Veronica

Veronica's a Uruguayan lawyer we met at the Expat Social Gathering last week. She and Zac spent the night speaking a mixture of Spanish, English, and hand signals. We decided some extracurricular language-practice was in order, so yesterday, we met up and took a walkabout through the city.

That last picture is of Artigas, the Hero of Montevideo (and probably all of Uruguay). His remains used to be buried under this statue, but Veronica told us, with a long face, that this new government has made "some changes". One of those was to move Artigas. We're not sure where he is now.

But! We did see his original baptism record from the 1700s and the baptismal font where his famous head was anointed. And Veronica told us the story of how with few people and even fewer resources, he fought off the Spaniards and the Portuguese to liberate Uruguay. (One of his tricks was to pour boiling oil over the advancing troops.) But the best part of the tale was when Veronica said, "he won because he was crazy." She said it in English, and Zac and I thought she misspoke - or at least chose a less-than-precise word - but then she elaborated. "He really was mentally unstable. They think that he was able to defeat the Spanish and Portuguese armies because he was too nuts to lose."

There are monuments to this madman everywhere. It makes me love Uruguay even more.