


As I looked at awe through the bars of the precarious window, I asked the person on the other side if they printed there. Cordially he explained that this was the issue and reception office, extending his hand through the window and pointing down to the hand painted sign on the wall. He further explained that this job would go to one of the many printing facilities the company has... All I can say is that they did deliver on time and did a great job!

To see more of my Uruguay work, click here.