Southern Summer, Argentina, Chile and Y Wladfa Gymreig 23rd Jan

To explain that graffiti I need to tell you a little of Agentinian recent history. Between 1976 and 1983 there was a military junta in power in the country led by General Jorge Videla. To be fair prior to the junta the country was descending into chaos with armed militias fighting on the streets. The military cracked down on everyone it perceived as being part of the left wing resistance. These people were "disappeared ", ie arrested,  tortured,  murdered and their bodies disposed off. There are horrific stories of death flights when prisoners were flown out over the sea,  drugged,  stripped and chucked out. Tens of thousands of people "disappeared " one way or another. Babies also went missing from imprisoned mothers. A very brave resistance movement was started initially by the mothers of the missing. They were called the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo and their symbol was the empty headscarf.  May Square is where the Presidential Palace is in BA. The movement is very much alive today and now also campaigns for broader women's issues.
I hope this explains the symbols. Most of them have a name and a date under them. This is why they are in the middle of Bariloche's prime public space and why they have never been removed.

This picture shows the Civic Centre as visible from our apartment window, in fact the huge shadow is cast from our apartment block. The "shard of Bariloche ". The collection of slate roofed buildings that nearly enclose the square were built in 1940. They comprise of a library, town hall, museum, police centre, post office, clock tower, and customs. This deliberately Alpine architecture has stood the test of time extremely well.  Every evening there are street entertainers who use alternate sides of the square and certainly draw the crowds. 

This is a relatively small crowd for an early show. They can go on till 2 in the morning. Visiting groups also assemble in the square like these Scouts. 

 They are part of the Catholic Scout Group which possibly explains their 1950s style uniforms. I haven't seen the hats for decades. Other groups of Scouts wore the standard contemporary gear.

Nothing old fashioned about their friendliness or the selfie. 

We walked around the town and did a bit of shopping after this, stopping to book the day cruise round the lake and visiting the islands. I'll tell you all about this tomorrow. 

Finally a little addendum to one of my valued comment makers. 

                           
                         
Moriarty, I warned you the Reichenbach Falls were coming! Now that's the end of you. Paget, you are exposed to boot.