Historias de gallegos

(Gallego = Galician = native from the Spanish region of Galicia, just like me)

Buenos Aires, beginning of the 20th century. A Galician young man works delivering goods for a grocery shop. A few days before Christmas he is asked to carry a certain lot to a particular house, but in the rush of the season he drops a few bottles of wine. “Estupido gallego”, what do you think you are doing, complained the angry client. The maid, a charming Galician young lady, helps cleaning up the mess and establishes a certain complicity with the embarrassed compatriot. Love sparked after that accidental encounter, and the couple got married and went back to Spain. They happened to become my great grand parents.

Some thirty years later, another Galician young man tries to build a future in Argentina. He works hard, earns some money, and manages to start a business in the town of Salta. But an unexpected revolution in the area makes him loose all his fortune overnight, and is left without much. Forced to start again from scratch, he moves to Buenos Aires, hoping to have better perspectives there. But jobs are scarce, and my grand father has to end up begging in the streets of the city. He asks for some help in the Spanish consulate, and he is literally kicked in the ass. Eventually he manages to find a job and save some money for a trip back to Spain, only to find out that a civil war breaks up soon after he arrives. But that’s another story …

These two examples just to show one of the reasons why I want to visit Argentina. Like many other Galicians (close to 1 million emigrated there), my forefathers tried their fortune in this country. A bit like those Americans that come to Europe to find their roots, I will be searching a little bit of mine there, trying to discover a country, and more in general a continent that was so much shaped by the Spaniards and Portuguese until not so long ago. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. A backpack, the Lonely Planet, and two months ahead. Lots of things to see, experiences to live, and people to meet. You are very welcome to travel with me through this blog.