Childhood had not been particularly easy for Washington, or Cabeza, as he was known around the neighborhood. It was due to a bet that ended with Washington’s head stuck inside a bucket when he was just a child. His entrepreneurial skills and wish for quick money had also started about that time. He seized that situation as an opportunity to organize a neighborhood bet on the actual measurements of his head. Of course, to give it a certain veil of objectivity, he would allow the participants to check that his head was actually stuck. He was not a trickster, after all. He had been blessed with calmness and an ability to think before acting that many adults would be jealous of. I still hadn’t arrived at the old Conventillo, but I can only imagine the look of surprise on people’s faces when they saw an 8-year-old recording bets with a green bucket on his head.
As it was for many kids in the neighborhoods of Palermo and Barrio Sur, life was challenging.
Even though the actual conventillos, or tenements, had been dismantled decades ago – in order to allow for more modern housing to be built— the sense of community remained. The buildings were inhabited by low-income and working-class people, including Italian and Spanish immigrants, Sephardic Jews, and Afro-Uruguayans, creating a very rich cultural mix.
Like his peers, Washington grew up with a lot of freedom to roam the streets. Early on, he learned about hierarchy, about avoiding potentially violent situations, and about poverty and misery; more than any child should ever have had to experience.
However, in that small corner of Montevideo, he also learned about art. He learned about the art of human kindness whenever the nurses in white would visit the conventillo, or when local organizations would organize soup kitchens around special dates, and, most importantly for him, he learned about music.
As in most buildings with the strong presence of a grandmother or grandfather, regardless of blood relationship, tango was the soundtrack of their life. Chola, as everyone called her, was the conventillo’s grandmother. Many didn’t know her real name, where she came from, or whether she’d ever been married. After finishing the morning chores, she would tune into the radio station and fix clothes for her wealthier clients to earn some extra pay. Most of the time she wore a stern look of concentration, but every so often she would stop mid-stitch and gaze at the horizon with a cloudy look in her eyes. Not tears – women like her had never been granted the right to cry – but more of a mix of nostalgia and reminiscence. People liked to make up different stories about her, to pass the time: some attributed her longing to a past lover, while others were convinced she was thinking of a long-lost relative somewhere in the interior of the country. Although she tried to hide it, you could tell she wasn’t from the city. But I was never able to learn the place she’d called home. Despite her solemnity when listening to tango, Chola was friendly and playful. She would pretend to be tough and unapproachable, but she loved all the kids and youngsters from the neighborhood, as she’d helped raised them and keep them in line. Most had turned out alright, hard-working and law-abiding citizens, but I am sure she had questioned herself for those who hadn’t, even if she never mentioned it.
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Pandemic Love – Li Xiakun (China)
December: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Top left to top right: 1. Montevideo, Uruguay – Street art – Nikolai Kolosov (Unsplash); 2. Montevideo, Uruguay – Ramirez Beach – DFLC Multimedia Designer (Shutterstock); 3. Montevideo, Uruguay – The street view – Nikolai Kolosov (Unsplash)
Middle left to middle right: 1. Montevideo, Uruguay – Housing – Nikolai Kolosov (Unsplash); 2. Montevideo, Uruguay – La Josefina – Nikolai Kolosov (Unsplash); 3. Montevideo, Uruguay – Apartment buildings in Barrio Sur – DFLC Multimedia Designer (Shutterstock)
Bottom left to bottom right: 1. Montevideo, Uruguay – Barrio Sur – DFLC – Multimedia Designer (Shutterstock); 2. Montevideo, Uruguay – Lunch – DFLC Multimedia Designer (Shutterstock); 3. Montevideo, Uruguay – Streetscape – Nikolai Kolosov (Unsplash)