Buenos Aires and Family

A blog post by Adam. In most of the countries we have visited, we have spent time with family. In Israel we spent time with my mom's second cousin, big Mina. In the DR we had little Mina, my sister. In Ecuador we stayed with my host family. And as it turns out, Argentina has been no exception. Here we met another second cousin of my mom, Ana.

For years my mother talked about family in South America...how one of her mother's sisters left Europe for Montevideo, whereas my grandmother's mother came to the U.S. from Europe. Apparently there was some communication between my great grandmother and her sibling in South America, but when my great grandmother was killed at a young age in a traffic accident, all contact between our families was lost. Until now.

Through big Mina we located Miguel, an offspring of the Montevideo great great aunt. Miguel had moved to Israel about twenty years ago, and through him we connected with his sister Ana, who had moved to Argentina about 30 years ago. As it happened, Ana's mother (who was the widow of our bloodline) happened to be visiting from Montevideo so everyone was in Argentina during our time here. Ana, Elena (Ana's mother), Daniela (Ana's daughter, who also lives in Buenos Aires), and Daniela's one year old daughter (Ana's granddaughter).

We first met Ana, her partner (her first husband died many years ago), and Elena, at the historic Cafe Tortoni - Buenos Aires' oldest cafe. We attempted to sort our shared history, we filled each other in about our lives, and we talked a bit of politics. Ana shared how she had been to Punta Cana, which is just an hour from where Mina lives. She and her partner Gianni also discussed how they supported Cristina, Argentina's left leaning populist president. This was the first time we had met a middle-class Ecuadorian or Argentine who supported a leftist government (Ecuador's president Correa is also a left leaning populist). As representatives of America's liberal middle-class we quickly felt at home (it should be noted, however, that neither Ana nor Gianni can vote in Argentina...Gianni came to Argentina from Italy when he was two and maintains Italian citizenship, whereas Ana is still Uruguayan). Things went so well with our new-found relatives that they invited us over for Shabbat dinner on Friday.

Multiple generations, multiple continents...Ana, Mina, my mom, Elena (Ana's mom), and Melissa

Between our initial encounter and Shabbat I had a chance to reflect on our family reunification. To think our ancestors left Europe not knowing if they would ever see family again. My great grandmother to the U.S. And my great great aunt to Uruguay. A hundred years passed. People lost European languages and gained new (but different) American tongues. People died and babies were born and as five generations progressed our lives moved farther and farther apart. And then because of planes, and email, and a 70th birthday (more about this later) we were together again. Could our relatives ever have imagined we would be sharing Shabbat together in 100 years?

At dinner we met Ana's daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, and Elena also joined us. It wasn't your traditional Shabbat dinner with pepperoni pizza (made by Gianni) and no blessings, yet like our secular Shabbat in Israel, it felt so comfortable to be with family. Buenos Aires is an incredibly beautiful city but what we experienced there in English, Mexican Spanish, Uruguayan Spanish, Argentinian Spanish, Dominicanized Spanish,  Spanglish, and baby sounds, was more beautiful than any building, monument, or park; it was the human interaction that has the ability to overcome cultural differences (as well as reveal cultural similarities, such as politics) and reunite long lost and distant relatives. No doubt, it was the tastiest pepperoni pizza I had ever had on Shabbat.