Yesterday, I was sitting on the subte, tired and worn out from waiting at Migraciones for a couple of hours to get my actual visa, now with one month left (I had a temporary one up until now, I guess they want to make sure you are for real). A man, who I´ve seen before on the subway, particuarly on the line that I ride, came on selling what he is always sellings: pens. But these aren´t the regular pens that people on the subway sell; like the one that I bought a couple of days ago that stopped working a few minutes after I started using it for the first time. It only cost one peso, so I figured no loss to me, and I was glad to have exchanged with the man who sold it to me.
Anyway what struck me yesterday about the man on the subway whose hoarse voice had spent hours and days and years appealing his product over the whurrrr of the subway, was how seriously he took what he was doing. He always begins his schpeil by telling his audience, "I come bringing wonderful news" and then he goes on about these Italian pens, showing them draw on pads of paper, asking passengers to test, to see for themselves. What was moving about it, especially this time, was that I noticed he said, to prove to us his gaurantee, "I have been doing this for six years" which implies that since the crisis in 2001, this has been the man´s occupation. And I bought a pen from him, because not only did I trust this man, I knew that what he was doing was totally meaningful: creating some esteem for himself in a place where little esteem is given, where people are hardly recognized for their effort, that they are trying in a society that his little resource, in a society that fucked over many people 6 years ago. It is a privilege for me to write about people and to have my experience here, to come and then leave, to decide who I give money to and who I don´t give money to, but I felt that I owed this man something, and simply put, I think it was my respect.