Hi everybody,
today all the shops and offices were closed (including mine, which means that my first day at work didn´t take place), and all the people were in the streets. The reason for this was the inauguration of the first leftwing President ever, Tabaré Vázquez.
As you may or may not now, Uruguay had a military dictatorship between 1973 and 1985, which ended 1985 with the election of a right-wing government, last headed by José Batllé. Apparently, a lot of things went wrong there, which may have been the reason why the people were so eager to welcome the new government.
Festivities started the day before, with the arrival of the majority of the official guest. Fidel Castro was scheduled to come, but cancelled due to health reasons. There were enough other illustre guests, though, including Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, apparently the stupidest president in South America, Princ Edward of England and Pince Felipe of Spain with his wife Letizia. (The last two are the only ones I can boast to have seen, but only out of the window of the autobus they came in, 15m away. The pictures turned out really bad, though.)
The offcial celebration started at 2pm in the Palacio Legislativo, where the President held his first spech. Then, everybody including the guest was transferd to the Plaza de Independencia, which is where I stood. I arrived at about 2pm and stayed until 3.30pm, which is when all the officials came. By that time the place was so full of people that you could hardly move. What impressed me most, though, was how peaceful everythings was. The people were singing and dancing and applauding officials of the new government, while abusing those of the parting one (really really badly). People were waiving (and wearing) flags of Uruguay and the governmental party, and families had picnics. The enthusiasm was really contagious – it was a historical, emotional moment and I´m glad I had the chance to be there. Now let´s hope that the government fulfills its promises – at least the measures taken so far sound very good.
This is all for today. In my next letter I will tell you ll about my hopefully very exciting first day at work.
Love, Katalin
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