Argentineans are known for what we call the viveza criolla. Viveza could be translated as cleverness. And criollo was used in the colonial times to describe a person who was a direct descendant from Spaniards born in Argentinean soil. So, viveza criolla is used to described the Argentinean way of being clever. The inventions of the floating ball pen and the fingertip identification system are said to be products of this attribute. As a child, I heard it in one of my mom’s pieces of everyday wisdom. When she’d see us heading towards the long corridor that connected our rooms at home, she’d give us pieces of our scattered stuff in the kitchen and say: “Save on trips. Take this with you.”
Viveza criolla came in handy when Pablo and I went on our first U.S. vacation together. I had been here for work several times so it was my turn to plan for the trip. We were going to visit San Francisco and then drive south through the west coast to Los Angeles. We even got lucky enough to get tickets for a Madonna concert in one of our three days in Los Angeles.
Since it was Pablo’s first time attending one of her shows we didn’t want to miss anything. One of the things I love about the U.S. is how everything seems to work like clockwork, and the whole trip had been great in that sense. Everyone here respected the rules, dates and times. So I figured that since we were staying close to the stadium leaving one hour in advance would be enough. We were not acquainted with the city so we let the GPS take us there. It was the time when GPSs didn’t know about traffic conditions so it took us via the shorter time path, which turned out to be the path everyone was taking.
The two lanes of the road heading to the stadium main entrance were jammed full of traffic. After 45 minutes we had only moved half a mile. As we were approaching an intersection, the viveza criolla in me kicked in and put this question in my mind, “Is it possible that this is the only road to the stadium?” I overrode the GPS directions, looked at the map and turned left at the intersection. A couple of blocks ahead we found a parallel road. We took it and it was empty to our surprise. No one was there. We drove all the way down that road until we were a block away from the stadium where we even found a free parking spot!
After the excitement of the concert I thought about how this tendency to follow the rules can keep American society from evolving when rules are followed blindly. We would have been late to the concert. In fact, many people continued arriving way after the opening act was over and Madonna was already on the stage.
There is no folly in following the rules. But strictly following the rules without applying common sense can be a problem. Failing to understand that rules are bounded by the time and situation of their creation is a mistake. Can you imagine African Americans still riding in the back of buses, or that after 14 years together Pablo and I would not have been able to marry?
I’d like to think that the U.S. court justices had a stroke of viveza criolla when they saw that this was a mistake and ruled in favor of marriage equality. For centuries American society was blindly following the same two-lane road that denied the diversity of relationships and the right to marry. They took the turn to find a faster road to social justice. They understood that they had to ensure diversity in the application of human rights. They knew it was their job to be always alert to change rules for the better, to validate them against common sense and the wisdom of the times. This is the essence of our viveza criolla and we Argentineans know that the secret ingredient is diversity.
