Jesus y Superman...

It was just two subte* stops after 1 on Tuesday afternoon, June 28th. Still befuddled by the tentacular city of Buenos Aires, I decided that it was best to grab my guia T and map the area out on foot. Walking around the neighborhood of Villa Crespo, I passed many hair salons, convenience stores, pizzerias, and lingerie shops selling bras with built-in nipples. Just over the train tracks and directly across from the Nike Outlet Store, I was distracted by a very large tree that was draped, tacked, wrapped, hung, stacked, and surrounded with a sundry array of items – all in the same shade of poppy red.

Shirts, bandanas, bamboo sticks, ribbons, beads, and large embroidered cloths were ravelled around the tree’s branches. Poinsettias, carnations, roses, hibiscuses, geraniums, gerbera daisies and seven-month old mistletoe careened from its flanks. The runny red wax of burnt-out candles drizzled onto its roots, and four small hutches with red roofs, each about the size of a dollhouse, were lined up in front of its trunk. A sideways stump set before a soiled strip of carpet served as a makeshift pew to what seemed a very particular altar...