“Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

After reading “Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, students were asked to prepare an informal talk on “Contrasts in Buenos Aires”. The talk was later changed into a short essay.


Photo by: Harry Redl (American, b. 1926) Lawrence Ferlinghetti in front of City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco, 1957 (Harry Redl)

Social commitment is necessary by Santiago R. (FCE level)

In my opinion the social contrast is the most important of all in a city like Buenos Aires. This kind of contrast appears everywhere you go so it is impossible not to realize it is there. But since we are getting used to seeing poverty all the time we will eventually stop paying attention to it. Nowadays our attention is more drawn to superficial things such as publicity instead of worrying about a person’s background and his possibilities of surviving in our competitive society. I believe we should fight this and to realize something is wrong is the first step. Someone recently told me that the situation was not like this in the past. There were problems as usual but there were not so many people living in the streets, begging for money and dying from hunger. What I mean is that if we convince ourselves that this social environment is acceptable we will never be able to change it.
In conclusion, denying what’s happening is not going to make the problem go away. A phony connection towards poverty with excessive sensibility that doesn’t continue in further actions won’t help either. Politicians ought to become aware of the problem in order to provide a solution so it’s our job to claim for better solutions when we consider something isn’t right.

Contrasts in Buenos Aires by Catalina R. (FCE level)

There was the Universal Church of Jesus. Where people go for comfort, for understanding, for forgiveness. Sad, desperate people. Answering to a T.V. commercial in which a man with a Portuguese accent talks about the end off suffering. He said that they would give you a rose. Your suffering would be miraculously stopped.A woman came out the church’s doors. She was fully dressed in black, holding the promised rose in her right, aged hand. She wore a crucifix around her neck. Maybe she was mourning, she looked like she was.Leaning on the church wall was a couple, making out. They were passionate. The girl wore a mini skirt; she had her body covered with tattoos and piercing. Their bodies entwined. The boy was punk, his hair was green, he had an antireligious t-shirt on. He wore it there, right next to the church. It didn’t seem to worry him.The woman noticed them and froze; she gave them a look that showed her contempt and indignation. The couple realized her presence and laughed.She kept on walking, they kept on kissing.

Contrasts in Buenos Aires by "The Very Perfect Guy"

Contrasts are part of the essence of Buenos Aires. It is a city that, having been product of many different cultural influences along history, hosts people from all around the world, buildings of all sizes and styles, varied landscapes and more. Perhaps, one of the most notorious contrasts is the one between different social classes that coexist in the city, and this does not only refer to rich and poor people, but more complex and specific social groups.One element in which this is shown very clearly is in the eating habits and the places people choose to go to eat. On one side, we have reasonably wealthy people who consider going to eat as something recreative, who are offered a huge variety of restaurants and bars to go, located in particular areas in the city we could call fashion gastronomical centers. From typical Argentinean food to international dishes, people can choose where and when they want to eat, and take that as an opportunity to have fun with others like them.On the other hand, more humble people frequent other places; they don’t go to eat and have fun, but go to cheaper restaurants every day between working shifts as part of their everyday schedule. Therefore, they don’t have the variety of options rich people are used to in fancy places.These differences do not only show what different groups of people do or choose when they go out to eat, but, of course, are a mark of one kind of distinction between different social classes living in the same place, marks of which we could find a lot in Buenos Aires.

Contrasts in Buenos Aires. Corrientes Street by Victoria A. (FCE level)

I have chosen a clearly visual contrast in Buenos Aires. It is the one you can find on Corrientes Street. The great majority of the buildings there are antique ones, old buildings that are charged with lots of years and history.Also the many theaters you can find there have years of tradition, just as the bookstores of the area; even the books available on those stores are second-hand, so they also contain history and the marks of previous owners.Right beside this, you can see the great opposite of this. Gigantic advertisements of all kinds of products, which cover these buildings and this history they all contain. Technology and modernism, big and full of light advertisements seem to steal the attention from the history and lives of the buildings and those who live in them.In addition, in the traditional theatres you can hardly ever find traditional or classic plays, or even good and intelligent ones, the ones that are usually played are modern and empty ones.It really gives one the feeling that fashion and market in Corrientes Street are given more importance than the history and years of tradition that same street contains. These last things seem even ignored.

The texts published here have been written by secondary school students from "Colegio Paideia" (Buenos Aires, Argentina). They have been uploaded without the teacher's corrections.