El Parque

I go to Parque Lezama a lot.

It's amazing to me, and probably my favorite place to be in this entire city. Every time I go I am wrapped up by the fabric spun between social interactions of a diverse array of humans and animals. The park is gritty, eloquent, bohemian and historic...just like the barrio of San Telmo where it is located, and where I live.

I walk under palm trees in mid-Bs As winter. I see young people spray painting murals. I sit on the giant stairs of a decaying amphitheater that was inspired by ancient Greece. I drink mate and see many others doing the same. I watch a drum circle perform within 2 meters of where a homeless man is sleeping on a mattress. I watch dogs wearing t-shirts, humanized by their owners, run quickly to sniff the nether regions of other new dog friends. This life of dogs, both street and house, cracks me up, especially when I see owners haphazardly run after and reprimand the unacceptable behavior of their best friends. I see groups of 10 to 12 older men playing cards on a stone table, and I notice a power dynamic amongst the laughter. I talk international politics with a union leader who was visiting from Tierra del Fuego. I buy a kitchen knife at the weekend flea market on the southern side of the park that borders la Boca. I also talk to an 80 year old book seller for a while, who tells me he makes next to nothing as a puestero, but does it to converse and be with people. I've watched high school kids play intense soccer on dirt, under large, looming trees....the goal celebrations are passionate. I catch a kid as he is cruising out of control down the hill on his training wheels bike.

The park is always an event, and it is alive. Really not that big, it is home to a dynamic and diverse intersection of society, culture and ecology that produces realities spanning from the sobering to the joyful, and a million other words.

En fin, the dogs always make me laugh.