Day trip from Buenos Aires: Colonia, Uruguay

March 23, 2009 – 1:50 pm

It’s slow. Cabs actually stop at crosswalks and it didn’t matter if I walked by the same small cobblestone lined street for the tenth time – I was happy to be in the oldest town in Uruguay, which was founded by the Portuguese in 1680.

One of my guides, Alejandro, on the other hand was fed up with foreign writers romanticizing his city as picturesque and quaint.

He told me that Colonia “is an infinite labyrinth in a tiny space where one can begin a search, but never complete it.”

Ok, I get it. Locals can romanticize it… foreigners no.

But he was on to something.

The layers of history in this place are too thick, I thought as I a stumbled on a rock on the gravel of a parking lot where Bastion de San Pedro de Alcantara used to be. “Such is Colonia, bit by bit, it reveals its secrets,” said Archeologist Buby Fusco. “We have to make a note of this place.”

It wasn’t a rock that I stumbled on.

Right beneath my feet was more evidence of the Portuguese contribution to Uruguay’s history. However, the city waits for funds to begin the archaeology work and so the Bastion de San Pedro remains a parking lot.

In 2007, a dredger found two Portuguese cannons and that was not a happy day for Archeologist Alejo Cordero.

“It is too expensive to restore them… so either we would get funds or they had to go back in the water,” said Cordero.

History is expensive and Colonia is indebted with it.

Because of the oxygen deprived waters of the of Rio De La Plata, the riverbed is excellent at conserving materials. Artifacts like a 13-meter mast and a four-meter anchor are waiting for funding in a protected place in the bay.

The Portuguese cannons surfaced because there was a push for the funding. The Portuguese embassy provided administrative help, an Uruguayan professor in the United States worked out the solution to restore the cannons and the Uruguayan Heritage Commission provided the money.

Fusco made it clear that in the Barrio Historico (historic quarter) – designated in 1995 as a world heritage site by UNESCO – every building she showed me had Portuguese foundations.

Even the newer Posadas (inns) were built on top of preserved foundations.

She spent two decades retrieving that history.

The work done by her in the ruins of the governor’s house, such as Portuguese ceramic plates, is a reference point and is used to date shipwrecks around the world.

Colonia was founded by D. Manuel Lobo to expand Portuguese territorial claims in America and to keep its economic stronghold of the silver that flowed from the Potosi mines in Bolivia.

The first settlement lasted less than eight months. Through battles and treaties the town-changed hands more than ten times until 1828 when Uruguay finally settled its impendence from Argentina, Spain and Brazil.

It was here Portuguese introduced agriculture for the first time to Uruguay, the production of flour and the first theater play. Because of their presence, it forced the Spanish crown to invest in Buenos Aires, which was marginalized at the time.

Buby, a Fulbright Scholar from Uruguay, who studied in Florida, said she somehow fell in love with Portugal.

“I told my friend that I didn’t want to travel anymore when I got to Portugal,” said Buby. “She thought I was depressed. No. I saw people in the street, living, acting in a way that I thought I was back home. My love for Portugal is not by blood, it’s real love.”

As we walked the cobblestone streets, she remarked that the Portuguese were very ingenious adapting to the contours of the soil when building their streets as opposed to the more linear Spanish streets.

Yes, Buby… that must be real love to overlook the Portuguese “deixa andar” (let it be) attitude.

The Calle de los Suspiros (street of sights) is heralded as the most traditional Portuguese Street in Colonia, “where the ancient, forgotten, spirit of Sacramento still hovers.”

I don’t know about any spirits hovering above the street, when droves of tourists keep pounding the stones.

But if you get there early in the morning just before the ferry brings in the masses, and if you look towards the river with the sun hitting the two bottom Portuguese pink houses, Alejandro’s “infinite labyrinth” is less than a romanticized idea. That morning I saw something new, but old.

Portuguese monuments, archives and houses are spread out throughout the historic center, such as the Casa de Rios, the Portuguese Museum. Inside, furniture, uniforms and banners donated by the Portuguese government adorn the 18th century construction.

On one of the walls, a plaque marks the first meeting in 1979 of the Portuguese communities of Uruguay and Argentina.

But a living Portuguese community here was not to be found.

Nevertheless, Colonia has an honorary Portuguese consul.

I called him the consul of the dead, but retracted my statement to the “Consul of History.” That would be Nelson Agesta, a friendly middle-age businessman, politician and honorary consul. He took me for my third tour of Colonia.

The town of 20,000 has two living fourth generation Portuguese. The consul was nominated in the 80s when former Portuguese President Mario Soares visited Colonia and wanted to have an official presence to help the city prepare for its UNESCO application.

The consul maintains his relevance helping to prepare the visits of Portuguese dignitaries, and more importantly establishing links with Portuguese institutions in order to secure funding for historical projects.

Agesta drove me to the poor part of town, showing me empty textile factories and makeshift houses. He said that I had to see the good and the bad of Colonia.

The recession, which has paralyzed consumer spending in the United States, is hardly felt here.

“Uruguay isn’t afraid,” said Agesta.

Consumer habits may not have been altered, but a resort complex in Colonia was put on hold due to lack of worldwide credit.

Agesta left me at the hotel and I walked towards Bastion de San Pedro to hear the river.

 

At night, Buenos Aires glows red in the far off horizon. There was a strong jasmine scent in the air as I walked by Calle de los Suspiros. It struck me that I am truly the only person who grew up in Portugal on these streets – at least, if you believe the legends, the only one who still lives and breaths.
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SOURCE:
“South American Dias”
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O Jornal
By: Luis Filipe Dias
03/20/2009
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