Home » Database » Search » Writing
Writing Type: Book
Letter in which he describes the Buenos Aires tertulias of Ana María Perichón de O´Gorman.
Keywords: Buenos Aires society, music, dancing, tertulias, Ana María Perichón de O´Gorman
Publisher: AMS Press Inc., New York
Archive: University of Warwick Library
Location Details: Volume 1, pp.176-180.
Text: p.176
To J-G from J.P.R., Buenos Aires
Meantime, however, the most splendid tertulias were given by Madame [O’Gorman]; and I saw congregated, night after night, at her house, such specimens of female beauty and vivacity, as would have excited envy, or commanded admiration, in an English ball room. The Porteñas certainly boast among them of very charming women, polished more in external appearance and manners, perhaps, than highly cultivated in mind ; but they have so much good sense, penetration, and vivacity, as to leave you in doubt whether they are riot better as they are, than they would be if more artificially trained. They have assuredly very little affectation or pride; and that can be no very defective training which excludes, in the formation of female character, two such odious. accomplishments.
Passing one day by the convent of Santo Domingo, my attention was attracted to one of the domes of it, on which I saw conspicuously painted a great number of cannon shot of all sizes. "Is it possible," I remarked to Mrs. (p.177) Torrents, with whom I was walking, "that so many shots could have struck that devoted turret, and yet left it standing?" "No, no," she replied: "two or three did strike it, but the friars have painted all these to superinduce the belief that the balls of you heretics could make no impression on Catholic towers. And the common people believe it. But we ladies, though not soldiers, know better than that; for look at what your balls did at Montevideo. For my part, I believe that no right religion can have anything. to do with powder and ball."
There was a good natured tone, and even complimentary turn, given to this little speech, evidently meant to palliate the chagrin my fair companion imagined might be associated in my mind with Whitelock's defeat, and the bombastic display by which it had been commemorated by the pious fraud of the Dominicans.
The great fluency and facility observable in the conversation of the Porteñas is undoubtedly traceable to their early introduction to society, and their almost nightly habit of associating together at their tertulias. There, young miss of seven or eight is expected to manage her fan, (p.178) walk, dance, and speak with as much propriety as her sister of eighteen or her mamma. And this constant method of teaching by example does, to the extent to which it goes, more than ten years of schooling towards the formation of lady like, natural, and agreeable character and address.
As for the bonos mores of the young ladies, the old ones used to think them safest under the vigilant inspection of the mother. The daughters, therefore, when first I visited Buenos Ayres, were never to be seen but in the company of their mammas, or of some other married relation or friend. Not a promenade could the unmarried females take, but in the company of the married ones. They walked in a string, one before another, with the most easy, graceful, and yet dignified step you can imagine. Then the kind recognition by the courteous and elegant motion of the fan was neither to be forgotten nor imitated. The mamma was always in the rear. If a male friend met a little family group, he was permitted to take off his hat, turn round, accompany the young lady he liked best, and say to her all the pretty things he could muster; but (p.179) there was no shaking of hands, or offering of the arm. The matron did not insist upon hearing the conversation that passed between the young couple ; she was content to see that no practical impropriety or indecorous familiarity took place. It was the same if you called at a house. The mother hastened into the drawing room, and remained present with her daughter during the whole time of the visit. To make up for this little restraint, however, you could say what you liked at the piano, the country dance, or, better than all, during the walk.
Although these are still the general observances of female society in Buenos Ayres, they have already been greatly modified, and continue to be so, by intercourse and intermarriage with foreigners. French and English manners and customs are getting gradually interwoven with those of the natives, particularly among the higher classes.
Music is much cultivated at Buenos Ayres. There is always one lady in every house who can furnish a good performance of all the tunes required for the minuet, the waltz, and the country (p.180) dance. And when the Porteñas do dance, it is with a graceful composure and easy elegance, much beyond the medium attainment of the art. derivable from any system of dancing school education, of which I am aware, in this country.
Yours, &c.
J. P. R.
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Trent Building, University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0)115 951 5655
email: Catherine.davies@nottingham.ac.uk