"THE WIFE OF..."

I would like to make a comment on one situation I came across in my practice as a lawyer. The situation took place last week.   Two people, a woman and a man, came to my office. They were a couple. They entered my box and sat down, a bit separately. She started talking about some things  and he kept interrupting her. She admonished him and strongly required being allowed her turn to speak. He kept quiet for a tiny little moment. Afterwards, he turned to interrupt her again. And the sketch went on, and on...

He had inscribed a land at her name, but later on, the registration of the land resulted in a whole trial against the poor woman, who had "only signed a paper". She had had faith on him... She had "only signed" the paper, without even reading it. (??). And the prosecution of the law came against her.

Thus, she was utterly angry with him ( I think, she was quite angry with herself, too). She said TO ME,  in FRONT OF HIM, that the problematic was bound to cause their divorce.

It was an awful situation, wasn´t it?  And picture ME in front of them trying to calm down the nerves of us all... We lawyers are not psychologists, you know...

Beyond the legal issue, the situation made me reflect upon our role as women. How is it that a woman can "sign a paper", without questioning it, just because the husband asks so? We should keep our independence at all times. If not, somebody will come to remind us that (in fact) we are quite alone with our own lives, we are "ourselves", and not "the wife of" another person. 

A RELIGIOUS TOWN. THEOCRACIES IN PRESENT TIMES?

A religious town- Theocracies in present times?  

A RELIGIOUS TOWN. THEOCRACIES IN PRESENT TIMES?

A religious town- Theocracies in present times? 

Today,  I would like to reflect upon an experience I had throughout two months,  in connection to the healing process of my son Tomas.  I am referring to the existence of “Villa General San Martin”, or “Puigari”.

This is a town where everything is religious. In this place, all people share the same religion. Moreover, all of them are fully committed to their organization, and supposedly they do everything because of their religion. (They are Adventists).

Their beliefs pervade every aspect of their lives, every minute of their time. They are quite warm and affectionate when they talk to you; extremely warm and affectionate, I should say.  A stranger coming from the outside and without any further background would say that in fact… they sound too artificially kind.

They never say for-letter words. They never complain. They are for you all the time. They work a lot, and they stick to their promises. Sometimes I have wondered:  Are they real?  Is this perfection real?

So I did some subtle research around the topic:  I bought a book about their origins. This book narrated the epic arriving of people from Germany and North America, with their souls full of energy and love for God,  completely determined to sell their books –in English and German!- in our pampas  and with the idea to have the word of God –in their version- fully spread all around.

Additionally, I made some enquiries on friends living near the town.  It turned  out that, even though these people are so “warm and affectionate”, and so active and perfect in their work,  they are humans after all. Therefore,  they fight, divorce,  swear,  and react in different negative ways to facts of life, just like we do.  The detail resides on this: a) they perform all of that in private. b) And:   they bring all the complaints and issues to the Pastors who have the reins of the town, in order to be solved by them.

THE LAND AND THE FISHERMEN

THE LAND AND THE FISHERMEN

THE LAND AND THE FISHERMEN: (1) 

Last Thursday I read about the Government of Santa Fe giving landback to its original owners:  different aboriginal groups living in Cayastá, San Javier, San José del Rincón, and other little towns which I got to know in  my childhood.  These lands are located in the middle of wetlands, swamps, islands, and other humid environmental accidents, and have belonged to them for centuries, before Hernandarias came to the point and bloodily slaughtered people all around.  (By the way: Hernandarias… the name of the Sub fluvial Tunnel. We tend to honor the wrong people , I think).

I had observed the situation when I was a kid, since my parents used to have aquinta near the little San José del Rincón.  I had seen that the primitive dwellers of the land used to live in the outskirts of the town, and their job was to fish Sabalos and Dorados which abounded in the brook. (For them, it was a brook, and for people living in San Luis, it would be an enormous river).  Men were tall and thin. They were quite poor.

They wore ragged clothes. These shallow aspects are the ones I observed as a little girl. They had thin canoes lying over the river waters.  Men were quite skillful in the use of nets and fishing sticks.

My mother used to go to their huts in order to buy fish.  She and I would see the swarm  of kids, busily playing in the mud.  They had happy faces, which were burnt by the sun, framed by bunches of chocolate, sticky hair. The wife of one of the fisherman once expressed her admiration to my mother:  How was it that my mother had only one kid! How was it possible?  Was it that my mother was a widow and my father had dead, perhaps??  In fact, my mother had had me at the age of 42, with no opportunities to breed another child after that. She used to laugh at the anecdote a lot. It was a funny, sweet joke.

All in all, I used to know those persons living by the river. At least, I used to know some of them.  I knew well about their poverty and necessity. I also witnessed their way of life, so closely connected to nature, and particularly connected to the profound, dark waters of that brook which was an affluent to the Colastiné River.  A brook which at those times was the habitat of all sorts of fish strains, before the industrial man introduced his hand and spoiled the environment. I do not know what they live on, nowadays, since so many species have [a5] receded. 

This is the people the Government had return the land,  today.  Perhaps it is too late to recover their former lives. Certainly it is impossible to get back to the times when they lived freely, as original peoples.  Nevertheless, it is a sound decision, the one the Government has taken, and I am happy with it. Once I read the news, I remembered immediately the fisherman and his wife.  And their cheerful kids who would be the ones receiving the land, today.  At last. 
(1)  Source: http://newsmatic.com.ar/conectar/245/102/articulo/3532/Tierras-entregadas-en-Santa-Fe.html

Publicado por Adela Perez del Viso en 10:27 

THE HIDDEN TRUTH. or THE SUFFERING OF A LITTLE GIRL

THE HIDDEN TRUTH. or THE SUFFERING OF A LITTLE GIRL

Yesterday I switched the TV set and flip through different unsubstantial channels on the official digital net. Suddenly, I came across a movie that was just at the starts. It was “La mala verdad”. I knew nothing about it, so I thought, “why not try it?”

The movie grasped me, caught me, and took me away, even though it had a rather slow pace. The topic was challenging. It was the kind of topic of the type “we do not talk about this”.

“La mala verdad” is the story of a house dwelled by a little girl (“Barbara”), her mother and her grandfather. The latter is an obscure character played by the great Alberto de Mendoza. (In fact this movie was the last one Alberto de Mendoza worked on, and he even died without attending the premiere).