Universidad Nacional De Cordoba - A Shocking Perspective

Legalizing my high school diploma and transcript is still months away, but since I plan to attend the National University of Cordoba (UNC), I decided to visit the campus in Cordoba City, Argentina. 

Anthropology Building

At first glance, the anthropology building at the National University of Cordoba (UNC) looks like an abandoned building in the bad part of town. Most of the graffiti on the walls are politically motivated; demanding change and women’s rights or civil rights. 

One such example of this was a graffiti slogan on the wall outside of a building which said, “Si el Papa fuera mujer, el aborto seria ley”, which means, “If the Pope was a woman, abortion would be legal.” 

They're probably right!

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against peaceful protests or fighting for a good cause (in a non-violent way). I just don't see how vandalizing a university is going to accomplish that. If anything, it makes it all look so impoverish when it doesn't have to be.  

Despite the outward appearance of some of the buildings, UNC is considered a renowned university, which has been around for about 400 years. People from all over Central and South America attend here because the university offers a free education where most other countries do not. Still, you’d think the government would do more to preserve this landmark from falling into the hands of vandals and malcontents. When I officially enroll I’d like to give the powers that be at the university some suggestions, but I doubt they’ll be very receptive to change. 

That's just Argentina for you.

Speaking of the powers that be, the UNC has a government assembly which is comprised of teachers (called docentes), students, and the administration. This assembly is much more powerful than the student council at the colleges I attended back home in Florida. This government seems to be able to bring about change swiftly when a majority rule in favor of that change.

The downside is that while you can vote for change and choose your classes or major, you can't pick your professor. By this I mean that if you want to study Introduction to Philosophy, but you hate the professor, you’re screwed. You either take the class or choose another major. This may come as a shock if you’ve grown accustomed to going to school in the states where you have at least 2 or 3 other professors you can choose from per subject. 

I'm not sure if private Argentine universities offer more options but the public ones do not. 

Classroom in the Anthropology building

Since I plan to attend the UNC in 2014 for a National Translator degree, I thought I’d go see what the classes were like. But instead of going to the language school, I visited an anthropology class instead. This was a big mistake, but I’ll get to that later. The classroom was relatively large. There must have been about a hundred desk/chairs. The walls could have used a little sprucing up, and by little I mean a lot! They did however have an audio/visual projector which they used for the classroom presentations. That's more than I thought they had.

The dress code for professors seem unfavorably casual. One professor was dressed like he was going to a Zeppelin concert and the other looked like she had just rolled out of bed and forgotten to change out of her pajamas.

Benefits 

Because it is the first week of the term (each term is one full year), the administration visits the classrooms and discusses all the benefit programs that come with being a student, and that includes a very affordable lunch menu, free healthcare, and a library containing over 200,000 books, DVDs, CDs, and magazines. Everything offered to students here seems like a sweet deal if you can get over the shock of the UNC’s aesthetics.

Scholarships 

Scholarships are also available. Why do they need a scholarship when the university is free? It’s to cover the cost of books and/or copies of textbooks and handouts. At most, the scholarships are about 1000 pesos per year simply because you probably won’t even need that much. The amount may change and increase as the country's economy is tanking. 

Work-Study Program
They also offer a work study program of sorts for students who need a part time job while studying, or for those who need experience in the field which they are studying for. This varies with career programs.

Socio-Political Discussions in Class
The first thing I noticed while participating in a group discussion was that I had no idea what was going on.  This was supposed to be an anthropology class, but everyone seemed so focused on politics and how it relates to the universities in Argentina over the past 100 years or so.

The Reformation Of The Universities Of 1918
The topic of the “Reformation of the Universities of 1918” was discussed way too much. For those of you who aren’t familiar with what this reformation is, I will explain briefly. It turns out that this reformation was how students expelled the church from the university, who until that point, was enforcing what topics should be discussed (similar to the military dictatorship several decades later). The church wouldn’t even allow the teaching of sciences at the universities. Until the reformation, neither students nor instructors were allowed to voice personal opinions or teachings. That has fortunately changed. I guess I should be grateful for small favors.

Classroom Observation
My observation of the class suggests that socio-political discussions are the norm at the university regardless of what the subject matter might be. It was difficult to follow or appreciate without a basic knowledge or understanding of the topics and history of Argentina. The instructors (there were four in the classroom at the same time) kept discussing the reformation to death, and despite some attempts by other students to deviate to a different topic, the instructors drew everyone back to the reformation. I’m going to have nightmares about the reformation for a week.  

Also, one of the teachers insinuated that anthropological analysis is not scientific, but rather a subjective analysis. Anthropology was never a subject I pursued, but I’ve seen enough episodes of “BONES” to know that a scientific analysis is vital to anthropology. Maybe I’m wrong. You decide and comment.  One student, a woman, age 47, was the only one that actually made any sense to me. She questioned why politics needed to be introduced and discussed in an anthropology class. I agreed with her, but not many others in the classroom did. She was quickly shot down by the professors and students (BUT NOT LITERALLY… IT'S JUST A FIGURE OF SPEECH).  One thing I can say without question is that every student in that class was knowledgeable, regardless of age, gender, or origin (not everyone in the class was Argentine).

Conclusion
After spending 4 hours listening in on the class, I realized that I made a mistake and should have visited a class that was related to my field of study. This anthropology class did not interest me at all, and I felt that the instructors completely missed their marks.

Although my first experience was a bit alarming, there’s much more to the UNC than meets the eye. I’ve only seen a fraction of what they have to offer. So, stay tuned. I’ll be posting more on the university in the near future. 

The Military Dictatorship – A Dark Chapter in Argentina’s History

There are planters just like this one throughout the province of Cordoba, and there's a strong message behind them. Every photo--every planter represents an individual who went missing the during the dictatorship several decades ago. 

In this neighborhood, Luis Canfaila was abducted on 10/12/1975.

In the early 1970’s, a military dictatorship swarmed through every province in Argentina and its neighboring countries. Their goal was to end any idealism or dissident movements that could prove a threat to the governments of that era. The dictatorship considered knowledge to be dangerous as it could have potentially opened young people's minds to rebellious thoughts like freedom and democracy. They dismantled labs to suppress scientific knowledge. They even burned libraries and bookstores to do away with general knowledge altogether. They regulated what could and could not be taught in schools and universities too. 

Translation: For this, and other crimes, those responsible are being judged. Participate in federal court hearings. The tribunal is located at Concepcion Arenales and Paunero. Attendance is a right.

Anyone that the dictatorship found to be against the government was hunted down. The militia broke into the homes of suspected dissidents. They searched for books and papers containing insurgency or idealistic topics. Then they’d abduct their target, and the families would never see or hear from them again. Of course, not all of these abductees were taken from their homes. Several protestors rallied out in the streets, only to have their clothes stained by the riot patrols and later picked off one by one.  

I'm told that these victims were subjected to unspeakable torture. Electrodes were attached to the genitals of men and women as a form of abuse. The militia often used these techniques with no true agenda other than for perverse pleasure. Women were gang raped. Those who became pregnant were kept alive until they gave birth. Then the babies were taken from them. It is said that the militia got rid of their captives by either hacking them to pieces and disseminating them everywhere, or burning them alive. Some were allegedly weighed down and

thrown off planes while they were still alive. 

The province of Cordoba honored those that have disappeared by posting photos and the date of their disappearance in Plaza San Martin. It's a safe bet that other provinces have done the same. 

The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo 

The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo are a group formed by the mothers of those whose voices were silenced. To this day, these mothers gather at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires every Thursday afternoon for the right to know what happened to their missing children, and perhaps to be reunited with them if they survived.  

The military dictatorship came to an end in 1983. It's believed that over 30,000 dissidents were abducted throughout South America. To this day, the whereabouts of these people remains a mystery. 

As a kid we were taught about American history, the Boston Tea Party, the Civil War, Vietnam, both World Wars. You get the idea. But we learned next to nothing about the dictatorship that plagued the South American continent. So this was a major teachable moment for me. 

Many of us use Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to voice our personal or political opinions, but we forget that in some parts of the world, freedom of speech was once a crime.  

In some parts of the world... it still is.