Legal
Secretaries of Texas, Inc. |
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A
Texas Nonprofit Corporation, An Educational and Professional Association |
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Argentina!
Following is a report on Carol Wilson and Edwina Klemm’s recent trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where they participated in seminars presented for executive and legal secretaries conducted by Grupo S&N (www.desecretarias.com), which presents seminars and training courses in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. |
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Argentina, in the southernmost part of South America, is the home of Marta Pereira Berneron, the international member who attended our Galveston meeting in October 2000. Marta works for M. & M. Bomchil Abogados (www.bomchil.com). She is an energetic, experienced, talented, and learned legal secretary at this firm, in charge of institutional communications, reporting to Mr. Máximo Bomchil, managing partner. Marta lives in Buenos Aires with her mother, America. Marta invited us to come to Buenos Aires as seminar speakers and stay at her home while there. | |
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 Buenos Aires at Night |
 Marta and America |
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At the April 2005 meeting in Orlando, the members of Legal Secretaries International Inc., realizing the great opportunity for marketing our association, networking with other legal secretaries internationally, and fulfilling our mission statement, approved an advance for fare and meals for us to travel to Buenos Aires June 7-13. So we got our tickets, prepared our materials, packed our suitcases, and we were off for parts south of the Equator, where fall prevails in June. We had a three-hour flight to Miami and a nine-hour flight to Buenos Aires. Marta asked us to speak to three different groups. The first was for the two-day course offered by Grupo S&N. Legal Secretaries International Inc. presented two seminars to begin their course on June 9, (1) Ethics for the Legal Secretary and (2) Life in a U.S. Law Office. Marta also asked Edwina and Carol to present both seminars for the secretaries in the Bomchil firm the next day. Carol was also asked to present a seminar on Plain Language for the lawyers of the firm. We eagerly agreed on all counts. We used PowerPoint® presentations that Edwina prepared from our seminar materials, throwing in some humor for the one on work in a U.S. law office [what’s work without a little fun?]. |
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The seminars were well attended, with 19 legal secretaries coming from many places in Argentina, one from the southern-most city on Earth, in Tierra Del Fuego. Most of them spoke some English, but Marta was called on to interpret because of the nuances, accents, and idioms that differ in the English language. Attendees helped one another with the language barrier, but we spoke slower than usual in an attempt to help them practice their English. |
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 Graciela, Marcelo, and Marta |
First
Marta spoke about working in a Buenos Aires law office (in Spanish,
of course). After Carol and Edwina finished their presentations, two
lawyers, Marcelo Pozzetti and Graciela Signoris, presented seminars
on several topics, from contracts to corporations. |
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| As with seminars the world over, we had a coffee break, complete with pastries, delicioso. Argentine coffee is very strong, and it’s not even Starbucks! Since the seminars went on until 8 pm, it’s a good thing they had the caffeine to keep them going. |  |
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The seminars must have been a great success, because they asked us to come back next year and do it again! Marta did a fantastic job, and it seemed to us that she was responsible for everything but the marketing! We encouraged her to form an affiliate in Buenos Aires, with their major purpose to present seminars for legal secretaries. We offered our help in any way. On Friday, we went to Marta’s office, a beautiful suite of offices on several floors in a building right in the middle of downtown Buenos Aires. We were pleased to meet many of the firm’s staff, all of whom were gracious and eager to welcome us. We were very impressed with the firm and everyone there. |
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 Carol Wilson |
Carol
presented a Plain Language seminar, attended by about a dozen lawyers
from M. & M. Bomchil. They were interested, most appreciative and
cordial. Carol signed a copy of her book and left it for their library. |
 M&M Bomchil Attorneys |
 Carol talks ethics |
Using
the PowerPoint presentations again, Carol presented the Ethics seminar
for the secretaries in the firm, followed by Edwina talking about Life
in a U.S. Law Office. They all spoke English, although some more fluently
than others. Several of them stayed afterward with questions. It was
a great experience for all of us, and we made some new friends. |
 Bomchil firm secretaries |
 Certificates |
After
we finished at M. & M. Bomchil, we went back for the closing ceremonies
and presentation of the seminar certificates (signed by Marta) to the
legal secretaries taking the Grupo S&N course. Everyone was proud
of their certificates from the course completion |
 We're proud of them |
| After two hectic days of teaching, which followed intensely tiring flights, we were able to rest and enjoy the beautiful sights of Buenos Aires. Marta was not only our hostess, with her mom cooking us some extraordinary meals, but she was an expert chauffeur as well. Whatever we wanted to see, she found it. |  Marta at home |
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We must tell you that Houston, Texas, does not have the world’s worst traffic, but we now know who does: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Everybody drives small cars, and they flip in and out of traffic like snail darters in the Great Northwest. The streets and avenues may be lined for six lanes of traffic, but the drivers make at least eight! We don’t know why we didn’t see even one accident. On the first day of sightseeing, from her place on the back seat in Marta’s car, Carol counted 15 near misses! Whew! But they were, indeed, misses, nevertheless. | |
 Rio de la Plata |
The
Rio de la Plata runs through Buenos Aires on its way to the Atlantic
Ocean. It is 170 miles long and runs between Uruguay and Argentina.
Its chief ports are Buenos Aires and Montevideo. We were unable to see
across this huge river, and from Buenos Aires, the river looks like
Lake Superior or even an ocean. Dredging to the Atlantic has made Buenos
Aires a very important world port. |
 Buenos Aires from the river |
Casa Rosada, named for its pink color, is the House of Government and houses an excellent museum, which we had time to visit between seminars [Marta was good at making judicious use of our time, especially once we assured her we wanted to do as much as possible in the time we had there and could sleep when we got home]. |
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 Tango room |
 The Perons |
 Museum |
| You will remember that we were to present a seminar in Buenos Aires in 2003, but the country was uncertain of the effect of the recent presidential election. Therefore, it was canceled. It seems that Argentina may be recovering, but the unemployment rate in Buenos Aires is nearly 15 percent. We noted that siesta is not taken in downtown Buenos Aires, because of the long commute, but it is taken in the provinces. Marta works from 10 a.m. till 8 p.m.–or longer. | ||
 College of Law |
While
we drove through the city, we passed the College of Law. Ever dedicated
to our profession, we took photos, of course. We were fascinated by
a sculpture in the adjacent park and had Marta stop so we could take
a photo. |
 Floralis Generica, Plaza Naciones Unidas |
 Teatro Colón Theater |
Buenos
Aires is a huge city, and we were impressed with its large Theater District
in the El Centro, or downtown, section of Buenos Aires. Had there been
time, we would have attended an opera at the Teatro Colón Theater,
which is one of the world’s top five opera houses, perhaps grander
than Milan’s La Scala. Artists who have performed there include
Maria Callas, Richard Strauss, Arturo Toscanini, Igor Stravinsky, Enrico
Caruso, and Luciano Pavarotti. Dozens of other theaters stood in El
Centro, and it was obvious that there is much artistic talent in Buenos
Aires. |
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 Tango in the Market |
As
for entertainment, the country is famous for, and prides itself in,
the Tango! When we went to a market on Sunday, we saw tango dancers
performing on a portable stage in the street. |
 Tango in the Boca |
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And you know we found the casino in Buenos Aires! It was on a ship with its corner touching the Rio de la Plata. In 30 minutes Carol lost $50, while Marta and Edwina wandered and talked to bartenders. That was enough of that, and it was on to the next place, a restaurant for lunch, where we ate parilla (grilled meat-barbecue). | |
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The food in Buenos Aires is outstanding. Their pampas-fed cattle make great beef, and we tried as much as we could during our short time there. When we ate at home, Marta’s mother, America, cooked for us, and what a great chef she is. She even uses lemons from Marta’s large lemon tree in the back yard. Although we didn’t go in, we found that McDonald’s is entrenched in Buenos Aires, just as in the United States. |
 Downtown McDonalds |
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El
Recoleta Cemetery, in an affluent section of the city, was a most interesting
site. Arriving just short of closing; we were there along with hundreds
of other tourists and locals. First opened in 1822, it is the oldest
cemetery in Buenos Aires and the final resting place of many famous
persons, including Eva Perón and her family and Napoléon
Bonaparte's granddaughter. The cemetery lies on 13-1/2 acres of prime
Buenos Aires real estate and houses more than 6,400 elaborate vaulted
tombs and majestic mausoleums, some of which have been declared historic
monuments. They resemble chapels, Greek temples, pyramids, and miniature
mansions. It was unique, and w e thought it well worth the time to visit. |
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Another
find in the Recoleta area, so we had to take advantage of the photo
op. Phone boxes! There were two of them, and they both worked! |
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We also had a wonderful day of shopping on Sunday, as Marta took us to three large outdoor markets. Since the dollar is worth 2.85 pesos, we were able to make good use of our money while in Buenos Aires. |
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We first went to a market of antiques, where we wandered through hundreds of vendor booths. We could have spent the entire day there and not seen it all. In addition to the tango dancers, we saw actors made up as statues who performed for whatever was tossed into their tip cans. They were even better than the ones you may have seen at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. |
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 "Artist Alley" |
We visited the artisans in the Caminito Traditional Passageway, where we made more purchases and stopped for lunch. Surprise, Marta got a call on her cell phone–it was Ken Story, calling Carol from their lake house in Jacksonville, Texas. |
 the Boca |
Who
knew poinsettias could grow so large? We found this one in |
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 Carol and the alpaca |
We finished the day at the gauchos’ market, where we shopped among the many vendors of leather and other handmade works. Some of them spoke some English, but commerce knows no barriers. |
 Park where you can |
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There were many sights to be seen, sounds to be heard, and bargains to be found on our market travels, as well as new taste delights. |
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| One thing was the same, but not the same, and that is Diet Coke (known there as “Coka Light”). It tastes much better South of the Equator! |  |
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In between all that, we made a couple of visits to a Wal-Mart Supercenter and had a ball! We are grateful to Superhostess Marta for helping us make beautiful memories. |
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Thank you, members, for this wonderful opportunity for our professional association and the privilege of representing you in Argentina. |
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| ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Carol Wilson and Edwina Klemm |
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