My Year in Argentina as a Fulbright Scholar

In March 2022, I took my first international flight since the beginning of the pandemic, and flew 11 hours south to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I could not know then what it meant to be a Fulbrighter. Now, I do know all the wonderful things that it can mean: English educator, American ambassador, 24/7 learner, gastronomer, friend, adventurer, wine taster, sports fan, cultural spelunker, currency exchanger, translator, spokesperson, political wonk, pop lyric interpreter, stereotype breaker, etc. To serve in all of these capacities was a great honor that I will always cherish.

“Aprovechar” is a Spanish verb that became my philosophy. It has many meanings, but the contexts in which I used it were “to eagerly seize an opportunity,” and “to make the most of a time or place.” However, there are two other meanings of the term aprovechar, “to exploit,” or “to take advantage of." To successfully serve as an U.S. diplomat in a foreign nation, one must always avoid behaving in these negative meanings, even if it is unintentional.

I'm lucky because now I get to sing the praises of a nation at a time when the eyes of the world are focused on it. I would like to take the opportunity to highlight just how special the Argentine people are. In the past few weeks there have been scores of articles and social media posts written about the contagious joy of the Argentine crowds in Qatar— this is the spirit of Argentina. Where people greet strangers with a kiss on the cheek and tease lovingly and relentlessly. Where people are more preoccupied with what dish to contribute to the asado than what car you drive. Where the national pride can be summarized by the raucous "GOOOOOOL" cheers that erupt from every window, so much that they vibrate a city.

To further illustrate my experience living in Argentina these past nine months, here is a vignette of my morning walks:

My daily walk to school started on my noisy city block, where I would pass a bodegón already billowing out asado smoke (so much that I had smelled it from a dozen stories up while I brushed my teeth earlier), the kiosco where the cashier recognized me and would later sell me a post-work alfajor, then the tile sidewalk would begin to crumble as we passed the Correo and got to the park where couples walking their dogs as they sleepily passed mate back and forth, across an intersection that always felt like an accomplishment to traverse, finally to my favorite part of the journey — El Bosque. This is where my thoughts became lucid each morning. I would sigh as I reached this forested park, with its swinging monkey puzzles and stout-based ombús, parakeets cackling as they flitted from their condo-like nests down to pick up some more architectural fodder, where they would be careful not to disturb the steady lines carved in the needle litter by leaf-cutter ants on their way, whom I avoided like a superstition, my footfalls instead crunching on tiny pinecones, thereby releasing a fragrance that was not quite rosemary, not quite fir, something so novel that I took big gulps just to preserve it before it escaped me again upon my exit. Then I approached the final stretch, some more sidewalk across from the shuttered zoo (they were outlawed years ago due to an animal rights law and lack of resources, although I firmly believed that I had seen monkeys behind those gates), before arriving at the most treacherous section: the roundabout. This marked the city limits and the oil tanker, flete, motorbike, and car traffic made the pedestrians in its wake feel like a centrifuge. If I timed my crossing correctly, I could weave around all these obstacles and build enough momentum to catapult myself through the barbed wire-topped gates, past the alamo-tree-lined quad, and to my allotted building to pick up my room key just in time to greet my students at Universidad Nacional de La Plata before they started sending me goofy Whatsapp GIFs inquiring about my whereabouts.

In addition to our English Teaching Assistant role, us Fulbrighters had the responsibility to engage in a community project. As an environmentalist, I spent many months researching the incredible biodiversity, climate change impacts, and environmental injustice abuses, from the cloud forests in the north, to the Patagonia mountain deserts in the south. My project ultimately took shape in a survey of my university community at the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. I was struck by the location of a massive oil refinery across the street from our campus, with its highly visible smokestacks, and how nobody ever acknowledged its existence. I summarized the results of this survey in the report shown to the left. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this research, please reach out! I am thankful to have collaborated with local activists, translators, and scientists in designing this study.

I would have never made through this adventure without the support of my community of Fulbright grantee friends, nor the kindness and generosity of my students and Argentine friends, who are too many to name here, but you know who you are. Additionally, muchas gracias to everyone at Comisión Fulbright Argentina , including Norma Gonzalez , the Embajada de los Estados Unidos en Argentina , including Ambassador Marc R. Stanley , everyone at the 美国康奈尔大学 Einaudi Center, Evelyn N. Farkas , Lauren Chambliss , Victor Tricot , Aileen Hale , Talia Bailes , Solenn Grainger , and West Wing (yes, the TV show). Last but not least, a big TE AMO to my family, Audrey Mann Cronin , Rob Cronin , and Jake Cronin .