Page 24 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Argentina

22  INTRODUCING ARGENTINA

Sports and Arts
Argentina is well ahead of other Latin
American countries in terms of sporting
prowess and artistic creativ ity. It is a
world-class nation in soccer and several
other sports, including tennis, golf, polo,
and hockey. At the 2012 Olympics
Argentina took home a gold medal in
taekwondo, silver in women’s field hockey,
and bronzes in men’s tennis and sailing. An
Argentine has also won the US Open Golf
Championship. However, it is in soccer that
Argentina’s passions spill onto the streets.
Past legends such as Alfredo di Stefano,
Gabriel Batistuta, Mario Kempes, and Diego
Maradona are still revered as demi-gods,
while Lionel Messi is a current favorite.
Buenos Aires’s most important cultural Argentinian pop band Miranda at a performance
institute, Teatro Colón, is where famous
classical music artistes, including pianist anti-establishment songs in the midst
Martha Argerich, conductor Daniel of the military dictatorship. Inter national
Barenboim, and composer Osvaldo critics often point out that there is,
Golijov, have performed. While there through the influence of tango, a
is always a huge turnout for rock concerts melancholy in all Argentinian music.
by visiting international bands, many While very few Argentinians actually
young Argentinians prefer their rock dance to the famous rhythm, urbanites
nacional. Argentinian pop and rock enjoy Carlos Gardel, the Bing Crosby of
have been politicized since the 1970s, Argentinian tango.
when the band Sui Generis recorded After the heady days of the Latin
American boom during the middle of
the 20th century, few Argentinian writers
have won international acclaim. For many,
the works of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio
Cortázar remain the bench marks by
which all litera ture must be measured.
Nonetheless, Argentinians are avid readers;
the annual Feria de Libro in Buenos Aires
attracts huge audiences, and the pub-
lishing of new books by contem porary
writers such as Ana María Shua, Pablo
de Santis, and Tomás Eloy Martínez are
major events in the cultural calendar.
Cinema is popular in the country.
In the last few years, a new school of
cinéma verité has developed, which, as
well as scooping up prizes in presti gious
inter national film festivals, has given
the country a register with which to
debate social realities in the post-1983
Lionel Messi playing against the Mexico team democratic period.

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