Porteño Corner | Wander Argentina

Porteño Corner: Bakery Worker, Elba Huerte

Elba Huerte
Age: 64
From: Remedios de Escalada, Province of Buenos Aires
Counter server, El Pan Nuestra Bakery
Mexico 702
San Telmo

Q: How many times a week can you eat media lunas (sweet croissants) or facturas (pastries) for breakfast and not get fat?

This, I don’t know, but there are people who eat them everyday. They do make people fat — it’s not diet food, but I tell the clients that they’re low-fat just to make them feel better!

• How long have you worked here?

I’ve worked here since we opened in this location in 2005, but I’ve known and worked for this family for over 40 years. Three partners — two brothers and a nephew own this business, but I worked for the brothers’ dad in a bakery in Belgrano beginning when I was 16 years old.

Then for about 20 years I sold clothes in businesses and I had five people working under me. I made good money but it was tiring after a while. I like this better.

• Why do you like this job?

I like the contact with the public.

• How are the people different from when you started 48 years ago?

Oh my! Before people had good manners and respect, these days that doesn’t even exist. And you might think it’s just the young people but the old people are rude too! They have a bad day and they take it out on us.

The other day a 70 year-old man yelled at me because the price of bread went up. Like it’s my fault that the government increases the cost of wheat! I think the people should say good afternoon, please and thank you. I mean, we’re polite so the people should be too.

• Why do you think the people are ruder than they used to be?

I don’t know. It’s not just the way people raise their kids because the adults have bad manners too, but I do hear mothers saying, ‘I want my daughter to treat me like a friend.’ Your daughter should never be your friend! My daughter certainly does not talk to me like I am her friend; I deserve more respect than her friend.

The foreigners are generally more polite even though I don’t get why they buy one cookie at a time.

• There was a police officer hanging out in here but you said that they didn’t do anything when the bakery got robbed, what’s the story?

For me, the cops are just as corrupt as the crooks. This cop comes and talks with us for a while, it’s safer while he’s in here, but I don’t trust the cops. The cops and the crooks work together. I’m not saying ALL police, but the majority.

It’s like a priest, you know one nice priest and you are fond of them and then you hear about all these priests molesting children. What are you suppose to think? I don’t trust doctors, judges or politicians either. What does a president do? We vote for them and they get into office and then they stuff their pockets and forget what they promised us. I don’t know what’s happening with the world. It’s like corruption is a contagious infection.

• It seems that you give a lot of free bread out here. What’s the policy on that?

We give out bread to anyone who asks. Alicia, my co-worker, is in charge of bagging up the bread we give away. We give bread to kids and old people, and right up the street here there is a hotel for juvenile delinquents without families. They come and ask for bread quite a lot. We give it to them so they don’t rob us. So we give bread to everyone— even the crooks!

• So they don’t rob you then?

Well no, they don’t rob us, they just send other people to do it.

Porteño Corner: The Fruit Pusher, Pedro Jose Barriani

Pedro Jose Barriani
a.k.a., ‘The Fruit Pusher’
Owner of the no-name fruit stand
Mexico 789
San Telmo

Q: How long have you been here?

55 years.

• 55 years? How old are you?

I’m 66. We moved here when I was 11, in 1955. My father had a butcher shop here, then he gave me a little spot and I started selling vegetables.

At one point I did close for ten years because my dad bugged me and I had little kids at home. And now I’ve been open again for 16 years.

• What’s the most popular fruit?

Bananas, grapes. Whatever I put in front, sells.

• What’s the most popular veggie?

Potatoes, people like their potatoes.

• Those carrots are abnormally huge.

Those carrots are for the ladies that are fighting with their husbands. All she has to do is whack him over the head with the carrot and problem solved!

• How come you always push fruit and don’t have more veggies like broccoli?

Because I’m an undependable, low-class vegetable seller. Sometimes I work, sometimes I don’t. Why should I? I don’t have a cent, but I don’t need money. I don’t even spend $200 pesos a month. I don’t have a phone. I don’t smoke. I don’t go out on the town because the women don’t pay attention to me anymore. Now I don’t even remember how to kiss and cuddle.

I have one son who is rich though. He owns ten houses, lives in a gated community, the whole nine yards.

• You must have done something right then.

Nope! Really, I didn’t pay any attention to him at all. And now he doesn’t pay attention to me.

• Really-?

Yeah, in fact, all my children hate me because I don’t look for a girl my age, but all the girls my age are old!

• Oh, so you like younger women?

Well, how old are you? Nah, seriously why would I want a young girl? So I can watch her die of sadness? She’d want to go out dancing every night and I’d only be able to take her once a month!

• Do you have internet so that you can see this article?

What is internet?

• You’ve never heard of the internet?

No, I swear, I don’t have the slightest idea of what it is.

• What’s the deal with your cat?

¿Flora, la que llora? (Flora, the one who cries?) We were drinking mate, she comes in here and sits herself down. I throw her out, she keeps coming back.

The cats stay. The women leave. That’s how it goes.

Porteño Corner: Dr. Silvana Dato

Dr. Silvana Dato
Private Practitioner of Aesthetic Medicine
Las Cañitas (Palermo)
Tel:(11)4774-7279

• Where do you live?

Across the street – best decision I ever made in my life because I work a lot! I’m not complaining though, because it’s going good!

• How old are you?

• What is the most popular aesthetic procedure in your office?

The most popular is permanent hair removal and everything that has to do with the pulsed light laser because it’s a very versatile instrument – it can be used to remove hair, to treat acne and sun damage and for skin irregularities such as Rosacea.

The star last year though was the radio frequency, which produces tension in the skin and is used to treat flaccidity in the face.

• What is the age spectrum of your patients?

We have patients from 15 years old to 80 and beyond. The young people are usually seeking acne treatment and the older patients are often interested in radio frequency. A lot of women in their 30 to 50’s are getting corporal radio frequency treatment to take care of parts of the body that don’t look like they used to.

• What percentage of patients are women as opposed to men?

Eighty-five to 90% are women, but we aren’t particularly geared toward men. In the last year our number of male patients has increased a lot – primarily for laser hair removal and radio frequency. They’re good patients — they don’t have magical expectations like some women do.

• How many Porteños would you estimate get aesthetic treatments?

If we are talking about Belgrano, Recoleta, Barrio Norte — the wealthiest part of the city, I would say 80% or more get some sort of aesthetic treatment. If we are including basic facials and all sorts of aesthetic treatment, including Botox, I would say you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t had something done among the more well-off population.

• What are the most important things people should do to take care of their appearance?

There are some fundamentals: don’t smoke, maintain a good weight, drink a lot of liquids, eat a balanced diet, get exercise and most importantly, be careful about sun exposure. A little sun exposure is necessary for vitamin D but it’s important to be careful about what time of the day you’re getting sun, especially with the climate changes going on. We are seeing an increase in incidents of skin cancer and more intense sun damage in younger patients.

• Does beauty come from within?

Feeling good comes from within. Being objectively beautiful on the outside does not necessarily bring satisfaction on its own. There are many people who have it backwards – they think that if you look good on the outside that you will feel good inside but really you have to have a sense of well-being on the inside and that reflects on the outside.

You also have to be realistic — if you are 60 years old and you’re trying to look like a 20 year-old… it just looks ridiculous.

• You mean like actress Moria Casán?

Yes — she looks like a transvestite!

Porteño Corner: Ricardo Aristides Guerrero

Ricardo Aristides Guerrero
Owner, Casa Pintos Tobacco Shop
Avenida de Mayo 738, downtown

Q: How many years have you been here?

I’ve been here 50 years, since 1960 although we were in a larger location next door until 29 years ago.

• How old are you?

85 years young

• Do you smoke?

Yes, but not much. I smoke about five cigarettes per day.

• What kind of changes have you seen here on Avenida de Mayo in the last 50 years?

Oh, Buenos Aires has changed a lot. It was better before. The streets were better, the people were happier. Now there are a lot of social and political problems.

• Has the Buenos Aires smoking ban in public places affected your business?

Humans are contradictory. Now that it is banned, more people smoke!

• What is the best cigar?

The Cuban, the Cohiba. They cost AR$125 each so I don’t sell them much.

• What is your soccer team?

The best team: San Lorenzo.

• Anything else you’d like to say?

Us short guys don’t like it when a woman wears high heels because they forget about us petisos (little guys!)

Take a Tango Tour

Porteño Corner: Bakery Worker, Elba Huerte

Porteño Corner: The Fruit Pusher, Pedro Jose Barriani

Porteño Corner: Dr. Silvana Dato

Porteño Corner: Ricardo Aristides Guerrero

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