Today we had our second day of cultural visits.  We started the day with a tour of Retiro and Recoleta, two of the central neighborhoods of Buenos Aires.  We got to see some of the historic palaces and neat architecture of the buildings in Buenos Aires.  The tour guide was telling us that many of the cool looking buildings were built by European architects during the early days of the city when they wanted to be established as the “Paris of South America.”  I would say they did a pretty good job because a lot of the buildings looked like they would be found in many of the major European cities.  It was cool to get to explore these areas that we have been calling home for the past week and to get to learn about some of the history that surrounds these neighborhoods and some of the buildings that occupy it.  To finish our tour, we got to explore the Recoleta Cemetary, a collection of mausoleums of important people in Argentineans pastAfter our tour, we got a nice lunch at the restaurant of the Museo Evita, a museum about an influential woman in Argentina’s past.  Evita Peron was the wife of two time Argentine president Juan Peron.  Peron was widely loved by the Argentine people because of his policies that promoted a sense of community and solidarity amongst the people.  Evita, his wife, was one of the most important people in promoting his ideas, as she was a very good speaker and was able to communicate well with the ailing people.  The policies they promoted are still very prevalent in Argentine government and social structure today.  One of Evita’s biggest achievements was passing women’s suffrage in Argentina and creating the Argentine feminist party.  Peronism is also very important to the health care system of Argentina.  Peron and Evita established public healthcare in Argentina and they started many public health initiatives such as disease education for the people and Evita also established a nursing school.  These events are incredibly important to the current structure of not only Argentina’s healthcare system but to the structure of the government as a whole.  Unfortunately, Evita passed away at only 33 years old from uterine cancer, but as such an important and influential figure, she was largely missed and Peron established 14 days of mourning and a state funeral, even though she was never actually an employee of the government.  It goes to show just how important she was and even after she was gone, she was never forgotten and she was missed so much by everyone she touched.