Adagio en Mi Pais (Adagio in My Country), written and sung by Alfredo Zitarossa.
Zitarossa was a beloved and important Uruguayan composer, poet, singer, and journalist, who was ostracized for his involvement with the Frente Amplio of the left, during the 1970s, at the time when the military junta (with its torturous secret police) came to power in Uruguay. Zitarossa’s songs were banned in the Southern Cone countries and he himself was forced to live in exile in Argentina, Spain, and Mexico. He died young in 1989 at the age of 52. The most characteristic voice of resistance in Uruguay’s second “independence,” he makes a good subject for a post on Independence Day (Dia de la Independencia) , which happens to be today.
Behind every door
my people are alert,
and no one can silence their song,
and tomorrow they will sing again.
In my country we are tough,
the future will show that.
[Here is a complete translation by Yoshi Furuhashi, Monthly Review Press]
A bit of history: Uruguay won its independence from a triangular war between Spain, Argentina, and Brazil between 1825 and 1828. As the second smallest country in South America (after Surinam) it’s still somewhat overshadowed by its giant neighbors, Argentina and Brazil, with whom it shares it western and northern borders respectively.
Uruguay has many things to recommend it to a libertarian temperament. It’s a small country. The culture is unpretentious and laid back. It’s the home of the gaucho, the ferociously independent vagabond cowboy of South America. And the national motto, Libertad o Muerte (Liberty or Death) echoes Patrick Henry’s famous words (“Give me liberty or give me death”) before the Virginia Convention in 1775.
It’s traditional to go out on the night before Dia de la Independencia and I made it to a neighbor’s asado (barbecue). According to the Uruguayans, the asado, mate (the ubiquitous herbal tea that is sipped through a straw), and tango all come from Uruguay, not Argentina. Of course, in Argentina, you hear another story.
The asador did a fine job with the wood fire that cooks the meat. I took a shot at it too. The idea is to spread out the embers as they fall through the grate of the parrilla (grill)* from the log fire. Too many in one place and the meat gets burned. Too few and it doesn’t cook. Most of our guests wanted their meat – the world-famous Uruguayan organic beef – well done, so the asador and I were quite busy. The beef cut is called tira de asado (a cut from the ribs) and is mixed with other kinds of meat, like chorizo (sausage). We served the asado with chimichurri – a relish from oil, oregano, garlic, and chopped belly peppers – and with baguettes and clerico (made by mixing fruit drinks and wine).
*The term parrilla is also used, by analogy, to refer to torture and to the torture-rack, which were wide-spread in the 1970s and 1980s in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil…..
For the role of the US in fostering the routine use of torture in Uruguay, read this piece by Bill Blum.
A decade ago or so I attended the retirement barbecue for the department head of a university where I had done research. The main course was “brazilian barbecue” if I remember right. Big limbs from oak trees were burned in a fire pit and large pieces of meat were thrown directly into the fire. The meat had been rubbed with rock salt. The fire melted and coated the meat and produced a black rind but once removed, it was red and very moist. It was the first time I had heard of this method. If I recaall right, it took quite a while to cook because the pieces were so large (6 or 8 inches thick).
The meal was very enjoyable. Sitting (as an outsider) on a bench and listening to the professors and their wives gossip and complain about other professors and their wives was less enjoyable…
They rub it with a rock salt solution here, as well.
But they don’t cook it rare. And the meat sits on top of a metal rack, where it’s turned constantly.
The fire burns on the left of the pit.
Very hard to stay vegetarian here…
Your a vegitarian? This post reads like you had a very fun time, the best kind even, perhaps. Such a stunning contrast to the post after this one. I saw a video about Mosanto and thought of you. It was about some guy in Europe/Germany trying to inform the farmers there that Monsanto was trying to patient the DNA of certain pigs and the farmers I saw were kind of bewildered as to the meaning and the implications of such. The video/info gives me a creepy exponential type thought that does not seem good if this continues on the current path they (Monsanto) are on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-ouf_gmA5o&feature=PlayList&p=B730259903D88831&index=0&playnext=1
Mb4 says, “But they don’t cook it rare.”
That, I did not understand, Oh the humanity, how could they not?
Tira de asado, mixed with Chorizo, are you trying to make us hungry? That sounds interesting.
Rereading this, I noticed, such a stunning contrast to your last line too… parrilla. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.