Tea at Trianon: Pies and Politics in Buenos Aires

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Pies and Politics in Buenos Aires

From The Guardian:

The Argentinian capital is home to five restaurants devoted to former president General Juan Domingo Perón and his wife, Eva. But meaningful memorabilia and indulgent comfort food make Perón Perón the preferred haunt for activists and foodies. A space for peronista youths to discuss politics over the pastel de papas (shepherd’s pie, the general’s favourite dish), locro bean stew and malbec served in penguin jugs, this casual establishment is equally popular with kirchneristas, adherents of the strand of Peronism created by the late Néstor Kirchner and his wife, outgoing president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Amid supportive graffiti on the military green walls, the restaurant’s memorabilia includes a kitsch candlelit shrine to Evita, labourers’ attire and a sewing machine-turned beer dispenser – representing Evita’s social campaign to help mothers clothe their families. (Read more.)