Standing Tall (eBook)

Debora De Farias (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
236 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-4267-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Although she dazzled Argentina at the end of 19 century as the first woman to become a doctor, Cecilia Grierson is haunted by disturbing dreams. Cecilia believed she had left the traumas of past relationships behind- but when chance brings her first love back into her life, Cecilia finds she wants closure. This portrait of an incredible woman depicts the meaning of life, the power of love, and how it eludes us. "e;Standing Tall"e; is a moving story set in the progressive era of the Gilded Age. From the Pampas to Buenos Aires and to Paris, "e;Standing Tall"e; reveals much of the vibrant culture and realities of life in South America, in a book replete with historical details, personal conflicts and love.

Textauszug

Chapter 3

 

“Walking with a friend in the dark

is better than walking alone in the light.”

(Helen Keller)

 

Buenos Aires, Summer, 1902

 

Cecilia woke up to a knock at the front door that scared her and made her feel disoriented. The clock hands pointed to eleven, and for a moment she wondered who could be there so late at night. But the glimmer of sunlight through the window shutters made her realize it was actually a new day. The knocking continued, making her yell, “I am coming!”

“Who is this?” she asked, before unlocking the door.

“Cecilia, it is me, Estella.”

Cecilia opened the heavy carved wooden door, covering her eyes with one hand, trying to block the bright sunlight from blinding her. “Oh, my dear, is everything alright? Come in.” She opened her arms to hug her friend.

“Yes, everything is good, how about you? Sorry, I decided to show up without notice. Were you sleeping? You aren’t sick, are you?”

“I was sleeping but, no, I am not sick. I didn’t realize how tired I must have been. I guess I slept like a stone last night, I don’t recall a thing.” Cecilia laughed at herself. “Do you want something to drink, or eat? Where is Pedro today?” Pedro Gutierrez, Estella’s husband, worked for the railway company, spending most of his time traveling to different provinces of Argentina. Cecilia guessed he was out of town again.

“Pedro decided to see the horse race at the Jockey Club with some friends from the fire department, which I didn’t mind. The man deserves some time alone with his fellows. And so do I!”

“I am glad you came to see me. I actually asked about you yesterday, when Professor Martin found me at El Molino.”

“Oh, Martin! He was inquiring about you last week at our art meeting. I could sense a nostalgic tone in his voice,” Estella said, waiting for a reprimand from her friend.

“I know, he told me,” Cecilia said. “I am so sorry. I feel I have been neglecting my friends lately.”

“Maybe you have neglected us just a little bit. But I will forgive you, as long as you spend this Sunday with me. Do you have any major plans for this afternoon? I am getting hungry and we could have a picnic kind of a day, outdoors of course. Botanical gardens, maybe?”

“I guess I have no choice other than say, yes, let’s do it.” Cecilia laughed. “Let me change and put my hair up. We must stop at the French Gallery for some cheese, ham and bread then.”

“Perfect. But you always have a choice. Simply say no, if you don’t feel like doing it.”

“I was joking about not having a choice,” Cecilia replied, walking toward her bedroom.

“What are you reading now? I see a thick book on your desk over there,” Estella shouted.

“Oh … I didn’t even realize I brought the book to the front room. Last thing I remember I was reading it on my bed. But that is a story on its own. I can talk to you about it at the gardens.”

The two women had very different personalities, but they had become close friends after Cecilia treated Estella years ago at the Hospital de las Clinicas. When Estella was in her early twenties, she had suffered a miscarriage that almost took her life; she had to have a hysterectomy, leaving her and her young husband devastated. Because Cecilia was still a medical student at that time, she was allowed only to observe the surgical procedures, although she could care for post-operative patients. Just a few years older than Estella, Cecilia felt incapacitated for not being able to assist with the surgery.

The day afterward, she had asked permission from the obstetric surgeon to be in complete charge of Estella during the recuperation period. She wanted to do whatever she could to help the young couple, especially Estella, to regain a sense of normalcy. Neither woman could imagine that, in the midst of such tragedy and loss, a friendship would bond them for the years to come, transforming their lives.

As they set out on the forty-five-minute walk to the botanical garden that Sunday morning, the weather was pleasant, slightly cloudy, leading to a nicer temperature with a soft breeze blowing from the Plata River banks. They admired the architecture of their city, pointing to the new facades of the buildings that reminded Cecilia of her time in Paris. Residential buildings with carved wooden heavy doors and massive bronze hardware gave the city a solid feel.

“Can you believe we’ve seen so much transformation in our city over just the last twenty years? When that first steamer, Le Frigorifique, arrived with frozen meat and vegetables from France, it brought some amazing changes for the country,” Cecilia said.

“Yes, I actually remember how people were very skeptical about the cargo of that ship,” Estella said. “Everybody was talking about it. Mothers were scaring their children, telling them to stay away from the port and from all the food that could not be traced to a local farm.”

“It was hard to believe that foods preserved by cold could be brought safely all the way across the ocean, but once it was proved, that turned out to make a huge difference in life, didn’t it?”

Cecilia was referring to the first transatlantic vessel containing a refrigerated plant, developed by French engineer Charles Tellier. The voyage to Buenos Aires was an experiment, almost a stunt, to demonstrate how well refrigeration could preserve perishable foods. The results revolutionized the entire economy of Argentina. Previously, the nation’s plentiful cattle had low export value—limited to hides, fat and salted beef, the latter sold primarily to feed sailors and slaves on long voyages. The new refrigeration system meant the entire cow could be commercialized for export; soon, livestock and agriculture would be as important as silver had been in colonial times. With this influx of wealth, the country could import more goods affordably, and Buenos Aires began to develop in accord with residents’ extravagant visions of the progress seen in Europe. And waves of European immigrants, arriving daily in Puerto Madero, continued to revolutionize the city’s culture and spirit.

Estella had never traveled abroad, and for that reason, she always encouraged Cecilia to tell her stories about the places she had visited, about how people lived. Despite the superficial differences found in various countries, Cecilia was starting to conclude that humanity shared the same basic needs: love and acceptance, peace and beauty, security, health and prosperity. Therefore, she thought the people here weren’t much different than the Parisians, Londoners or the Scottish. At the same time, they had their own singularities; they clearly had their unique culture.

Argentina had fewer natives than any other country in South America, since the indigenous populations had been dominated and pushed to marginal and inhospitable regions. On top of that, after the abolition of slavery, the African-Argentine population also declined sharply due to wars, mortality rates and epidemics. It was commonly said that the Argentines “descended from boats,” since two-thirds of the capital city’s population were of European descent. Buenos Aires housed the third largest concentration of Spaniards outside Madrid and Barcelona, and more than forty thousand Britons, at one point, lived and invested largely in the city. So, in a way, how much different could the Argentineans be from those fellows living in Europe?

Buenos Aires was becoming a translation of Europe, revealing itself in a plurality of styles. And if, until the end of the nineteenth century, the city had lacked in modernization, now commodities like the sewer system, public transportation, telephone and electric lines were distributed throughout. Large streets were paved and well-lit and the aristocratic classes built opulent houses in eclectic styles. Landscape architects designed parks, and grand public buildings were raised following the Beaux Arts guidelines. The city must have one great park to be matched to Central Park, Hyde Park, or the Bois de Boulogne. It must have a grand opera and a hippodrome, a botanical garden, a zoo and a tree-lined walkway along the river. It must have fine museums and a leading university. The citizens of Buenos Aires needed these. And they would have those needs met, no matter what.

“Do you want to know something that is very unique to us?” Cecilia asked Estella, rushing her friend to cross the street.

“Our friendship?” Estella guessed.

“That is a good one,” Cecilia laughed. “But I was referring to the uniqueness of our city.”

“If I had to guess, I would say the colorful houses built from salvaged wood and corrugated metal containers in La Boca. But maybe you have seen something similar in Europe.”

“I doubt they have that kind of patchwork neighborhood. I actually have never seen anything like La Boca either. But I was referring to those corners.” She pointed to the intersection of Avenida Santa Fe and Callao.

“The ochavas?” Estella sounded a little surprised.

Indeed, every corner of every street block in Bueno Aires was blunted, or chamfered. The buildings on corners had a diagonal edge, which the locals called ochava. The name probably derived from the word octava, since the part lopped off was thought to account for an eighth or so of the corner lot, and it was also a reference to the octagonal shape the four corners of the intersection formed when viewed from above. The city was built on a grid, like New York or Barcelona, but this one refinement, the diagonal edges, multiplied by...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.12.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Historische Romane
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-4267-4 / 1098342674
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-4267-8 / 9781098342678