Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Central & South America NOT ruined, by JD

In recent comments someone said how the US had laid waste to Central and South America. Not quite true, the 'cono sur' (southern cone) has shaken off the US influenced dictatorships and in my experience is a wonderful place to live, particularly Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. 

I'll have to dredge up some memories, Pablo Neruda's house for example - https://www.vayaadventures.com/blog/visit-isla-negra-unusual-seaside-home-pablo-neruda/ First thing you see is a narrow gauge steam engine in the garden! Or maybe the Giles Gilbert Scott-designed phone boxes in Buenas Aires, exactly the same as those we used to have here. They are even the same colour. Or the surprising discovery that all three countries have hundreds of cricket clubs. 

The food is rather good too!

Meanwhile, please see this, reposted from Nourishing Obscurity (2014):

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This is somewhere on the coast road to the north of Valparaiso. I wasn’t sure of the exact location so I searched Google maps and found it and borrowed a few screen shots –

A very spectacular location, I’m sure you will agree. In fact the whole coastline is spectacular – I feel a bout of nostalgia coming on 🙂

A few changes since I was there. They have some street lights now and the roadside caff looks as though it has been abandoned (blue in my pic but a sort of dereliction cream in the Google view).

The second image below shows the view from within the painting looking out over the Pacific. The cliff top at left is where I stood to take a few photographs which I have used as the basis for the paintings. 

I did a watercolour ages ago and it has been hanging on the wall for the past ten years; at least. I shall be doing a few more paintings. Can’t stop even though there are dozens if not hundreds on the wall here or just lying about the house. Why would I want to stop, anyway?

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1 comment:

Paddington said...

You may be referring to comments that I made.

I was not referring to the countries themselves. Many of my friends have toured all over, and love it.

What did happen was the US (and United Fruit, among others) repeatedly de-stabilized governments for their own purposes. That, combined with some of the worst cultural features of 15th Century Spain and Portugal (including ranking people by the lightness of their skin) have left them unable to form consistent societal structures. In many countries, such as Honduras, Costa Rica and parts of Brazil, gangs have filled the void.