Argentina Bicentennial

Vantage point between Plaza Espana and Palacio Bosch on Libertador.

Earlier this week, the United States celebrated its 240th birthday (looking pretty good for a 240-year old).  In Buenos Aires we celebrated with the usual... you know, park rangers,

THIS guy!

wildly decorated train terminals...

and adults posing with Disney characters....

Sorry this is blurry, I think the camera had been drinking.

All pretty standard stuff.

July 9 is the Argentine equivalent of July 4.  Kind of.  Also May 25.  But mostly July 9, so we'll go with that for our purposes.  Any who, on July 9, 1816, the United Provinces of South America declared independence from Spain, and then eventually evolved into the countries of Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina (there were also some small territories that are now part of Chile and Brazil).

Everyone Loves a Parade (everyone in Argentina anyway!)

So your centennials and bicentennials are generally a pretty big deal.  Argentina did its best to do it up right.  Granted, I did not see any park rangers or Disney characters, but it was still a good showing.  They had the big parade down Avenida Libertador, a huge artery through the heart of the city, which ended with military exercises at the polo fields of Palermo.

Malvinas veterans (one of the guys in front has an Argentine flag cut in the shape of the Malvinas Islands).

The military was well-represented in the parade, especially the veterans of the Malvinas War.  You may remember this as the war in the "Falkland" Islands, but when in Argentina, it is better to refer to it as Malvinas.  These are some small islands in the southern Atlantic.  Argentina and Great Britain had a brief war over them in the early 1980s.  It is still a very real issue here in Argentina.

Local marching band talent.

The parade also had the requisite musical pageantry.  Military marching bands from several branches of the Argentine military, as well as marching bands from several foreign countries performed.  There was even some representation from the U.S.A., fresh off their performance at some July 4th festivities somewhere.

Warming up, but apparently that guy in the front row is not all the way recovered from his July 4th festivities.