Monday, November 13, 2006

San Cayetano



Monday 13 November 2006

Ryan and I visited the Museum of External Debt today. It was more interesting than it sounds, really, and about as exciting as a museum of debt can possibly be. We learned a lot more from the very enthusiastic economics student who appointed himself our personal guide when he found out we were foreigners than we did from the very long complicated explanations of past economic policies, though.

This is a picture of a tiny statue of San Cayetano, the patron saint of laborers. (Here, at least.) The museum used hundreds of these little statues to demonstrate unemployment statistics, set up in little circle representing the number of gainfully employed people in different years. He's quite the popular saint here - even here, in Argentina, where people only ever go to church for weddings and funerals, his feast day is celebrated with pilgrimages and parades and devotions.

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